Hooked on Murder: A Crochet Mystery

When Barry didn't call later or stop over, it became apparentthat we had. Being older didn't make it any easier to deal with. Maybe I hadn't wanted the committed relationshiphe did, but I didn't want no relationship, either. I played depressing music, made myself a large, gooey hot fudge sundae and spent a tough night alone. Was Barry inviting Detective Heather on our trip right now? I couldn't get the picture of them on a moonlit beach out of my mind. I thought about calling Dinah, but it was far too late.

I forced myself to get a grip. I got my hands busy crochetingsquares and got my mind off Barry by thinking about the two crime scenes. At least mostly off Barry, anyway.No matter how much I tried to focus my thoughts on how odd it was that I had ended up at both scenes, he kept popping up. Was I wrong for making such an issue out of his assuming things? I forced my thoughts back on the two crime scenes, and something flitted through my mind. I had a feeling of some similarity, something about smell. I rubbed my temples. All this thinking had given me a headache.

I HAD THE NEXT DAY OFF. EVEN THE CROCHET group didn't meet. CeeCee had some appointment and insistedwe couldn't meet without her. I buried myself in work around the house and rearranged Peter's old bedroom into a crochet room for myself. It wasn't as elaborate as Ellen's, but I used Peter's bookcase to store my yarn, arranged by color. I'd been buying crochet books like crazy, and I put them all on a shelf. I moved a comfortable chair in and vowed to get one of those fancy lamps that offeredfull-spectrum light. When it was done, I sat in the chair and made a square. But as evening approached, I beganto feel glum. I missed Barry's stopovers.

Even though I went into the bookstore early the next day, I stayed until closing, trying to keep busy, which was hard. There was no book signing to handle, and there weren't even many shoppers. In the last hour, I felt more like a maid than like an events coordinator as I gathered up abandoned coffee cups and put the magazines in their rightful spots. As I was doing a final walk-through, I saw Adele sitting in the children's department. She was on one of the minichairs, which put her knees somewhere in the vicinity of her chin. She looked kind of forlorn in spite of the red outfit and black and white striped tights. She was crocheting one of her double-size squares.

'It looks nice,' I said, coming up next to her. I glanced around the empty bookstore. 'I think Mrs. Shedd should rethink staying open so late; there's no business.'

I expected some zinger from Adele, but all she did was blink.

'Welcome to my little corner of the bookstore,' she said in an unhappy voice.

'Why don't I get my crochet stuff?' She barely nodded as I left to get my things from the office.

After I turned the open sign to closed and made sure the door was locked, I joined her, almost dislocating my knee as I sat on the small chair. As lousy as I felt, Adele seemed worse. She looked as though she needed to hear something nice, so I complimented her on the piece she was working on.

'Pink, cut the pity compliments.' She sighed. 'I've been sitting here thinking about Natalie. We went to the same noon executive kickboxing class at Women's WorkoutWorld. We were friends, you know.'

I was having trouble wrapping my mind around Adele in a kickboxing class, but when she mentioned being friends with Natalie, it interrupted my mental picture. When Nataliehad stopped by the crochet group, she hadn't talked to Adele. Maybe she had nodded some kind of acknowledgmentat Adele, as if she had recognized her, but it was hardly a greeting between friends. I felt a clutch in my heart as I realized that might be as close to a friend as Adele had. On another note, it made me wonder about her relationship with her 'hunk.' Did he even know she considered him a boyfriend?

I felt bad about all of my previous frustration with her and vowed to act differently. I took out a J hook and began making yet another granny square. What kept it from gettingboring, aside from my sheer joy at knowing how to make one, was varying the colors. This one was going to be rose, pink and cream, bordered in black.

'This is nice, just the two of us crocheting together,' I said, feeling a wave of kindness toward her.

She made a grunt of agreement and nodded. 'It's better than being stuck here with a bunch of kids with runny noses who hate me. I don't think I can face one more story time.'

'I'm sure they don't hate you.'

'I'm just not good at it.'

'We all have days when we feel like that. Don't sell yourself short. Mrs. Shedd thinks the kids' department is doing very well. And that's all because of you.' I began to think the whole adversarial relationship with Adele had been my fault, and I was glad that I was fixing it.

'Ha, Pink, you can't fool me. Look at you. You never have days like that. You have friends and a family. Even your crochet stuff isn't that bad.'

'You really think so?' I waited to see whether she'd add a zinger, but instead she pulled out a sell sheet for Uncle Harry's Idea Factory.

'How am I ever going to put on a story time for this book?'

I read over the sell sheet and handed it back to her. I gave her some hints such as having the kids do some of Uncle Harry's ideas, preferably ones that weren't messy. I quickly read through the copy again. 'Here you go-- Charades. Have them play Charades.' To my surprise Adele hugged me.

My cell rang, and since the store was closed, I answered it. It was Dinah. We'd been playing phone tag all day.

'No, no, there's nothing important to talk about,' I said, looking toward Adele. We might have had a warm moment, but I wasn't ready to let on about Barry in front of her. 'Tomorrow.Right. We'll go to Century City like we planned.' I glanced Adele's way. She gave me her sad look and mutteredsomething about having the afternoon off, too.

'If I went with, I could show you this fabulous yarn store,' she said.

When I got off the phone, she said something about how nice it would be to have a girlfriend trip. She had a sad puppy-dog look, and the yarn store sounded promising, so I invited her to come along. She said yes right away.

I was feeling all good inside about our moment, thinkingwe'd at last torn down the walls between us. We would be friends from now on. I picked up my stuff and went through the bookstore, turning off the lights and shutting down the air. I met Adele at the front.

'Pink, your ideas for the kids' thing were perfect. You should be doing those events, not me. How about we switch jobs?'

Okay, so maybe things hadn't changed.

'We have to pick someone up,' i said to Dinah as I got in her car the next morning. When I explainedit was Adele, Dinah looked surprised and none too happy. 'What's that about?'

'You should have seen her last night,' I said before givingDinah the rundown on Adele's and my moment. 'And then she went back to her usual self. Unfortunately I'd alreadyinvited her.'

'Is there something else wrong?' Dinah gave me a funny look. I swear she had some kind of best-friend radar.

We were almost at the bookstore, where we were meetingAdele. 'I waited because I thought it was just a fight, but Barry and I broke up.' It felt good to finally say it out loud to somebody.

'What?' she squealed as we pulled into the parking lot. Adele was waiting outside. Who could miss her, in her orangewarm-up suit and the purple scarf she'd fashioned into a headband?

'Adele doesn't know, and I'm not talking about it in front of her. I'll give you details later.' The last word was barely out of my mouth when Adele jumped into the backseat.

This trip into the city was supposed to be a change for all of us. There was a different feeling on the other side of the hill, as it was referred to. I don't know why it was called over the hill since it was really over the mountains.

Dinah got on the 101 and then took the 405 through the Santa Monica Mountains. We'd timed it so that traffic wasn't bad, which meant that it was at least moving. When Adele started giving Dinah driving tips, I knew I'd made a mistake in inviting her.

'Any word on what's going to happen to the PR firm now that Natalie's gone?' Adele asked.

I repeated what Derek the rental agent had said about Lawrence folding the PR firm into his company.

'Hmm, then they'll be needing some new people. Maybe I should apply,' she said, adjusting the purple scarf headband. 'I'm probably just what he's looking for.'

I just nodded and let her think whatever made her happy.

Every chance she could, Dinah slipped me a look of concern and squeezed my hand. I knew she was