Cal’s truck and compact pop-up trailer sat behind the cabin he “rented” for which Sully would not take money. Since the days were a bit longer, the store was staying open a little later. Come summer, their hours would be sunup to sundown.
On Wednesday, Tom Canaday came to the grounds early to help with cleanup, grounds keeping, grass and shrub trimming and trash hauling. Cal spent most of the day helping with that while Maggie put in her time at the store, restocking and cleaning. Sully was back and forth between the store and the grounds, giving advice, trying his damnedest not to tote and lift, getting grumpier by the hour. With warmer weather, the crossing was expecting a surge starting the next day, Thursday afternoon, and extending for ten days. They were getting ready. Even Frank was smart enough to be scarce on Wednesdays, knowing he could be put to work.
Yard work done, Enid gone home to her husband and Tom to his kids, Cal grilled fish fillets and an aluminum foil packet full of green veggies and the three of them ate at a table on the porch so they could mind the store if any of the few campers who were still around needed something. When dinner was finished Cal went off to his cabin to shower while Sully headed for the house with Beau to catch a little of the news on TV.
Maggie stayed at the store until closing, which she’d do as soon as cleanup was complete. The sun was beginning to set, casting long shadows across the lake, when Maggie was on the front porch wiping off the tables. An old, mud-splattered, rusty black pickup was parked down the road near the lake. It looked like three people sat in the cab. She leaned on her rag on the table and peered in its direction—two men flanking a small blonde woman. Not campers. Not locals—she hadn’t seen the truck before. Two big men and a small woman made shivers go up her spine.
The truck began to slowly inch toward the store and when it neared she saw the two men were scruffy-looking strangers to her but between them, wearing a frightened expression, sat Chelsea Smyth. Where was her family? Had they sent her to get help for some reason? The driver parked at the side of the store and Maggie tried to concentrate on her wiping up. She wouldn’t give away her concern in case something was wrong. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong.
The men talked for a moment and then the passenger got out of the truck. All she knew for sure was that the men looked creepy and Chelsea looked scared.
The man who approached the front porch was dirty and unkempt, not a strange look around a campground. Locally there were fishermen, hunters, ranchers—also frequently messy and disheveled. His pants were baggy and dirty, his boots had seen better days and his beard was scraggly, but it was the look in his dark eyes and the rather large hunting knife holstered in leather at his belt that cautioned her. So she smiled.
“How you doin’?” she asked with a friendly smile. How long is Cal’s damn shower going to take?
“Yeah, you got beer?”
She nodded. “Draft or six-pack?” She glanced at the truck out of the corner of her eye and the fact that Chelsea hadn’t moved over near the passenger door once the first man got out told Maggie all she needed to know.
“Six’ll do.”
“Right in the cooler,” she said, standing back so he could enter the store.
He was waiting right inside the door. He looked at her over his shoulder.
“Over there,” she said, pointing.
He smelled, but not of ranching or fishing. He smelled of body odor, greasy food, gasoline and smoke, not wood smoke but probably tobacco smoke. And the way he looked at her, it was the most threatened she’d felt in a long time. They’d had a patient go postal in the ER once and that had scared her enough to pee her pants but security got him under control quickly.
There was no security team here.
She went behind the counter by the cash register, wondering if he was going to rob her and cut her up into little pieces. The broom was within her reach if he got too close or pulled out that knife. But he put the six-pack on the counter and took out a wallet he kept on a chain. Then he looked over at the bar. “Get me one a them bottles,” he commanded. “Whiskey.”
“We don’t sell...” She stopped herself. What was she thinking? “We don’t usually sell by the bottle, but you’re probably my last customer for the day. I’m closing up in ten.” She went across the aisle to grab a bottle of Jack Daniel’s from under the bar and took it back to the cash register. She had a thought. It might be a stupid thought but Maggie usually assessed and made decisions quickly and it was the only thought she had. She knew he was wrong and she didn’t want him wandering back into the vast wilderness and doing harm to Chelsea. She began ringing up the purchase. “You passing through?”
“More or less,” he said.
“I got two empty cabins if you want it to be less,” she said. “Fact is, middle of the week hardly anyone’s around so we lower the price if it’s one night. Twelve dollars. I can’t do that for more than one night. Can’t do that on weekends, you know—we stay full on weekends. In good weather.”