one miniature doll that she showed me about a year before all this happened. It was only three and a half inches high.” April spread her fingers to show how small three and a half inches really was. “It was a German bisque miniature, hand-painted with inset blue glass eyes. The prettiest thing you’d ever see. I loved that doll at first sight.”
“She wouldn’t sell it to you, would she?” Gretchen asked.
April nodded. “As it turned out, the bank or somebody acting for the bank took the whole thing away from her. What would it have hurt to give me that tiny little doll?”
“Did anyone ever find out for sure what happened to the collection?” Gretchen anticipated April’s answer, but had to ask anyway.
“No. It vanished without a trace.”
“There are a lot of things around here that seem to vanish without a trace,” Nina observed.
April struggled into a sitting position, and a fine line of sweat dripped down the side of her face. She wiped it away. “I better head out,” she said. “I’m late to work out. I missed my exercises all week because I was sick. I can’t miss again today, or I’ll fall behind on my new health program.”
Nina shot a warning glance at Gretchen, and Gretchen composed her face.
“April has lost fifty pounds,” Nina said to Gretchen. “She’s working out at Curves.”
Gretchen hadn’t noticed any poundage loss, but she had spotted April’s purse on the side table by the door and a set of keys beside it. She’d also noticed an overnight travel bag tossed carelessly on its side by the bedroom door. A cosmetic bag and a hairbrush had slid out onto the floor.
It looked like the woman stricken with valley fever had been away from home.
“Maybe she’s packing for a trip,” Nina said, when they returned to the car. They opened all the car doors, Nina turned on the ignition and the air-conditioning, and they waited on the sidewalk while the car cooled down. April lumbered to her crumpled Buick and waved as she drove off. Nina opened the back door and helped Tutu onto the seat. Nimrod squirmed out of his purse and ran back and forth in the rear as Nina took the driver’s seat and belted up. “Maybe she’s leaving today.”
“I think she lied about the valley fever,” Gretchen said, digging a folded piece of paper from her shorts and scanning the copy of Martha’s inventory list. She found the doll April had once coveted: “German miniature, all bisque, jointed, marked German 10 on back of head, original hand-made dress, three and a half inches high.” She glanced up at the street ahead. “Can you catch up to her? Let’s see if she’s going where she said she’s going.”
“Fun. My first tail.”
Nina stepped on the gas, and Gretchen’s head snapped back. “Take it easy. I don’t want any more trips to the hospital.”
Several lights ahead, the back of April’s car came into view, and Gretchen watched it turn onto University Drive and head for Phoenix. Fifteen minutes later April pulled over in front of a building bearing a small overhead sign, Curves. Curves, a popular fitness center exclusively for women, was sweeping the country, and Gretchen had considered paying a visit to one. This was her chance.
“Now we’ll go in and ask her if she’s leaving town,” Nina said.
“We can’t say it just like that.” Gretchen watched April enter the building. “I’ll go in and think of some reason for following her, something we forgot to ask her before she took off. You stay here with the dogs.”
“We can all go in.”
“I’m sure they don’t allow dogs,” Gretchen said. “Let’s not cause a scene.” She walked into Curves.
April was waiting for her.
“I thought I saw Nina’s car following me,” she said, eyeing Gretchen up and down. “You could stand to lose a few pounds, and there’s no better way to do it. You want to give it a try, don’t you?”
Gretchen gave April a weak smile. “That’s why we decided to follow you. What do I do?”
April looked over at the front desk. “That okay with you?” she said to the woman sitting behind the desk. “That’s Ora, the manager.”
“Hey,” Ora said to Gretchen. “April will take good care of you.”
“You can be my guest today,” April said, pride in her voice. “Follow behind me, and I’ll show you how to use the machines. But watch that bad arm. You’ll have to skip some of the arm weights. Our workout usually