Beach Blanket Homicide (Lucy McGuffin, Psychic Amateur Detective 1)

She giggles. “Lucy, have you ever used hairspray before in your life?”

“Yes.”

She looks dubious.

“Okay,” I admit. “Just once. High school. Senior year prom.”

She shrugs, then smiles. “No worries. You look fabulous. No one’s hair is going to look this terrific. You might just win the costume contest!”

I’ve caught Sarah in a few fibs before, but this isn’t one of them. She honestly believes this, so I smile back at her.

We load up the back of the minivan with over twenty-four dozen carefully packed muffins. There are six varieties—double chocolate chip, banana nut, blueberry (yawn), lemon poppy seed, oat bran (remember, we have a large retired population here in town) and my hands-down most popular ever—the apple walnut cream cheese muffin.

I worked on perfecting the recipe for almost a year. It’s my signature muffin. Plus, it’s Will’s favorite, so it holds a special place in my heart. It’s also the recipe I used for my Muffin Wars audition tape, which, I’m kind of worried about now because if they pick me, I’ll have to bake something different, and not to brag or anything but I would totally win with the apple walnut cream cheese.

We finish packing everything up then head to the rec center. The sun peeks over the horizon, throwing an orange haze over the crystal-clear blue water of the Gulf of Mexico. It’s early November and sixty degrees, with a projected high of only seventy-four. A beautiful north Florida fall day, perfect to celebrate the town’s new state of the art recreational center. There’s an indoor and outdoor basketball court, two swimming pools, tennis courts, classrooms and my favorite feature, a humongous gourmet kitchen. Sarah and I have already been approached about teaching cooking classes. I’m also thinking of heading up a community garden.

Even though it’s barely seven a.m. and the festivities don’t start for another two hours, the place is swarming. The Gray Flamingos are acting as event “hosts” and will be doing tours. Most of them are in costume, but a few of them are wearing their Gray Power T-shirts. There will be arts and crafts for the kiddies, free food and lots of fun.

Heidi from Heidi’s Bakery is setting up her booth right next to ours. Her donuts are legendary. If you’re into donuts, that is.

“Yoo-hoo!” Heidi waves and Sarah and I wave back. “Gorgeous day, isn’t it?”

“Sure is!” says Sarah.

Viola and Betty Jean come by to check out our booth. Betty Jean is wearing a black wig (which looks better than her regular hair), capris and ballet flats. “Look, Lucy! We’re both Annettes!”

I try my best to smile. Great. Another Annette Funicello.

Viola is wearing a dress with a cinch belt that flares at the hips. Her chin-length salt and pepper hair is teased and sprayed. She’s also wearing a pair of awesome cat style glasses with little rhinestones at the corners. “I’m going as a sixties school teacher. Believe it or not, I used to wear this back in the day.”

Gus, who is dressed as a surfer dude (board shorts, Hawaiian shirt, and flip-flops), guides us to the back door of the building. He pulls a set of keys from his pocket. “We’re keeping the building locked till the tours start. Don’t want anyone jumping the gun and getting a peek inside till after the big ribbon-cutting ceremony.” He unlocks the door for us. “Never thought

this day would come, but here we are.”

“What do you mean?” Sarah asks.

“Between us, this building isn’t one hundred percent operational yet, but the city council didn’t want to delay the opening celebration since we’d advertised it so heavily.”

I glance around. “Everything looks good to me.”

“It’s nothing major. Just some details that need to be ironed out. Security cameras, temperature controls on the swimming pool, basketball equipment that hasn’t come in yet, that kind of stuff.”

The door leads straight into the kitchen. Gus turns on the lights and helps us place two large industrial coffee makers onto a cart to take out to our food station. Besides doling out muffins, we’ll be making coffee.

I catch Gus staring at my hair.

“I know. It’s a kind of big.”

“No, it looks great,” he says.

Ouch. That was such a lie.

We wheel the cart back to our food booth. Sarah and I finish setting up the muffins and start the coffee brewing. The volunteer crowd is getting bigger. Jenna Pantini, the city manager, comes by and checks out our display. “Oh my God, you brought the apple walnut cream cheese muffins!” She looks at them longingly, so I offer her one. “I really shouldn’t.” But she takes it anyway.

Jenna goes off to check on the rest of the food vendors. Soon it’s nine a.m., and the celebration is underway. In no time the entire outdoor area is packed with people. I’ve seen at least a dozen Annettes and Frankies already. It looks like everyone in town got their cue from Beach Blanket Bingo.

Sarah and I are giving out muffins and chit chatting with the locals when an entourage from the Sunshine Ghost Society comes sniffing up to our booth. They are minus Abby, which is a relief. After yesterday’s scene in The Bistro, I’m not anxious to run into her again. At least, not until Sebastian explains what’s going on between them.