Two undercover cops, posing as a couple at a posh Florida resort, have a love/hate relationship that could get them killed before they find the secret gambling den they're hunting. Things get more dangerous when the murderous villain's wife recogniz...
At that moment, Terry and Lola were walking briskly together down one of the hotel corridors. Terry halted and Lola nearly stumbled over her.
"What the h-- ?" Lola began.
"Oh, please!" Terry muttered. "Not here! Not now!"
Lola followed Terry's stunned gaze down the corridor ahead. The McCaskill family's imperious matriarch was marching toward them. Mother McCaskill was overdressed and purposeful, as always, looking like Eleanor Roosevelt at an embassy luncheon, from tasteful pumps to regal hat. The older woman zeroed in like a dive bomber on the two younger women.
"Teresa! Whatever are you doing here?"
Terry leaped into action, grabbing Mother M in a tight hug, which Mother M suffered with great dignity, but in which she did not truly participate.
"Aunt Mary!" Terry crowed.
"I beg your pardon, missy!"
Terry backed off to hold the older lady at arms length, grasping her by the shoulders. She sent Mother M an insistent look. "I said, Aunt Mary. This is such a surprise. Do Mother and Daddy know you're here?"
Mother M looked pointedly skyward as if to ask the heavens why she had been saddled with such a difficult child. "If by 'Mother and Daddy' you are referring to my late, lamented forebears, the answer to whether they are aware of my activities here on earth rather depends on one's view of the afterlife." With the polite dignity of the well-bred, Mother M looked to Lola and extended a hand. "How do you do? I'm Mary Margaret McCaskill."
"My Aunt Mary," Terry added.
"I believe we've established that, Teresa. Give me a little credit," her mother said.
"Pleased ta meetcha. I'm Lola," the working girl said, shaking Mother M's proffered hand while Terry fidgeted.
Mother M asked Lola, "So, are you also ...," she dropped to a whisper, "...working under cover?"
"Oh geez," murmured Terry.
"From time to time," Lola answered brightly.
Terry inserted, "Aunt Mary, what in heaven's name are you doing here?"
"Perhaps you have forgotten, my dear niece. My canasta club takes a field trip once a month, either to the casino here, or the Seminole Hard Rock casino in Broward County, or the Miccosukee casino on Tamiami Trail." She turned again to Lola. "Do you work with Teresa, dear?"
"No, ma'am," said Lola ingenuously. "Right now, I'm working here at the hotel. I'm a ho--"
"Hostess!" blurted Terry. "Lola's a hotel hostess. She, ah, ... greets ... unaccompanied male guests."
"Warmly," Lola added.
"Oh, yes," Mother M said with absolute calm. "That's what we used to call a prosti—"
"Aunt Mary!" Terry said, then turned to ask Lola, "Can you give us five minutes? We need to talk privately. Family stuff."
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