“And you can eat dinner from the buffet,” Ava added. “We won’t start the first game for another fifteen minutes.”

“Good deal.” Vikki squatted down until she was at eye level with the four-year-old. “Hey Maya. Wanna hang out with me tonight? We can eat some sweet-and-sour meatballs and, uh, watch Hawaii Five-O on television, okay?”

Maya focused her huge blue eyes on the agent for a moment, considering the offer. “PAW Patrol?”

“Huh?” Vikki wrinkled her nose.

“It’s sorta like Five-O, but with cartoon dogs,” Joe advised.

“Okay, cool. But let’s eat first.” Vikki extended her hand and Maya took it.

As Ava predicted, the motel’s regulars were already streaming toward the rec room, and the parking lot was filling with cars. “Big crowd, huh?” Letty observed.

“Word gets around,” Ava said, showing her the metal cash box containing stacks of one-, five-, and ten-dollar bills. “Of course, it’s mostly snowbirds and retirees. Where else are folks gonna go for a night out where they maybe spend ten or twenty dollars for an evening of entertainment like this—they get as much food as they can eat, cheap drinks, and maybe even win a jackpot.”

“And it’s legal to gamble like this?” Letty asked.

“As long as you do it for a nonprofit,” Ava said. “We partner with the Legion of Mary, from the Catholic church. We don’t make any money on this. After we pay for our operating costs, all the rest of the money gets paid out in jackpots. Good clean fun, right? Our regulars look forward to this all year long. It’s a tradition, and lesson one here at the Murmuring Surf is, you don’t mess with tradition.”

“And it looks like everyone is really into the aloha theme,” Letty said, marveling at the array of loud flowered shirts, plastic leis, and muumuus flowing through the door.

“There aren’t any costume prizes, but still, it’s a real cutthroat competition,” Ava said. She nudged Letty. “Even the Feldmans want to play.

“Ruth! Billie!” Ava called, as the couple approached the table. “Where on earth?”

The two women wore matching traditional Hawaiian women’s long muumuus, with wide puffed sleeves and gathered, ruffled necks, along with flower crowns woven with bits of palm fronds, vines, and yellow frangipani blossoms. They wore necklaces of cowrie shells and puka beads.

“Billie designed and made our dresses herself,” Ruth said proudly. “I only made the necklaces.”

“Those are works of art,” Letty said. Before she could say anything else, Billie handed her two twenty-dollar bills. “How many cards?” Letty asked.

“Forty,” Billie replied, hefting a large straw bag onto her shoulder. “We came to win.”