Pineapple Cruise: A Whodunnit on the Gulf (Pineapple Port Mysteries Book 14) by Amy Vansant

Author:Amy Vansant [Vansant, Amy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2021-09-30T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Declan needed a woman.

Maybe a few.

Preferably naïve.

Posting a personal ad in a newspaper would be a bad idea, so instead, he decided to go door-to-door.

He had to find someone to sit with Bettie.

He’d bounced the idea of trapping the stalker off Frank’s head. He said he was game, but Declan still didn’t want to leave Bettie alone in the house while he and Frank lay in wait.

He wanted to find ladies foolish enough to play games with Charlotte’s houseguest. He couldn’t hire anyone because Bettie had cleaned him out for a second time playing backgammon. He’d assumed she couldn’t have mastered two games.

Wrong.

Luckily, he’d been dating Charlotte long enough to know a handful of potential Bettie-buddies in the neighborhood. He and Charlotte had attended a few Pineapple Port Yappie Hours, where the residents took turns hosting cocktail hours for people and dogs. The stories he’d heard drinkers tell over the years in bars paled in comparison to tales woven by the retirees. Every one of them had fifty-plus years of experiences to share, and once they mixed those stories with vicious gossip and a healthy dose of complaining about their children, the fun was endless.

He knocked on Althea’s door first. He remembered her talking about mahjong at one of the Yappies.

He didn’t have to feel too bad about throwing Althea to the man-eating giraffe. He didn’t know if mahjong was a game Bettie had mastered. He had plausible deniability.

Althea answered her door wearing a festive flowered housecoat, which glowed in deep contrast to the scowl etched on her face.

“What are you doing here?” she asked, looking past him. “Where’s Charlotte?”

“She’s on a cruise with Mariska and Darla.”

“Oh. Right. Didn’t ask me if maybe I wanted to join them. I remember...” Althea’s attention wandered as she muttered to herself. After a few seconds, she refocused on him.

“What are you doing here?” she repeated.

“Do you know Bettie? The lady who visits from time to time?”

“Bettie Giraffe?”

“That’s her. She came to visit Charlotte while I was staying at her house watching Abby, and—”

“She took all your money?”

Declan blinked at her.

Was Bettie bragging to everyone how she’d lightened his wallet?

“How did you know?”

Althea barked a laugh. “The woman’s a menace with a gameboard. How’d she get you?”

He frowned. “Rummy first. Then backgammon.”

“Ooh boy, she’s warming you up for checkers.”

Althea hooted with laughter until he chuckled himself.

“We haven’t played checkers yet.”

Althea’s grin vanished, and she slapped a hand onto his arm.

“Don’t. Play. Checkers,” she said, with all the foreboding of an ancient oracle.

“I guess she’s good at checkers, too?”

Althea scoffed. “Good? She’s like a piranha. Strip you to the bone in seconds. She’ll own your house, your dog, and everything you hold dear by the end of the night.”

“Ah. Thank you for the warning.” He felt silly asking Althea to sit with Bettie now, but he didn’t have many other options. “Um…I don’t suppose you’d be interested in spending time with Bettie tonight—?”

“Oh, I’d love to.” Althea released him, looking pleased.

“You would?”

“Pssht. Of course. She’s a doll.

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