by Joan Rylen
“Si, señora.”
He brought Wendy and Kate in successfully.
“How was it?” Vivian asked as they got out of their harnesses.
“I wasn’t expecting the little dip in the water. It was awesome though,” Wendy answered. “The water is so clear, the beach so beautiful. You can see forever.”
“Kate, what did you think?” Lucy asked. “You looked scared to death.”
“I was a little nervous, I’ll admit. But once we got up there I was able to enjoy the view. I didn’t mind being dipped in the water too much. It was refreshing.”
It was Vivian and Lucy’s turn. Lucy repeated her warning, giving Santiago her I’ll-kick-your-butt-all-over-Mexico look. He gave them the thumbs up and away they went.
Vivian screamed as they were swept up into the air off the back of the boat. Lucy was silenced by fear. As they floated higher and higher, Vivian loved the quietness and feeling of flying. She looked at Lucy, who had her eyes closed.
“Lucy, open your eyes.”
“That’s okay. I’ll pass!”
“You’ve got to see this, it’s beautiful. Come on!”
She reluctantly opened one eye, then the other. “Wow. It’s pretty up here.”
“I know! Look, there’s the Purple Peacock.” Vivian motioned to the club. “And there’s our hotel. Holy crap! Look at all the paparazzi down there! They’re all over our hotel. And from here you can see news vans on Quinta Avenida. No bueño!”
“They’re multiplying like rabbits. It’s going to make it harder to avoid them.”
Santiago took them down the beach a ways, past the ferry, nightclub area and other hotels.
“This is so cool,” Lucy said. “I’m glad I opened my eyes.”
Santiago turned the boat around, in the direction they came, and Raul started reeling them in. They were back in the area of the ferry dock, close to their hotel. Vivian saw a bright red dress that immediately caught her eye.
“Lucy, look at our hotel, outside the bar by the pool. See that woman in a red dress and with the long hair? Is that Stella?”
“I can’t tell it’s so far, and I’m 20-20. Do you think it is her?”
“I can’t be positive it’s her from here. Maybe she’s looking for us.”
Vivian tried to signal the boat to pull them in faster, but Santiago and Raul couldn’t tell what she was doing. Instead, they dipped them.
“Dammit!” Lucy sputtered, wiping the water out of her eyes. “No tip for them!”
“Wendy and Kate probably offered them double,” Vivian said as they got closer to the boat. Santiago and Raul both sported giant grins as they landed.
Raul shrugged and pointed to Wendy. “Big money.”
“I knew it!” Vivian yelled.
Wendy slipped Santiago a twenty and gave him a wink. “Gracias, musto gusto.”
Lucy watched this exchange as she got out of her harness and gave Wendy the stink eye.
Wendy blew her a kiss and said, “Payback’s a bitch!”
Vivian was in a hurry to get back to the hotel and see if the woman in the red dress was, in fact, Stella.
“Take us in, Santiago,” Vivian requested. “Andale!”
She turned to Wendy and Kate and filled them in on what she saw.
“Who was she talking to, did you see?” Kate asked.
“I didn’t see her talking with anyone, and honestly, we were too far away. It might not have been her.”
Santiago got them back to the beach quickly. They hopped off the boat and made their way through the surf straight to the poolside bar. There was no one in a red dress that remotely looked like Stella, either from up in the air or two feet away.
Vivian leaned in close and asked the bartender if he had seen anyone fitting Stella’s description. She gave him every detail, tattoo included. He said he did see that lady, but she left. He pointed south.
Discouraged and disgruntled, they started back to the beach.
“Excuse me, Mrs. Taylor. I need to see you.” Vivian heard from behind her and turned around.
Detective Vega.
CHAPTER 52
“SHIT. What does he want?” Vivian mumbled.
“Mrs. Taylor, I need a word,” Detective Vega spoke up again as he approached her at the hotel pool.
“You need a word with me? I need a word with you!” she retorted. “We might have just seen Stella here at the hotel. I can’t be certain because I was parasailing, but it looked like her.”
He ignored her ranting. “We need a DNA sample from you.” He looked at the tech guy with him and motioned for him to go ahead.
The tech pulled out a long cotton swab and came toward her.
The paparazzi caught wind of what was happening. Armed with pocket recorders, notebooks and cameras, they started to swarm. One look from Detective Vega stopped them before they got too close.
Just what I need, she thought, but said to him instead, “Those cameras could zoom in on the chicken pox scar on my cheek from a mile away. Not sure stopping them ten feet away is going to help anything.”
“Hold on!” Wendy said, ignoring the distant crowd and snap of pictures. She stepped between Vivian and the tech guy. “Don’t you need a warrant for something like this?”
Detective Vega’s gaze could have cut Wendy in two. “Welcome to Mexico.”
Vivian scooted Wendy to the side. “It’s fine. I’ve got nothing to hide. We danced and we kissed, but I sure as hell didn’t kill him. Go ahead,” she told him. “You need to swab inside my mouth, right?”
“Viv, they could try to frame you,” Wendy said. “I don’t think you should do this until you speak with an attorney.”
Yeah, my jackass husband or Slinky Sal. Neither would be much help in Mexico.
Vivian opened wide and Enrique, the tech guy, swabbed her mouth. It only took a second. He stuck the swab into a vial and put a stopper in it.
Satisfied, Vega reminded them, “Don’t venture too far from Playa,” and stalked off.
“Damn! I really do not like that man,” Vivian said, turning away from the crowd of journalists and nosy tourists. “He must have found something to compare my DNA to, right?”
“They probably just needed to sort out what they found,” Kate said. “Match things up.”
Her stomach did a little flip. “Can I have a drink now?” She didn’t want to think about possibly being framed by Detective Vega.
“Okay, but just one,” Lucy said. “And only because you had to give a DNA sample.” She wagged a warning finger at Wendy and Kate. “None for y’all though.” She linked arms with Vivian as they walked back toward their lounge chairs.
“I’m surprised you agreed to the DNA test so easily,” Kate said as she ran up on the other side of Vivian and linked arms.
“I’m not sure I had a choice in the matter, actually.”
“You three look like The Monkees,” Wendy teased from behind them.
Pushing thoughts of Detective Vega and the DNA sample out of her mind, Vivian started singing “The Monkees” theme song, swinging her right foot out and then her left.
Kate and Lucy chimed in and followed her lead on the feet.
“It’s official. Y’all are dorks,” Wendy said and laughed. “I’m pretending not to know you.”
The three musically maneuvered themselves to the loungers Manuel had saved for them from earlier, laughing and singing the whole way. Wendy sat down and did as she said, pretended not to know them.
“You know, for band dorks, we sing a lot,” Lucy announced as she plopped down.
“Wow, I’m impressed you call that singing.” Vivian leaned forward, reaching behind her lounger, trying to adjust the doohickey and let herself lie completely flat. “I’ve almost got it,” she panted, searching, searching for the thing. Dang! I should have adjusted before I sat down.
“You look like a pretzel,” Lucy said, shaking her head. “Let me help you.”
“Guess I don’t have monkey arms.”
/> Before Lucy could get up, Manuel appeared and fixed the situation.
“Thank you!” Vivian called after him.
“Y’all should reapply,” Lucy said as she adjusted her umbrella. “We’re close to the equator here.”
“That would mess up my sunbathing, and I can’t have that,” Vivian said. “Plus, I put some on earlier. And, I have darker pigmentation than you.”
“Yeah, yeah. But don’t say I didn’t warn you.”
“Pass the sunscreen, please,” Kate said.
“I’ll take the 15,” Wendy said. “I sunbathe semi-responsibly. My olive skin can take it.”
“Wrinkles,” Kate said in a sing-song voice.
Wendy ignored her.
Vivian reached under her seat, dug around in the sand and found her sunglasses. “That’s what these are for.” She gave them a good shake and slid them onto her face. A few granules dug in. Back home, she cherished a peaceful moment like this. As if I’d let a little sand bother me now.
Next thing she knew she was in the middle of an earthquake dream. Her body shook but not the ground, she realized.
“Up! Up! Up!”
Do they have earthquakes in Playa del Carmen? she thought.
“Viv, you are sunburned,” Wendy said. “Your pale scale has shot up dramatically. Unfortunately, I’m afraid it will probably peel off in about five days.”
Groggy, Vivian pulled off her sunglasses. “Huh?”
“I’m not going in public with her like that,” she heard someone say.
“What? Like what? What happened?” she demanded, still half asleep.
Lucy sat down on the end of her lounger. “Viv, you should’ve reapplied.”
“I fell asleep. How bad is it?” She looked at the three of them. They stared back at her, trying not to laugh.
“Oh my god, I must look ridiculous.”
“The raccoon eyes are not that bad,” Kate responded, covering her smile.
“Oh crap. Let’s get up to our room so I can assess the damage.”
They gathered their stuff and traipsed up to the room. Vivian went directly to the bathroom and closed the door.
“Holy crap,” she said, staring at the crimson glow reflecting off the mirror.
“Viv, your face is not so bad,” Kate comforted through the door. “You can probably cover it up with make-up.”
“Make-up, my ass,” Wendy commented. “It would take the entire town of Cover Girl to blend her eyes in with her face.”
“I can hear you!” Vivian yelled. What am I going to do? she thought desperately. She looked at herself and all she could see was red (95 percent) and a bit of white (eyeballs included). Apparently, thinking she had a good base tan was a misconception.
Lucy stood outside the door. “Viv, there’s not a lot you can do. You’ve damaged your skin. You need to just let it breathe. It’ll heal faster.”
“But we’ve got this party tonight,” Vivian called. “I can’t go like this.”
“It’ll be dark. No one will notice,” Kate tried to reassure her.
You’d have to be blind not to.
“You need aloe lotion,” Wendy said. “Use mine, it’s on the counter.”
“Viv, lots of tourists come down here and get raccoon eyes. No worries,” Lucy said, then continued her thought, “I’m going to call Pierre’s room and make sure he’s getting ready to go with us.”
“Okay.” Vivian glanced at herself in the mirror again. It wasn’t often she wished for the wet-bar mirrors from home with their two-tone, tacky squiggles, but right now they’d offer a distraction.
She took a cool shower with super light water pressure and slathered on the aloe. She was hot, so she wrapped herself loosely in a towel and lay down on the bed while the other girls got cleaned up. After a second application of aloe, she dressed delicately, being wary of the redness all over, especially between her boobs and near her armpits. Those areas were an even more unnatural shade of red. Her softest dress barely touched the tip of her nose as it slipped over her head. “Oooouch!”
Not a good sign.
She returned to the bathroom and fixed her hair and put on make-up as best she could. “Well?” she asked the girls.
“You did better than I coulda done with those eyes,” Wendy said, nodding approval.
“That has got to hurt,” Kate said.
“I have to admit, you will stand out,” Lucy said. “No way around it.”
Great.
Vivian looked at herself one last time in the mirror, resigned. “I may be red and look like a raccoon, but I’m ready to kick some ass!”
CHAPTER 53
WENDY AND Kate looked cute in their sundresses and sandals and Lucy in her sundress and FMPs. Vivian felt self-conscience in her redness.
Pierre waited for them in the lobby. He hugged everyone but stopped short when he got to Vivian. “Forget to reapply?”
“I had myself a little siesta.”
“I told her to reapply,” Lucy chided.
Vivian growled, which was not something she usually did unless she was reading a book to her kids, but this called for it. She thought she sounded a little like her dog, Cooper.
Pierre put his hands up. “Sunburned or not, you still look good.”
On their way out, they asked the guy at the front desk how to find Julio’s house. He gave them directions on a sticky note.
“Apparently everyone does know where Shorty lives.” Wendy slid her sunglasses on.
Pierre helped them muscle through the paparazzi and the girls surrounded Vivian, helping to protect her sunburn and keep the vultures from getting to her. None of them responded to the questions thrown at them.
They made it to the car without incident and Vivian got in the passenger seat, cringing at the thought of fastening her seatbelt. Pierre took the back seat with Wendy and Kate, humpin’ it again.
Wendy saw the seatbelt hesitation and said, “Buckle up for safety, Viv!”
No sympathy.
She grabbed it and gently pulled it across her lap.
Designate driver, Lucy, barreled toward the exit of the parking lot, eager to run over any paparazzi who got in the way. Several blocked the exit, but then jumped aside at the last moment. “Jackasses,” she muttered under her breath.
Lucy had the directions stuck to the console above the useless air conditioning vent. Vivian concentrated on holding the lap belt up off her thighs. Kate pointed out what she considered architectural marvels, which Vivian thought looked like they were about to fall down. Wendy shook her head to the beat of music that only she could hear. Pierre looked like he was trying to minimize the impact from the bumps in the road.
They stopped at a light and some kids ran up to their car selling gum. Lucy rolled down her window and bought some to be nice. “Gotta support the local economy,” she said.
I would have bought some if I could move, Vivian thought. She saw one turn and whisper to the other. Then they both turned and looked at her, laughing. Never mind, I’m not that sorry anymore.
Lucy pulled through the intersection and Wendy informed her, “I think we’re being followed again by that Lupe woman. You going to try and lose her?”
“I can’t drive like Dale Earnhardt back there.” She hooked a thumb toward Kate.
Pierre reached forward and touched Lucy’s arm. “If I have to, I’ll get rid of her once we get to the party.”
I think he likes Lucy just a little. Vivian thought and smiled to herself.
They wound their way around Playa del Carmen and came to a sandy road leading to a monstrosity of a house, situated on a long stretch of beach. There were no neighbors within sight. Shorty must like his privacy.
The narrow road was already lined with cars half a mile from the house. Lucy mercifully dropped Vivian, Wendy and Kate off at the circular driveway in front, as Vivian’s long distance walking abilities were questionable considering her skin tone. Pierre volunteered to stay with Lucy.
Kate stared in awe at the
house. By the look on her face, Vivian thought she might drool.
“Damn, he must be doin’ pretty well selling tequila,” Wendy said. “Or whatever it is that he sells.”
“I’d say so,” Kate stammered. “Do you know how much that cost?” She pointed to the entrance. “That’s what you call a structural glass wall. See those plates of glass behind the window? Those are glass columns. Nice.”
She was right, it was awesome. The all-glass entrance was two stories high and flanked by two walls clad in white marble, and not the tiled crap. Just above the door hung a slender glass canopy suspended by thin, stainless steel rods. The rest of the house was white stucco, not crusty but troweled to a smooth finish.
“That kinda reminds me of the white fondant on my wedding cake,” Vivian said and laughed. “Makes me want to lick the walls.”
On both sides of the entrance, two pair of tropical wood trellises nestled into the garden. Cast concrete columns that Kate described as “very Japanese modern” supported the trellises and provided a spot to tie back the white drapes. A loveseat under each pod completed the resort-style cabanas.
They found a nice bench near the front door made of matching marble. Vivian’s butt melted into it like butter.
“Ahhh…nice and cool,” Vivian said. “My butt is happy. The rest of me, not so much.”
A steady ‘thump thump thump’ came from the house, and Vivian saw some skinny, tan (not sunburned), scantily clad girls through the window behind them.
Great, Vivian thought. Hoochie mommas.
Vivian heard giggling and made out Lucy and Pierre coming down the road. She watched Lucy push off Pierre in a playful manner.
“Looks like they enjoyed the walk,” Kate said, watching them too.
Lucy was all smiles as she walked up the grandiose entrance. “Wow! This is some house.”
Vivian pointed to Kate. “She’s in architecture loooooove.”
“It’s true,” Kate said. “I admit, I’m fantasizing.”
Pierre cocked an eyebrow at her.
“All fantasies include my husband, not Shorty!”
“Where’s Lupe?” Wendy asked, changing the subject.
