Knot Guilty

by Betty Hechtman

  “You’d think she’d be a little more stunned,” CeeCee said, coming up next to me. Since CeeCee’s function seemed to be taking in the entries in the crochet competition and hanging around the administrative table, I hadn’t spent much time with our celebrity Hooker.

  “I’m so sorry,” I said to her, thinking she had a relationship with the magazine mogul. CeeCee seemed surprised at my comment, and I explained I thought they were friends. It was CeeCee who’d gotten us involved with the show because of her relationship with K.D.

  “I don’t know that she had any friends,” the actress said. “Or that friendship meant much to her, even in her younger days. Rumor has it she stole her sorority sister’s boyfriend and married him. Even then all she cared about was getting what she wanted all the time. It seems so odd for someone who was involved with yarn. As a rule we are such a friendly bunch.” Delvin was continuing to speak, but the crowd’s attention had dissolved into a bunch of smaller conversations. “And as for my relationship with her,” CeeCee remarked, “K.D. couldn’t see me for dust until I was in the Anthony movie. I think the whole reason she even added any crochet to the show was because she saw how successful the movie was and that it had inspired people to pick up the hook. You saw how she was in her yarn shop, trying to get me to join the celebrity circle who met there. It was nothing personal.”

  “Do you know anything about an announcement she was going to make?” I asked, and CeeCee shook her head.

  “I heard that you were the one who found her,” my fellow Hooker said. When I seemed surprised she knew, she mentioned Kimberly Wang Diaz trying to get a comment from her. It wasn’t a surprise, really. There wasn’t a better draw than getting a celebrity to talk on camera about a news event.

  “How terrible for you, dear,” CeeCee said, patting my hand when I’d repeated my story once again. “I’m sure you’re right about it being murder. That was just the method the killer used in Mad Day at Murray’s.” CeeCee fluttered her eyes at the memory. “I played the victim. It was the beginning of my career, and I was just glad to get any screen time, even if most of it was me slumped against the tub.” She let out a small chuckle. “In my case, the weapon was a toaster. It was so long ago, they didn’t even have those handheld hair dryers.”

  CeeCee continued on for a few moments, reliving her role. She’d been fully clothed beneath the mound of bubbles, and apparently they’d had to do the scene a bunch of times and the floor had gotten quite slippery from the toaster being repeatedly thrown in the tub. I laughed at the image and said it sounded more like the setup for a slapstick comedy than a serious mystery.

  “I wanted to take a look at the booth,” CeeCee said when she’d finally finished her trip down memory lane. We walked back together, and the actress did a rendition of her musical-sounding laugh when she saw Adele’s golden crochet hooks.

  “K.D. must have had a fit about that.”

  “That’s an understatement,” I said. “She insisted we remove the hooks and that.” I pointed at the banner.

  “And yet they’re still here,” she said. Adele was deeply involved with showing a young woman how to hold her hook and had no idea we were talking about her.

  “Adele put them back,” I said, rolling my eyes. And in the back of my mind I thought of something. Hadn’t Adele said she was going to talk to K.D. about the crochet additions?

  CeeCee made a tour of the booth and did a double take when she saw Elise’s husband dressed up like Anthony. “He’s not exactly Hugh Jackman’s double,” she said to me with a smile. Not that it seemed to matter. As we stood there a dewy-eyed woman went up to him and asked him to do a little crochet for her.

  I hadn’t thought about that, but thankfully Elise had, and her husband pulled out a hook and the crochet strip he’d been holding before and began to do a row of treble crochet. The woman seemed almost weak-kneed as she watched him. There seemed to be some magic appeal to vampires, even an imitation one with funny hair that looked like a hat. The woman got all gushy when he handed her the little swatch. Logan seemed very comfortable with the whole scenario, and it made me wonder what went on at Elise’s house.

  “Things are a mess, dear,” CeeCee said. “K.D. was supposed to be the judge of the knitting competition.”

  “That woman had her finger in every pot,” I said, going over how she ran the magazines, had the yarn store, and made all the decisions about the yarn show. “Didn’t she ever hear of delegating some responsibilities?”

  “Delvin Whittingham is stepping in to do the judging, though Ruby Cline came by and volunteered.” It was the first time CeeCee had met her, and she seemed quite taken with the yarn company owner. “I wish I could stay here. This looks like much more fun,” CeeCee said before she reluctantly went back to the contest area, since contest entries were still being brought in.

  By then, Delvin and Lacey had long finished their statement, and as promised, things went on as planned. There seemed to be a running commentary announcing knitting demos, door prizes and assorted other details.

  Business continued to boom for us. I acted as the mainstay in the booth, and as the evening wore on I needed a break.

  “How can I ever thank you?” I said to Dinah when she offered to take over.

  “You’ve been here all day. I just came this evening. Besides, this is fun. Now go on and check out the place.” Dinah gave me a friendly nudge toward the aisle.

  Even though it was getting toward closing, there were still lots of people wandering through the temporary shops. There was so much to look at. Not only were there all kinds of specialty yarns, there were spinning wheels and supplies, special designer patterns, beads and buttons, knitting needles in all different materials and wonderful accessories like shawl pins and fancy stitch holders. I was just looking and did a complete tour without stopping. I was glad to see that our booth definitely had the most action.

  I walked through the last aisle to the front and was about to return to the Shedd & Royal super booth when I noticed a woman holding up a long white vest and realized I was next to the booth of the woman who had insisted we were in her space. I struggled trying to remember her name. I remembered that it reminded me of water. Right, it was Rain. Something seemed off, and then I realized she was in a new spot. I stepped into the small enclosure at the front of the aisle. Rain looked up immediately, ready to offer assistance.

  “Molly, isn’t it?” she said with a friendly smile. “Just to let you know, I give a discount to fellow vendors.”

  “Good to know,” I said, glancing around her space, curious to see how it compared with the arrangement of ours. She had made the most of the small area. The four dress forms wearing knitted items were placed around the perimeter. The racks of finished items were in the front, and a table covered with a cloth that went to the ground had some wire shelves holding more of her stock at the back against the curtained divider.

  I took a moment to look through what she had and quickly ascertained that there were only six different designs, but she had made them up in a variety of colors. I complimented her on how much she’d managed to get into her booth.

  She thanked me and modeled the gray-toned jacket she was wearing, explaining that to save space she acted as one of the models. She kept glancing toward a woman who had taken a long white vest off of one of the dress forms and was holding it up against herself and suggested she was welcome to try it on, gesturing toward the full-length mirror toward the back of the space. Two other women were admiring an exquisite jacket in shades of reds, pinks and orange. It took me a moment to realize it was the same design as the one Rain was wearing. She modeled the style for the two women and invited them to try the one they were holding.

  “It’s a fine line between being helpful and too pushy,” Rain said in a soft voice. She let out a sigh. “It’s hard to keep going like it’s business as usual. It’s such a shock about K.D.”

 
I remembered that Rain had mentioned being at all the shows from the very beginning. “You must have known her pretty well.”

  “We were what I’d call business friends. I’d helped her out when she first started the show and needed vendors. She appreciated my loyalty. That’s why I knew there was some mistake when you were in my spot.”

  As Rain said that, I realized why I’d been surprised to see her booth in the front. When I’d seen her setup before, it had been in yarn show Siberia.

  The women were all trying on the knitted pieces and taking turns in front of the full-length mirror.

  “It looks like you worked it out. This spot is much better than the one in the back.”

  She kept her eyes on her customers while she talked to me. “Do you know what happened to K.D.? One minute Delvin was saying she’d had an accident and then he said she’d died. I haven’t been able to talk to him to find anything out.”

  When I said I’d been the one to find her, Rain’s eyes widened. “How terrible. What happened?”

  “Did you know about her ritual of the bath and champagne?” I asked, and she nodded. “None of it is official, but it seems like someone threw a hair dryer in the tub while she was in it.”

  “But who would do that? K.D. did kind of rub a lot of people the wrong way, but kill her?” She put her hand to her forehead in dismay and rocked her head. “I was up there. I went to her suite to talk to her about the mix-up with my space.” She seemed stricken as she explained that K.D. had said she would take care of it and then Rain had left.

  “Do you know if anyone else went up there?” I asked.

  “Probably K.D.’s daughter and Delvin. Maybe someone else, too. She said something about toasting a new beginning with someone. She kind of bent my ear about it. It was someone she’d gone to college with and then, because of something with a man, they hadn’t spoken for years. Only recently had they mended fences. When I left, the waiter was at the door with the champagne.”

  I asked her how well she knew Delvin. She understood where I was going. “You think that he might have been the one?” She stopped to consider for a moment, but the woman with the long white vest made a move toward her. Rain dropped our conversation like a hot coal at the prospect of making a sale.

  I left her to make her transaction and headed across the front walkway. I’d been gone long enough, anyway.

  When I got back to the Shedd & Royal booth, things had quieted down as closing time approached. And not a moment too soon for me. It had been quite a day.

  Most of the Hookers had already left, and the booth seemed quiet without them. Adele was giving a last lesson to Thea Scott, who’d come over since it had gotten so quiet. My coworker seemed to have gotten over her lost hook, for the moment, anyway. Dinah sat back in a chair, looking exhausted. When I checked the small bin where we’d kept the packets to make the pins, it was empty.

  “Nothing like something free to attract a crowd,” Dinah said.

  “There’s no reason for you to stay,” I said, taking off the pendant and handing it to her.

  “Keep it,” she said. “It’s better than looking for scissors all the time.” I thanked her and put it back around my neck. She took my suggestion and wearily went to the exit.

  I got ready to close down the booth. Mr. Royal had devised a series of roll-down duck cloth curtains to cover the whole front of the booth when it was closed. It was more for look than security. As I got ready to let them down, Eric and his mother came by. They certainly made a strange pair. Eric seemed twice as tall as his diminutive mother, but both of them carried themselves with the same ramrod-straight posture.

  “Cutchykins, after what happened, I wanted to be sure you were okay.”

  When Leonora Humphries heard the pet name her son had for Adele, her eyes went so far back in her head, I thought they were going to disappear.

  Adele seemed stricken. “How did you know?”

  Eric shrugged his big shoulders. “It’s common knowledge now.”

  Adele put her hand on his shoulder. “You mean everybody is talking about it? It isn’t what it seems. I’m upset about losing it, but not because he gave it to me.”

  Eric seemed perplexed. “I’m talking about K.D. Kirby’s murder,” he said. “What are you talking about?”

  “Oh,” Adele said a little too loudly. “She’s dead?” She seemed totally surprised by the news.

  “Didn’t you hear Delvin’s announcement?” I said. Adele shook her head.

  “You said you lost something?” Eric sounded concerned. “Maybe I can help you find it.”

  Adele shook her head quickly. “It’s nothing. He means nothing. Don’t worry about it.” I tried not to roll my eyes, realizing that Adele had been talking about her lost hook and its connection to Dr. Wheel. Only Adele would think everybody was talking about something that happened to her. She looked at her glittering logo and snapped the flashing lights off. It seemed like she let out a sigh of relief as she patted the oversize gold hooks. Her eyes grazed the rest of the front table, littered with balls of yarn and hooks left from the crochet lessons. She muttered something under her breath. It sounded like she said she had an idea. I shuddered to think what it might be.

  “Now that you’ve seen she’s fine, why don’t we go,” Eric’s mother said. “I’m sure Adele wants to go home and rest up for tomorrow.”

  “No,” she said forcefully. “I’m coming with you.” She grabbed her things and rushed out of the booth to join them.

  I finished closing up, letting down the coverings for the booth. The lights were already going off and a man in a gray uniform was waiting to lock the door when I left. It was easy spotting my car since the parking lot was almost completely empty. I gratefully headed for home.

  When I opened my kitchen door, both dogs ran out. It was strange not to have to coax Blondie outside, but then they’d been left alone longer than usual. Cosmo had registered his discontent by knocking over the trash again, and this time spreading it around the floor. The cats walked in the kitchen with their tails held high and gave me a dirty look.

  I checked their bowls and understood the unhappy faces. Other than a few stray pieces of dry cat food, their bowls were empty. I didn’t have to be Sherlock Holmes to deduce what had happened. The footprints near the bowls were too big to belong to either cat. I’d left a chair too close to the shelves. Blondie would only have eaten the cat food if it was easily accessible, but Cosmo was a different story. I was sure it was the little black mutt who’d figured out how to jump on the chair and help himself. I refilled the bowls and moved the chair to the other side of the dining room.

  I was back in the kitchen sweeping up the coffee grounds and food scraps that Cosmo had spread around when the phone rang.

  “Don’t you check your messages, Sunshine?” Mason said when I picked up. I took my BlackBerry out of my purse and checked it.

  “I don’t see any on my cell phone,” I said. I scrolled around and random things began to open.

  “That’s it, I’m getting you a new one,” he said. “I left a message on your house phone as well.”

  I explained I’d just gotten home and was too busy with the animals to check it yet. “It’s about what happened, isn’t it,” I said, assuming he was calling about K.D.’s death.

  “Did something happen?” He sounded concerned. “Are you all right?” He offered assorted services in case I wasn’t, including bringing over anything I needed or giving me a lift to the ER.

  He was half teasing and I laughed, though I knew if I’d said yes to any of them, he would have come through. “I’m fine. Well, maybe a little tired. But it’s K.D. Kirby who has the problem. She’s dead.” I started to explain who K.D. was, that she was the woman his client Audrey Stewart had the issue with. There was a moment of silence on his end. “She is your client, isn’t she?”

  “I’m not sure
if I should confirm that,” he said. “Attorney-client privilege and all.”

  I almost laughed. He’d managed to tell me Audrey was his client without actually saying it. Then he wanted details—when did it happen, how did it happen and most of all was it natural causes or murder.

  “I think the word you’re going for is homicide. Is murder even an official police word?” I said, and he chuckled. I told him what I knew and he listened without comment before abruptly changing the subject.

  “I can’t tell you how happy I am that you called me and that you’re finally ready to start things between us. You really do bring the sunshine into my life. I know it’s late and we said we’d wait until after this weekend, but I could come over,” he offered.

  “I know Audrey stole some knitting needles. I don’t suppose you could tell me what you were doing there this afternoon.”

  “Allegedly stole,” he corrected. “And you’re right; I can’t tell you what I was trying to accomplish. Do you know if the cops have any suspects?”

  “I’ve lost my in; nobody would tell me anything.” The first part of my response must have gotten him to thinking, because he suddenly wanted to know if I’d seen Barry. He didn’t sound happy when I said Barry had been the one to question me since I’d been the one to find K.D.

  “I just bet he was happy to interrogate you.”

  “He was all business. It was as if we’d never been a couple. He didn’t call me Babe once and he might have even referred to me as ma’am.” Mason seemed to relax and started talking about seeing me in the afternoon.

  “I’m sorry I couldn’t stop and talk. At least now I know what you’re going to be doing all weekend. I saw your booth and it’s very impressive.” The dogs had come to the back door and were scratching to get in and be fed. I let them in and tried to cradle the phone while I opened the dog food can, but it required two hands. I told Mason I had to go.

  “Are you sure? Last chance. I could come over and give you a preview of my attention.” Then he stopped himself. “Sorry if I’m being too persistent. After everything that’s happened, I’m just afraid you’re going to change your mind.”