Chapter 22
CHAPTER 22
“ T hat was amazing,” I say breathlessly to Amber Walker as I sidle up next to her here on a small boat sitting in the middle of the Bahamas after the adventure of a lifetime. “I never thought I’d get to swim with dolphins in the wild.”
“Oh, me either,” Amber pants while wringing out her hair. “They were so close. I actually got to hug one! I could hardly wrap my arms around it. And I think one of them tried to kiss me.”
We share a quick laugh at the thought.
“Well, you know what they say, boys will be boys,” I retort and immediately regret my words, considering what I know about her husband.
“Tell me about it.” Amber laughs twice as loud as before and I feel better because of it.
A spray of hot pink stars appears, and rising out of the water like a hot pink phoenix is none other than Beatrice Fiddlefae herself.
“You have lousy timing, Trixie,” Bea says as she floats this way, and her hair actually looks soaking wet from the ocean. “Those dolphins could really see me!”
“I knew they were intuitive,” I mutter under my breath.
“You can say that again.” Amber grabs a towel and tosses one to me as well.
“All right.” Beatrice rubs her hands together and stars shoot from her fingertips like sparks. “Let’s see what kind of dirt we can dig up.”
“My name is Trixie Troublefield,” I say, holding out a hand to Amber. “I actually work on the Emerald Queen .”
“Oh, I saw you teaching an acrylic class on one of the upper decks,” she says, shaking my hand. “I wondered why you looked so familiar. By the way, I love painting. And if I wasn’t in such a funk I would have joined along.”
A mournful smile takes over my face. “I’m so sorry about your loss. Were you very close to the deceased?”
“Lucy?” Amber’s face tightens a notch. “Yes, I knew her. I mean, we weren’t all that close, at least not toward the end, but in the beginning it was me who brought her to our book club.”
“That’s true,” Beatrice affirms as she floats before us as if she were a referee ready to make a call.
“Oh really?” I say to Amber. “So you bonded over your love of books?”
She shakes her head and beads of water spray in the air. “No, actually. She was the aide in my classroom. She showed up in town about a couple of years ago, maybe two and a half, three years ago? She seemed sweet and innocent enough.” Her expression sours. “Anyway, I invited her to the book club and she invited Hetty. That’s when the party really started. Hetty loves to have the attention all to herself. Hetty has what I like to call Main Character Syndrome. The spotlight always has to be right on her. But trust me, it’s not a bad thing. She’s really livened up our little get-togethers in ways we would never have dreamed of. I mean, look at us now. We’re on a cruise, for Pete’s sake.”
“And how about Lucy? Did she liven things up? I’ve heard she was quite the character herself.”
“That’s one way to put it,” Beatrice snorts, floating up a notch with her hot pink aura shimmering in the sunlight.
Amber tilts her head as if considering this. “Lucy livened things up, all right, but not in any good way. Let’s just say she had a rather nasty habit of stealing other people’s men.” She growls at the sky for a moment. “If I knew she was going to use the book club as a sort of backward meat market for her next victim, I would have steered her to the nearest bar and left her out of the literary loop. A lot of us would have been better off—including me.”
“I’m so sorry to hear it.” My shoulders sag for a moment despite the fact I was already in the know. “I’m sorry you had to go through something like that. I know exactly how painful that can be.”
Amber blows out a breath. “I’m over it. As far as I’m concerned, Lucy came into our little circle and took out the trash.” There’s a wistfulness to her voice, and layered underneath that it’s smeared with spite. “Of course, it took her trashy self to do it. I guess trash begets trash.”
“There is no bigger truth,” Beatrice says with just as much zest.
“What in the world do you think made her tick like that?” I shake my head as if contemplating it even though Hetty already let me in on the fact there were daddy issues, and perhaps an entire string of abusive boyfriends before she landed in Connecticut.
“Who knows?” Amber grunts. “But I do know that whatever she was running from in Oklahoma was something she never wanted to return to.”
“That sounds scary.”
“I think it was. She would clam up pretty good if we ever asked her anything about her past. Come to think of it, she was always pretty guarded around us in general. Well, except for Hetty. They seemed to get along just fine.”
“Did they?” Beatrice shakes her head at me. “That wasn’t always true. They might have been as close as sisters, but they could fight like sisters, too.”
Amber inches back. “The funniest thing just happened.” A nervous laugh evicts from her. “I could swear I just heard a familiar voice of a woman I once knew and she reminded me of something that has to do with Lucy and Hetty.”
My mouth falls open as I glance down and spot my knee touching hers and I quickly pull back and scoot a few inches away from the woman.
“What did you remember?” I ask.
Bea laughs. “You mean, what did I remind her of.”
Amber nods my way as if what came next was the juiciest tidbit ever.
And I’m counting on it.