Free I So Don't Do Mysteries by Barrie Summy

wall plaque, “ ‘Pink Lady Award,
Margaret Jackson of San Diego County, Most Mary Kay Sales After the Age of Seventy.’
” She whistles. “Very cool.”
    â€œYou love all this?” I ask Amber. “For real?” I
can’t read this girl.
    â€œYes.” She sighs. “What a great surprise.”
    â€œThis isn’t the surprise. It’s supposed to be on the
counter.”
    Amber and I head over to the (yes, pink) counter to find a (yes, pink) envelope with
Girls
written on it.
    Amber rips open the envelope. She pulls out a bunch of tickets, glances at them, then
tosses them up in the air. As they feather-float to the carpet, she announces, “They’re
all yours, Sherry.”
    I kneel to pick them up. Beige passes to the Wild Animal Park.
    â€œI’m starving,” Amber announces.
    â€œI can’t eat here,” Junie says. “Much more time in this
Pepto-Bismol pit, and I’ll throw up.”
    â€œHow about the Hotel Del?” I suggest. “They gotta have a
restaurant or something.”
    So the three of us end up walking along the beach toward the hotel.
    â€œWhat a spectacular view.” Eyes wide, Junie ogles the horizon.
    Yowser. Wowser. Personally, I’m not much into nature. Well, except for boys.
But the sunset
is
totally awesome. The sun looks like a huge golden jawbreaker hanging in a
purple-and-orange-striped sky. We stand there, gazing. Then, all of a sudden, the sun dippity-dips into
the ocean. And, gulp, it’s swallowed up.
    The beach is dimmer now, with only a little light spilling onto the shore from nearby
hotels and condos. I breathe through my mouth to avoid the yucko smell of salt water and
seaweed.
    â€œI’ll meet you guys there.” And Amber takes off.
    Lips turned down, Junie watches her cousin. “I guess she’s afraid
we’ll cramp her style.” She walks over to a rock and sits. She wiggles her fingers in a
shallow tide pool. “Brrrr. This water is frigid.”
    I perch on a boulder beside her. I kick off my sandals. In the damp sand, my
fluorescent-mulberry toenails glitter like gems.
    We sit quietly, side by side. Niceness vibes are oozing out of my pores like sweat on a
hundred-degree day. I’m truly the perfect example of an easy-to-get-along-with friend. The type
of friend you want to solve a mystery with to save her ghost mother from being expelled from the
Academy of Spirits.
    A male voice pierces my thoughts. “You can’t go to the Wild Animal
Park tomorrow. I need you here, Kendra.”
    I squint into the dark. Silhouetted against the night sky, a guy and girl are meandering
along. They stop about twenty feet from us.
    The girl says gently, “But, Damon, I’m the rhino spokesperson. And
tomorrow is the Save the Rhinos ceremony.”
    Damon? As in Damon Walker? I squint harder. He’s even better-looking in real
life. He’s tall. He’s gorgeous. He’s the kind of guy you want taped to your
bedroom door. A poster of him, that is.
    Standing beside Damon is a girl who must be Kendra Phillips. I’ve never seen
her in anything. She’s pretty, with shoulder-length reddish hair. But he totally, totally outshines
her in the beauty department.
    The couple begins strolling again, then stops. Right in front of us. It’s like me
and Junie have front-row seats to
The Damon and Kendra Show.
I freeze, trying to
shadow-meld into a boulder.
    Kendra says, “And Gina hasn’t had her calf yet. Sue called me today,
and it doesn’t look as though it’s going to happen tonight.”
    â€œWho’s Sue?”
    â€œYou know. The head rhino keeper?”
    â€œI don’t keep track of your rhino friends.” Damon shrugs.
“Quite frankly, I’m tired of always coming in second to them and those
animals.”
    â€œThat’s not fair.” She reaches out to touch him, but he steps