going on. You could have waltzed back home in time to dress.”
The voice was male, and familiar. Considering where she was standing, Wanda guessed it belonged to one CJ Craimer. For a moment she froze. She was about to get caught red-handed. As far as she could tell, the house had one door, and she was facing it.
Somebody answered. “Sally’s made it plain that if I’m not here to listen to her gripe and grouse while she does the last-minute stuff, she’s going to divorce me.”
The second voice was male, too. And since she knew from the check that Mrs. Statler’s given name was Sally, Wanda was pretty sure she was listening to the voice of Edward Statler.
Not only was CJ going to catch her red-handed, but the husband of the woman who had practically bailed out Wanda’s Wonderful Pies with her order was going to catch her, too.
Wanda tried to imagine hiding somewhere to emerge later, when CJ left again. But the pool house was tiny. She could try a closet or the floor under the bed, but she still had Janya to think about. Janya was unlikely to leave her here to her own devices, plus Wanda had the van key.
What would Janya do when Wanda was nowhere in sight?
She heard a rattle and a sharp scraping noise, and she figured the men were coming in through the side gate Mrs. Statler had mentioned. Her brain was spinning, but dizziness was the lone result. She realized the moment she heard voices she should have leaped for the door. She might have had time to get out, although that was iffy. She started forward and saw Janya come around the edge of the pool. Janya glanced toward the pool house, frowning; then suddenly she saw the open door and her expression turned from irritation to horror.
Janya looked right at Wanda, then at the men coming around the side of the pool house. As if she hadn’t even considered what to do, she took one step to the side and gracefully toppled into the pool.
Now Wanda was horrified. Before she could do a thing, the two men came around the house, saw the woman in the pool shrieking—and who would ever have thought Janya could shriek with that kind of conviction?—and rushed forward to help her.
When the men’s backs were well and truly turned, Wanda slipped out of the house and gently shut the door behind her until the lock clicked.
She waited a moment until the men were both trying to haul a sputtering, screeching Janya out of the pool, before she, too, rushed forward to help.
“Who are you?” Edward Statler, a dignified silver-haired man in an expensive suit looked both annoyed and suspicious.
“I’m so sorry!” Wanda came from behind them and helped Janya get to her feet, now that the man had gotten her out of the pool. “We were just delivering the pies for tonight’s party and we were on our way out. Your wife asked us to lock up and leave by the gate. I realized I’d dropped… the check your wife left me. I went back to find it and Janya here was…”
“I was waiting,” Janya said in a hoarse voice. “And when I heard voices… I was startled and…”
Wanda picked up the cue. “She must have stepped backward into the pool. Or tripped.”
CJ laughed. “It’s okay, Edward. Wanda and…Janya?”
Janya nodded, water flying emphatically in all directions.
“Wanda and Janya are friends of Tracy’s,” CJ went on. “Good friends. They’re on the up-and-up. Sally told me she was getting her pies for the party from Wanda’s shop. I’m going to get towels.”
“Please…you don’t need to,” Janya said. “I’ll be—”
“Don’t you dare leave until we dry you off a little.” CJ unlocked his door and disappeared into the pool house. Wanda waited for an angry bellow that never came. He emerged with two fluffy beach towels, and Janya took one to hurriedly dry herself.
“Well, we really made a splash, didn’t we?” Wanda cleared her throat and tried to smile at her own joke. “I sure hope the pies make just as much of one. And we’re so sorry. Aren’t we, Janya?”
Janya narrowed her eyes. “Yes, both of us are sorry.” She handed the towel back to CJ. “The best thing I can do is go home and change,” she said. “Thank you both for your help.”
“We’ll just let ourselves out,” Wanda said. “You’ve been so kind.”
CJ was smiling, and even Edward Statler seemed to find the whole thing