When he looked up to apologize for the cart crash, I said “Hello.”
“Molly Pink, the bookstore lady, right?” he said. I nodded and he started to back his cart away. I wasn’t about to let go of the opportunity to ask him a few questions, so I grabbed the side of it and stopped his escape.
I wished Dinah was there. We could do a good cop, bad cop thing and get information out of him without him even realizing he was giving it. But with no Dinah, my options were limited. You couldn’t do just bad cop.
“I’m surprised to see you shopping here,” I said. I studied his face. He looked tired and his smile seemed a little wan.
He glanced at his cart with a sheepish expression. “Bang for a Buck doesn’t carry everything. I’m going to have the reception for Kelly’s funeral at the house and I needed some things.” He paused with a long sigh. “I wanted to have what she particularly liked.”
“How are you holding up?” I said. This was the hard part. How to figure out if Detective Heather and Stone, along with everybody else, were right and he was a cold-blooded killer, or was he a grieving husband. He sighed again as he moved a loaf of cocktail rye bread so it wouldn’t get squished by a bottle of Kalamata olives.
“Thanks for asking.” I thought he was going to leave it at that, but then he continued on. I wasn’t sure if he needed to vent or he was trying to work up sympathy. He began by talking about the shock of coming home to find Kelly. I noticed he seemed a little weak-kneed and I suggested we sit down by the closed coffee kiosk.
I started by saying it seemed like too much of a burden for him to have to arrange the reception after the funeral. “I’d be glad to handle it. I’m sure I can get your neighbor Dinah Lyons and her friend Commander Blaine to help.” He gratefully accepted.
“And then to have the cops all over me.” He was leaning on his knees, clasping his hands. He lifted his head and looked at me directly. “You don’t think I killed my wife, do you?”
This is where I started to play stupid cop. “The cops think you killed Kelly?” I tried to sound shocked at the thought. He reacted with relief.
“Good. I was afraid the word on the street was that I did it. It’s crazy. Why would I want to kill Kelly?”
The list of reasons clicked off in my head. There was the big insurance payment I heard he was getting. There was the fact that they weren’t getting along and another divorce would break him. Then there was what the assistant manager of Dan’s store said about him being upset that Kelly wouldn’t help out at the store. And what about whatever was going on between him and Nanci Silvers. I just gave him a sympathetic smile.
“I thought at least my kids would be here, but under the circumstances my ex is keeping them. Kelly’s kids are staying with her ex. I don’t know what to do.” He seemed like he might cry. He was seeming less and less like a cold-blooded murderer and more and more like someone Detective Heather had just latched onto. It certainly wouldn’t be the first time.
“I’m just curious. When you came home that day, did you ring the doorbell?”
“That’s a strange question,” he said. “Why do you ask?”
I hate it when people answer a question with a question. It comes across like they are trying to avoid something. I started viewing him as the cold-blooded killer again. Maybe I’d catch him off guard by seeming sympathetic.
“I’m sure the cops will drop it. What evidence do they even have?” I said.
He took a breath and nodded. “Exactly. They tested my hands, no residue of gunpowder. Just because I’m the one who found her doesn’t mean anything.”
“Then the obvious question is who did kill her?” I waited a beat before continuing. “What about your neighbor, Nanci Silvers? How well do you know her?”
He stood up and prepared to leave. “I don’t know her at all.”
I checked his eyes. No surprise he was looking away.
Even though it was late by the time I finally got home with my ice cream, I called Dinah. Commander was with her and they both were enthusiastic about putting on the reception, but for different reasons. Commander liked to arrange any kind of gathering, particularly if it helped someone out during a tough time. On the other hand, after hearing that Dan claimed not to know Nanci, Dinah saw it as an investigation opportunity. While I was on the phone, Barry and Jeffrey walked in, arguing.
“But Dad, I don’t see why I can’t just ride over to our place. I can go up stairs.”
Barry’s face looked stormy. “There’s no discussion. Give me your key.”
I had to stick my finger in my free ear to be able to hear Dinah. She picked up on their fussing.
“Barry seems to be having a hard time letting Jeffrey be independent,” she said. I just murmured an uh-huh in response. Dinah and I finished her call and I finally sat down to my ice cream dinner. I had the kitchen to myself for only a moment before Barry popped in.
“I thought I’d have some tea.” He opened the cupboard I had given over to them and took out several boxes. “I owe you some tea bags.” He undid the cellophane and started to take some out. I told him to forget it, but he insisted on at least making me a cup.
He saw the dish of strawberry ice cream. “Having one of your ice cream dinners, huh? What happened to Mason?” There was a subtle dig in his tone.
I explained the wedding mess and his confab with his family. “And he didn’t include you?” Barry said. “Since your job is to put on events, you’d think he’d want your help.” Even though I’d never exactly told Barry that Mason kept me separate from his family, detective Barry had figured it out and knew it bothered me.
Barry brought the two cups of tea to the table and pulled out the bench and sat down. I didn’t want to get into a discussion of Mason, so I changed the subject. The segue was easy. Barry had brought up that I planned events and so I told him about the latest one at the bookstore.
“It’s kind of last minute, but Mr. Royal thought it would be a good idea to have Kelly’s brother sign a book that has a segment on him. Stone Thomasville is a world-class surfer. I guess that’s why he moved to Hawaii.”
“All that and adorable, too,” Barry said with distaste. Then he changed subjects. “How’d it go with your search for the real estate agent?”
“It didn’t. Nobody had any notepads. I don’t think there was any real estate agent.” There was something on my mind that had been bothering me. I shouldn’t have said anything, but I couldn’t seem to stop myself. “Eric is giving Adele all kinds of inside information on Kelly’s murder, like where the body was. You always said you couldn’t tell me anything.” I looked at him directly. “So what gives?”
Barry used taking a sip of the tea to pause, then he blew out his breath. “I only had the best of intentions. I wanted to keep you out of trouble.” He chuckled. “Not that it did much good.” He paused while something computed in his head. “Hey, I made the suggestion about the real estate agent and I told you Heather was looking for the murder weapon.”
“Do you know anything else?”
Barry’s eyes went skyward. “No, and I don’t want to discuss it anymore.” I made a face at him, which he found highly amusing.
“Too bad because I was going to tell you something I found out.”
“That’s different,” Barry said. “You’d be withholding information. Maybe you’d even be interfering with a police investigation. I think you better tell me what you know.” His smile had faded, but I was pretty sure he was just teasing with the threats. At least I certainly hoped so, but I told him that both Dan and his neighbor claimed to barely know each other and I knew it wasn’t true.
“And how is it that you know that?” he asked. “Any breaking and entering involved?”
“No,” I said indignantly. “It was all out in the open. You can ask Jeffrey.” I regretted saying his name as soon as it was out of my mouth.
Barry’s eyes narrowed. “What does Jeffrey have to do with it?” He stopped and his expression got a little po
inted. “You didn’t get him tangled up in your crazy investigations, did you?” Barry had his eagle eyes trained on me as he went into interrogation mode. I tried looking away, but quickly swiveled my head back toward him. Looking away was a sure sign you intended to lie. I didn’t intend to lie, I just intended to give out as few details as possible.
I started out by trying to say nothing, but he saw right through that.
“I’ve got all night, Molly,” he said. “I just live down the hall.” He pointed toward his room as a reminder. “I already heard from Eric that Jeffrey tried to get in the scene they were shooting. I suppose you helped him with that.”
I rolled my eyes in response. “Jeffrey just happened to be riding his bike past the Donahue house and he saw Dan and his neighbor Nanci Silvers acting kind of friendly in her garage.”
Barry narrowed his eyes. “You’re leaving something out. Why does Jeffrey even know who these people are or where they live?”
The question hung in the air. I didn’t want to get Jeffrey in trouble, but Barry had me in a corner. I mentioned that Nanci was Autumn’s mother. I tried to leave it at that, but Barry was unrelenting. No wonder he got so many confessions.
“Okay, Jeffrey wanted to ask her when Autumn was coming home from camp.” I took a sip of my tea, which by now was cold. “I know you’re upset about Jeffrey having a girlfriend, but you don’t have to worry. Nanci is just as upset with her daughter having Jeffrey as a boyfriend.”
“And how is it that you know this?” Barry asked. He was leaning forward in his chair, watching me intently.
“I know that and more. How about Nanci probably has a fancy gun and likes to shoot skeets.” I told Barry I’d found it all out when I stopped by to see if she had a notepad from a real estate agent. He ignored my investigating and only focused on what Nanci had said. Apparently while he wasn’t happy with his son having a girlfriend, he was more upset that her mother implied Jeffrey might not be quite up to her standards.
I finally got up to go across the house.
“Good night, bab—I mean, Molly,” he said. He came up behind me and stopped. I could feel his breath on the back of my neck. He paused for a moment and then he put his hand gently on my shoulder. “You know Jeffrey really likes you and . . .” I wasn’t sure what was coming next and I didn’t hang around to find out.
CHAPTER 20
Despite what I had said, I was really concerned about the turnout for Stone’s picture signing. Mr. Royal was a fan and apparently thought that all of Tarzana was, too, because he’d ordered fifty copies of the book. There were only two pages devoted to Stone and the book was expensive. I’d asked all the Hookers to come, so at least there’d be some bodies in the chairs.
But it turned out to be unnecessary. Even before Stone got there, people started to show up. They were mostly men and they all looked like Stone with the shaggy sun-streaked hair and deep tans. I recognized a few of them from the group I’d seen him with at Le Grande Fromage. They appeared to think he was a god and were honored to be able to go surfing with him.
Since I wasn’t interested in surfing, it was hard to understand how they felt. I tried to put it in terms that made sense to me and guessed it was like getting a chance to go yarn shopping with Vanna White.
Mr. Royal had tried to give the bookstore a Hawaiian feel by hanging brightly colored paper leis off the bookcases. He’d found a fake palm tree somewhere and brought it into the middle of the store. Next to it, I’d set up a table with some of the books. Mr. Royal had found a documentary that featured Stone and some other surfers, traveling the world’s best surfing beaches. He’d brought in some DVDs of it to sell and placed them next to the books. We’d set up chairs and Stone had agreed to tell some surfing stories to try to make it more of an event.
Rhoda and Elise were in the front row, crocheting as they waited. Dinah and Commander found me and we discussed my offer of our help with the reception after Kelly’s funeral.
“I’m glad to help out,” Commander said. “You know Kelly had a post office box at my place and she dropped off packages all the time for UPS or FedEx to pick up.”
“Really?” I said, surprised, but then it made sense. For privacy reasons, a lot of people who worked from their homes didn’t want to use their address as a return address. Commander Blaine had said what made his place special was that he gave his customers a real address to use instead of just a post office box number. I asked how well he knew her and if he’d seen any examples of what she sold.
Commander smoothed back his thick shock of white hair. “She was always in a hurry so I never really got to talk to her, and her packages were always sealed and ready to go. You know I view everybody who uses my services like family. She was just a little more distant than the rest of them.”
“Sit with us,” Rhoda called, waving at Commander and Dinah. As they went to take their seats, I noticed that some of the production people had come in. I recognized Fred and Zeke, the two prop guys who’d been placing the plants in Kelly’s backyard.
I’d overheard their conversation with North Adams, but never talked to them myself. It was always a little awkward just going up to people cold and starting to grill them. This is where Detective Heather had a distinct advantage. All she had to do was show her badge.
I didn’t have a badge, but I had cookies. Bob had made passion fruit ice tea and butter cookies in the shape of pineapples. I picked up a couple of the cookies and offered the two men each a free sample. I doubted Detective Heather got the smiles and happy response I did.
Now that I was closer I could see both men looked older. They both had brown hair and leathery tanned skin. I introduced myself, went into Stone’s appearance, and then asked if they were surfers.
“Heck, not like him.” The first man stuck out his non-cookie-holding hand. “Fred Robinson. Pleased to meet you.” He jerked his thumb toward his companion. “Zeke Nichols.” They almost looked like brothers, but Fred seemed to be the older of the two.
“I see so many people in the bookstore,” I began. “But you two look familiar.” I left it open-ended hoping they’d say what they did and give me an opening to ask about Kelly. Doing anything in the entertainment business had a certain cachet to it, so they were only too happy to bring up what they did.
“People don’t realize how important props are. Any kind of obscure item a director wants, we find it or make it. You know the perfect blue needle pine that Sandra Bullock carried in Secret Santa?” He pointed at his chest. “I did it. Nobody realized it was a fake. I made it out of wire and a lot of bottle brushes I spray-painted.”
I nodded in interest. “So, then you two are the ones who put all the trees in Kelly Donahue’s yard.” Both men’s expressions faded. “And you were in the yard the day she was killed, weren’t you?”
Fred seemed to be the spokesperson. “We kept having to bring in more pots. The director wanted the look of total green and we had to block out the house.” He stopped talking and swallowed hard. “If we hadn’t gone around the corner to pick up our lunch at catering, we might have been there. . . .” He swallowed again. “Maybe we could have done something to save her.”
Zeke nodded. “I understand it’s just a matter of time before they arrest her husband.”
Instead of discussing Dan’s possible guilt, I wanted to see what they knew. “Did you see anyone around the front of the house when you left?” I asked.
“Naw, nobody,” Fred said.
“The street was dead,” Zeke added.
Their answers troubled me. Were they lying or did they just have bad memories? I didn’t consider Dinah, Adele and me as nobody, and we were there as they left for lunch. I also noticed they didn’t say anything about knowing Kelly from before. I tried to draw them out by asking what they knew about her. Fred spoke up first.
“She was very accommodating about us using her yard. She gave us full access, no problems.” Fred stopped and looked at his coworker. Zeke gave him a go-ahead gesture. “I
knew Kelly, a little anyway. We worked on the same show a while back. Her father was in the business and she helped him out.” I waited to see if he was going to say more, but he quickly changed the subject.
“That neighbor of Kelly’s was nothing but trouble. Kind of a tough-looking woman with blond hair cut like knife blades. Every time we’d pull into the driveway, she’d come out and start fussing at us. She said Kelly was going to ruin the peaceful quality of the street by letting productions use her house. She fussed when we parked too close to the edge and another time when some leaves fell off one of the bushes and blew onto her sidewalk. She complained to me about the cars the production had parked on her street.” Fred said he’d tried to explain to her that he had nothing to do with that.
“If you want my opinion. I think she was jealous. She wanted the production to use her yard.” Zeke said, joining the conversation again.
“Did you ever see Kelly and the neighbor talking together?” I asked. The two men looked at each other and seemed to be considering what to say.
“Let’s just say, I think Ms. Donahue should have thought twice before borrowing any sugar from her neighbor.” Fred glanced toward the entrance of the café. “What’s he doing here?” The two men nodded a greeting as North Adams approached, carrying an ice tea. Fred and Zeke thanked me for the cookies and went to find seats.
North was out of costume in the fancy jeans again—the kind that had gone through a bunch of processes to look soft and worn. This time he’d paired them with a pale blue dress shirt, worn out, and soft leather loafers with no socks.
It was hard not to be struck by his dark hair and rugged features. Several women recognized him and seemed to get all flirty. He knew how to play the game and flirted right back. It was fun watching their expressions as they walked away. They were giggling and talking and seemed awestruck. Had he come to see Stone? North didn’t look like a surfer, but then who knew.
Stone had come in and joined me at the edge of the crowd. He looked every bit the surfer with the khaki shorts, blue and white silk Hawaiian shirt and sandals. I had the feeling that was the way he dressed for every occasion. He had a backpack slung on his shoulder and took out a stack of brochures touting the coconut energy drink.
If Hooks Could Kill Page 15
