Treaure Beach: Chapter Three, Part One

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Treasure Beach: Chapter Three, Part One

Wanda hugged Janya, then Tracy, who had "wandered" in late afternoon on Tuesday to "visit." And, by the way, they had offered to do a little prepping for tomorrow while they happened to be there. The two women had done this before, when Wanda was between assistants, and their casual offer didn't fool anybody.

She pointed to the unisex rest room at the back. "Okay, you know the drill."

The "drill" included removing jewelry, scrubbing their hands, fingernails and forearms for at least twenty seconds, then donning aprons and covering their hair with poufy billed caps featuring Wanda's pie-slice logo.

"So how did you hear I'm working alone again?" Wanda asked when they had joined her in the kitchen.

Tracy took a clean apron off a peg at the back and slipped it on, tying it tight around her waist. "Marsh said he sent somebody from Wild Florida over to buy a couple of pies for a staff meeting, and you were tearing your hair out."

"So you really are alone?" Janya asked.

Wanda figured if she was a lesser woman, she wouldn't love her two beautiful friends half so much. Thirty something Tracy with her shoulder-length dark hair and thousand-watt smile was a testament to better living through orthodontia, dermatology and plastic surgery to pin back protruding ears. She liked to say she was the best Tracy money could buy, but of course, she was much more than that. Twenty-something Janya had been born gorgeous and would stay that way until she took her final breath. A river of black hair, dark, liquid eyes, and a womanly figure that set men's hearts pounding. Gorgeous, a gifted artist and young besides. It tried a woman's patience.

"I'm alone, all right," Wanda said. "I fired that fool woman this morning when she wandered in an hour late. Would have fired her anyway, but that made it convenient."

"What are you going to do?" Tracy asked. "Start looking all over again?"

"Starting tomorrow I got a couple of teenagers coming in mornings to do whatever they can until school starts. And after that?" She pursed her lips. "Well, I got a surprise today, and in a few weeks, a new assistant."

Tracy, who had probably never washed a dish in her years in California, headed straight for the sink. "Who?"

"My daughter, Maggie."

"The daughter who's a police detective?"

"Only got one daughter."

"I'm sorry to say this," Tracy said, filling the sink with hot water. "Don't take it the wrong way, but isn't being your assistant kind of a . . . comedown?"

"She quit the force. Hung up her badge and gun, so to speak and she says she'll help out awhile so I can get on my feet here. She's off camping somewhere in the mountains for a few more weeks to get her head straight. Quit her man while she was at it, too."

Tracy whistled softly. "Kind of major changes, aren't they." It was not a question.

"She will be living in Palmetto Grove?" Janya asked.

"I was about to ask Ms. Deloche here if she can live in Herb's house."

Herb's house was the fifth house in Happiness Key. It would always be Herb's house to them, even though Herb Krause had died more than a year ago and there had been other renters since, including Dana Turner and her daughter.

"I just put an ad in the local paper," Tracy said. "I'll call and cancel as soon as we're done here."

"Thank you. It'll be odd having her so close," Wanda said. "Maggie and me, we're not much alike, not so's you can tell."

"I can't wait to watch this unfold," Tracy said. "Two Gray women, one small Florida island. Remember, there's an ordinance against fireworks."

Wanda ignored that. "Thing is, Maggie never wanted to be anything but a cop. And I thought for sure she was in love. We're still trying to get the details. But it doesn't look like she'll be going back to Miami."