MAYA WAS USING THE BACK of her spoon to mash the banana rounds into her Cheerios, before happily stuffing the cereal into her mouth with her hands.
“Okay, doodlebug, finish that up now,” Letty said, using a paper towel to mop up the spilled milk on the tabletop. “We’ve got to get moving.”
“Where we going, Letty?”
Letty lifted her down from the booster chair. “This morning, you’re going to the office with me, and we’re going to help Miss Ava.”
Maya went to the dresser and picked up her pocketbook and slung it over her shoulder. “Okay. Let’s go.”
“Not quite yet,” Letty said, laughing. “Let me finish getting dressed.”
She examined her reflection in the cloudy dresser mirror and sighed. It had been a tough twenty-four hours, and her face showed the stress.
They’d spent most of the previous day at the beach. It was Sunday, and crowds lined the expanse of wide, white sand. Maya had been in her element, swimming and gathering seashells. Ava had given them a plastic bucket and a small kitchen strainer, and the child spent hours trying to net the minnows that darted safely out of her way. They’d built an elaborate sandcastle, which Maya declared was for Elsa, even though Letty was fairly certain ice princesses would never survive the Florida sunshine. Late in the day they’d eaten somewhat sandy peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and potato chips and fed the leftovers to the seagulls, which dipped and swooped in for their meal and generally terrorized and annoyed the tourists sitting nearby.
It had been a carefree, golden afternoon. They’d packed up the beach umbrella and toys when suddenly, in the distance, Maya spotted a long-legged blond woman in a red bikini, walking along the shoreline.
“Mommy!” Maya screamed, dropping her sand bucket. “That’s my mommy!” She streaked toward the woman, with Letty close behind. “No, Maya. Come back!”
The startled woman turned, just in time to see the child hurtling at her, and then desperately clinging to her knees, crying, “Mommy, Mommy.”
“I’m sorry,” Letty said breathlessly, as she tried to peel Maya away from the stranger.
“Noooo!” Maya screeched, clawing and kicking as Letty carried her away. “Noooo!”
It was quite the scene. People were staring, their expressions a mixture of amusement and sympathy.
“She’s just overtired,” Letty murmured, as a young mother stopped to ask if she needed help.
Maya screamed all the way past the Murmuring Surf pool, where the regulars were arrayed in their self-assigned lounge chairs. Letty was vaguely aware of the silver-haired women and balding men turning to stare in their direction.
When she finally reached the room, she had to lock the door, because Maya repeatedly threw herself at it, crying out for her mother.
That morning, Joe had arrived at the door to their unit with a small “extra” flat-screen television that he claimed Ava had discovered in the office supply room. Now, Letty turned the television on and tried to distract Maya with PAW Patrol, but to no avail.
Finally, in desperation, Letty ran a warm bath, stripped off first her own and then Maya’s sandy swimsuit, and climbed naked into the tub. She held the sobbing four-year-old close to her chest, patting her back, rocking back and forth until the tears slowly began to subside. She hummed and sang “Let It Go” over and over until her voice was hoarse and the water was cold.
When Maya’s breathing grew slower, signaling sleep, Letty finally climbed out of the tub. She dressed them both quickly and tucked Maya into the bed. The child stirred once, but fell back to sleep immediately. Letty congratulated herself on how expertly she’d handled what could have been a dangerous situation. What if someone had stopped and questioned her on the beach? What if someone demanded to know who Letty was? And where Maya’s mother was?
Fortunately, that day, the beachgoers were busy minding their own business.
Letty tortured herself for hours, considering all the dire consequences of Maya’s meltdown, finally falling into an uneasy sleep shortly after 2:00 A.M.
When her phone dinged softly, signaling an incoming text, her whole body tensed.
The message was from Corinne.
Hey. Heads up. Zoey called today. E showed up at the Daizy yesterday, with a lady detective. This woman had lots of? about u and Tanya and Maya, but Zoey played dumb. She hung around long enough to hear the woman say they found the Mercedes in Philly. They know you rented a car and left it in Raleigh. And the woman has a picture of you. Be careful, okay?
Letty’s fingers flew over the phone’s keyboard. Thanks. Will be in contact. You be careful too.
Three little bubbles indicated Corinne was still typing. A photo popped up on her phone screen, of a woman, standing at what Letty recognized as Evan’s favorite table at the Lazy Daizy. She was dressed casually, sneakers, jeans, blazer.
Zoey managed to get us a photo of the detective.
Tell her I owe her one. Xoxo L.
She shouldn’t have been shocked that Evan had hired a detective. Tanya had warned her, as recently as the week before her death, that her dealings with her ex had taken an ominous turn.
“He thinks he’s so smart,” Tanya said, while they were sharing take-out sushi. “I know all his dirty little secrets. And if he keeps messing with me, trying to take Maya from me, I told him, I’ll go public. And he’ll go to jail.”
Letty had begged Tanya not to threaten Evan, but Tanya was beyond reason.
“Did I tell you about his new arm candy? Her name is—get this—Juliette. After Maya got back from the weekend with them it was all JuJu this and JuJu that.”
“So? You know he’s always got a new chick on the string. You’re over him, so why do you care?” Letty asked.
“Because this chick is different. He let her move in. It’s the first time he’s done that since I left.” Tanya scowled. “Of course, Maya’s in looooove with her JuJu. She’s totally buying my daughter off with fancy toys and clothes. Who gives a four-year-old her own goddamn iPad?”
“Tanya, listen to what the mediator is telling you,” Letty said. “Stop picking fights with Evan. If you stop threatening him, he’ll settle. If you do that, you can move on and put all this crap behind you.”
“I’m moving on all right, all the way to California,” Tanya retorted. “I’m taking Maya with me, and there’s not a damned thing Evan Wingfield can do to stop me. Not if he wants to stay out of prison.”
Letty could feel her anxiety spiraling. Tanya’s prediction had been devastatingly accurate. Evan Wingfield had killed her sister, she was sure. And now he was after her. Her first instinct was to run—to pack up this child, asleep in the bed beside her, and flee into the darkness.
Maya sighed softly and burrowed into Letty’s side, flinging an arm across her chest. Letty inhaled the sweet smell of baby shampoo and brushed a damp curl off the child’s forehead.
Now was not the time to run, she decided. Maya needed to feel safe. She needed time to forget the trauma of whatever she had witnessed. And Letty needed time. To think, and plan. To figure out what their future would look like and yes, to find out what Tanya’s attachment was to the Murmuring Surf.
This morning, Maya was bright-eyed and cheerful, as though nothing had happened at the beach on Sunday, but Letty was what Mimi would have called “a hot mess.”
She donned the pink polo shirt with the Murmuring Surf embroidered logo, dabbed some concealer onto the dark circles under her eyes, and pulled her hair into a ponytail. “Okay, let’s go to work,” she told her niece.
“You’re early,” Ava exclaimed, as Letty and Maya entered the Murmuring Surf office.
“Gotta make a good impression on my first day,” Letty said.
“How are you this morning, Miss Maya?” Ava asked, kneeling down so that she was at eye level with the little girl.
“I got all my stuff in here,” Maya said proudly, holding out her Frozen pocketbook for inspection.
Ava dutifully looked inside the purse, holding up each item for examination. “Mmm-hmm. Lipstick, comb, granola bar, jewelry box…”
“What?” Letty grabbed the black velvet box, her heart pounding. “Maya, you’re not supposed to have this.”
The little girl’s upper lip began to quiver. “Mommy said it was for me. I want it.”
Letty didn’t dare open the box in front of Ava, but as she tucked it in her pocket she could feel something rattling inside the box. Maya had always loved playing with the contents of Tanya’s jewelry box, draping her neck and wrists with ropes of fake pearls, gaudy colored beads and gold chains. Before Tanya split with Evan, when she still wore the push present diamond ring, she’d sometimes allow Maya to slip the ring onto her thumb to admire it.
“It is for you, sweetie, but not until you’re more grown-up,” Letty said gently, hoping to forestall another temper tantrum. She had no idea how or when Maya had managed to find Tanya’s tote bag when she’d gone to such pains to hide it in their room, but the first chance she got she would check to make sure Maya hadn’t appropriated anything else—like cash. And she would find a new hiding place for the go-bag.
“Here,” Ava said impulsively, removing the jeweled pink flamingo brooch she wore pinned to her blouse. “Why don’t you wear this today, since it’s your first day on staff.”
“Oh no,” Letty protested. “That’s not necessary.”
“I want her to have it,” Ava said. “It’s just junk jewelry. I went through a flamingo phase a few years ago and I’ve got more flamingo coffee mugs and napkin holders and pins and earrings than I know what to do with. I probably have three or four more of those pins the kids gave me for Mother’s Day or my birthday.”
Maya looked down at the flamingo’s glittering pink stones and grinned. “Mine.”
“Now that we’ve got that settled, you two, come around back here,” Ava said, beckoning to the reception desk.
A red plastic child-size table and chair stood behind the counter, with a small box of crayons and a pad of paper. “That was my Isabelle’s when she was your age,” Ava told Maya, who promptly seated herself at the table and began sorting the crayons. “Good thing I decided to hang on to it for those grandchildren Joe still hasn’t given me.”
“He doesn’t have kids?” Letty asked.
“No wife, no kids. I think that last girlfriend of his did a number on him. Too bad, because I really thought maybe she was the one.”
Ava shook her head. “Oh well. Let me show you my command center.”
She powered up the computer monitor and clicked on an icon, and the screen lit up. “This shows all our bookings by the day, week, and month. If you arrow over to the right, you can see next month’s bookings. We’re full up right now, which we almost always are this time of year, with all our regulars.”
Letty nodded.
“The Polaceks went back home to Pittsburgh yesterday,” Ava said, pointing to a square on the screen. “Earlier than usual, because their daughter is having a baby, and Dorothy wants to be there. So this afternoon, if you’re up to it, you can help Anita turn unit twelve. That’s the aqua one with the hot-pink door.”
“I’m up for whatever you need me to do,” Letty said.
“Good. Because Bill and Alice Sheehan are supposed to get in tonight from Boston. They usually stay in unit nine, but when I let them know the Polaceks were going home early, Alice jumped at the chance to get their unit, because it’s got that nice screened porch on the back.”
“All the units aren’t the same?” Letty asked.
“Oh no. The Surf only had ten units when it was built right after the war,” Ava said. “The Doughertys, the couple we bought it from, added onto it over the years. The original units in the north wing are pretty simple, a bedroom, kitchenette, sitting area, and bathroom.” She gestured to the office. “If you can believe it, this was where the Doughertys lived. This front room was the office, and the back, which I use for storage and supplies, was their living area. They raised two daughters in that little bitty space! But when the oldest was a teenager, Elsie finally got Dick to add the second story where we now live.”
“And the additional units?” Letty asked.
“Dick and his brother built those back in the sixties,” Ava said. “My understanding is, there was an old wood-frame house on the south side of the property. It got hit pretty bad in a hurricane, and the owners sold it for eight thousand dollars to the Doughertys, who then tore it down and built those other six units.”
“Eight thousand for a Gulf-front lot?” Letty asked.
Ava shrugged. “That was a lot of money back then. Anyway, all those units on the south side of the property have either a small screened porch or a little patio on the back. They have a proper dining area and the living room is big enough for a pull-out sleeper sofa, which our regulars love, because it means they can have their kids or grandkids come down for a few days, without paying for a motel.”
“I’ll bet those units are pretty popular,” Letty said.
“Well, the Gulf-view units on the west are the ones everybody wants. You better believe it. If I had ten more of the bigger units, I could keep ’em full year-round. As it is, I have a waiting list.”
“So, no check-ins until tonight?” Letty asked.
“That’s right. No checkouts, either. It should be a pretty boring morning for you. Just answer the phone, take messages, deal with the guests. I’ve got a dentist’s appointment at nine, and then I’m meeting an old friend for coffee after that. I should be back before lunchtime.”
“Got it,” Letty said.
Ava pointed to a stack of glossy colored flyers. “Our new brochures and rate cards. Just picked them up from the printer. The mailing labels are there too. If you would, insert the rate cards in the flyers, staple ’em closed, and stick the mailing labels on the front.”
She held out her hand. “Give me your phone. I’ll put my number in it, and if you have any questions or run into trouble you can give me a call.”
“Okay,” Letty said, and took a deep breath. “I guess Maya and I are on the job.”
“MOD,” Ava said.
“Huh?”
“Managers on duty. Good luck.”