Today I am taking my Retreat at Metrobeach. It is free on Wednesdays. I am here by myself, and I have just completed my constitutional walk. I am sitting by the
"Why don't I just leave?" Dana asked, "Since I seem to be causing trouble here."
"Didn't finish your beer," Buck said.
"Didn't finish the poker game, either," Willie said, looking a little reproachful.
Dana tipped the beer up and gulped down the last of it. "Do you think you could finish without me? I have homework to do."
"Homework? Who'd go camping and bring homework with them?" Simon asked, sounding horrified. Willie nodded vigorously.
"I would," Dana said. “If I didn’t, I wouldn't get to go camping at all, and I love camping. I'm taking a postgraduate biology class in shoreline ecology, so this is a perfect place to do my research."
"Research?"
"Yeah, right now I am studying nesting behavior and ecology of roseate terns and their relationship to arctic terns. I found a colony of them just a few miles south of here."
"There's an undisturbed colony of arctics and roseates on the northeast corner of Little Hog Island," Garrett said.
"Really?" Dana asked, sounding delighted. "But," her voiced dropped an octave, "I was going to leave here and never come back. I feel like I’m imposing on you." She looked toward the door where Glenn had disappeared.
"I'm sure it would be okay if you wanted to study our terns," Simon said. Willie nodded vigorously.
"I probably should just leave." She sounded uncertain, but rose to her feet, pushing her chair back. It made a sound like fingernails on slate. Dana shivered.
"Would you let me walk you to your boat?" Buck asked.
"I guess so," Dana said.
As they left the room, she thought she heard Willie saying, "Buck and Dana, sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G," but she wasn't sure. No, it couldn't be.
"Don't mind him," Buck said. “He's a little under the weather right now.”
Just as the door was closing, someone yelled, "Watch it Buck, or you'll be out on your ear."
"Don’t mind him, either," Buck said, his grin showing in the lamplight that shone through the window. "He's just jealous."
Dana blushed. "Listen, Buck. About Billy Owens, I was just curious. What was strange about him? Why did he die?"
"Are you sure you're not a detective?" Buck asked. He grabbed her arm, and held tight.
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