“Coral!” she hissed.
But Coral was too busy with her interrogation. She’d just remembered Nicks’s mum’s bicycle with the cobweb spokes and the tennis racket with its broken strings and thought she’d better be more specific with her questions. “Do you enjoy playing sport, Mr Selvaggio?”
“CORAL!”
Coral smiled apologetically at Mr Selvaggio and then faced her best friend with a glare. Can’t you see I’m trying to find Mr Perfect!
Nicks made big eyes at the ring finger on her hand. She then nodded a few times in Mr Selvaggio’s direction.
But Coral was not taking any notice. “And what about the theatre–when was the last time you attended, Mr Selvaggio?”
“You probably took your wife along with you, didn’t you, Mr Selvaggio?” interrupted Nicks with an uneasy smile.
“Yes, you—” began Coral. And then her head quickly snapped back in Nicks’s direction. “Now, Nicks,” she said kindly, “that’s just being silly.”
Mr Selvaggio looked very bewildered, but seemed relieved to be able to answer at least one question directly. “Actually, my-a wife does enjoy-a the theatre very-a much,” he admitted. “And she’s just-a in the back. I call her and you can ask for yourself!” His face was desperate, like he’d do almost anything to get out of answering any more of these annoying girls’ questions.
Coral stood ramrod straight with her eyes in a wide O-shape. Her jaw flapped as she struggled to find words to speak. So Nicks stepped in.
“Oh, that’s OK, Mr Selvaggio, we’ve really got to get going anyway. But it’s been great getting to know you. And we’re sorry about your mum.”
She pressed a hand into Coral’s back and gently bulldozed her in the direction of the door. Coral was stammering but making very little sense, although at one point she did mumble something that sounded like ‘it must be a miracle…’
Nicks patted her pocket, the one containing the two free passes to the sea star exhibition at the aquarium. Yesterday’s visit to Deli Antonia had been a disaster with embarrassing consequences. Not that Coral really saw it like this. She was rather indignant about the whole affair, almost as if Mr Selvaggio had tricked them by being married all along. So much for Sunday Harbour community spirit, she harrumphed.
“Come on!” urged Nicks.
Coral ambled along with her hands buried deep inside her pockets and kicked a smooth pebble.
“Oh, get over it, Coral. So you didn’t know there were two Mrs Selvaggios–it’s no biggie.”
Actually, inside Coral felt disappointed. She definitely did not want Nicks to leave Sunday Harbour and she’d really (really really) hoped that this would be an easy Cupid Company case. But so far it was proving to be anything but easy!
“Here’s your pass,” said Nicks as they reached the aquarium admissions booth.
Coral took the pass from her friend and handed it over to the lady wearing a Sally Seal hat and T-shirt. The lady noticed Coral noticing her outfit and whispered conspiratorially, “My name really is Sally–isn’t that cool! We’ve all got our special aquarium names.” She pointed to Gary Great White standing nearby, handing out balloons. And then she laughed and clapped her palms together like a seal.
Coral stared at the woman. She really does throw herself into her job, she thought. Coral never did anything in half measures either, and suddenly she applauded the woman’s efforts (but not in a seal sort of way).
Nicks, meanwhile, was all business as she carefully scrutinised their surroundings. “Now, I suppose we can assume that everyone who is here loves the ocean, right?”
Coral nodded, vaguely distracted by Gary Great White who was doing shark impressions. He was really quite good. So Coral made a shark fin with her hand and held it on top of her head. Gary Great White certainly seemed to appreciate her efforts and took another great big shark bite out of the fresh air. And then Coral spotted Chris Crab.
“Oh, would you stop it!” snapped Nicks as she slapped Coral’s raised scissor-fingers. “Can we just get on? Now we just have to find a man who is kind, clever, funny and handsome. And not married.”
Ahead of them was a board with a colourful map of the aquarium’s layout. Nicks studied it closely while she decided on a plan. Up ahead was the Touch Tank. Then to the left was the twenty-metre-long underwater tunnel with its moving walkway. To the right was the half-moon shark tank. And further along was Reef Magic–Nurseries of the Seas. The aquarium wasn’t all indoors though. Visitors could go outside to admire the dolphin pool and seal enclosures.
Coral was reading from the board too, and suddenly she pointed a finger at the area called Coral Bay.
“That’s my favourite place,” she ooh’d.
Nicks stared at her friend and then returned to the map. It was only Coral’s favourite because her name was featured in the title. “Come on–let’s head for the Touch Tank,” she said, a little more sharply that she’d intended. It was in the opposite direction to Coral Bay.
They hadn’t walked for more than a minute or two when they were approached by Julie Jellyfish. Her arms were stiff and bent and trembled at the elbows. Coral grinned and did her own jellyfish impression, which involved wobbling her head too (something she felt Julie’s impression was missing). Julie was obviously impressed, because she laughed and added the head-wobble to her act as well.
“Welcome to the Sea Life Aquarium–home to global marine life,” warbled Julie Jellyfish as she handed both girls a shiny printed leaflet. “Would you like to adopt a sea creature?”
“Er…” Coral stared at the leaflet and read through the list of sea creatures up for adoption. She couldn’t see her mum letting her keep a hammerhead shark. Or a leatherback turtle. A pair of sea otters was probably out of the question too. The most she could probably do was a clownfish–a little swimmer like Nemo. But this didn’t seem to be on the list. She was about to raise this point with Julie Jellyfish, but Nicks had just noticed a board listing the feeding times. She pointed to it, checked her watch and smiled at Julie Jellyfish while she shoved the leaflet into her pocket.
“We’ve got to hurry if we’re going to make feeding time!”
So Coral followed Nicks over to the chest-high tank with a man inside wearing bright orange plastic waders and holding a bowl filled with food. A crowd had already gathered, but that was good; it was the crowd Coral and Nicks were interested in. They screened the hairy heads–searching for a handsome candidate for Mr Perfect. There were a lot of old people and a lot of young people in the crowd, but there weren’t many in-between.
Coral elbowed Nicks and whispered, “Perhaps we should move on.”
Nicks nodded like it was a good idea. They wandered through the aquarium–past a café called Fish Fingers and the half-moon shark tank and the aquarium novelty shop, but they could really only focus on the aquarium visitors. It was, after all, why they were here.
They came across a large poster inviting them to meet the new aquarium manager, which seemed a good idea. But as soon as they got to his office, it turned out the manager was off supervising the repair of a leak in a tank of electric eels. So they continued on their way until finally they came to Coral Bay, which was quite simply a tank packed with different types of coral and thousands of small, brightly coloured fish. Coral Bay did not draw as many spectators, although the girls did notice one possible candidate for Mr Perfect. This man wasn’t very tall, but he had a kind smile and was dressed well. And then they noticed the camera around his neck.
“A