Treasure Beach: Chapter Five, Part Three
Not sure why you're here or what to do? Visit this page for enlightenment and instructions. And don't forget to visit quilter Pat Sloan's website to sew along on the charming Happiness Key quilt that goes along with the series.
Chapter Five debuts this month. Do you prefer to read in one big gulp instead of having the story doled out in parts? Look for a complete chapter pdf on the last Tuesday of each month through July. In the meantime, i f you're new and you've missed the first four chapters? Here are links to those pdfs: Chapter One. Chapter Two. Chapter Three. Chapter Four.
Treasure Beach: Chapter Five, Part Three
By the end of the evening Olivia figured she had learned a few important things. One, she was going to have to learn to bake pies as yummy as Wanda's. Pie opened doors. Wanda had breezed into the Channel 6 newsroom after sweet talking her way past the guard who happened to be a regular customer at Wanda's Wonderful Pies. Then she had charmed the receptionist with a huge slab of Key lime with coconut crust, and finally the station's meterologist, himself, with the rest of it.
"And he really does know about things like tides and stuff," Olivia told the others. "He made me show him on his map where I found the bottle, then he calculated out the whole thing. Well, sort of."
"He made a calculated guess," Wanda said. They were sitting in Alice's living room, and everybody had just about finished their own slices of pie. "All anybody could do."
"He said the bottle was probably launched from the town beach right there in Palmetto Grove, although it's possible it came from a sea wall in one of the developments half a mile on either side," Olivia told them. "But he was betting the beach. He thought somebody probably threw it as the tide went out, maybe waded out a ways so it didn't get tossed back on a wave and smash up against a wall. I told him the bottle was undamaged."
They had all started the evening with a trip to Treasure Beach. Olivia had needed to show them where she found the bottle, but she hadn't told them the name she and Lizzie had given the stretch of golden sand, true to that promise, at least. She suspected the other women had all been there before, since nobody was surprised when she led them to the spot. After that the group had split up, everybody with a mission.
"I definitely covered ever discount store in Palmetto Grove," Tracy said, digging through her purse. "And I hit a couple of the specialty stationery shops, but a couple more were closed, so I'll check with them tomorrow. The good news is that I found a tablet with assorted colors of paper including turquoise that looks just like the paper the note's written on." She pulled out a sample tablet and held it up before she handed it to Olivia.
"The bad news is that I found it at Walmart," Tracy finished.
Everybody groaned.
"So we will not be able to single out whoever bought it, if they did buy it there?" Janya asked.
Tracy shook her head. "I talked to the store manager, and he says they sell lots of those tablets and there's no way we could track it. Just too complicated and time consuming for them, and private, besides."
"We can ask Kenny," Wanda said. "Might be different if the investigation is official."
