Free Beach Town by Mary Kay Andrews

can help.”
    Greer leaned toward her and lowered her voice. “It’s the old casino building. Your mayor told me the city has a long-term lease on it, but I need to know who owns it.”
    â€œReally? But that place is falling apart.”
    â€œThat’s exactly why it works for the movie,” Greer confided. “That decrepit look fits right in with the plot.”
    â€œThat’s an easy one. The Littrells own the building. So I guess you’d need to talk to Vanessa.”
    â€œDoes she live in Cypress Key?”
    â€œActually, she lives on Seahorse Key. That’s a sort of island on the far south end of the island.”
    â€œShe lives on her own private island?”
    â€œThere’s a little causeway that goes over there, but yeah, I guess you’d say it’s hers, since there aren’t any other houses out there. As far as I know, the Littrells have owned Seahorse for, like, ever. I guess they’ve lived around here at least as long as the Thibadeauxs.”
    â€œWhat can you tell me about this Vanessa Littrell?” Greer asked in her best conspiratorial tone.
    â€œShe’s rich as sin, for one,” Cindy said, wrinkling her nose in distaste. “The Littrells own almost as much stuff around here as the paper company. Vanessa was the only child, and her daddy’s only brother died in Vietnam, so her daddy was sort of an only child.”
    â€œI take it you don’t care for Vanessa.”
    â€œDoes it show?” Cindy giggled. “We went all through school together, till her mama shipped her off to boarding school in Jacksonville her senior year of high school. Vanessa was always kind of snooty. Back then, she was nothing to look at. Kinda skinny. She had bad acne, and a real honker of a nose. My mama used to say Vanessa looked just like her daddy, ‘bless her heart.’ She never dated at all when she was in high school.”
    â€œAnd then?” Greer raised an eyebrow.
    â€œWhen she came home from boarding school at Christmas break, she had bandages clear across her face. She told everybody she’d been in a bad car wreck and nearly died. Big surprise, when the bandages came off, she had the cutest brand-new little nose you’ve ever seen.”
    â€œAnd her popularity soared?” Greer asked.
    â€œOh yeah,” Cindy said dryly. “When she got home that summer before she went away to college, I think she dated every boy in town. Twice.”
    â€œDid she by any chance date Eb Thibadeaux?” Greer asked casually.
    â€œSure did,” Cindy said. “All the girls in town were crazy for Eb.”
    â€œIncluding you?” Greer asked.
    â€œI might have had a little bitty crush on him,” Cindy admitted. “But I never would have had a chance with a big stud like Eb. So instead I went and fell for his dumb-ass cousin Butch. Big mistake. My mama talked till she was blue in the face, but I wouldn’t listen. Married him instead of going to junior college.”
    â€œAnd in the meantime? Did Eb and Vanessa stick?”
    â€œOh no,” Cindy said. “He had a full scholarship to engineering school up North somewhere. Maybe Purdue? And Vanessa went to Alabama, where she majored in sorority with a minor in beauty pageant.”
    â€œShe sounds like a real piece of work.”
    â€œShe is that,” Cindy said. “Born rich, and got richer. She’s been married a couple times, but she’s been back here in Cypress Key for a couple years now, living at the Littrell home place on Seahorse. The thing I can’t figure out is why.”
    â€œWhy what?”
    â€œVanessa Littrell has enough money she could live anywhere, do anything she wants. So why is she hanging out here in Podunky Cypress Key, Florida?”
    â€œMaybe I’ll just drive on over to Seahorse Key and ask her,” Greer said. “But there is one more thing I need to see about here. The mayor says