“So I helped him get it all set up with the extension cord,” Will said. “And he started trimming and everything was fine.”
“Is your grandpa alright?”
“Yeah, he's fine,” Will said impatiently. “But, well, he sorta accidentally cut through the extension cord while he was trimming...”
“What??”
“He's fine. The trimmer is fine. But the cord...is not.”
I breathed a small sigh of relief. “Okay. Well, good. I mean, not about the cord but good that no one is hurt.”
“Right. But that's not why I'm calling.” He hesitated. “Grandpa wants to go buy a new extension cord so he can finish trimming the hedges. But I told him I want to put it back together. The cable stuff. It's a pretty clean cut and I think I can twist it and tape it all back up.”
Will was always tinkering with computers, installing more memory and modifying other hardware. But his extent of knowledge in the electrical department was pretty much limited to plugging cords into outlets.
“Absolutely not,” I said firmly.
“What? Why not??”
“Because I'd like to come home to four kids, not three.”
“You're saying you don't trust me? You don't think I know what I'm doing?”
“You don't, Will. It's electricity. Do you remember the field trip we went on? To the electric co-op?”
He didn't say anything for a minute and I knew what he was thinking about. There had been a model house on display with all kinds of electrical hazards highlighted inside. A balding man with a monotone voice explained all of the dangers lurking inside of homes and we were all ready to move into a tent afterward, we were so thoroughly freaked out. We'd told Jake about our harrowing field trip and he'd laughed and promptly turned on every electrical switch in the house.
“Fine,” he said grudgingly. “But can I keep it? Just look at it and stuff? I promise I won't plug it in to anything.”
I appreciated his inquisitive mind. I liked that he wanted to know how things worked, that he wanted to take things apart and see them from all angles.
I just didn't want him to die.
“Fine,” I said, sighing. “But if you plug it in, you lose computer privileges for a month.”
“Awesome! Thanks, Mom!”
He hung up and I set the phone down just as Jake stepped out of the tiny bathroom
“Do I even want to know?” he asked. “I heard you say it was Will, so I assume the house burnt down or something.”
“Not that bad,” I said. I told him about the cord and the hedges.
He stretched out on the bed, his towel wrapped loosely around his waist. “Thank God he didn't electrocute himself.”
“I know,” I said. “He could have just decided to test it without calling me first.”
Jake eyed me. “Not our son, Daisy. Your dad.”
“Oh.” I hadn't really thought about that.
Ten minutes later, Jake was dressed and ready. “What's on the agenda today?” he asked, running the comb through his hair.
“I don't know.” I really didn't. He'd let me know where I stood with sleuthing so I knew that was off the table. We could have headed back down to the pool but my nose was pink and Jake's shoulders were red; we both probably needed a day off from laying around in the sun.
“Let's go for a walk and think about it,” Jake suggested. “Get some fresh air.”
I slipped into my flip flops and followed him out the sliding door. The morning air was cool and the birds were singing a symphony in the canopy of trees near the deck. Smoke still clung to the air from the campfires the previous night, but everything felt clean, crisp. Kids were out on their bikes and for a moment, I wished we had brought our four rather than stashing them with my parents. But then I realized I couldn't remember the last time Jake and I had been away together and I knew we needed the next couple of days to ourselves because I wasn't sure we'd get another block of time like this.
We made our way to the road but Jake stopped short. I almost bumped into him.
“What are you doing?”
He pointed to the rental car parked in the gravel driveway. “Looking at this.”
I leaned around him so I could see what he was staring at. The back passenger tire of the rental was completely flat.
“How on earth did that happen?” I asked, moving closer to the car. “I must have run over a nail or something coming home from grocery shopping.”
“And house hunting,” Jake added. He crouched next to the tire, running his fingers along the surface.
“Maybe we can patch it up,” I said hopefully. I thought back to the single street of shops in the neighboring town. I didn't remember seeing an auto repair shop.
“Pretty sure this isn't patchable.” He looked at me and jerked his head toward the tire.
I squatted next to him. “What is it?”
“This tire was slashed.”
Sure enough, there was a long, thin cut in the rubber, about three inches wide. Definitely not patchable.
“Someone did this on purpose?” I asked.
“Sure looks that way,” Jake said, sighing. “I'll call AAA and see if they can get someone out here. I'm pretty sure rental cars are covered.”
“They'll have to tow it somewhere though, won't they?” I straightened and rubbed at the small of my back. “I mean, they're not just going to bring a tire here and change it out for us.”
“I don't know,” Jake said. “I'll call them now.” He pulled out his phone and his wallet and, within minutes, was talking to a representative about our options.
I crouched down to examine the tire again. It was definitely a knife that had sliced through the rubber. My thoughts immediately turned to Hackerman; I wouldn't have put it past him to damage our property, especially after our run-ins with him. He didn't like me or Jake, which gave him double the reasons necessary for vandalizing our property.
But that didn't make a ton of sense, given the conversation we'd had. He wanted us gone, plain and simple. Knifing our car—our only way in and out of Windy Vista—seemed counterproductive.
Maybe it had been the twins, Mary and Carrie. They were crazy enough to do it. And they probably felt like they had motivation, considering I'd discovered their ex-boyfriend dead in the woods.
“Done,” Jake said, shoving the phone back into the pocket of his khaki shorts. “They'll send a tow truck here this afternoon. There's a repair shop about twenty miles from here. I told her where we were and how we didn't have the ability to pick it up so they'll arrange to have it towed back for a nominal fee.”
I nodded. “Okay. That sounds reasonable.”
“Much more reasonable than whatever idiot hacked at our tire.” There was a frown permanently etched on to his face.
“Come on,” I said, grabbing his hand. “Let's go for our walk. Forget about the tire and the car. It's a vacation, remember?”
He mumbled something under his breath but he let me pull him along, toward the road and then down toward the clubhouse.
We saw small groups of campers making their way down toward the pool and clubhouse, too, chattering as they walked. They all seemed to be heading their with a purpose. One of the ladies who'd been doing water aerobics was walking and I asked her what was going on.
“Summer Olympics,” she said brightly. Her short brown hair was wet and I wondered if she'd just finished another round of swimming. “It's an annual thing. All kinds of games and stuff. You don't want to miss it.”
Jake shot a look in my direction and I lifted my hands in surprise.
“Thought you memorized the activities,” he said in a low voice.
“Well, clearly I missed one.”
We followed the horde of campers down to the pool and noticed the set up immediately. The pool's parking lot had been turned into what looked like a carnival set-up. There was a basketball hoop, a ring toss, a long jump area, a ping pong table and a variety of other carnival like games. Streamers and balloons were hung up all along the pavilion and music blasted from a set of speakers that had been carted in. I wondered if Stan the DJ was stationed behind the music table.