I heard another meow and whispered Holstein’s name. Dogs are easier to retrieve. They’re more likely to stay put or come to you. Cats? They completely follow their own drummer. Holstein stuck his head out of the bushes, took one look at us and ran across the yard. I heard a rustle in the bushes, followed by claws on chain link.
Mason and I were a little giggly now from our escapade as we slipped back across the yard. I climbed on the hose box, held on to the roof of the small shed and, with Mason close behind, I stepped over the fence and felt for the bench. Moments later I was standing on the bench and Mason came over and joined me on it.
As I began to turn around the sound of someone behind me clearing their throat made me jump. Barry was standing in the shadow. He was speechless. Mason saw him and gave him a little salute.
Barry had come back to make sure everything was okay. Translated that meant he wanted to make sure Mason and I were only crocheting. “I saw the back door open and nobody home ...”
He left the sentence hanging.
“Our girl and I were looking for the cat,” Mason said, clearly enjoying Barry’s consternation at the fact that we’d had some adventure together and that I had been referred to as their girl. I wasn’t so sure about being called “our girl,” either. As far as I was concerned I was strictly my own girl.
“Really,” Barry said. I couldn’t see the expression of his eyes in the dark, but by the tone of his voice, I had a pretty good idea they had a bit of a glare. He pointed back toward my house and we all stepped closer. When we got near the French doors leading to the dining room, Holstein and Cat Woman were clearly visible lying on the cat tree. They both were sound asleep.
CHAPTER 16
“I WISH I COULD HAVE SEEN BARRY’S FACE WHEN you climbed over the fence,” Dinah said. Ashley-Angela and E. Conner were flanking her sides as we walked through the bookstore to the Hookers’ table. Dinah set them up at the end of the table with a shoe box of art supplies. She was a firm believer in getting kids to use their imagination instead of providing all kinds of electronic doodads. It seemed to be a good plan because the fraternal twins got busy with the shoe box as soon as they sat down. They took out piles of colored paper strips and a jar of paste and started making a chain.
I set my red-eye on the table along with the box of thread snowflakes. After Barry and Mason had left together, I’d finished the one I’d started and made another. I’d starched and shaped them, letting them dry overnight. Even with the addition of the two, the amount was still light. I looked at the orb of pink cashmere yarn I was supposed to use to make a swatch. The yarn was beautiful but not easy to work with. Instead I pulled out the skein of white yarn with flecks of silver. I’d messed up on the increases for the owl head and unraveled it. This time I was going to get it right.
Dinah showed off the scarf for our shelter collection she’d almost finished. Seeing it reminded me of the importance of the swatches. The ball of worsted multicolored yarn she was working with didn’t look like much, but when it was knitted or crocheted, it automatically made stripes. Momentarily I felt guilty for not doing the pink cashmere swatch, but my owl was much more interesting to work on.
“Barry didn’t look happy,” I said. Then I laughed. “I kind of see his point. Mason and I were having way too much fun.”
“So Mason thinks Bradley might be alive because of the watch,” Dinah said.
“I can’t think of any other reason Emily would have kept the Rolex. The clerk offered to buy it and we know she needs money. But we both wondered if he’d risk coming back to their house to get it,” I said. Glancing at my owl, I saw that instead of being round, the head was taking on the shape of a cucumber. Obviously I couldn’t keep track of when a round ended and talk at the same time, so I set down my work and instead took out my BlackBerry to show it to Dinah.
“Mason gave you this? How thoughtful. How’d Barry take it?” she asked, checking out all the icons. When I didn’t answer, she laughed. “You didn’t tell Barry, did you?”
“No,” I said. “It just would have stirred up more trouble.”
“Trouble?” Rhoda said, pulling out a chair. “Who’s in trouble?”
“Me, if I don’t get these swatches done,” I said, successfully changing the subject. Eduardo joined us next. He’d been a Hooker longer than Rhoda, but she still always gave him a strange look when he pulled out his hooks and yarn. He glanced around furtively.
“Here, take these before Adele gets here,” he said, pushing a small pile of snowflakes across the table. He said he’d heard her harassing me about not making enough snowflakes.
“Why does she have to hide them from Adele?” Rhoda asked. Before I could answer, Adele appeared from out of nowhere and wanted to know what was being hidden from her. For the moment everyone forgot about the snowflakes and stared at Adele’s sweater. She was known for wild get-ups, but the sweater was priceless. The background was black, with white trim around the end of the sleeves and the neckline and down the front. Maybe it was incorrect to call it a sweater. It was more like a canvas she covered with holiday decorations. The back had a Christmas tree, a couple of elves and a lot of thread snowflakes. Candy canes hung off the shoulders, along with icicles and dreidels. The front had Santa and Mrs. Claus, more dreidels, gold circles to signify Hanukkah coins, some weird brown things that might have been potato latkes, cookies with Christmas designs, holly and mistletoe. When she moved, everything swung.
“Quite a jacket,” Rhoda said. Her tone said it wasn’t a compliment, but as usual Adele didn’t get it and took it the way she wanted to hear it.
“Great, isn’t it?” Adele said as she turned, modeling the sweater for Rhoda. Adele explained she’d made the sweater years ago and then started adding new holiday things each year. I hadn’t noticed the little vampire with the sprig of holly on his black suit until Eduardo touched it. Adele gave me a knowing smile.
“Elise is going to love that,” I said.
“I should add a little black-and-white scarf,” Adele said when she stopped doing her modeling thing. She finally sat down and saw the stack of snowflakes on the table.
“Pink, you didn’t make these, did you?” Adele said, picking up the top one. “Your picot stitches are always twisted. Who is the detective now?” Adele said with a triumphant jiggle of her head. Eduardo had done a fabulous job as usual. Nobody said anything.
“Pink, I think you should tell Mrs. Shedd that you’ve bitten off more than you can handle.” She pointed to the wall of windows that faced Ventura Boulevard. “The So Many Traditions event is just a few days away and we have barely enough snowflakes for a snow drizzle. We need something more along the lines of a blizzard.”
CeeCee arrived at the head of the table. She’d overheard the whole exchange and had a suggestion. “I think you’re going to have to settle for something in between. I have a pattern for a simple snowflake. If we all pitch in, Molly will have enough for a nice display.”
CeeCee passed around the snowflake pattern she had and everyone agreed to make some. I went off to make more copies. When I came back, Sheila had arrived and Adele was just taking out balls of black and white. They were attached to something, and I realized she was making Elise’s vampire scarf. She announced she was making it for her boyfriend, William.
Rhoda couldn’t contain herself. “Enough with repeating that Koo Koo is your boyfriend. We get it.”
CeeCee reached over and picked up Adele’s work and examined it. “I think I’ll make one for Hugh,” she said. She didn’t need to add Jackman for us to get she meant her costar—or at least that’s how she described her role. “You know, sort of a nice-to-work-with-you gift.” She paused as something occurred to her. “How could I have missed this?” She pulled out her cell phone. “I’m going to call my agent and tell him to offer my services to teach Hugh how to crochet for the part. Even if they have a stand-in do the actual crocheting, I’m sure he’ll want to learn so it’ll look authentic when he’s holding his hook
.”
“What kind of vampire crochets?” Rhoda said under her breath. Then she answered her own question. “A foofie one.”
We all kept looking toward the front, but Elise never showed up. But someone else did. Emily and the women I’d seen in her den the night before walked into the yarn area. Everyone looked up automatically when someone entered our yarn area, even though I’d tried to get the group to be a little less territorial. One of these days some knitters were going to come in during our meeting and I didn’t want a scene.
I introduced Emily to everyone and she turned to the woman with her. “This is Bradley’s sister, Madison. She crochets, too.” Now that I knew who she was, I saw the resemblance. She had the same reddish hair and lean shape. But she didn’t have same magnetic personality of her brother, although from what I’d been learning, having his outgoing nature wasn’t necessarily a positive.
Everyone knew about Bradley’s suicide and they offered their condolences to the pair. Adele added something extra. She wanted to know if Madison was the one who’d made the afghan, and when she nodded, Adele laid into her.
“It was a good idea, but I think you made a lot of mistakes,” Adele said.
Madison seemed surprised by Adele’s comments and said she’d actually made another version of the afghan. Adele wanted to see it and Madison went to the car and got it. She laid it out on the table. I knew right away that it was what she was working on the night before at Emily’s house. It was green like the other one but made in one piece and the flowers were bigger and fewer.
It took a moment for Madison to recognize CeeCee. She got all flustered and said she was a big fan of CeeCee’s reality show, Making Amends. CeeCee was used to getting that kind of reaction and was very gracious, even inviting them to join us. They declined. Madison was just looking for yarn.
“There are supposed to be swatches on all the bins,” Adele said before offering to help her.
Madison said she knew what she wanted and went over to a bin of royal blue wool she said she wanted for felting. CeeCee complimented Madison on her choice and said it had worked for her.
Once the pair left, the group went back to work. I kept looking for Elise, but she never showed. When we finally broke up, I got ready to walk Dinah and the kids outside.
“Here, Aunt Molly,” Ashley-Angela said, holding out the chain she and her brother had made. “You could put it in the window till you get all the snowflakes you need.”
I hadn’t realized they were listening. I was touched and said I’d find a special place to display it.
The sky definitely said winter with its leaden gray color. The kids pulled on their hoodies and zipped them up. I smelled moisture in the air as we walked to Dinah’s car and wondered if it was going to rain. This was our season for it. She was parked next to a black Element, and as soon as I saw the bumper sticker about being citizen of the month at Wilbur Avenue Elementary, I thought it was probably Emily’s. I glanced at it as Ashley-Angela got in Dinah’s car and saw something sitting on the driver’s seat. It was the shopping bag from the jeweler’s. I called Dinah and pointed it out to her.
“It’s strange that she’d be driving around with it,” I said.
“Maybe she’s giving it to his sister,” Dinah said.
“And in exchange the sister is giving her a hastily made afghan that barely resembles one she gave away and didn’t like to begin with,” I said.
“Where’s my truck?” E. Conner said, tugging on Dinah’s sleeve. I said it was probably still on the table and offered to get it.
I went in the store and found the truck. On the way back, I looked in the café. Emily and Madison were sitting at a table. There were drinks on the table, but only Madison seemed interested in hers. They weren’t talking or even looking at each other. Emily was holding her wrist and kept checking her watch. Suddenly I got it and rushed back to the car.
“I think I know why the watch is in the car. What if they’re planning to meet someone and that someone happens to be Bradley?” I said as I handed E. Conner his truck. “No way would he show up here. They have to be going to him.”
“What should we do?” Dinah asked.
“We could follow them,” I said. Dinah hesitated a minute, looking at the kids. I knew she was concerned for their safety.
“They’ll be fine. It’s not like we’re going to shoot it out with Bradley if we find him.” I bent down closer to the kids’ level and asked if they wanted to go for a ride. No surprise, they said yes.
Dinah’s silver Honda blended in with all the other silver cars and was perfect to follow someone in, unlike the greenmobile, which blended in with nothing.
“I’ve got to tell Mrs. Shedd,” I said. I rushed back into the bookstore and found my boss. She was straightening up the Anthony area. More books had come in and she had taken some more things from the yarn area and added them to the table. There was also a small sign saying there was more of Anthony’s favorite yarn in our new yarn department.
“Do you think the sign’s too much? I wouldn’t want to upset the author. I’m sure he’ll see it when he comes in,” she said.
“You said when he comes in. You know who A. J. Kowalski is, don’t you?” I said, for the moment forgetting why I’d run back inside.
“I have an idea. I’m sure you have someone you think it is, too. In my case it’s a he, so that’s how I’m referring to him until I know otherwise.” Two women came up to the display and Mrs. Shedd smiled as they picked up two copies of the books and, after looking at the sign, headed toward the back of the store.
When I looked up I saw Dinah standing outside her car waving her arms and it brought back why I was there. “I need to leave for a while,” I said in a gush.
Mrs. Shedd’s face clouded with concern. “This isn’t the best time. Could you wait a—” I was shaking my head before she finished.
“I think Bradley Perkins might be alive. I’m trying to find out or sure,” I said, getting right to the point.
“By all means, go then,” she said. Adele had just stepped next to Mrs. Shedd.
“Where’s Pink going?” Adele said as I walked toward the door without looking back. I was out the door, when she caught up.
Dinah’s waving had gotten more frantic by the time I got outside. She’d moved the car away from Emily’s Element and was pointing toward it. Emily and Madison were in the process of getting in. I sprinted toward Dinah’s car with Adele hanging on to my purse strap.
I pulled open the passenger door and got in quickly. Adele stood by the car a second before Dinah and I both yelled at her to get in the backseat.
Adele hadn’t quite gotten the door closed before Dinah put the car in gear. Emily had already backed out and was almost to the driveway that went onto Ventura Boulevard. I heard something like a yelp of surprise coming from the backseat and I twisted to see what was going on.
Adele had just realized Ashley-Angela and E. Conner were in the backseat with her. She might run story time, but Adele’s basic opinion about children was that they were from an alien planet. We were stuck in the line of cars waiting to exit onto the street and I offered Adele the chance to change her mind now that she saw who her seat companions were, but she declined, saying Mrs. Shedd had wanted her to go with me.
“She did?” I said. “Why?” The car was on Ventura now and Dinah was frantically trying to get close to the Element. Up ahead I could see the SUV had its right turn signal on.
Even Adele seemed a little surprised Mrs. Shedd wanted her to go. “One second she was telling me I absolutely couldn’t go with you and that you were on some secret mission for her. Then Mr. Royal came up to her and wanted to know what the secret mission was. I started to say it had something to do with your neighbor, but before I could even say all of it, she started to walk me toward the door and said I ought to go with. She’s acting very weird,” Adele said. “She said whatever I learned while I was with you, I better keep it to myself or else.” Adele jiggled her head in
disbelief. “She ought to know I’m the picture of discretion.” Dinah made a sharp turn and we were all a little thrown around.
“So what’s going on? What are we doing?” Adele leaned toward the front and stuck her head between the seats. “We’re the three musketeers again,” she said, referring to what she’d called us during an earlier adventure. I told her that I thought Emily and Madison might be going to meet Bradley.
“And we’re following them?” Adele pointed vaguely toward the traffic.
“Right,” I said, hoping to end it there.
“So, Pink, what are you going to do if you find the dead guy alive?” Adele was still leaning on the seat. I swallowed. I hated to admit it, but she’d brought up a valid point and one I hadn’t considered.
“I-I am going to do something,” I said. Adele stuck her face closer.
“What?” Adele demanded.
I pulled out my new BlackBerry. “I’ll take a picture of him.” As I said it, I started pushing buttons and clicking on things, trying to find the camera feature. The next thing I knew I’d taken a picture of my knee.
Adele took the BlackBerry out of my hand and looked it over. She demonstrated how to get to the camera and how to take a picture. Unfortunately she did it so fast I didn’t get a chance to make note of it. She fiddled with it some more and when she handed it back, I saw I had the picture she’d taken of herself as my wallpaper. She sat back mumbling something about how it was lucky for us she’d come. “I have to call my boyfriend, Koo Koo, I mean William. If he comes by the bookstore and I’m not there, he’ll get worried,” she said.
A moment later she was telling him she was off to help me track down my supposedly dead neighbor. William must have said something because Adele started telling him about the watch and the afghan, which was followed by an exasperated sound and then she said something about a wild-goose chase. She ended the call with a few icky loud kisses. She was doing her best to ignore the kids, but they were staring at her.
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