AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Here’s hoping it’s legal here.
I watch as Nadine steps up to the ticket window at the front of the facility.
“Here goes nothing,” I say as I stride right after her. “Nadine?” I balk as if the sight of her offended me.
I may not be getting an academy award, but at least I’m taking a bite out of crime.
The redhead looks back at me with her hat under her arm as she finishes putting her wallet into her purse.
“Oh.” She wrinkles her nose. “You’re from the cruise line.” Her eyes widen a moment. “Is something wrong? Does this have to do with Julia?” Her hand presses to her chest. “Have they found the killer?”
“No, no,” I say, shaking my hands at her as if trying to stave off any panic. “I’m just here exploring the island. My friend Nettie is a real thrill seeker, and well, my friend Bess and I were on the losing end of a bet.”
That sounds about right even though it’s a bald-faced lie.
“Oh, I see.” She laughs. “Well, you’re going to love it.” She leans in. “I’m sort of a thrill seeker myself. I tried to get someone, anyone, from the club to join me this afternoon, but they’re all a bunch of chickens.” She winks.
I wonder how much truth there is to that statement considering where she went first. I doubt she’d want anyone to know about her little thrifting excursion.
“Go on and get your tickets,” she says. “I’ll meet you in the training area.”
We part ways and I quickly procure tickets for Nettie, Bess, and me, and soon we’re seated one row back from Nadine in the training room.
No more than a dozen people are participating, so it should be relatively easy to stay close to my mark. Although she’s not really my mark. I just need to get some information out of her.
Nadine has been nothing but nice and forthcoming. This should be a pleasure—should being the operative word. Now that there’s a death-defying act of in-air suspension involved, it’s anything but a pleasure.
After a thoroughly frightening safety instruction course, and signing away my rights to sue the company should I become maimed or dismembered—I’m sensing a theme—we’re led as a group through a thicket of banyan trees, as a red dirt trail leads to a set of metal steps set in the middle of the jungle.
Steadily, we climb to the top where, thankfully, Nadine and I, along with Nettie and Bess, fall near the back of the line.
I’m not going to lie, with each passing step, I see my life flash before my eyes. In my thirst for justice, I seem to have forgotten I’m not a fan of heights. A million years ago my kids had bunk beds while we did some remodeling. Just climbing up to the top bunk to change the sheets used to make me dizzy and fear for my life.
I might be able to winnow a secret or two from Nadine, but it won’t do me any good once I drop dead from sheer terror.
Nettie foists that demonic puppet of hers in front of Nadine and me.
“What do you say, girls?” The dummy moves his lips as she does her best to speak for him. Although with that deep voice, the smooth movements of his mouth—if I didn’t know better, I’d think that pile of firewood is the real deal. “There’s nothing like stepping into the stratosphere to shake a few secrets out of one another.”
I sigh over at her.
Nettie Butterworth isn’t exactly known as the queen of discretion.
If Nadine thinks we’re here to shake her down, she might just clam up—and maybe contact her attorney posthaste for defamation.
“I don’t have any secrets,” I say.
“I don’t either.” Nadine gives a nervous laugh as she inspects that collection of matchsticks sitting on Nettie’s arm. “Who is this little cutie?”
“I knew I liked you,” Nettie says. “Meet Sparky. He’s my brand new good luck charm. I just picked him up at the—”
“Zoo,” I shout without meaning to. Does Maui have a zoo? “The zoo in Oahu,” I add. That I know is a fact. Or at least I hope it is.
“Well, I just love it.” Nadine rakes her fingers through the little guy’s hair. “He reminds me of my Uncle Bo back in Kansas. He runs his own rescue center. Real saint.”
“That’s wonderful,” I tell her. “We need more people like him.”
We move up on a platform a few paces and Bess leans in.
