Hooked on Murder: A Crochet Mystery

I sat down, and when I leaned back, I realized I could see into Ellen's old office. Natalie was in there, standing over the desk, talking on the phone. The office looked pulled apart, but Natalie seemed in full work mode. It wasn't that I meant to eavesdrop, exactly, but it was impossiblenot to hear her end of the conversation.

'No, CeeCee, I haven't gotten all the papers from Ellen's home office yet. I'd be happy to send your file to you if I had it.' It was obvious CeeCee had interrupted Natalie.'No, I'm sorry. There is no such thing as client privilegewhen it comes to publicists. That's only for lawyers and doctors. So if the police want to look at your file or at anybody's, there isn't anything I can do. But the good news is, as far as I know, nobody has asked.' Natalie chuckled and seemed to turn on the charm. 'I really think you should reconsider leaving us. Someone of your stature shouldn't be without a publicist.' She stopped while CeeCee said something.'I'd really like to talk to you in person. I'm sure we can come up with something that will work for both of us.'

I leaned closer, trying to hear better, but there was nothingmore to hear. Natalie hung up and looked down at an open file on the desk. I was too far away to see even the label,let alone what it said, but I'd bet money that it was the file she had just told CeeCee she didn't have. And that it was what CeeCee had been searching for at the Sheridan house.

The obvious questions were: Why was Natalie lying to CeeCee, and what was in the file?

I sensed Natalie looking up, and I sat back in my seat to make sure I was out of view. A moment later she walked out of the office and greeted me.

'Then you know who I am?' I thought she would recognizethe name but not remember my face. We'd only met a few times, once when she was just starting with Ellen, and a few times when I'd come to pick things up.

Natalie nodded in a friendly manner. 'I remember meeting you, and of course Ellen spoke of you.' I waited for her to take me into her office. Then, with a few nonchalantglances, I'd get a glimpse of the file and maybe see what CeeCee was so concerned about. But Natalie didn't, and we carried on our conversation in the reception area.

Ah, Natalie was definitely in public relations. She knew how to put a positive spin on something like Ellen's talking about me. By saying it in a positive tone and not giving any details of what Ellen had actually said, it appeared to be something positive. Of course, I knew differently.

'Leo said you were here about the crochet group?' She waited for my answer, but I glanced around at the chaos. There were boxes everywhere, and furniture was pushed against the wall.

'What's going on? Are you shutting down?'

Natalie followed my gaze. 'I suppose it does look that way, but it's quite the opposite. L.S. and I worked out an arrangement.' When I looked perplexed, she explained that L.S. referred to Lawrence Sheridan. 'We're adding Shaw to the name, and I'll run the firm, but he's going to be very involved.With all his experience as a manager and producer, he brings a lot of clout to the table. There's so much overlappingof responsibilities in the entertainment industry, it'll work out fine.'

I don't know what surprised me more--that she had made some kind of deal with Lawrence, or that she referred to him as L.S. Lawrence Sheridan was always Lawrence, never Larry or anything resembling a nickname, and now he was known by initials?

'We're updating everything. Ellen was a little too old-school.' Ellen's desk, it turned out, was just waiting for some charity's pickup. It was big, with curved legs and a parquet top--too fussy for me, and apparently for Natalie, too. She showed me catalog photos of the furniture to come. Her desk had a glass top and a large black blotter. They were gettingwireless headsets and all the chairs were going to be ergonomic.It all sounded spare and a little cold for my taste, and I was glad, for once, that I didn't have to work there.

Leo stuck his head into the office. 'I got you the massageappointment for this afternoon, Natalie.'

She scowled at him. 'Leo, what are you supposed to call me?'

'Sorry, Nat.' He said the shortened version of her name as if it were all in caps, before he slipped back out.

'Everything is about being short these days,' she explained.'You know, Burger King is now BK. Who ever calls CPK 'California Pizza Kitchen' anymore? Any day now Dunkin' Donuts is going to wise up and become DDs. Have you looked at your e-mails lately? No one writes out you anymore. Everything is 4 u, c u, lol or imho. The 'now' thing is to go for short, short, short. So I'm encouraging Lawrence to go by L.S. and I'm going by Nat instead of Natalie. It sounds more contemporary.'

I guess Leo didn't have to worry about getting his name shortened. If I was going to make a move to secure the book signing, I had to find a way to bring it into the conversation now. With all of Natalie's short talk, she was bound to try to keep our conversation that way, too. 'So, then you'll be keeping all of Ellen's clients?'

Natalie nodded. 'Trying to, anyway. As shocked as they are about Ellen's death, most of the clients are more concernedwith their own business.' Natalie seemed to be glad to have someone to talk to, and she relaxed a little. 'They don't know that it was all smoke and mirrors. Ellen had the relationships with her clients, but I was doing most of the actual work. Lawrence has been helping me, and almost all of them are going to stay. Except for CeeCee Collins. She wants to terminate.'

'But you do still have Will Hunter--or should I say W.H.?'

Natalie chuckled. 'No, no. Clients go by full names. I'm efficient, not stupid. Will's been a doll. He was Ellen's star client, and he says he's staying.'

'So, then you'll be handling his book release publicity?' I tried not to sound too eager, but I had my fingers crossed.

'Ellen had started making plans, but I'll be making some changes. His book is going to be big. He's amazing, you know. Not only is he a class-A film star, but a damn good writer, too,' she said. Spoken like a true publicist.

Personally, I was still having trouble believing he'd reallywritten the book, but I wasn't going to rock the boat by casting any aspersions, and just nodded appreciatively. I brought up the subject of book signings and pitched her on doing his local one at Shedd & Royal.

'He's an outside-the-box kind of guy. Why not do an outside-the-box kind of book signing?' I said hopefully.

'Interesting,' Natalie said when I'd finished. 'Very interestingidea.' I wanted to high-five myself. She was goingfor it. I was already making a mental note about needing extra chairs and all the end caps I planned to set up. And we'd need extra cookies and two baristas. Then my plans ground to a halt.

'I have a lot riding on the success of the publicity for Will's book. It sounds like a great idea, and one that I could squeeze a lot of press out of, but before I commit, I'd like to see one of your author events firsthand.'

'No problem,' I said, grateful that we'd already done the soap guy's event. The stink bomb disaster wouldn't have helped me with Natalie. 'Our next signing is in honor of the crochet group. We're holding an event for a diet book called Hook Down the Pounds: The Magic Way to Lose Weight with Crochet.' I gave her the date, and vowed to myself I would make sure this one went right. Natalie walked over to her computer and typed the information into her calendar. It reminded me of the other thing on my agenda.

'I heard Ellen was supposed to have someone over for lunch the day she was, uh . . .' I had a hard time saying murdered. 'Do you know who it was?'

Natalie stopped typing. 'That's sure the hot question. Detective Gilmore asked me the same thing. Well, actually, she asked if you were scheduled for lunch with Ellen that day. She had some idea that you were trying to make some kind of business arrangement with Ellen, and it went sour.'

I felt my anger level rise. 'That's ridiculous. I have a job, and Ellen and I settled a long time ago.'

'That's exactly what I told her--that you and Ellen worked everything out just when I was starting. I also told her I couldn't help her in the who department. Ellen's computercalendar got wiped out.' Natalie went on to explain that Ellen wasn't exactly a computer whiz and could have done the damage herself. 'Like I said, she was very old- school.She wasn't very good with computers, nor did she trust them.' Natalie looked skyward. 'I had to set up her home-office computer, and she still barely used it.'

'Maybe she used a written appointment book,' I offered.

'I never thought of that,' Natalie said, 'but you're probablyright. Ellen would never admit it, though. It would have made her seem too old-fashioned.'

'Since you didn't know if she had one, I don't suppose you know where she would have kept it?' I asked