“It’s not like that,” she stammered. She took a deep breath and let her stomach balloon out before she expelled the breath slowly. She reached in her purse and took out a sandwich-size plastic bag she always carried with her emergency crochet kit. It held a size J hook and some cotton yarn that had been crocheted and ripped a bunch of times. She made a slipknot and began a chain. She made the loops big and loose and went back over them with single crochet stitches.
“I didn’t realize I was coming across that way,” she said with a worried look. “I hope Nicholas doesn’t think I’m coming on to him.” She kept crocheting and her stitches were all over the place, but since it didn’t matter, it began to have a calming effect. “I don’t want to mess things up with him. He’s really paying me well for my pieces.” She took some more deep breaths and moved on to another row. “I don’t think Nicholas would ever think of me that way. He doesn’t have a girlfriend, or at least he’s never mentioned one to me. I don’t know if there’s room for anything besides that store in his life. He’s there practically all the time.”
I asked her if she knew where he lived. By now she’d stopped crocheting with the cotton and ripped out all the stitches and put it away. She answered without hesitation. “He has a small apartment, but I think he barely spends any time there. He’s always at the store. I called his cell the other night about bringing over some more pieces and he had me bring them to the store. It was hours after it had closed.”
“Really?” I said. The bookstore was always open later than Luxe and I’d gone past the store lots of time after its closing and it always looked dark and deserted. When I mentioned that, she said he’d told her to knock on the glass door. She’d seen him come from the back.
“Did you ever see what was back there?” I asked, remembering how Dinah and I had wondered about the walled-off area. She shook her head.
Eduardo stepped up to the table. “Ladies,” he said in his rich deep voice. He took out several plain wool scarves to leave for the collection we were making. CeeCee and her companion, Tony, were going to bring them to a shelter on Christmas Eve. A vampire scarf in progress had gotten twisted with one of the scarves and landed on the table.
He picked it up quickly and put it back in his leather tote. “It’s for my girlfriend. She’s a big Anthony fan,” he said. “A vampire who crochets,” he said with a low laugh.
Even in jeans and a black sweater Eduardo looked like he’d stepped off the cover of some romance novel with a title like Kiss Me, Touch Me, Thrill Me. It occurred to me he probably knew more about Nicholas than I did, too. I recalled the way Nicholas had greeted him when Eduardo came into Luxe. They seemed to be friends.
I commented that we’d just been talking about Nicholas. Eduardo was generally quiet during the Hookers’ meetings. So I was surprised at how much he opened up about Nicholas. Apparently after years in advertising, Nicholas had left it behind and opened the store. It had cost him all his friends and his wife, who thought he was crazy to give up a big job to take a chance on a long shot. “The guy’s had some hard times. It’s not easy when you take a chance on something.”
“Is the store doing okay?” I asked, thinking Eduardo might know.
“It’s more about his passion than profit,” Eduardo said. “He’s always upbeat when there are customers around, but I’ve seen him when he was pretty dark.”
Mrs. Shedd interrupted and seemed frantic about me helping in the front with customers. I didn’t have a chance to think about Nicholas again until I’d left the store and gone to Dinah’s. The girl across the street was going to stay with the kids while we did some holiday shopping. I had hoped to crochet presents for everyone, but I’d finally accepted time was running out. Maybe next year. Lucky for us the mall was staying open until midnight.
On the way there, I told her about the whole discussion about Nicholas.
“I think Emily does have something going on with Nicholas,” Dinah said. She reminded me that when Bradley had first gone missing, Emily’s first stop had been at Luxe. “Remember the tea she offered us?”
“Right, and she went to the store to return things when she needed money,” I said.
Dinah reminded me that Nicholas had said she was returning things. “How do we know he didn’t just give her some money?”
“And when she was trying to avoid being followed, she slipped out through the back door of Luxe.” I stopped as another thought surfaced. “Suppose she told Nicholas she was going to meet Bradley? She could have even told him where she was meeting him,” I said.
“He had motive. There’s the money he lost, and if there was something going on between him and Emily—” I stopped myself and shrugged hopelessly. “But none of it means anything if we can’t tie him to the murder. Sheila said he practically lives at the store, so I’m guessing the mountain bike is there. Maybe the afghan and knife, too.”
We’d gotten to the mall and the only investigating we did for the next couple of hours was to find a store that hadn’t sold out of the electronic juggling bear the kids wanted. Several hours and a lot of packages later, Dinah drove into the back parking lot that serviced the bookstore and the other strip of stores along Ventura. She had pulled next to the greenmobile and I started to gather my packages. I glanced up at the back of the building. It was easy to figure out what windows went with Luxe.
It was late enough that everything was closed and I wondered if Nicholas was in the back section of his shop. I pointed toward the window next to the door we’d seen Emily come out of. There seemed to be some light coming from it. Dinah turned off the motor. Our minds were so in tune, we didn’t even have to discuss it.
We got out and approached the back of the building and moved along the wall until we got to the edge of the deep-set window. My heart was pounding in anticipation as I leaned in just enough to get a peek. I leaned back quickly and Dinah nudged me.
“What did you see?” she whispered.
“Nothing. The window’s frosted.” We stepped straight back and looked up at the window. The bottom might be frosted, but it looked like the top part was clear glass. Again, no discussion was needed. Without a word, we both started looking for something in the parking lot to climb on.
Dinah pointed out one of the Tarzana trash cans under a light pole. The square-shaped tall bins were part of the Safari Walk, as the stretch of Ventura Boulevard that passed through Tarzana was designated, and were supposed to add to the character of the area. Each side had the silhouette of a wild animal. The important thing was the flat top made it easy to climb on, and it was empty and moveable. The trash bin made a scratching noise as we started to drag it over the pavement. Dinah held up her hand and came back with one of the unfolded gift boxes she’d gotten at Macy’s. We slipped it under the can and were able to pull it without noise. We stopped and gave each other a high-five at our cleverness when we got the can under the window. Dinah had wound her scarf around her neck so there were no long ties to catch on anything. I boosted myself on the top of the receptacle and then twisted around until I was on my knees. I figured I could balance against the sides of the window as I stood up. Dinah’s job was to make sure I didn’t step off the can.
I went from kneeling to crouching and began to ease my way to standing. Dinah and I had done things like this before, but it still sent my heart into flutter mode.
I had my hands on either side of the window as I moved up past the frosted area. Just a little more and I’d be in the clear area.
And then I felt two hands grab the back of my legs.
This was one of the problems of having a car that stood out. Maybe if I’d parked in the shadow instead of right under a light pole, he wouldn’t have seen the greenmobile.
“Do you want to tell me what you’re doing?” Barry said after he’d gotten me off the trash can.
“No,” I said. He surprised me by laughing. He replaced the decorated can, while telling me I was lucky he, instead of a patrol car, had found me.
; I told Dinah it was okay and to go on home, so she could let the babysitter go. Barry followed me back to my house.
He helped me take in the packages and looked around the inside of the house, making a few jokes about expecting Mason to pop up with his dog sweater.
“Okay, Sherlock, what were you up to this time?” Barry asked. It was late and I was tired so I just told him. I showed him the pictures of the tire impressions and said Nicholas had admitted to having a mountain bike.
After being down on the idea before, Barry’s reaction totally surprised me. I wasn’t sure if it was real or just because Mason was so willing to be my cohort in investigating.
“Interesting idea. I checked and there are a lot of different kinds of mountain-bike tires, and I suppose each person’s would wear differently,” he said, examining the print, which by now was getting a little worse for wear. He wanted to know what I would have done if I’d seen a mountain bike parked in the back room of Luxe.
“You don’t want to know,” I said in a teasing voice.
“You’re right,” he said in a light tone as he put his arm around my shoulder. We flopped on the couch. “Just remember, all arrows point toward your neighbor. Heather thinks there was no blood on her clothes because she was wearing some kind of covering like a rain poncho and had on gloves. She hasn’t bothered you again, has she?”
Samuel came in later and the noise of him rummaging around the kitchen woke me up with a start. I was sitting up on the couch nestled next to Barry. We must have fallen asleep in midconversation. After thinking my bike tread idea was good, Barry’d gone back to telling me to let it go. When I said nothing, I think he’d smiled, thinking it meant I was agreeing.
Not exactly.
CHAPTER 26
I MET DINAH OUT IN FRONT OF LUXE THE NEXT day. She was taking the kids to a holiday program at the library, and I was on my way to the bookstore. I had come up with a quick plan I thought would get me into Nicholas’s secret back area.
“We could just ask to see his mountain bike,” Dinah said. “You could give him the same story you gave Mr. Royal about wanting to get one for Samuel.”
“I already told Nicholas I was shopping for bike accessories. By the way, Mr. Royal hasn’t shown me his bike yet. He might have just said yes to end the subject and had no plan to follow through. He could know why I’m so anxious to see his bike. Remember the biker might have recognized us as he zipped by.” I looked at the kids. My idea was better. Who could turn down children?
There were several customers browsing in Luxe who I recognized from the bookstore and I nodded a greeting. The kids wanted to leave and Ashley-Angela was getting dangerously close to a meltdown so I figured it was time to put the plan into action.
Nicholas was waiting on someone and I realized it was William. I tried to calm Ashley-Angela by pointing out William was Koo Koo the clown. For a moment she stopped fussing as she watched Nicholas hand him a shoe box. But as soon as she saw the shoes were some kind of brown wool-lined ankle boots instead of the red clown shoes she expected, she started fussing again.
My window of opportunity hadn’t even opened and already it was shutting. I went up to the counter and didn’t even wait for Nicholas to finish wishing William a nice trip before I interrupted.
“I’m sorry, but it’s kind of an emergency,” I said, pointing at Ashley-Angela. “She needs to use the restroom.” I gestured toward the door to the back area.
Nicholas glanced toward the kids. Ashley-Angela’s fidgeting gave credibility to my request. I knew he was going to go for it. He started to step away from the counter and I waved for Ashley-Angela to come. She broke free of Dinah’s hand and ran up to me.
“Aunt Molly, why did you say I have to go potty? I don’t have to go,” she said. She looked up at Nicholas. “I didn’t tell her I had to go.” She rushed back toward the front door. “C’mon, I want to see the puppet show at the library. We’re going to miss it.”
How could I have forgotten that kids were loose cannons?
Dinah went on up the street toward the library and I headed to the bookstore. She said they’d be back in time for the Hookers’ gathering. Dinah looked a little worn. As much as she liked the kids, having a pair of almost five-year-old fraternal twins 24/7 was getting to her. I was glad I’d said I would take care of them for her evening out with Commander.
As soon as I walked in, Mrs. Shedd and Mr. Royal were in my face. There were all kinds of logistics to go over about the launch party. It was the biggest event the bookstore had ever been involved with and there was even more riding on its success. Though I wondered if selling a bunch of books in one night would be enough to save the bookstore. “The eyes of the world are going to be on us,” Mrs. Shedd said. “We don’t even know who we’re dealing with. Suppose it’s some high-strung person who freaks out when faced with a bunch of people. There has to be a reason they’ve been keeping their identity secret.” Obviously, Mrs. Shedd had discounted what Adele said about it being her boyfriend.
“Molly, all your events turn out off center,” Mrs. Shedd continued. “They’re interesting and people seem to like them. But this one is different. This one can’t end up in a riot.”
We had a summit meeting in the café and by the end I think I’d calmed them both. I reminded them this wasn’t going to be an event where an author gave a talk. It was just going to be a long line of people getting their books signed. The key was how to handle the line and how to make sure it kept moving. We decided to have a meeting with everybody working the event later and we’d have sort of a dress rehearsal.
When we dispersed, I went back in the bookstore and headed for the worktable. The Hookers were having their own little holiday gathering, and it was going to be our last meeting until after Christmas. We were celebrating with food and wrapping the scarves and other items we’d collected for the shelter. Everyone had nice comments about the elephant when I’d set it with the other things to be wrapped. The response to my other project was a little different.
I’d made the most of the vampire look of the sparkly white head and sparkly black body by altering the penguin wings to look like arms and adding feet. I’d embroidered on happy-looking eyes and a smiling mouth with a drop of red dangling from a fang. Finally, I’d added puffy black hair. When I had set him down, Elise had squealed and named him Anthony. Then everyone, including Rhoda, said they wanted to make one, too.
The store was busy for morning and now that our table was surrounded by the yarn display, we had shoppers around us looking at yarn and accessories while we had our get-together. I had to straddle being at the Hookers’ meeting and trying to help customers at the same time. Adele was doing the same thing, but I had to be on the lookout for any knitters. Though Adele had been okay with them once, who knew how she’d be the next time.
I was surprised to see Madison Perkins come into the area. I hadn’t seen Bradley’s sister since the mall event. I wasn’t sure if I should offer my condolences again, now that Bradley was really dead. I think everyone else was thinking the same thing. Madison helped end the awkward moment by asking what we were all working on. While she looked over the collection of warm things for the shelter and admired my toy creations, I asked her if she’d seen Emily. Her face grew stern.
“Under the circumstances I don’t want to see her,” Madison said. The circumstances being that at least Detective Heather was certain Emily had killed Bradley. “I wasn’t close to my brother, but still ...” She paused a beat and then added she’d had nothing to do with his business dealings. I looked at Dinah and nodded. We were on the same page. Could it have been Madison on the mountain bike?
Madison walked over to the bins of yarn, saying she needed more of the royal blue yarn she’d gotten before. I hadn’t realized it, but it must have been pretty popular yarn because the bin was empty. I asked Madison for her phone number, assuring her I’d call her when some more came in. Really I just wanted a way to contact her.
BY THE END OF THE DA
Y, I WAS BEGINNING TO rethink my offer to babysit the kids. Sitting on my couch and crocheting sounded better than trying to entertain Ashley-Angela and E. Conner. But I knew Dinah was looking forward to the evening with Commander.
Mason was about to walk into the bookstore as I was coming out. He had his crochet bag with him, and when he saw me, he pulled out the half-done dog coat and said he needed help.
When I told him about my babysitting gig, he wasn’t dissuaded and said he’d come along. We walked up the block to Dinah’s. She was all done up for her evening and so happy about going out she hugged both me and Mason while thanking us. Commander’s reaction was similar without all the hugs. When I saw how he looked at Dinah, I was extra glad I’d made the offer.
His eyes really did light up.
Once they left, Mason asked how it was going with my mountain-bike investigation.
“Not well,” I said, mentioning that I’d only been able to check one set of tires against the photo. I hadn’t told Dinah, but I was having second and third thoughts about the whole line of investigation. “And even if I find the right tires, what am I going to do?”
Mason nodded in agreement. “Just because someone was riding up there doesn’t automatically tie them to the murder. Sorry, Sunshine.”
“We want to play dreidel,” E. Conner said, coming up next to us as we sat on Dinah’s chartreuse couch. He disappeared and a moment later came back with the one they’d decorated. It wasn’t enough for just the two of them to play with the top, so Mason and I got looped into joining. Mason didn’t remember how to play and E. Conner explained the gambling game. He’d added some of his own rules. Instead of everyone having the same kind of candy to bet with, E. Conner’s rules had everyone beginning with something different. E. Conner got chocolate kisses, Ashley-Angela got little candy bars, Mason got raisins and I got chocolate coins. Mason and I weren’t exactly into it and we went back to talking about the whole situation with Bradley Perkins.
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