“You know Koo Koo?” Ashley-Angela said in an awestruck voice.
“Of course. He’s my boyfriend,” Adele said in a self-important tone. I wanted to scream that we got it that he was her boyfriend and she didn’t have to keep repeating it. But I kept quiet. Now that the kids were looking at her with such high regard because she knew Mr. Red Shoes, Adele suddenly seemed better about sharing the backseat with them.
“Hey,” Adele said sharply as Ashley-Angela reached out and touched a yarn candy cane on her sleeve. The little girl let go of the cane but kept staring at Adele’s sweater.
“That’s the beautifulest sweater I’ve ever seen,” Ashley-Angela said.
Dinah corrected the little girl’s grammar and announced Emily was headed for the Ventura Freeway. She made a sharp left, zooming through a yellow arrow to stay behind them. There was a car between us and the SUV as we headed up the incline to the west-bound 101. Dinah’s driving maneuvers got my attention away from the backseat temporarily. Ashley-Angela’s compliment apparently made an impression on Adele. More than an impression, it had blasted through her usual reaction to kids. When I looked back Adele was telling Ashley-Angela about the sweater. She was not only letting both kids touch all the objects hanging off the sweater, she was telling them about why they were connected to the holidays. It was actually kind of interesting. Who knew that candy canes were supposed to symbolize a shepherd’s staff? Though she got a little carried away when she started talking about mistletoe and Druids and people using it to ward off witches.
E. Conner reached over to check out the dreidel and Adele told him about a game that could be played with a real one. “If you come to holiday night, I’ll show you how.”
I did a double take. Was this the Adele I knew and was constantly annoyed by?
The SUV got off at Topanga Canyon Boulevard and went north. Dinah was good at keeping us a couple of cars behind. When I saw Emily’s turn signal go on, I realized where they were going.
“They’re going to the mall?” I said, feeling dismay. It wasn’t the kind of clandestine meeting place I’d imagined. “I must have been wrong.”
“Don’t be so sure,” Dinah said. “Think about it. Crowds of holiday shoppers. It would be easy for him to get lost in the crowd. Who’d notice him?”
“While you two go looking for the dead guy, I’m going to Sephora. I need some purple eye shadow,” Adele announced. It took some wrangling to convince Adele that none of us were going shopping and to get her to take off the sweater. She argued everybody loved it and that people even stopped to look at it and tell her how great it was.
“That’s the point. We don’t want to be the center of attention,” I said. Finally she took it off, but she told me I was depriving the shoppers of seeing a treat.
Dinah stayed close to the SUV until they parked and then she pulled into a space nearby. Topanga Mall had recently expanded and now was a huge sprawling shopping extravaganza with everything from Target to Tiffany’s. By the time we got everybody out of the car, Emily and Madison were almost to the entrance to the mall. We rushed to catch up. Emily had the shopping bag from the jewelry store. I was surprised to note that Madison carried a plastic grocery bag. The afghan she’d shown us was peeking out of the top.
Dinah had to drag the kids past the indoor carousel and I held on to Adele to make sure she didn’t take any shopping side trips.
Emily and Madison turned into the area they called the Canyon that ran between the old mall and the new addition. There was a whole Santa Claus setup, with a little house and the man in red on a throne.
As we followed at a distance, the kids started jumping up and down and waving at Santa. This wasn’t good. They were drawing attention to us. Emily and Madison had stopped and seemed to be waiting for something. I pulled Adele next to me and we acted as a wall as Dinah calmed the kids. I was winging it. Nothing in my sleuthing bible, The Average Joe’s Guide to Criminal Investigation, had covered doing surveillance with an entourage.
The two women kept shifting their weight and it was obvious they were waiting for somebody and impatient for them to get there. I kept checking the crowd for any signs of Bradley, but all I saw was a sea of faces. When I checked the pair again, a woman had stopped in front of them and some kind of interchange was going on.
Dinah looked around me and saw what was going on. “Is that Bradley in drag?”
“What? Who’s in drag?” Adele said, swiveling her head frantically.
“Nobody and can you keep it down. The point is for us to blend in,” I said. I laughed at myself. Adele blending in? Like that was ever going to happen.
The woman gestured and pointed at the crowd before handing Emily a piece of paper. Emily looked at it and grabbed Madison’s arm and they started retracing their steps.
“We’re moving,” I said to our little group. We let them get ahead and then took up their trail.
They went back to Emily’s Element and we rushed to Dinah’s Honda. Adele tried to talk me into letting her have the front seat. What a surprise. I held firm as she went through her list of reasons, starting with that she was better at tracking Emily’s Element than I was. As a last-ditch effort she said something about getting carsick and throwing up on the kids. I said we’d take the chance.
As we trailed the Element to the mall exit, I said I bet the note was telling them to go somewhere else.
We followed the black SUV to another mall in the east Valley. This one was smaller and the crowd was a little thinner and I worried the women might notice they were being followed. Dinah came up with a solution. Whenever we stopped, the whole group of us would turn and pretend to be admiring a store window. It got a little weird when we stopped in front of the storefront of the mall office and ended up staring at a security guard eating his lunch.
They stopped at the Santa area again. Emily still had the jeweler’s shopping bag and Madison clutched the grocery bag. When we got too near them, I pushed the group behind a sign advertising the food court. A tall elf stood next to the counter with an ad touting photos with Santa. He ignored the line of kids and surveyed the crowd. His gaze landed on Emily and Madison before he walked over to them.
I had the BlackBerry in my hand. Was the elf Bradley in disguise? Nope. He said something to them but didn’t pick up the packages. Emily looked annoyed as she turned away. Madison’s posture sagged as she followed. I turned to gather up our group, but they weren’t behind the food court sign. I did a three-sixty and still didn’t see them. I did notice that Emily and Madison had already been swallowed up by the crowd.
“Sorry,” Dinah said, squeezing between two teenage girls. The kids were holding hands and hanging on to her. “Bathroom stop.”
Adele appeared about the same time holding a bag from a women’s store. “We were just standing around,” she said by means of explaining. “I saw the perfect dress to wear to the book launch. I was just going to wear something I had, but that was before ...” She winked at me.
I threw up my hands at her wink and rushed ahead toward the parking lot. But when I got to the spot where Emily’s SUV had been parked, it was empty.
“We lost them,” I announced when the rest of them caught up with me a few moments later. Dinah put her head down and apologized again and then we turned toward Adele.
“Am I supposed to say I’m sorry, too?” she asked. We all nodded—even the kids. Adele seemed perplexed by the answer. “Okay, if it makes you feel better, Pink, I’m sorry you lost them.” She glanced back to the mall. “As long as we’re not in a hurry, there were some shoes that matched the dress.” Dinah shook her head in annoyance at Adele and told her if she didn’t watch it, we’d lose her.
“Don’t move,” I ordered Adele. I told them all to get in the car and wait. I had an idea.
I rushed back inside and retraced my steps to the Santa house. I checked elves until I found the right one. He was easy to pick out since he was kind of beefy and seemed more like Santa’s bodyguard than his help
er. Under the makeup, he had a five o’clock shadow. There was something rough around the edges about him and I bet there were tattoos under the elf suit.
I mentioned seeing him talking to Emily and asked him what it was about.
“Who are you, the elf police?” he said in a grumpy voice. “You want to know anything, you have to get your picture taken. Or let’s just say you had your picture taken, if you get my drift.” He held out his green-gloved hand. I fumbled in my purse and pulled out a five and he shook his head. I found a ten and his shrug said that was acceptable, but barely. He looked over my shoulder at some kid sitting on Santa’s lap. “Hey, kid, I saw that. No pinching Santa. Do it again and you’re gonna get a sack of coal.” He turned back to me. “Kids ain’t what they used to be. Santa, either. He’s got a script now, you know. No more promising anything thanks to some idiot Joe suing the mall. Now it’s just he’ll see what he can do.” I asked him again about what he’d said to Emily.
“All I said was ‘The Grove.’ Whatever that means. I thought the guy who asked me to relay the message said Grover, like the Sesame Street character. You know, since he was talking to an elf and all. But he said no in an annoyed voice and made me repeat what I was supposed to say. Then he said he’d be watching to make sure I did it.”
“He did?” I said excited. “Is he still here?” I looked around and the elf did, too, but then he put up his green hands.
“Naw. Don’t see him.” I asked for a description, but the elf was getting impatient.
“Hey, lady, I didn’t really look at him. I was more interested in the fifty-dollar bill he laid on me. He was a guy, that’s all. I think he had on a baseball cap,” he said before walking away.
Dinah had managed to keep everyone in the car. I promised everyone snacks at the next stop no matter what. I told Dinah and Adele about my conversation with the elf and the message Emily had gotten.
“The Grove,” Dinah said with a exasperated sigh. “That’s all the way over the hill into the city and it’s rush hour. He couldn’t have picked another shopping area in the Valley.”
“All I could get out of the elf was that it was a guy maybe wearing a baseball cap who gave him the message for Emily. It could be Bradley,” I said as Dinah peeled out of the parking lot, heading for the 101. The most direct route was to take the freeway to the Laurel Canyon off-ramp and take the canyon into the city.
Traffic was thick as we started up the steep grade on Laurel Canyon Boulevard. At the top the road turned curvy as it threaded through the Santa Monica Mountains. The traffic clogged to a crawl as we passed Sunset Boulevard.
“I can’t believe Mrs. Shedd let you leave the bookstore to chase after your neighbor,” Adele said. I didn’t say anything, hoping she would drop it. I should have known—Adele never dropped anything. I heard a big aha come from the backseat.
“Mrs. Shedd was in Perkins’ investment club, wasn’t she?” Adele didn’t wait for a confirmation. “Yes, that’s it.” She prattled on, wondering how much Mrs. Shedd had lost and then I heard her suck in her breath. “She didn’t lose the bookstore, did she?” When I didn’t say anything, Adele took it as an affirmative answer and got panicky. “Pink, you’ve got to do something,” she said. She glanced around as if the pieces were falling into place. “Mr. Royal doesn’t know, does he? Who’s the great detective now? Well, thank heavens William and I don’t keep secrets from each other.”
I guess she forgot about not being allowed in his writing room and his not mentioning anything about being A. J. Kowalski. By the time we turned off Fairfax Avenue into the shopping center driveway, Adele had forgotten her panic over the bookstore’s future.
“This is my fav shopping center,” Adele squealed as Dinah pulled into the entrance of the parking structure. “It’s like a little town,” she said to the rest of us as if we’d never been here. “The decorations must be amazing. The Nordstrom here is the best. You know this is where all the celebrities come to shop now.”
“No stopping until I say it’s okay,” I snapped.
Parking at The Grove was much more of a production than at either of the Valley malls. There were tickets to be had and a lot of levels and people directing cars to the level with open spots.
I figured that Emily and Madison had a head start on us, but since Dinah had driven like a race car driver, I was hoping we were close behind them. I was out of the car before Dinah had pulled all the way into a spot. I took out my BlackBerry as I ran to the escalator. I was ruthless, pushing through shoppers and baby strollers as I headed toward the Santa setup, figuring that was where they’d go.
Santa had his own gingerbread cottage here with Raggedy Ann and Andy handling the photos. I pushed through the throng of parents and kids waiting, while I surveyed the crowd. Someone brushed against me and I automatically turned. My breath stopped when I found myself face-to-face with Emily.
“Molly, what are you doing here?” When I looked down both she and Madison were empty-handed and going in the opposite direction. I studied the crowd ahead, looking for a man with a jewelry bag, but it was impossible to pick out anyone in the crowd.
I swore under my breath. They had won.
CHAPTER 17
MRS. SHEDD WAS IN THE FRONT OF THE STORE when Adele and I walked in. Dinah had just dropped us off and headed home with the kids. She had evening plans with Commander—this time the kids were included—and she was nervous.
“Well, how did it go?” Mrs. Shedd asked. Adele stepped in front of me and took over answering.
“We didn’t see the dead guy, but Pink thinks he’s alive because of what some elf told her.” Mrs. Shedd wasn’t smiling when she looked around Adele and our eyes met. “Don’t worry, I won’t tell Mr. Royal about the money you lost in the investment scam,” Adele said.
“How could you, Molly?” Mrs. Shedd said, her expression darkening. “I specifically told you I wanted to keep my situation a secret.”
For once Adele’s ego helped me. Adele insisted I hadn’t told her anything, she’d figured it out all by herself. “Pink’s not the only detective around here,” Adele said. Mrs. Shedd muttered something about the afternoon being wasted, but Adele held out her shopping bag. “No, it wasn’t. I got a new dress for the launch. I can’t wait to show it to William.” Adele kept giving me conspiratorial winks. Finally Mrs. Shedd asked her if she’d developed a twitch.
Adele looked horrified. “Of course not. Don’t you know a wink when you see it? It was just my signal to Pink about some special information we have.” Adele sighed. “And don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone who A. J. Kowalski really is and ruin the launch.” Adele fingered the little vampire hanging off her sweater.
“You know who the author is?” Mrs. Shedd asked.
Adele waited a beat to build up the suspense. “It’s William. My boyfriend.” Mrs. Shedd looked toward me and I just put up my hands in a who-knows sort of way. The next moment Adele waved toward the parking lot and announced that William was driving by to pick her up and then she flew out the door.
With Adele gone, Mrs. Shedd and I discussed the afternoon. I didn’t want her to feel hopeless, but at the same time I didn’t want her to feel too hopeful, either, since there was no guarantee Bradley was even alive. And even if he was alive, after what the SEC people said about the checks to the casinos, it was doubtful there was any money to find.
“Just don’t give up, Molly,” Mrs. Shedd said in a tense voice. “No pressure, but the future of the bookstore is on your shoulders.” She let the words sink in and then went back to her normal self and asked if everything was ready for the upcoming holiday event.
Thanks to CeeCee’s effort to get everyone making snowflakes, I felt comfortable saying yes. Finally, Mrs. Shedd went back to her office.
I looked back at the activity table in the yarn area and was surprised to see Elise sitting by herself. Even from here I could tell by her body language that she was upset. She was slumped in a defensive posture over her yarn. She looked up when
I approached the table. I almost expected her to put her hand in front of her face to deflect any blows. She had balls of black and white yarn and seemed to be starting another vampire scarf. I slid into the seat next to her.
“I couldn’t stay home any longer. The phone keeps ringing. It’s always the same thing. They want to talk to Logan. Why isn’t he answering his cell phone? Why isn’t he answering his business phone? Then they want to know what’s going on with Bradley Perkins. Is it true he’s dead? They called Bradley’s office and all they did was take a message and refuse to give out any information. It ends with something frantic about wanting to know if their investments are okay.”
Elise leaned back in the chair. “I was afraid to come to the Hookers meeting this morning. Everyone is so angry. They think Logan was making some kind of commission off the people he got to invest with Bradley.” Her expression darkened. “I don’t know how much more Logan can take. He seems pretty close to cracking.”
I felt sorry for her, but at the same time wanted to know the truth. “Did Logan make money off his dealing with Bradley?”
Her face hardened. “Logan didn’t make any commission on the clients he introduced to Bradley. The only gain he got was that Bradley tried to push real estate business his way.” She said the line as if she’d said it many times before. She ended by staring at me and saying a defiant, “Okay?”
I reached out and touched her in support. I believed her and felt sorry for her situation. “Would it make any difference if Bradley was alive?”
Her eyes focused and she straightened. “Did you see him? Where? When?” Her voice sounded frantic.
“No, I didn’t see him,” I said. “I just have reason to believe he might still be alive.”
Elise held on to my arm. “Find him, please. If he is, he’s the one who should pay for his crime. Not Logan.”
I lightened the mood by asking her about her crocheting. As soon as I got her talking about Anthony and what we thought would happen with the vampire and the reporter in the next book, she went back to being her regular self. I asked her about the directions for the scarf and she apologized for forgetting she said she’d bring them in. She pulled out a piece of paper and began writing down how to make it. As I was leaving the yarn area, a woman had come up to the table and was admiring Elise’s work. It was probably only temporary, but at least for the moment she seemed to have some peace.
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