On the Hook

by Betty Hechtman

  Then I realized she was really looking at the young woman who appeared to be in her early twenties standing next to the fancy-shaped bush. She looked remotely familiar, but then everybody in town did. That was the result of working in the bookstore. After another moment, I realized the young woman must be Lara-Ann’s daughter. Before I could ask, she confirmed I was right. “She has an appointment and I was going to go with her.”

  This was the part of being a semi-boss that I didn’t like. I had to tell her she couldn’t go and remind her that she couldn’t just arbitrarily change the schedule.

  “Of course,” she said. I was relieved that she seemed to take it well. She just asked for a moment to go outside and talk to her daughter. That I could let her do. Since I had two sons, I was always curious what it would be like to have a daughter. It was nosy of me, but I watched anyway. It’s amazing how much of communication is body language. I couldn’t hear them, but from the way Lara-Ann was standing and gesturing with her arms, she seemed to be giving the girl a pep talk and trying to smooth things over.

  If I’d done that with my older son, Peter, he would have crossed his arms and given me a withering stare. Samuel would have rolled his eyes as if he’d heard it all before but sort of liked it anyway. I couldn’t see much of Lara-Ann’s daughter’s expression, but she seemed to have a defiant pose. Lara-Ann reached out to touch her, but the girl pulled away.

  Seeing that her daughter really seemed to need her, as a person I felt bad about not letting her go, but as a boss I had to be tough. However, I did say I was sorry when Lara-Ann came back inside.

  “It’s okay,” Lara-Ann said, relieving my guilt. “She’s going to be okay now.” Nosy me wanted to ask for details, but boss me told me to leave it be.

  And now to track down Adele. She didn’t answer her cell, but when I went to the parking lot, her car was still there. I checked around the whole bookstore and finally found her sitting in the small storage room where we kept the holiday decorations. With her green tunic, tights, and sparkling crown, she blended right in. Only, the giant cardboard Easter Bunny and the Santa Claus all looked happy, but Adele was crying.

  “Go away, Pink; you can’t see me this way.” She had put one arm over her face to block my view of her tears, and she was waving me away with the other. Oh, dear, this was serious. I’d seen Adele do a lot of things but never have a meltdown like this.

  I shut the door behind me and found a box to sit on. “Okay, tell me what’s wrong,” I said in a kind voice, but at the same time I was thinking, And do it quickly. I glanced back at the door, thinking that I’d left the bookstore largely unmanned except for our cashier Rayaad and Lara-Ann in the kids’ department.

  Ever since Mrs. Shedd and Mr. Royal had gotten married, they had been taking more and more time away from the bookstore. Previously, he’d been the one to take off on an adventure and leave her to run things. But now she’d begun to join him—though they were tamer adventures than he’d taken on his own. Whereas he’d gone off to Kenya for a safari, together they were more likely to take the boat to Catalina for the day.

  While Adele stalled about answering me, I thought about how confusing the whole name thing became when you married later. Since the owners of the bookstore hadn’t wanted to change the store’s name, Mrs. Shedd had stayed Mrs. Shedd. Dinah had kept her name, since it was how she was known professionally, and Adele had just added another last name to hers. I wasn’t thinking about getting married again myself, but for a moment I considered what I would do. What if I had married Barry as he wanted? Would I be Molly Pink Greenberg?

  I’m afraid I chuckled at the thought, and Adele scowled at me. “Pink, it’s not funny.” She dabbed at her eyes and let out a sigh. It was useless to explain that I had been thinking about something else, so I just wiped the smile off my face and tried to appear sympathetic.

  Adele always went for the dramatic and was big on letting the tension ramp up, so I imagined that was what she was doing now. I stole a glance at my watch and wished I could get her going.

  Finally, I couldn’t take it any longer. “Adele, let me know if you don’t want to talk. Lara-Ann is watching the kids’ department, but I need to get back.”

  Adele sat forward with concern. “I can’t believe you’re rushing me and my life is in ruins.” She let out a sniffle I assumed was for effect. “It was going to be so wonderful. Timothy and I had it all figured out.”

  She got my interest at the mention of his name. “Then you knew him personally?” I said, surprised, wondering if she was an obsessive fan with some fantasy thing going on. Did she have secret photos of him stashed in her wallet? I hadn’t meant to, but somehow I must have spoken as if I thought she knew him in a romantic way, because she grabbed my arm.

  “No, no, it was nothing like that. I’m a one-man woman. Timothy and I were more like partners in an artistic endeavor.” She stopped for emphasis and gestured toward herself with both hands. “You could say Timothy discovered me.”

  She had become the usual Adele, and her tears had dried up. “What do you mean, discovered you?” I asked.

  She looked me in the eye. “As an actress—well, no, he really thought I was more of a personality. You do know that he taught workshops?” Then she abruptly lowered her voice. “No one knows it—well, except for the others in my group—but I was his star student.” For a moment her eyes glazed over and she seemed to be remembering something. “He recognized my passion for crochet and, instead of setting up an audition for the Canoga Park Community Theater revival of A Streetcar Named Desire—which of course would have been for Blanche—he said he had bigger plans for me. We put our heads together and came up with an idea for me to host a crochet show. You know, there are so many outlets these days. We’ve been working feverishly for weeks, putting together my reel.” She stopped to explain that this was a show biz term left over from the days when things had been on film that was rolled up on a reel. “He directed me in a series of snippets that show off my skills and personality. We did them all there with his cell phone,” she said, gesturing toward the kids’ department. “He edited them together and sent the finished piece to me. He even gave me a discount, since he was so sure I was going to be a big success. And then he told me he’d arranged a meeting with someone at the Craftee Channel.” She heaved a big sigh. “It was supposed to go down in the next few weeks.”

  She gave it a moment before she continued. “My fortune was about to change. I figured I’d get the show and then a line of yarn like Vanna White. That’s why I let Elise show me the house.”

  I didn’t know what to say, but she continued muttering to herself. “If only I’d found out who we were supposed to be meeting and where, I could proceed on my own.”

  “Why don’t I call Eric? Maybe you’d feel better if you talked to him.” I’d already taken out my cell phone, but she batted it away.

  “No. He doesn’t know anything about the workshops or my plans.” Then she actually put the back of her hand to her forehead in a move straight out of an old-fashioned melodrama. “I’ve been deceiving him. He thinks I was going to a yoga class the nights I went to the workshop. I wanted to surprise him and Mother Humphries when it was a fate complete.”

  “I think you mean fait accompli,” I said.

  “Whatever,” Adele said, and then she seemed to catch herself. “Of course, I’m very sorry that he’s dead. What was it, a heart attack? I tried to tell him that all those French pastries and things like foie gras weren’t good for him. If you think CeeCee has a sweet tooth, it’s nothing compared to his. He even drank sweet cocktails.”

  “The reporter didn’t say anything about what the cause of—” I began before Adele interrupted me.

  “The important thing is that no one knows I’m connected with him. I went by my professional name, Lydia Fairchild, in the workshop. It has a nice ring, doesn’t it?”

  Adele had returned to her the-universe-revolves-around-me self, though she seemed to have outdone even
her usual self-centeredness today. For the first time, she noticed I was still wearing the green fairy wings. “I hope you didn’t mess up story time. I’ve given the kids pretty high expectations.”

  I sat, shaking my head, trying to keep my frustration in check, but I finally couldn’t take it anymore. “Adele, maybe you’re acting career is dead, but everything is dead forever for Timothy Clark.”

  I heard Adele whimper behind me. “Oh, you’re so right. What would I do without you as a friend? I’m sorry that Timothy is gone, but I know what he would say.” She paused and I cringed, afraid of what was coming next, and then she said it: “But the show must go on.”

  “There’s something I have to tell you,” I said, preparing for another meltdown when I told her that Timothy might have been dead when we were there and that my scarf was in the cops’ hands.

  “You’ll have to tell me later,” Adele said, getting up in a hurry. She was all recovered and looked out the open door. “I have to get back to my department and fix any damage you people might have done.” She pulled off my wings and rushed out the door.

  Chapter Five

  At just a little before five, I was clearing things up in the information booth, getting ready to go to the yarn department for happy hour. I had played phone tag with Dinah all day and hoped she would show up for the get-together. Commander was having a hard time understanding why she had to come every evening and had managed to spirit her away a number of times, though she usually let me know in advance when that happened.

  CeeCee came bustling into the bookstore and stopped at the information booth. “Molly, I’m so excited. I have the charity project all worked out.”

  I hated to interrupt her, but something had been on my mind all afternoon—how to contain Adele. “There’s something you need to know.”

  “Is it about the charity project?” she asked.

  “No, it’s something else.” I urged her to step closer and dropped my voice. “I’m sure you heard about Timothy Clark, that actor who died?” I waited for her acknowledgment but stopped her before she could start talking about it. “It’s Adele. I don’t know why exactly—maybe she was some kind of crazed fan—but she’s terribly upset about what happened.” It wasn’t exactly the truth, but CeeCee understood right away.

  “I know what you’re saying. We don’t want Adele to throw one of her conniptions during happy hour.”

  “She’ll probably be okay as long as nobody starts talking about him.”

  “You do know that Elise’s husband is the one who found him?” CeeCee said. “I suppose it was a heart attack or something.”

  “Yes, I heard Logan found him, and I’m sure you’re probably right about the heart attack.” I saw Rhoda coming in the door just as a customer stopped at the information booth. “If you could tell the others not to bring it up…?” I said to CeeCee. “We don’t want Adele to have a meltdown and make a scene.”

  “You’re absolutely right, dear. I’ll spread the word,” she said just before she walked away.

  Thanks to the customer’s rather lengthy request, I was late joining the group.

  CeeCee caught my eye and gave me a knowing look to let me know she’d done as I asked. “Molly, you’re just in time. I was just giving the details about our project to give back to the community,” CeeCee said, holding up a large crocheted square done in a yarn that morphed into different shades of blue.

  I slipped into a chair just as CeeCee continued. After all I’d gone through with Adele that morning, it was amazing to watch CeeCee, who was a real star and a lot more grounded than Adele, whose stardom seemed to be mostly in her own head.

  “It’s a baby blanket,” CeeCee explained, “and it’s made on the bias so it’s nice and stretchy. I’m sure you’ll find them easy and quick to make. And I found the perfect places to donate them. I’m sure you all know that a newborn can be surrendered with no questions asked at a fire station, hospital, or police station. I thought we could make blankets and leave them with our local fire station, hospital, and police station so they would have something made with love to wrap those babies in.”

  We all murmured our approval and CeeCee continued. “There is one small issue. They pushed for a date when we’d donate them. I thought it would be good to complete this project quickly, so I said we’d have the blankets to bring over next week.”

  “That’s not a lot of time,” Dinah said.

  “You’ll see, they work up quickly,” CeeCee said. “I’ll do a demo of how to start one, and then we can all get our hooks moving.”

  Adele barely seemed to notice what was going on. She was facing CeeCee, but her eyes were clearly focused on something the rest of us couldn’t see. Her mouth kept tightening, no doubt reacting to her thoughts. If she was like this now, I could only imagine how she would have been if I hadn’t warned CeeCee to keep the group from discussing Timothy Clark. And Adele didn’t even know the whole story yet. I dreaded telling her the rest of it and decided not to hurry.

  “I think that’s a great plan, and I’m sure we can meet the deadline,” Sheila said, wiping a tear from her eye. “I’m sorry, but I’m afraid I overreact whenever I hear of any child being abandoned.” We all nodded with understanding. Sheila was the youngest in our group and only in her late twenties. She’d been brought up by her grandmother, who had died recently, leaving her feeling a little abandoned. CeeCee went over and gave her a reassuring hug.

  Rhoda reached across the table and touched my arm. “Leo was so excited when I told him you were going to advise him,” she said, pointing to her brother-in-law, who had just come back to the table carrying a drink for her from the café. “He can’t wait to go home with you.”

  I had forgotten that we had agreed on that evening for him to come to my place for dating advice. I suddenly regretted agreeing to it. What could I really tell him, anyway?

  Eduardo was examining the sample baby blanket. “It will be interesting to work with a large hook and thicker yarn,” he said. Most of his work was done with tiny silver hooks and yarn so thin it was called thread. Dinah seemed glad to have pushed the placemat she was making away. But there was no sign of Elise.

  “You start out with just four chains,” CeeCee said, demonstrating. “Then you increase on both sides, and then you decrease on both sides, and you end up with a square.” The deal was that the bookstore provided the yarn for charity projects, so I went to hunt up some of the cotton yarn to show what colors we had. I was standing by a cubby when I heard something.

  “Psst, psst.” The sound came from the shadowy area away from the bright lights in the yarn department. Elise stepped forward just enough so that I could see it was her.

  I checked to make sure no one was watching me and slipped out of the brightness. Elise had ducked back into the dark corner near the event area. I joined her and then purposely let her speak first.

  “I suppose they’re all talking about what happened to Timothy Clark,” she said, glancing in the direction of the table. “I just can’t face one more person telling me they saw Logan on television and then asking me for the real story.”

  “Actually, no. I told CeeCee to make sure Timothy Clark’s name didn’t come up. I was afraid of how Adele would react. She went bonkers when I told her about him being dead, and I was afraid she’d do a repeat performance if they started talking about it,” I said with a shrug. I looked back toward the table. “They’re all talking about a community service project CeeCee has us doing. She just showed us how to get started. I’m sure she’d be glad to show you too.”

  I gestured toward the table, but Elise took a step back. “No matter what you said to CeeCee, if I joined them I know they’d start shooting questions at me.”

  In the days of her vampire wear, Elise would have practically disappeared in the dark corner, but now that she was wearing what she apparently considered the real estate agent look, she was easier to spot. Even in the shadows, I could easily make out her beige linen pants and matching open ja
cket over a white shell complete with a string of pearls. Elise always went into things full force.

  “I know you said you didn’t want anyone to ask you for the real story—” I said, letting it hang.

  “Okay, I’ll tell you,” Elise said. “Logan was showing the house, and they all walked in that room that I thought would make a perfect little studio arrangement for Adele’s mother-in-law.” She made a distraught sound. “Logan wouldn’t give me details. He said he’d told the police what he’d seen, and now he just wants to put it out of his head and figure out how he’s going to deal with his clients. I mean, showing them a house with a corpse in it doesn’t exactly give a shine to his reputation.”

  I was a little disappointed about the lack of detail. “Did Logan say anything about how Timothy died? Was it a heart attack?” I asked, still hoping he’d died from natural causes.

  She shrugged. “He didn’t give me a lot of details.”

  I asked her if she’d told Logan that she’d shown us the house. “Absolutely not,” she said.

  “Good, because I need to tell you something.” First I told her about the scarf, without mentioning that, since she was the one who’d handed me my coat, she was also the one who’d dropped it. “If only we hadn’t rushed so fast out of the place, I might have seen it on the floor and been able to retrieve it.”

  I saw her eyes going back and forth as if she was thinking about something. “Maybe we can go back and get it now,” she said.

  “Too late. The cops have it,” I said, and mentioned Barry’s two visits. She sucked her breath in with such a gasp I thought she’d fall backward. “And there’s something else. Logan came there right after we left, right?” She nodded. “And he found the body.”