“And the ones on the bay?” Sister asked.

“Are all sold. Many of them are already built on.”

“We rode around there,” Sister admitted. “I especially liked the pink house.”

Lolita beamed. “That belongs to Mr. Jason Marley, the chairman of Blue Bay. It’s a beauty, isn’t it?”

“I’ve never seen anything quite like it,” Sister said truthfully. “I don’t suppose there’s any chance he’ll be selling anytime soon?”

“I wouldn’t think so. He loves that place even though he’s a widower and needs all that room like he needs a hole in his head.” Lolita sighed a little wistfully. “Here,” she said, going over to a desk and handing us several brochures, “take these home and look them over. I don’t think you could go wrong here at Blue Bay.”

We thanked her and left, promising that we would be back for the guided tour. I looked down at the first brochure. On the cover, the girl in the bikini lassoed the seahorse. Tacky.

“Well, what do you think?” Mary Alice asked as we got into the car.

“I think it’s tacky,” I said.

“I mean about Blue Bay Ranch.”

I thought for a moment. “It’s like they can’t decide what they want to be. The split-rail fence and log cabin and even those houses on the bay. How would you describe them?”

“Colorful comes to mind.” She turned onto Highway 98. “And I thought it was interesting that the pink one belonged to Jason Marley. Think about it, Mouse. You saw those numbers on that map that showed how much the lots cost. Whose property is it?”

“Millicent’s. But I’m sure the property was her contribution to the Blue Bay Ranch Corporation.”

“And where was Millicent living?”

“Gulf Towers.”

“In the same condo that she and Tod Abernathy bought twenty years ago, still working as resident manager to pay the assessment fees.”

“Maybe she didn’t want one of those pink houses.”

“She probably didn’t, knowing Millicent. But I’d be willing to bet you her death had something to do with what’s going on over there. We’re talking millions, Mouse.”

“Reckon Fairchild knew the extent of Millicent’s estate?”

Mary Alice shrugged. “I doubt it. I doubt Millicent really believed it, that land going from a joke when Tod bought it for a thousand dollars to being worth a bundle. I just hope she realized it was valuable enough to get some good legal advice.”

We passed the miniature golf course, the Wal-Mart, the new bungee jump where people were actually lined up to pay twenty-five dollars to jump from a tower attached to rubber bands.

“What are we doing to our beaches?” I asked.

“Nothing hurricanes won’t take care of eventually.” With that, Sister turned into Gulf Towers.