If Hooks Could Kill

by Betty Hechtman

  We sat down at one of the yellow striped red tables. Their fries were made from fresh-cut potatoes cooked in some kind of good-tasting oil and then served in brown paper bags that were immediately dotted with grease stains. No fancy dipping sauce here, just oodles of catsup.

  We’d gotten a jumbo order, which was okay because we were sharing it. Besides, the motion of dipping fries in catsup and then transporting them to my mouth always helped me think.

  “So what do we have?” I said to Dinah as she ripped open the paper bag making the hot fries more accessible.

  “French fries and catsup,” she said giving me a puzzled look.

  “I know that,” I said. “I mean what information do we have and what does it all mean?” We’d gotten colas to go with the fries, and not diet, either. Not even American ones. We’d gotten the Mexican version that was made with real sugar instead of the high fructose syrup stuff.

  “Worth every calorie,” I said savoring the crispy fry with just the right amount of catsup. “Let’s recap what we know about the whole Kelly business. I’ll begin,” I said. Even with the no kid zone, it was still pretty noisy and we had to talk loud. “We know North lied about knowing her. And we know that there was a gun in the storage locker.” I wiped a dab of catsup off my knuckle. “But now it’s gone.” I groaned reliving the ride back with Detective Heather where she suggested maybe it had all been a dream. I assured Dinah I’d really seen the gun.

  “I never doubted that you did,” my friend said. “We just have to figure out what happened.”

  “Somehow Dan must have figured out that someone had been in the storage locker and realized he had to move the gun,” I said.

  “And he took everything because then there was no chance any of it could be traced back to him,” Dinah added. She was curious about what else had been in there.

  She already knew about the lamp. I chewed on a french fry. “That’s right,” I said amazed that I could have forgotten. “The crochet pieces we picked up. The ones with the bullion stitch that made Adele go nuts. They were in there.”

  “So it wasn’t the junior shoplifters who took them from the bookstore. It must have been Dan,” Dinah said incredulous. “Remember he came late. He could have taken them while everyone was gathering in the event area. Now that I think about it, he had a plastic bag, but I thought it was just stuff from his store. But why would he have taken them?”

  “I don’t know. When I saw them in the storage locker, the felt backing had been pulled apart.” I took a slug of my cola drink. “It’s just weird. And what’s with the package at Commander Blaine’s? I thought Kelly was selling gorgeous crocheted shawls in some pricey yarn, not little bags with quarters.” I paused for a moment, looking down at the table. In my mind’s eye I was seeing the bin of bullion flowers when Adele had first let me see them. I had assumed that Kelly meant to add pin findings to the felt discs she’d used as backing. But now I was seeing them in a different light. The pieces were round and not much bigger than the coins. Even the name of the stitch. I mentioned it to Dinah. “When you hear the word bullion what do you think of?”

  “Clear soup?” Dinah said. I rolled my eyes.

  “What else?”

  “Okay, I think of gold, which is money.”

  “Maybe he knew there were quarters in the crocheted flowers she gave us.”

  “What, and Dan needed change for a parking meter?” Dinah said laughing.

  “Good point. It’s a lot of trouble to go to for some change.” Just then I noticed that Dinah had a funny expression on her face. She seemed to be trying to tell me something, but what? I realized her eyes kept darting behind me. I turned and Barry was standing inches from me, holding a large sack of food.

  “Is this your new hangout?” he said, eyeing the pile of greasy french fries. “And to think you have been giving me the evil eye about all the stuff I’ve been bringing home for dinner.” He leaned in real close. “You might want to check, but I think there’s a french fry in your hair.”

  Then he straightened and bid us “happy eating” and headed toward the door.

  “That’s it. I can’t take it anymore. He keeps giving me dirty looks in my kitchen, in my house.” I told Dinah about his comments when I’d been out all night.

  Dinah laughed. “No matter what that man says, it isn’t over between you two or why would he even care?”

  “Well, it’s over as far as I’m concerned and the sooner he moves on, the better. Mason has been very understanding, though he has a lot on his mind, at the moment anyway. Dealing with his ex-wife and the wedding disaster and the idea that in the not too distant future he could end up a grandpop.”

  “What’s Barry excuse for not leaving? He’s back at work, he doesn’t limp unless he thinks someone is watching.”

  I reminded Dinah about the work he was having done to his place. “I sure hope they finish soon. I can’t take all those disapproving shakes of his head.”

  We finished our fries and drinks and both left feeling full and swearing we never wanted to eat again. “That’s what Barry doesn’t get. It’s only once in a while for us. He and Jeffrey are eating this stuff every day.” Dinah looked at me and shook her head.

  “If you’re so anxious to get rid of him, why do you care what they eat?”

  “I care about Jeffrey. He’s a growing kid. He needs salad.”

  “Are you sure it’s just Jeffrey’s nutritional needs you’re so concerned about?” Dinah said.

  “He told me Barry thinks catsup is a vegetable.” I might have sounded a little too emotional about that fact.

  “Say what you will, but you haven’t completely let go,” Dinah said. I started to argue, but she gave me a knowing nod. Sometimes best friends know you too well.

  CHAPTER 30

  I dropped the shopping bag of supplies from Commander Blaine at CeeCee’s house on my way to work the next day. She was just on her way out to a meeting with a director. She had transformed from the CeeCee we had at the crochet table to CeeCee the star. I figured she might have some insight into North Adams and took advantage of the moment.

  “Dear, I have to fly,” she said, giving a last-minute check to her hair. “I don’t know North. I know who he is and he knows who I am, but that’s it. People always think everybody in show business knows each other.” She started to walk out and I followed her. “It is just a guess on my part, but I would imagine he lied about knowing Kelly because either he was just trying to stay out of the investigation. Or he’s the one who shot her.”

  “What? You think he really might have killed her?” I said following CeeCee to her car.

  “I’ve heard the man has some secrets. Suppose things started up between them again and oh, let’s say he wanted to break things off and she threatened to make his secrets public.” She gave me a knowing look. “The man knows how to handle a gun. And as for an alibi— I heard he claimed to have been in his trailer alone. No way to prove it or disprove it.”

  At that, she got in the car and pushed a button to open the iron gate across her driveway.

  The fact that North was a legitimate suspect was swirling in my brain as I drove to the bookstore. But what could I do about it?

  “Mrs. Shedd waved as I came through the bookstore. Mr. Royal was showing someone the gondola of hobby kits they’d just added to the store. Pretty soon we were going to have to change the name from Shedd & Royal Books and More to Shedd & Royal General Store. I automatically straightened the display. Someone had mixed up the boxes and I moved the origami sets off the stacks of the stamp and the coin collecting sets. Personally I was curious about the kit that promised you could make prints with sunlight.

  I spent the morning working on our fall schedule of bookstore events while manning the information booth. When it was time for my lunch break, I headed back to the worktable in the yarn department, choosing crochet over food.

  Adele was sitting at the table alone. She had a stack of cowls in front of her and was just finishin
g another to add to it. She had reluctantly switched to CeeCee’s faster pattern. Even if they didn’t sell, they would certainly make a pretty display at the Jungle Days Fair.

  I sat down and pulled out the cowl I was making. Adele nodded with approval. “Are you still poking around in Kelly’s murder?” Adele said. I was debating what to say and Adele saw right through my silence. “I thought if I said I was giving up, you would, too. Eric is right. Us amateurs should really leave it to the professionals.” She stopped for a breath. “We were sort of partners on it. And if one partner quits, the other one should, too.”

  “I don’t know where you heard that, but it doesn’t work that way, and we weren’t partners exactly. More like you were working on your own.” I let out a sigh and put down my work. “But you know, I think I’ve gone as far as I can go with this case. I kind of hit a wall.” Better to say that, than tell her what happened with the storage unit.

  “Good move, Pink.”

  Adele was being entirely too supportive. It didn’t take a building to fall on me to figure out why.

  Call me contrary, but Adele’s attitude suddenly made me want to do something. “You know, I think I’ll give it another try. I’m going to talk to Dan again.” I got up from my chair and Adele glanced at me with panic in her eyes as I mentioned going to the dollar store. Before I’d gotten two steps away, I heard the scrape of her chair and she came rushing after me.

  “I’m coming, too,” she said grabbing my arm. “I have some shopping to do.”

  All the way there, she went on about Eric. First, she was saying he didn’t need to know where she’d gone. It morphed into she could just be shopping, and finally, she got down to the truth. She didn’t want anyone, including a boyfriend, telling her what she could and couldn’t do. Even though it was probably going to cause me problems, I told her I was glad she was standing up for herself.

  More Bang for Your Buck was busy when we walked in. Adele was trying to tell me we should do good cop, bad cop, but she couldn’t decide which one she wanted to be. I just threaded my way through the shopping carts and found the office and Dan. I had learned from Barry that cops didn’t necessarily tell suspects the truth. Maybe it would work for me, too. I thought if I caught him off guard, he might crumple and confess.

  “You know there are video cameras at the bookstore,” I jumped in, watching Dan as I spoke. “And we have you on tape taking those crochet pieces from the cabinet from the bookstore. My bosses are convinced you’re the ringleader of those shoplifting kids.” I let it sink in a little. “They are ready to press charges, but I think if you come clean me and tell me why you took those pieces, I might be able to get them to let the whole thing go. Were there more quarters in them?”

  Adele stepped in and continued. “Yeah, I guess you weren’t ready for your close-up, huh.”

  Dan’s eyes darted back and forth and then he stepped away. “I don’t know what you are talking about. I’d like to see that tape,” he said with a little nod. “Now, if you’ll excuse me we’re about to have our dollar-of-the-hour special.” He escorted us out of his office.

  “That went well, Pink,” Adele said as he walked away from us. An announcement of the impending special played over the loudspeaker and I saw people beginning to push their carts into position. I grabbed Adele’s arm and pulled her toward the exit.

  “You don’t want to be here for that special.”

  Adele had insisted on driving, since my car was an antique in her mind, and hers was state-of-the-art. “Okay, what was that mumbo jumbo you said to him, Pink? Do we really have video cameras at the bookstore?” She started to throw a hissy fit, thinking Mr. Royal had installed them and not told her.

  “No, there aren’t any cameras at Shedd and Royal,” I said trying to smooth things out. When it was so obvious it didn’t work, I didn’t want to answer her other question, but Adele was unrelenting.

  Finally I told her about finding the crochet pieces and that I thought there might have been something in them, and when I mentioned the quarters in the little bags, she nodded. “Of course, it makes sense. They felt like they were weighted.” She asked me some more questions about the quarters and I finally showed her the photo on my BlackBerry. “Pink, sometimes you just miss the boat. You’re calling them quarters, when they’re collectible coins. Didn’t you look at the coin collecting set we’re selling now?”

  “I wish we looked inside the crocheted pins when we had them,” I said, realizing Adele might be right.

  “Well, thanks to Adele Holmes maybe you can,” she said practically twirling on her toes. “I wasn’t going to say anything about it because I thought you would get all weird about me taking any of Kelly’s pieces out of the bookstore. But now it looks like I might have saved the day.” Adele stopped to build up tension. I tried to act as if I didn’t care, but it didn’t work and I gave in.

  “Just tell me what you did,” I said, impatiently.

  Adele leaned close and her eyes grew animated. “There was a smaller box in the bin. It had some of the bullion stitch flowers and a toy decorated with more of those stitches. I needed some samples to look at, so I took the whole box home with me.” Adele had a self-satisfied smile. “I do detective work, even when I don’t know what I’m doing.”

  “Could I see them?” I asked, beginning to want to grit my teeth. Adele wasn’t going to make this easy. “Like, maybe now?”

  “Well, they’re at my house,” she said. Her eyes moved back and forth as she thought about it before finally saying okay, and then we left. I’d never been to Adele’s place. I didn’t even know exactly where she lived and was surprised when she pulled into a parking structure below the building next to Barry’s complex.

  Adele had a one bedroom with a view of the driveway. I was shocked when I saw the inside. For all the colors that she wore, her place was all done in black and white. “It makes a better backdrop for me,” she said. She got the box right away and brought it into her small living room. “These were the nicest pieces Kelly made,” Adele said showing me the contents.

  Adele picked up one of the flower pins. The two pieces of felt that made up the backing had been glued shut. Adele took a big needle and started to work the pieces apart.

  “This is cute,” I said noticing a small Amigurumi owl amidst the pins. It had a few bullion stitches as decoration on its chest. When I picked it up, I was struck by how heavy it was.

  “She must have put rocks in there,” Adele said.

  “Or something else,” I said. I hated to destroy it, but there was no choice. I cut into the side. Little plastic pellets fell out and then I poked inside and felt something metallic. When I pulled it out, I saw it was a man’s gold watch. As I examined it, I noticed there was an engraving inside. It said “Love You Squiggie.”

  Adele got the pieces of felt open and a small gold coin fell out. When she checked the others, they also had gold coins in them.

  “So, Detective Pink, what does all this mean?” I asked her to give me a minute to think it through. The first thing that struck me as obvious was Kelly didn’t really give us the bin of things for the Jungle Days Fair booth. I thought back to the visit and how she’d gone to the door to answer the bell. When she’d come back in the room, she’d seemed agitated, upset. “She gave them to us because she didn’t want the person at the door to find them,” I muttered.

  “Huh,” Adele said peering at me. I hadn’t meant to say that out loud, so I covered by looking at my watch, and appearing dismayed at how late it was.

  “Our lunch break is over. We better get back.”

  Adele jumped right in and said we’d better hurry. “Unlike you, Pink, I adhere to the work schedule.”

  Adele put everything back in the box and I wanted to take it with, but she wouldn’t budge. “The pieces are still here because of me and I’m keeping them in my protective custody.” So instead I took pictures of everything with my BlackBerry before she shut the lid.

  As I got ready to go, I gl
anced out the window toward Barry’s complex. “Could you give me a minute?” I said. “I just want to check something.” I explained about the proximity of Barry’s place.

  Adele rolled her eyes a few times, but agreed. I reached around in the carryall for my key ring. When Barry and I were together, he’d given me a key to his place. He’d never asked for it back and I had just left it on my key ring and forgotten about it—until now. I left my bag and rushed next door.

  What harm could there be checking up on the work being done to his place? At least I’d have a real idea when he’d be moving out.

  The key let me into the lobby and I walked through to a courtyard and went up the concrete stairs to the second floor. It was an older building, which here meant it was built in the seventies and there was no elevator. I stood outside the door a moment and then stuck the key in. The door opened easily and I stepped inside. It smelled like fresh paint and new carpet. I walked into the living room and looked around expecting to see Barry’s rather sparse furniture pushed into a corner and maybe covered with a drop cloth. Instead, a wine-colored sofa sat next to a dark wood coffee table. Only the big screen TV looked vaguely familiar, but then all TVs looked the same to me. The dining room was complete with a long wood table and a sideboard with some silver accessories. There were no workmen or signs that they’d been working recently. Everything seemed very finished. I walked further into the place feeling uneasy. Had Barry decided to get all new furniture? I was certainly surprised by his taste. I’d never picked him for a wine-colored sofa type.

  The bedrooms were up a short flight of stairs. I checked Jeffrey’s room expecting to see his twin bed, wood desk and the poster of Al Pacino in Scarface gracing the wall. “What?” I said out loud as I stepped into the doorway. There was a twin bed all right, but it had a pink Hello Kitty spread. The desk was white and had a lamp with an embossed shade.