missed the first time. Whatever negative things I could say about Ellen, she had been a master craftsperson.
'Can you believe Trish and Nicole called me?' Meredith said, referring to the knitting women from Encino. 'They were frantic about getting massages as soon as possible and grabbed the only bit of time I had available. I did them both at Trish's house. Before I'd even finished, they were trying to book me for a wedding shower one of them is giving.' Meredith chuckled. 'Ellen sure knew how to build an image. Those two women raved about the massages and were thrilled to pay me a fortune. When I think it used to take me days at the gym to earn what I did in a couple of hours with them . . .'
'That was certainly nice of Ellen,' Dinah said with just a touch of surprise in her voice.
'She came out okay. She and Lawrence got unlimited massages at no charge,' Meredith said.
'It wasn't just Ellen's publicity,' Sheila said, getting up and taking one of Meredith's hands. 'Your hands are magic.'
Meredith seemed pleased with the compliment. 'That's just what Trish said. You should see her house. It was biggerthan this place, and in the hills with a view to die for. She sure knew how to marry well.'
'You'll meet someone, dear,' CeeCee said reassuringly. She looked around at the rest of us. 'I didn't think of it untilnow, but Ellen was the only one of us who was married.'
Without thinking, I started to protest and say I was married,too.
CeeCee touched my arm. 'Dear, when your husband dies, you aren't married anymore.' I swallowed hard, realizingthat of course she was right.
CeeCee went back to her sorting. She opened another plastic bin, which was marked SAM, and pulled out a ball of tan yarn. It was a most unusual color, kind of like a latte made with whole milk.
Something about the color seemed familiar, but I couldn't place it.
'This is that special yarn Ellen used for her daughter's missing bag,' CeeCee said.
'So that's the stuff,' Adele said, examining it before putting it back into the bin.
Dinah and I kept checking the door for Natalie's return. I wasn't going to start snooping until I knew where everyonewas.
As if in answer to my thoughts, Natalie came through the door, seeming preoccupied. 'How long is this going to take?' The question wasn't directed at anyone in particular. CeeCee had gradually been assuming lead of the group, but apparently Adele wasn't giving up, and spoke first.
'It will take as long as it takes to find Ellen's completed squares,' she said with her hand on her hip. No one could accuse Adele of easing up on the attitude. Natalie didn't seem happy with the answer, but her cell phone rang and she walked out the French doors onto the side patio to answer the call.
It was the perfect time to make my move. I nodded to Dinah, then took out my cell phone, acting as if it had vibrated.'Oh, I have to take this,' I said to all of them. I was out the door and down the hall before anyone even reacted.
Once in the hall, I started to sprint. I had to be quick. My first stop was the home office. It looked the same as it had the day of the funeral, picked up but still in disorder. I checked the desktop, opened some drawers and thumbed through a pile of papers. There was nothing resembling a date book. Another possibility occurred to me. Ellen had already been out that morning, and if she kept her appointmentbook with her, maybe she'd never taken it out of her purse. After checking that the hall was empty, I moved on to the master bedroom. I knew from my own experience that Lawrence had probably left Ellen's stuff as it had been. Somewhere in an irrational part of your mind, you think the person might come back, and you want their things to be there.
The bed was made, but I noticed something that made me stop short. There were water glasses on both sides of the bed. When I felt them, both were cool to the touch, and there was condensation on the outsides, meaning the water was fresh. Had Lawrence had overnight company? It seemed really cold, with Ellen's clothes still in the closet and her gold necklace sitting on the dresser.
I turned on the light in Ellen's closet. It was like a cavernousroom. On one side all the hanging clothes were neatly organized on bars at various heights, with the back portion left for evening wear. The other side featured shelves filled with purses, shoes and color-arranged sweaters. There was a built-in dresser toward the door. As I looked around, I realized there was a flaw in my plan. If Dinah coughed way across the house, I wasn't going to hear it in here. To compensate,I tried to move faster.
If the appointment book was in a purse, it had to be the one she had used that day. I tried to remember what Ellen had been wearing when I found her, since she was the kind who still matched her purse to her outfit. But the memory of the awful purple-blue of her face blotted out any memoryof the color of her clothes. Then I noticed a black leather tote bag sitting on the dresser at the other end of the closet. I instantly recognized it as the bag she'd had at the bookstore that morning. Just as I started toward it, I heard noise coming from the bedroom. In a flash I turned off the light and froze. I recognized Lawrence's voice, but there was also a woman's.
What was he doing back?
And I had worried about being found behind the bush. Hanging out in Ellen's closet would surely be considered trespassing, attempted burglary and God knew what else. I didn't need a fortune-teller to tell me there would be handcuffsin my future, along with a trip to the police station. I could just imagine the delight in Detective Heather's eyes when she realized she finally had a reason to arrest me.
I could make out only every third word or so. Lawrence seemed to be giving instructions to the woman. InstinctivelyI moved all the way to the back and hid under a long evening dress. I was just in time, too, because Lawrence and the woman came into the closet. The dress was sheer enough for me to see the light when it went on. I was afraid to breathe.
By now I'd figured out that the woman was the housekeeper,and Lawrence was telling her to get some boxes and pack up some of Ellen's clothes. So he wasn't as sentimentalas I was, after all. The hangers scraped on the rod as he pushed things back and forth. The noise was getting louder, and it was obvious he was getting closer. One of the shortcomings of hitting middle age was that I couldn't fold myself up quite so small anymore, and I realized my feet were sticking out below the dress. I was really going to have to take up yoga or something.
I could see Lawrence's silhouette through the dress. I prayed he wouldn't look down as I twisted my feet sidewaysto hide them. It seemed like forever that he and the woman stood there, deciding what to pack up. Then, typicalLawrence, he ended the discussion abruptly and they headed back into the bedroom. I waited until there had been silence for a while before I made a move.
To my relief, the bedroom was empty, but when I peeked out into the hall, Lawrence was giving more directionsto the housekeeper. The only good thing was that his back was to me. I heard what sounded like a coughing fit, coming from somewhere across the house. It wasn't much help now.
I slipped back into the room, feeling trapped. A wave of panic made my head start to swirl, but I ordered it away with a few deep breaths. I scanned the room for a way to escape. The windows along the back seemed to be the only way out. Most of them didn't open, and when I found one that did, there was a screen to contend with. Climbing out wasn't that easy, either. Even though it was a one-story house, there was still a bit of a drop, and I landed on my butt. Then I had to put the screen back in place and hope that nobody noticed the open window anytime soon. All the climbing around left me feeling a little creaky.
Now that I was in the backyard, it seemed as if I was almosthome free. I crouched low to get below the window and inched my way across the side of the house. Then suddenlyI remembered the date book. Some detective I was. In my panic to escape, I'd forgotten about it. While beratingmyself for not checking the tote bag on my way out, I considered going back. But before I could make a move, I heard loud voices coming through one of the windows.
I recognized Lawrence's voice, and Natalie's and CeeCee's.
Apparently I wasn't the only one who had made a side trip. Lawrence had found CeeCee wandering around. She claimed she was looking for the bathroom, but I knew she was looking for another chance to go through the home officeto find the file that I was sure Natalie already had.
Natalie apologized to Lawrence, saying she'd been on a business call. He insisted that she make sure everyone stayed in the crochet room, then said he was leaving again.
I race-crawled the rest of the way to the little patio off the crochet room, wondering whether I should tell CeeCee that Natalie had what she was looking for. But I decided against it. I wasn't sure who the good guys or the bad guys were, and it would require way too much explaining.
When I stood up, I realized there were grass stains on my knees. I finger-combed my hair and hoped there weren't any smudges on my face. Then I slipped inside just as Natalie,with CeeCee in tow, came into the room
