Page 34 of Your Every Wish
And the clock is running out.
Last night, I got another message from Detective Salazar. It’s only a matter of days before he tracks me to California. For all I know, he’s on his way here now.
“Oh, ladies, can you believe it? I forgot the tea.” Misty hops up from the table, busies herself in the kitchen, and returns a few minutes later with a silver serving set and pours us each a cup.
I help myself to a second sandwich and another helping of the succotash salad while Emma and Misty make small talk.
When there’s a lull in the conversation Misty announces, “Besides welcoming you to the neighborhood, I had an ulterior motive to inviting you here today.”
Here it comes. The battery of repairs she wants made: re-plaster the pool, replace the lockers, hire a plumber, mow the lawn, paint the clubhouse, get new streetlights, chip seal the asphalt. So many things it gives me a headache thinking about them.
“I’m here to implore you not to sell Cedar Pines.” She raises her hand to keep us from interrupting. “I realize you girls have your whole lives ahead of you and the last thing you want to do is manage a trailer park with a bunch of old fogies. But if you sell, there’s no telling what will happen to the place. Our proximity to the highway makes it a valuable piece of property for anything from a shopping center to a business park.”
Delusional much? A business park in the middle of the sticks? I don’t think so. But it’s heartening to know that someone besides me believes the property is valuable. A shopping center maybe. The lot at the Tractor Supply is full every time I drive by it and the grocery store in Ghost seems to do a brisk business.
“We’d all be displaced,” she continues. “Many of us can’t afford to move our mobile homes somewhere else, especially given the cost of lot rentals in the newer parks. And the HOAs are through the roof.”
Exactly, I want to say. That’s why this place has gone to hell.
“We’re trying to figure out ways to keep it,” Emma says.
“But we’ll probably have to sell.” I can’t look her in the face and lie to her. Just the same, Emma pierces me with a dirty look. So much for being honest.
“Why? Because of your troubles in Vegas?” Misty asks.
Damn Emma. How dare she tell Misty.
When I glare at her, she shakes her head and hitches her shoulders.
“I don’t know what trouble you speak of,” I say, trying to sound forceful. Believable. But even to my own ears, it sounds weak.
“Right.” Misty wipes a few crumbs from the corner of her mouth, her clear blue eyes locked on me.
Perhaps she’s done some checking around. Or worse, LVPD has started contacting people in Cedar Pines, looking for me. For all I know there’s a tracking device on my car or they’re tracing the use of my credit card or pinging the location of my cell phone. Isn’t that the way they do it in the movies?
“Well, if you have to sell—which I sincerely hope you don’t because you’ll probably be putting many of us out on the street—at least sell to Bent McCourtney.”
I make a strangled noise in my throat. “The jerk who lives in the big space-shuttle house near the bocce ball courts?”
“He’s not so bad. And the land originally belonged to his family. They lost it when Bent’s grandfather died, and his grandmother borrowed against the property to keep the ranch afloat and couldn’t make the payments.”
“He yelled at me to get my ass off his ridiculous rock wall and called me a trespasser. I wasn’t aware the wall was his. And what is the big deal? I was sitting on our side anyway.”
“I’m sure he was just playing with you. Bent has a dry sense of humor.”
“I thought Harry said he hated everyone at Cedar Pines, and everyone here hated him.”
Misty waves her hand in the air. “No one hates Bent and he certainly doesn’t hate any of us. He’s merely frustrated. For ten years he’s been trying to buy Cedar Pines. Your late father beat him to the punch.”
My late father? My ears perk up. “Did you know Willy, Misty?”
I see Emma’s fist clench under the table. Well, well, well, isn’t that interesting.
“As far as I know, no one here ever met him. He was an absentee owner.”
Emma visibly relaxes.
“Do you know anything about him?” I ask partly to see whether she’s heard any rumors about where Willy might’ve hid his money and partly to watch Emma squirm. Clearly this conversation is making her uneasy.
