Chapter 4: Jo at the Front Desk

The clerk at the front desk was the same one, and she recognized me before I said a word.

"Tent 4," she said. "Did the noise get to you? I told you nobody picks that one."

"I need to talk to whoever owns this place," I said.

She looked at my face and stopped smiling.

"Cal's out back with the wood. I'll show you."

Cal Dunning was splitting logs behind the lodge, in a flannel shirt with the sleeves pushed up past scarred forearms.

He was tall and bearded and not young, and he finished his swing before he looked at me.

"Guest complaint?" he said. "Tent 3 is rough on neighbors. I'll refund you."

"I'm not here for a refund," I said. "My name is Samantha Ames. I'm married to Waylon Casto."

He set the axe head down in the stump.

"Waylon's engaged," he said. "I was at the bonfire. I watched him ask."

"I watched too," I said. "From Tent 4."

He said nothing for a moment, and a jay flapped out of the trees.

"He has been single as long as I've known him," Cal said. "You must have the wrong Waylon."

"Six years of marriage," I said. "I have the license, the joint tax returns and a recording."

I held out my phone and played ten seconds of it.

Waylon's voice came out clear and easy in the cold air: Let's make her trip worth it.

Then Shanna's laugh. Then the sound of the cot.

Cal reached over and stopped it.

He stood there with the phone in his hand, and he had gone gray under his beard.

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