Marty Ambrose - Mango Bay 02 - Island Intrigue by Marty Ambrose Page A

that boat
all day and up most of the night. We decided to keep
him home from school so he could rest.”

    “Good idea.” I sat down on the leather sofa. Immediately it settled around me in all its squishy pastel glory.
For a moment I had the sensation of sitting in a tub of
margarine. “Is Sally Jo resting too?”
    “I’m right here” She emerged from the hallway,
wearing a fluffy mauve robe and matching slippers. She
walked with slow, halting steps, her face drawn and tired.
But, amazingly, her sixties flip hair helmet was intact.
Must be genetic. “Thanks for coming over, Mallie.”
    “You just set yourself down, baby.” Wanda Sue guided
Sally Jo to the monstrous sofa, picking up a pink and
white crocheted coverlet on the way. “I’m gonna fix
Mallie a cup of cocoa. Would you like one too?”
    “Sure” Her voice was devoid of emotion.
    Wanda Sue tucked the coverlet around her daughter,
then made her way to the kitchen.
    “Can I do anything?” I asked.
    Sally Jo leveled two sad eyes in my direction. “You
already did. You saved my son. I’m so grateful for that”
    “All I did was help Detective Billie. He’s the one you
should be grateful to. He saved Kevin.”
    A ghost of a smile touched her face. “You both did.”
    “Well … sort of.” She probably hadn’t heard about
the rope incident. Small mercy.
    “I couldn’t believe it when they brought in Tom’s
body. I mean, he didn’t look dead or anything. His eyes were closed, but he seemed like he was sleeping.” She
buried her face in her hands. “It’s so unfair. We were
getting back together-going to be a family again. And
now it’s all gone. We’ll never have the chance… ” Her
voice trailed off into a muffled jumble.

    “You and Tom were definitely getting back together?” I asked gently.
    She raised her head, her face streaked with tears.
“We’d been separated for about eight months, but in the
last few weeks we’d started talking again, working out
our problems. That’s why I don’t understand any of
this. Just when everything was looking up, Tom goes
and takes Kevin out on his boat without telling me, worrying me something sick. Why would he do that?”
    “I don’t know.”
    “Oh, God. How could he be so stupid? Now Kevin
don’t have a daddy” A fresh stream of tears spilled over
her cheeks. “What are we gonna do?”
    My motormouth sputtered. “You … you’ve got
Wanda Sue and lots of people here who’ll help out. If
there’s one thing I’ve learned about Coral Island, it’s a
place where people look out for one another.”
    She shook her head violently. “But that won’t bring
back my Tom. He’s gone forever.”
    I scooted across the sofa and put my arms around
her. She cried hard, hot tears that dropped onto my shoulder, and her whole body quaked as the sobs ran through
her. Never having provided anyone with the proverbial shoulder to cry on, I wasn’t sure if I was doing it right.
But I improvised as best I could, patting her on the back
and murmuring some incoherent words. After a few minutes she settled down.

    I eased away. “Let me get that hot cocoa. It’ll make
you feel better.”
    She pushed a stray hair back. “I’d like that”
    I gave her another quick pat on the arm and made my
way into the kitchen. Wanda Sue had set out three mugs
and was in the process of heating milk in a saucepan.
    “This is a plumb nightmare,” she said, shaking her
head. “I can’t hardly take it all in. Looking at poor
Tom’s body last night, dead as a doornail. Who would’ve
thought?”
    “It must’ve been rough on all of you”
    “Worst thing I’ve ever had to do-and that includes
burying my own husband six years ago. Angina. We
knew it was coming. But this was different. Tom was so
young” Her chin began to quiver, but she held back the
tears. “Nick had Sally Jo and Kevin stay inside the marina office, while I identified the body. But then Sally Jo
came