Sleek. That's what she wanted. To become a true Arizona woman. A little suntan wouldn't hurt, either. Her skin looked like a polar bear's. White as Elmer's glue.
'Yoo-hoo.' Gretchen turned to see April getting out of her car, arms filled with submarine sandwich bags and a large bottle of soda.
'It's not my day,' April huffed, laboring onto the curb.
'I had a doll appraisal way over in Glendale, and after that I had another fender-bender.'
April was prone to frequent but minor accidents.
'Anyone hurt?'
'Naw.'
Gretchen glanced at April's car. Her old Buick's bumpers, front and back, were crumpled like accordions. 'Looks the same as always to me.'
April nodded in agreement just as Caroline walked briskly past April's car. 'Sorry I'm late. The traffic was awful. What's new?'
'As far as I can tell, no progress at all inside the shop,'
Gretchen said, 'but it's my fault for coming so late. I had a confrontation this morning right outside our house, and you'll never guess with who.'
'Tell us.' Caroline said, moving aside to let pedestrians pass.
'Matt Albright's wife.'
'Whoo-wee!' April screeched. 'That must have been something.'
'It sure was.'
Gretchen gave them the sordid details. April almost dropped her bags when Gretchen told them how Kayla had called the cops. Caroline had her hand over her mouth, speechless.
'I wish I had been there.' April shifted her bags. 'I would have fixed her wagon.'
'Not only that, the cop gave me a warning.'
'Let's ask Matt to step in,' Caroline said. 'She's going too far.'
Right. Let Matt step in and rescue her. And prove how helpless she is.
April snorted. 'No kidding. She's going too far. Boy, she's slick. Crazies usually are.'
'I don't want this to get back to Matt or the Curves group,' Gretchen said. 'If Bonnie finds out, she'd tell Matt, and I just want to forget that it ever happened.'
'I'd watch my back if I were you,' April warned. 'That woman is loony.' She hefted the bags in her arms. 'I brought lunch.'
'I ate before I came. Thanks, though,' Caroline said. Then, 'Why are we standing on the sidewalk?'
'I can't eat another submarine sandwich,' Gretchen said, opening the shop door. 'Don't buy them for me anymore.'
'You only had one for lunch yesterday, and you're done already?' April said. 'You should be me. Breakfast, lunch, dinner, and all the snacks in between. I'm
'King of pentacles,' Nina said to Britt as they entered. She had the tarot cards' instructions open on her lap and read a passage from the booklet. 'A successful leader with business sense, strong character, intelligent, a loyal friend.'
Britt clapped her hands together. 'And you're my new friend. Wait until you see how loyal I can be.'
They both giggled. Gretchen found it amazing that a woman dressed as severely as Britt could even accomplish a giggle. She wore another stiff-collared blouse, and every hair in her French twist was tucked where it should be. Gretchen started to speak, but Nina held up a finger in warning. 'I'm almost done,' she said, picking up another card. Gretchen looked over her aunt's shoulder. The picture on the card depicted an angel with red wings pouring water between two challises.
'Temperance,' Nina read from her book. 'Accomplishment through self-control, patience, bringing together into perfect harmony.'
'I love that one,' Britt said.
Finished, the two gypsy women finally looked up. Britt leveled a withering stare at Gretchen; the incident at the shop the other night hadn't made them best buds. But for Nina's sake, Gretchen had to make an effort. 'Let's start over,' she said to Britt. 'I think we got off on the wrong foot.'
'Of course,' Britt said, but her body language remained tense.
They gave each other a stiff handshake.
'We've met before,' Caroline said to her. 'You were one of Charlie's dearest friends. I'm so sorry about what happened.'
'Thank you.'
'And this is April,' Caroline said when Nina remained silent, refusing to be the one to bring April into the conversation. Gretchen cleared her throat and addressed her aunt.
'How are the room boxes coming along?'
Nina shuffled the cards in her hands. 'I was going to start without you,' she said. 'Honestly I was, but Britt came along, and we really hit it off.' She bent down to pick up a card that had fallen to the floor.
'That's a weird card,' April said.
'The hanged man,' Nina said. 'See how he's hanging upside down? And he fell right by your feet, April.'
April snorted. 'Hogwash. I don't believe in that stuff. I suppose you're going to tell me that I'll be hanging from my toes.'
Nina consulted her instructions. 'The hanged man means it's time for rest and reflection. You should stay at home more.' She picked up the remaining cards from the table and flashed the same card she had read earlier. 'King of pentacles is a great card, Britt.'
'We need to get back to business,' Caroline reminded her sister.
'Do any of the pieces on the counter look familiar to you?' Gretchen asked Britt.
Britt stood up and wandered along the counter, picking up a piece here and there.
She shook her head. 'Not really,' she said, one hand fluttering to check her French twist, tucking an imaginary stray hair back into the tightly wound locks. She rearranged her bangs. April's thick fingers combed through the piles. 'It's a strange brew,' she said, holding up a Victorian dresser. She picked up another object with the other hand. 'Here's another street sign. And another.'
Gretchen took the signs from April. None of the street names were familiar to her.
'A broken-down wooden bench,' Nina said, joining in the inventory. 'A mahogany wall mirror. How do all of these fit together?'
'They don't,' Caroline said. 'Each box is unique. The differences in time periods and social settings will make putting them together easy.'
Britt still fidgeted with her hair. 'Bernard made the room boxes.'
Gretchen glanced up at the shelves lining the upper part of the wall. Bernard's dollhouses. And the Victorian he had mentioned. She stepped closer.
When Bernard had said he'd designed a Victorian, Gretchen had assumed it would be an English Victorian with dormer windows and window boxes filled with petunias and ivy. Her second guess would have been a Victorian farmhouse with a wraparound porch. Instead, she faced an enormous three-foot-high French Victorian with two sloped roofs, wrought-iron balconies, and molded cornices. The steep vertical slopes to the roofs and the heavy faux stonework gave it a sinister undertone.
April came up beside Gretchen. 'It looks like a haunted house,' she said.
'It sure isn't a painted lady,' Gretchen agreed. 'No vibrant colors and trendy painted trim work on this Victorian.'
'It won an award,' April pointed out, reading from a mounted plaque next to the dollhouse. 'Designed and built by Bernard Waites. Kind of scary-looking, but the details are amazing.'
'Bernard looks like a cuddly teddy bear,' Britt called from the other side of the room, 'but he has a dark side.'
'What do you mean?' Gretchen asked.
'Bernard is always in the background like he's waiting for an opportunity to seize control,' Britt said. 'He's been hanging around Charlie ever since she retired last year.'
'It looks like he contributed quite a lot to the shop.'
