A Midlife Mountain Murder (Alaska Campground Cozy Mysteries Book 1) by Julie Ecker

Author:Julie Ecker [Ecker, Julie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-07-25T23:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 7

Morning started with a break in the nice weather bringing some much-needed rain, as well as a flurry of activity at the camp office. New campers arrived, including a bicycling group of friends from Austria who were cycling across North America, trooping in wet and cheerful after having been flooded out of their previous campsite along the road.

“We’re almost out of tent spaces,” I said to Lloyd, who was at his desk in the corner. “Except for—”

“We don’t put people in 13.”

“People keep telling me that, but no one will say why.”

Lloyd’s incomprehensible answer sounded like “Harmumble.”

“Right,” I said to the dripping Austrian cyclists. “I’m going to put you in two adjacent RV spaces and charge you for two tent spaces. How does that sound?”

After they left with a marked-up campground map, I resolved some issues with misplaced campers in the wrong spaces, contended with the cold-weather-induced run on our seasoned firewood stash, and realized I had forgotten to print out the copies of the Vagabonds’ information that the police had asked for. I had been waiting for Lloyd to finish whatever he was doing, because his computer was the only one that reliably worked with the printer, but the steady clatter of keys from the corner desk showed no signs of slowing down.

“Lloyd, can I use your computer for a minute?”

“Why?” Lloyd said. There was a quick flurry of typing and then silence.

“I need to print off some things.”

“What things?”

“The police need the Vagabonds’ check-in forms, and we’re almost out of trail maps.”

“I’ll do it,” Lloyd said.

I looked at him suspiciously. My boss had a way of being strange and secretive, as if there was, at times, something on the computer or in all that paperwork he was constantly shuffling through that he didn’t want me to see.

“I don’t mind,” I said.

“Vicki, I got it.”

I gave up and went out in the rain to put up a notice on the map board that the wildflower hikes were cancelled for now. I knew that Lou’s death was the kind of senseless tragedy that couldn’t possibly repeat twice in a row. Even if he had been murdered, it didn’t seem likely that the hypothetical killer would strike again in the same way. But my heart was no longer in it. No matter what I would have told my marketing team back in my old life, or my Happy Campers in this one, about getting back on the horse after falling off, I needed some time to work myself up to it.

The Happy Camper board dripped sadly in the rain. In this dreary weather, there probably wouldn’t be very many takers for hikes anyway. The bird watchers were out despite the weather, wearing rain slickers and trotting from one part of the campground to another. I was a little surprised to see that Birdie was walking almost normally, relying on a cane and the walking boot in place of her crutches.

In fact, I saw her coming back with Sue from the trail that led down to the wetlands by the river.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.