CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
Lily rang Simone at dawn the next morning. “Simone? It’s me.”
“Lily. Hi.”
“I didn’t wake you up?”
“No,” Simone reassured her. “I’ve even had my morning coffee.”
“How are things? How’s George?”
“Fine and great. He’s in the shower, has to catch the shuttle to New York. There’s a fund-raiser this weekend. Want to talk to him?”
“No, that’s okay. Tell him best of luck, though.”
“Will do. How’s everything down in Coral Beach? You finished the dives yet?”
Where to begin?
Lily asked herself. So much had happened since her last update—and all of it lousy. “Well, first of all, I finally received Lesnesky’s report—if that’s what you want to call it. I’m still wading through it. Simone, this guy has the sloppiest methodology I’ve ever seen. As far as I can tell, he never looked at a single tide chart or consulted any data on the outflow from the Intracostal Waterway.”
“Maybe since the reef overall is in such good condition—”
“That’s just it,” Lily interrupted. “There’s a hot spot.”
“What?”
Lily began circling the living room as she talked. “Yeah, you heard me right. If I had to give a rough estimate, I’d say over sixty percent of the species in the last transect we looked at are affected. John and I finished labeling and packing all the samples yesterday. Simone, I’m going to need these last transect samples analyzed immediately and the results faxed to me. I’ve sent you an e-mail with all the transect numbers. A few earlier sites had significantly decreased visibility. Now that I know about the hot spot, I wonder if the problem hasn’t begun to spread.”
“If the shipment arrives by this afternoon, I can get the results to you by Monday.”
Lily calculated quickly. “That’ll work. I’m supposed to give my report to the committee next Thursday. If I’m going to be bearing bad news, I better have the data to back me up. Especially since this is the first they’ll have heard of the hot spot.”
“Karen photographed the area completely?”
“Yes. The rolls of film are on their way to Duggal.”
“What’s your hypothesis, Lily?”
Lily stopped her pacing to stare through the window at the sea below. “I’ve got to assume it’s a local impact which is affecting the coral. The hot spot’s located in the southern extremity of zone one, closest to the inlet,” she explained. “This morning I’m going to download water patterns for the area. It’s possible the outflow from the Intracoastal Waterway could be drifting right to the spot and dumping a ton of crap.”
“Check the tide charts for the area, too,” Simone suggested.
“Okay.” Lily gnawed absently at the tip of her thumb. Then voicing her frustration, she added, “What really stumps me, Simone, is why Lesnesky didn’t notice any earlier signs of the disease.”
“Yeah, for an area that large, there should have been some early indicators long before this. Well, the reef samples will give us some answers.”
“Answers I’m not sure many people on this reef committee want to hear,” Lily said worriedly.
“As long as they don’t shoot the messenger delivering the bad news.”
Lily gave a weak laugh. “Maybe I’ll ask Sean to have them do a security check at the door.”
“Sean? Who’s Sean?”
Her cheeks grew warm. “Sean McDermott, mayor of Coral Beach, chairman of the reef committee. I’ve known him all my life.”
“This the first good news I’ve heard yet,” Simone said. “You’ll need a friend in your corner if this thing gets dicey.”
Lily was uncertain if her relationship with Sean could be classified as a “friendship”—but she didn’t correct her boss.
“So, there’s a
Sean
, ” Simone mused. “Is he single?”
Lily rolled her eyes. Simone loved playing match-maker. “Yes.”
“And cute?”
God, no. Sean was gorgeous, mouth-wateringly handsome, but definitely not cute.
Her silence had Simone laughing. “I’ll take that as a ‘yes.’ ” Abruptly switching topics, she asked, “How are Karen and John doing?”
“Karen is sleeping off a nasty case of seasickness. Once we got back onboard after the final dive yesterday, she was so sick she could barely stand. But John really came through. He was terrific. Sent off Karen’s film for her, and then helped with all the labeling—we had a lot of extra samples because of the hot spot.”
“I’m pleased—and relieved—to hear that about John. He hasn’t always demonstrated the best work ethic. . . .”
“Yeah, I know what you mean, but he seems to be coming around.”
“Great. Let Karen sleep the whole day if she wants. I’m worried about you, too, sweetie. You sound totally stressed. Listen, after you check the tide charts and read over Lesnesky’s report, I want the three of you to take a little R-and-R. You’ve been working really hard, and I won’t have any concrete information until Monday. Just forget about the study over the weekend, ’kay? Maybe you and this Sean can go out. . . .”
“I’m worried our plan has backfired horribly, May Ellen. Dana said that Kaye and Lily were eating dinner at Marco’s and—”
“I know,” May Ellen replied. In her agitation she stirred her ice tea vigorously, making the spoon clink loudly against the glass. “Kaye told me about it, too.”
May Ellen Farrady and Anne Prentiss were at their tennis club. Though neither woman played anymore and they both abhorred golf, they needed a place where they could talk without their daughters dropping by unexpectedly.
Anne took a sip of her decaffeinated iced coffee, dabbed her lip with a napkin, and said, “I am so mad at that governor for calling yesterday! What does he need a task force for? And what will we do if Sean doesn’t make it back in time for your party? I watched Ryan Jeffries this morning. There’s another weather system brewing—”
May Ellen’s eyes widened in alarm. “No, Anne,” she said, shaking her head. “We just won’t go down that road. But you’re right. Everything does seem to be falling apart—Lily hasn’t been by since she rehung all those pictures for me. Maybe that wasn’t such a good idea, Anne . . . and so terribly confusing, too. I hardly know where I am when I walk into a room!”
“You could call her up and tell her she needs to move them all back, that you’re feeling very disoriented.” Anne suggested, her lips quivering.
“Anne!”
“Just a thought.”
“Humph!”
May Ellen pronounced. “Why don’t we have
you
be disoriented?”
Anne smiled sunnily. “No one would believe it.”
“Anne,” May Ellen said warningly.
“All right, no disorientation for either of us. But we do need to get serious. So has Kaye started to patch things up with Lily?”
“Yes. She seemed very happy after their dinner. Said they had a ‘really good talk.’ ”
“That’s lovely. And concrete progress, isn’t it, dear? Did you mention to Kaye that you wanted to buy Lily a dress for the party?”
“Yes, but I don’t believe Kaye got very far with that one.”
Anne thought for a moment, then nodded decisively. “Call Lily, May. And get her to that dress shop!”
Beside Lily’s laptop a small mountain of data had formed. The pile consisted of every chart and report Lily had been able to get her hands on. She had maps detailing the tide and current patterns around Coral Beach. She had engineering reports for the Intracoastal Waterway, to check if any recent construction might have altered the ICW’s outflow. If there had been any recent dredging or building, it was possible that the changes to the flow patterns had allowed harmful pollutants or bacteria to be carried to the southern section of zone one.
Still dissatisfied, Lily had continued with her marine detective work. After downloading the charts and reports, she had packed up her scuba gear and driven over to the marina. Donning her wet suit and tanks, she’d dived amidst the moored boats and flotsam, taking additional water samples, then plunging her test tubes into the murky bottom of the marina. She’d even scraped algae off the submerged piers. Lily had then packed up the samples from the marina and shipped them to the Marine Center. With luck, she’d get the results back within a day or two of the samples she and John had taken from the reef itself.
She was confident that once all the sample analyses were in front of her, it would be a matter of comparing the compositional breakdown of the locations and seeing whether she could find a common culprit.
But now that she’d accomplished all the data gathering, there was really nothing more she could do. Unfortunately, Lily had never been good at “hang time,” as John called it.
He, however, had leaped at the chance to take the weekend off.
“That’s great. I have this, uh, ‘friend’ whose friends own a boat. They were talking about cruising down to Miami, spending the weekend there.” He scratched his unshaven chin. “I’m pretty sure they said they’re leaving this morning.”
With a smile, Lily said, “Go now if you want, John. Of the three of us, you definitely deserve time off, especially after yesterday’s marathon session. Have fun.”
“Oh, yeah, I will. This one-horse town is getting lame.”
Karen, who was still sleeping off the effects of her seasickness, made an appearance a short while later.
When she wandered into the living room, Lily was once again at her computer, mapping the southern transects’ coral species. Closing the program, Lily told Karen about her telephone conversation with Simone and John’s decision to cruise down to Miami.
“Sounds like fun,” Karen said with a sleepy smile. “I think I’ll hang here, though. Dave mentioned that he wanted to do something this weekend. It’s too bad John’s gone. He might have joined us. He’s really okay once you give him a chance. So what are you going to do, Lily?”
Think about Sean and how much I miss him,
her inner voice replied. She didn’t even know when he was due to return from Tallahassee. She’d been so disappointed by the news that he’d left that she’d forgotten to ask Evelyn Roemer. Would he call her when he did return?
Other than moon over Sean’s absence, Lily had no definite plans. Perhaps that was why she couldn’t manufacture a decent excuse when her grandmother phoned a few minutes later, to remind Lily that Kaye wanted to take her shopping for a dress for the party.
“Granny, that’s really nice of you, but I have plenty of clothes already—”
“Lily, this party is my chance to show you off to my friends, and I want to treat you to something. Please say yes, and make an old woman happy.”
“I . . .” Lily sighed. “Yes, I’m free today.”
“Good. Kaye has such lovely taste, she’ll find just the thing. By the way, Lily, I noticed your hair was looking a little dry and lifeless. No point dressing up if your hair’s a disaster. I’m going to make you an appointment at the spa.”
“Granny May, I don’t need to go to a spa!”
Her grandmother must have missed Lily’s reply, for she said, “Oh, wait, I have an idea! I’ll make the appointment for two, and you and your friend, the photographer, can go together. My treat. Dear me, someone’s at the door. Bye, Lily.”
Lily stood, staring at the receiver in bemusement.
“Who was that, Lily?” Karen asked.
“My grandmother. Hey, Karen, have you ever been to a day spa?”
Lily was reading an article on endangered sea grasses when her mother arrived.
“Hi, Karen. Hi, Lily.”
“Hello, M . . . Kaye,” Lily managed to remember.
“
Definitely
Kaye.” Her mother nodded encouragingly. “We’re going to have fun this afternoon.” Kaye turned and smiled at Karen. “My mother made the appointment at the spa for three P.M., Karen. It’s on the corner of Palmetto and Locust. Why don’t you meet Lily there?”
“Sure thing, Mrs. Alcott. Have a great time with Lily.”
“Thank you, Karen. I’m so excited,” Kaye confided to Lily as she hustled her out the door. “Fiona’s just going to flip when she sees you.”
Fiona Gray was so elegant, she made Kaye look like a dowdy frump. Dressed in a navy serge tailored suit, she moved with the sensual confidence of a 1940s matinee idol. Right now, Fiona was circling Lily. Slowly. A three hundred and sixty degree, X-ray-eyed inspection of every physical imperfection Lily possessed. Acutely self-conscious, Lily tucked in her stomach and tried not to fidget.
How,
she asked herself,
had she gotten bulldozed
into this shopping expedition?
The inspection was performed in total silence. Fiona had hung a closed sign in the window the second Lily and Kaye walked in, barring other customers from entering. At last Fiona came to a stop next to Kaye. Arms crossed, her slender finger tapped meditatively as she continued to evaluate Lily.
Just as Lily’s eyes were beginning to cross—it was only a dress, for Pete’s sake—Fiona nodded as though arriving at a decision. Lily breathed a sigh of relief.
It was almost over,
she thought.
“Thank you, Kaye. At last I have a real woman to work with,” she said. “You mentioned a party?”
“Yes. Mother is celebrating Lily’s return home. Everyone’s attention will be focused on her.”
“Gee, now I’m really looking forward to Saturday night, Kaye,” Lily muttered, unnerved by Kaye’s prediction.
“Oh, you will, Lily . . . once you see the dress I have in mind for you,” Fiona said, smiling confidently. “Why don’t you go into the dressing room and remove your clothes. The brassiere, too.”
“My God, Karen, is that you?” Lily gaped three hours later.
Karen raised a hand to her head. The braids and beads she’d been wearing for the past two months had disappeared, to be replaced by shoulder-length, light brown hair, which fell in soft waves about her face.
“Do you like it?” she asked uncertainly. “My head feels so weird. And silent! But the stylist freaked when she heard how long my braids had been in. Said my hair would become royally damaged if I didn’t take them out. Then she forced me to sit with this really goopy conditioner on my head.”
“Well, whatever they used, it looks fantastic. To tell you the truth, I’d forgotten what your hair looks like. It’s lovely.”
There were mirrors aplenty in the salon to verify this. Karen tugged the belt around her black polyester smock tighter, then walked up to the nearest mirror and stared. The stylist had let Karen’s hair hang naturally, without twisting it into any kind of sophisticated hairdo. Like threads of gold, the sun-kissed streaks in her hair glimmered in the light.