Adele started to take her usual seat at one end of the table, but I reminded her that Rory needed to sit there. Adele snagged the seat next to it. I checked my watch and looked at the empty seat nervously.
“I’m here,” Rory said, finally coming into the yarn department. “You can’t start without me,” she said gaily. She glanced around the area. “So the Craftee people aren’t here yet?” She took the seat I’d set aside for her and folded her hands on the table. “Now what?”
I suggested that I get some customers to take part in the Make-and-Take. I trolled the bookstore and couldn’t get any takers. My last resort was bookstore employees. Mrs. Shedd was glad to step in at the checkout counter so I could pull in our usual cashier, Rayaad, and one of our new hires, Jordan.
When they were seated at the table, Elise handed them each one of the kits.
“But I don’t know how to crochet,” Rayaad said, looking at the small plastic bag of supplies as if it contained something dangerous.
“Me, either,” Jordan said. He was half away from the table as if he wanted to make a run for it.
“That’s the point of the Make-and-Take. We teach you how to make it,” CeeCee said. Then we all waited for the Craftee people to show up to go into action.
We were all keyed up when the small group from the show finally arrived. Michael Kostner took the lead and introduced everyone. Ethan, the director, wanted to get an idea of “the optics,” as he put it, of the interactions between our group and those taking part in the Make-and-Take. Arnie, the writer, wanted to see what dialogue he would need to write. Felicity, the set designer, was back, though she gave no reason why. There were also some nameless production assistants who seemed to merely be part of the entourage.
“Why don’t you just go ahead and start. Act like we aren’t here. It’ll be good practice for the actual taping,” Michael said. He looked over the arrangement of people around the table and nodded with approval. “I like having a celebrity as the anchor at either end of the table.”
“But I’m the host. Doesn’t that mean I’m more important?” Rory said, standing up.
“Absolutely right,” Michael said. “We want to see you working with the novices who’ve come to make the bracelets. That’s why we hired you. The public loves seeing celebrities with special talents.” He turned to CeeCee and bowed his head slightly. “Unfortunately, our budget didn’t allow for an Academy Award nominee.”
CeeCee gave him a magnanimous smile, but Rory’s face clouded over. “Hey, I’m not some kind of bargain-basement stand-in.”
Michael realized he’d made a mistake. “Of course not, Rory, you are perfect as the host. You’re young, fun, and you’re an expert at crochet.” Then, mentioning they had limited time, he turned the floor over to me.
I explained the Make-and-Take concept to all of them. “Our volunteers don’t know how to crochet, but with the help of the group, they will learn enough to make the Gratitude Circle, which, by the way, is a great accessory for men or women. They will leave with a finished product.”
He asked who the Make-and-Takers were as he looked over the group around the table. His gaze stopped on Marianne and Janine. There was flicker of concern in his eye, and I was afraid he was reacting to Marianne’s stiff movements. I quickly pointed out Rayaad and Jordan as our Make-and-Takers.
“Good that you’ve got a guy,” he said. “Let’s have Rory work with him.” He got Adele to move and put Jordan next to her. He placed Rayaad next to CeeCee. He smiled and looked at the rest of us. “No offense to the rest of you, but celebrities are channel stoppers.”
Wasn’t that the truth. I looked at Dinah, and I knew she was thinking about the previous night at my house. “We’ll get shots of the rest of you making the bracelets,” he said, continuing to attempt to smooth things over.
He stepped back and waved his hand like a conductor. “Okay, just go ahead like we’re not here.”
Everyone at the table suddenly became animated, and I got a knot in my stomach, sure that Rory was going to be outed. CeeCee had Rayaad take out her supplies, and she demonstrated how to make a slip knot. Our poor cashier looked like she wanted to be anywhere but there. She reluctantly followed CeeCee’s directions. Rhoda took out the length of cord and used her hook to make a slip knot. She saw that Marianne was struggling and helped her manage one as well. I was standing back with the observers and was afraid to look in Rory’s direction. There was nothing I could do to save her now.
While she struggled to make a slip knot, the one in my stomach tightened. Michael had made it pretty clear that if Rory wasn’t as she’d sold herself, they’d have to put everything on hold until they found someone to take her place. And then who knew what might happen? Would they still want to do the first show at the bookstore, and if so, when?
I was afraid to look, and yet I couldn’t look away. I saw Rory swallow hard as Jordan looked to her for direction. Then she smiled. “Of course, what else, Dance Break,” she said, standing up and beginning to gyrate.
She got everyone at the table to join her. I couldn’t read Michael’s reaction. Finally Rory called out the final “hi yo” and sat down. She looked at the table and glanced up smiling as she held up the length of chain stitches. Jordan had something similar in front of him. “And that’s the way it’s done,” Rory said, holding it up triumphantly.
“Don’t forget the next row,” Rhoda said from across the table.
“That’s right,” Rory said cheerily. “With slip knots.”
“You mean slip stitches,” Rhoda said, holding up her work and demonstrating.
“I get it,” Jordan said, and matched what Rhoda had just done. All eyes were on him, and I saw Adele grab Rory’s piece and replace it with hers.
“That was fast,” Jordan said, looking over at Rory’s work. “I didn’t get a chance to see you do it.”
“Now you attach the ends,” Rhoda coached.
“We do it with a slip knot,” Rory said, holding up the strand of stitches.
“Not a knot, a slip stitch,” Dinah said under her breath, and Rory quickly corrected herself and feigned dropping her work in progress. Adele bent to retrieve it and appeared to hand it back to her, but she’d done a switcheroo again. The ends were not only joined now, but the beads had been added.
Jordan examined it and figured out on his own how to finish it off. “That’s easy-peasy.” He threaded the beads on the end strands and added a knot after each bead before snipping the excess cord. He slipped it on his wrist and wound it around several times before holding his arm up to admire it.
“Rory, you did yours so fast I didn’t get a chance to see you do it,” Michael said. “But of course, when we’re taping, we’ll have a camera trained on you so nobody will miss a move of your hook.”
She smiled and tried to hide it, but I saw her swallow with a glunk.
“Well, that’s a wrap,” the producer said. “I think we all have an idea of what this Make-and-Take thing is going to look like.” He turned to Rory. “Good move about the Dance Break. We need something to liven things up.” He turned to go and waved for his group to follow.
I stuck next to Michael as I walked them out. “I hope you’re satisfied with everything,” I said, trying to sound bright.
“So far, so good,” Michael said with a smile. “How’s Mason?”
“Busy,” I said.
Then he got serious. “Two things,” he began. “Remember the recipe I told you about? Be sure it’s made with our sponsor’s flour, and we’ll write some copy for Rory to say when she tastes the—” He looked to me for an answer.
“Coffee cake,” I said, filling in the blank.
“Sounds good,” he said, giving me a thumbs-up. “Another of our sponsors is a yarn company, and they’re going to want Rory to do promotion for them. I’ve worked with her before, and I know her tricks. We don’t want to look like fools.” He looked me in the eye until I nodded with understanding. She was going to have to be able to hold he
r own with a hook.
It was time for the group to have that talk with Rory.
* * *
“That was a close call, but somehow it seems to have gone okay,” Dinah said when I got back to the table.
“It’s hardly settled,” I said, before telling her about the latest problem the producer had dropped in my lap. “I thought if the group did an intervention, maybe she’d get it together.” I looked around at the empty table. “But that’s not going to happen now.”
“As soon as the production group left, everyone scattered,” Dinah said.
I mentioned that I’d seen a hand-off with Marianne. Her brother had been waiting at the front of the store and Janine had left on her own.
“It seemed like Rory disappeared into thin air. When I looked up, she was just gone.”
“I didn’t pass her when I walked back here,” I said. “She probably hid out somewhere and took off when the coast was clear.”
“What’s wrong with her? If she’d just stop goofing around, she could learn how to get past a slip knot and actually crochet.”
Dinah pushed away from the table and suggested we get drinks in the café. I was all in from all the tension of the last hour and agreed readily. I almost considered getting a black eye, which had two shots of espresso, instead of a red eye, which had one.
When we had our drinks, we found a table near the window. I mentioned seeing Rory in there earlier. “It was really weird. I told her about seeing her on the reality show and mentioned Connie. She more or less told me to forget what I’d seen and not tell anybody about it. Then she said something really strange. She said she hoped no one was watching the old shows.”
Dinah took a sip of her café au lait, which left a steamed-milk mustache. She sensed it and wiped it away with a chuckle. “The obvious reason is that she doesn’t want anyone to know she has a connection to Connie. It is strange how she mentioned having a food companion and then conveniently didn’t mention who it was. Particularly when we were talking about Connie and referred to her by name.”
“Maybe it’s because she’s dead,” I said.
“With Rory’s desire for publicity, I’d think she’d be more likely to use it as a way to get her name around. Something like ‘The woman who acted as my food companion died in a freak accident.’”
I thought for a moment. “Do you remember what else Rory said about companions? She said they were in the middle of your business and that they, and I quote, ‘know where the bodies are buried.’”
We tried to remember how Rory had acted when Connie had come with Marianne but realized that Rory had joined us the night Marianne and Connie hadn’t come to happy hour, which was also the night after Connie died, so they never crossed paths.
“I wonder what food companion means?” Dinah said.
“From the way Rory talked about how her food companion would have reacted to her desire for one of Bob’s rich frothy drinks, I’m guessing it was to keep her on a diet,” I answered.
Seeing that we’d reached a dead end on Rory, I changed the subject and asked Dinah how it was going with Cassandra and Commander.
“I think he finally understands the problem,” she said. “Commander is a practical man. To him, a chair is just something to sit on, and it doesn’t matter who sat on it before.” She looked at me. “Thank heavens I never took the diamond earrings.”
“He tried to give you his late wife’s earrings?” I couldn’t help but make a face.
“He meant well,” Dinah said defensively. “Though I admit, it did bother me at the time. It doesn’t matter. Cassandra has them now.”
“Did you give them to her?” I asked, and Dinah laughed.
“No way. That would have been like pouring water on a grease fire. I made sure he gave them to her.”
“So then all’s well now?” I asked.
Dinah let out a sigh. “Nope. She still has possession of my lady cave, and I have to go home and see all her yoga people lying around.”
When we finished our drinks, we parted company and I went to the information cubicle. There was a white paper sack sitting on the counter with my name on it in red marker. Something about the color of the writing made me uneasy, particularly since the ink had run and it almost looked like it was dripping.
I took a breath and opened the bag. When I saw what was inside, I shuddered. It was an old cube-shaped white radio connected to an extension cord. Written on top in red marker were the words Back Off.
Chapter Twenty
I asked around the bookstore to see if anyone knew who had left the package. Nobody had a clue. All the focus seemed to have been on our rehearsal. I thought back to the weird phone message of menacing-sounding breathing and now wondered if it was connected to my gift. It was not the first time something like this had happened. It always meant the same thing. I was stepping on somebody’s toes. I wondered if I should be worried and whether I should share what had happened with Barry.
My impulse was to keep it to myself. He would overreact, and that would be the end of my undercover job. I was anxious to tell him about Rory’s connection to Connie Richards.
There was no happy-hour gathering, since we’d had the impromptu rehearsal earlier in the day. It didn’t mean that I left the bookstore any earlier, though. When things slowed down that evening, I spent the extra time making arrangements for the book signing the following evening. When I finally left, the chairs were all set up in the event area and I’d placed a table at the front with a mock-up of The Hot Zone. There was a big sign next to the table promoting the event.
There had been arranging to do because of the author’s insistence on remaining anonymous. Mr. Royal and I had worked together to make an enclosure out of bookcases adjacent to the event area. We’d left a small opening and hung a sign that said PRIVATE. The plan was that the author would arrive there on her own, which I imagined meant she would come in the bookstore like anybody else and then slip in behind the bookcases, where she’d don her disguise. All the mystery just added to the excitement.
I came home to a dark house again and no note from Samuel about animal care. Ah, young love. It was so easy to let everything else in your life slip into the background. It sure wasn’t that way for me anymore. Much as Mason and I wanted to spend time together, we couldn’t ignore our responsibilities. Had we become that dull? What had happened to throwing caution to the wind and taking off on a surprise trip?
I took care of the animals and made myself a hasty dinner of leftovers. Barry’s visits were always impromptu, and I wondered if I’d hear from him that night.
The phone rang around ten o’clock, and I figured it was him. “Have I got stuff to tell you,” I said without waiting for his greeting when I picked up the phone.
“Then you knew it was me?” Dinah said.
I laughed and told her I’d thought it was Barry calling.
“It sounds to me like you’re pretty anxious to see him,” she said. No matter what I said to the contrary, she seemed convinced that Barry and I still had a connection. Maybe she was sort of right. But I think he and I both knew it was best left alone because it would never work out.
The news all came from her side. “I told you things weren’t settled. I think the diamond earrings just whet Cassandra’s appetite for what else there was. She went through the house when no one was home and collected all the things she connected with her mother. I told Commander to let her have them, but the thing is, they’re part of his past, too. I thought you might have some insight, since you must have gone through something like this after Charlie died.”
“With me, it was some bottles of beer.” There had been some bottles of Charlie’s favorite hefeweizen brew that I’d kept for the longest time. When I’d started seeing Barry, I’d almost cut off his hand when he tried to take one. “I got over it and finally tossed the beer. You know my sons had some problems with me dating.” I groaned at the word. “It’s probably better to say having relationships. Though it seems it w
as mostly Peter and mostly about who I was seeing. Neither of them has a problem with Mason. But then, they don’t seem that sentimental about things either.”
I asked her if she wanted to come over and get away from it all for a while, but she declined. Dinah wasn’t one to run away from things. When it came to her students, she dealt with them head on about their behavior, and those that survived and didn’t drop out of her class finished the semester as real college freshmen. I knew she’d figure out a way with Cassandra.
After I hung up, I cleaned up the kitchen and was about to turn out the light when the phone rang again. This time I merely answered with a hello.
“It’s Detective Greenberg,” he said, but there was a lightness in his tone that made it clear he was giving the formal greeting to tease me.
“Am I to assume you’re at my front door?” I asked.
“I wasn’t sure you’d be home, since it’s Friday night.”
“You of all people should understand that Friday night is not the beginning of a weekend off for everyone.”
I heard him laugh. “Married to your job, huh?”
There was silence after that. It had been part of the problem between us that his cases and clues had always come first. It wasn’t quite the same with my work, even now. Nobody was calling me in the middle of dinner telling me I’d just been assigned to a murder. I didn’t respond to what he said but invited him in instead.
He was still coming up the walkway when I opened the door. So, he really had thought I might not be home. One thing was different about him this time. He’d pulled his tie loose.
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