edge of the table and was fiddling with her skirt. Her outfit would be perfect to wear if she went out with Koo Koo. She reminded me of a snow cone. Her gauzy skirt had strips of yellow that morphed into orange, red and finally a grapey purple. She had teamed it with a lime green peasant blouse.
“That’s why I have to find out who really did it.” I said it under my breath, but Adele heard it anyway and rolled her eyes.
“Well, I guess Sheila can relax then, since Nancy Marple Holmes is on the case.”
Let Adele make her comments, I thought. I had, after all, already solved one murder.
“CeeCee and I got the yarn for the shawls,” I said. I guess I knew what I was doing. I’m not proud of it, but between her gloating about the book signing, and making fun of my investigative abilities, I wanted a little revenge annoyance. She went off like a firecracker. How could we have gone without her since she was at least cohead of the group?
Adele insisted on seeing what we’d gotten immediately. There wasn’t a choice but to follow her as she took off toward the office. Once there she started rummaging through the large white plastic bags. She just kind of grunted until she looked inside the small one that had the things I’d bought for myself. She pulled out the tiny hooks and ball of ecru thread.
“Even you would know this wouldn’t work for shawls,” she said, waiting for an explanation.
It seemed like a perfect time to bring up what I’d seen on Drew’s desk handle. I asked her if she’d noticed anything.
“I was too busy trying to save Drew’s life. And if he hadn’t been dead, I would have.” She started to walk away but turned back to add, “My book event was so successful I bet Mrs. Shedd lets me do another one. I bet she lets me handle Milton Mindell. After all he is a kid’s author.”
I forced my mouth not to fall open. Mrs. Shedd wouldn’t. She couldn’t give Milton Mindell to Adele. I’d been the one who had convinced him to do his first signing at Shedd & Royal. I’d been the one who had run his appearances so well, he kept coming back. And I’d be the one to look bad if Adele messed things up. All the bookstores in the area wanted to get him away from us. And why not? He wrote a new book every three months, and kids ate up the combination of horror and humor. And when the kids came to one of his events they bought his new book, his old ones and other people’s books, too. A book event with Milton was like money in the bank.
All his good points came with a few drawbacks. Milton was a handful to deal with. His events were more like productions, and he insisted everything had to be his way. But I had managed just fine. And if I ran his upcoming appearance, it would be fine, too. After all the work I’d done it wouldn’t be fair to hand it over to Adele. But I kept the emotion out of my face and told Adele not to get her hopes up.
“We’ll see,” Adele said, walking away in a huff.
When I’d finished with the setup for the gardening event, I headed to the cafe for a red eye to recharge me for the night. The coffee with a shot of espresso always did the trick.
Patricia Bradford blocked my path. “Molly,” she gushed. “I want you to meet Benjamin.” He was nice-looking in a bland-brown-hair-and-even-features kind of way, and there was a definite warmth in his smile as he reached out to shake my hand. Patricia pulled him away before his hand made contact. “I want to show Benjamin where my book signing is going to be.” She led him toward the event area, explaining that, of course, there would be more chairs for her appearance.
My confusion must have shown in my face.
“Mrs. Shedd didn’t tell you, did she? She took one look at the new edition of
Benjamin patted her hand. “Honey, I think you’re a little frazzled. I’m sure you didn’t mean that to sound as demanding as it came across. You’ve said nothing but nice things about Molly, and I’m sure she’ll put it on the calendar.” He turned toward me and nodded. “By the way, Patricia told me about your group making shawls for the Women’s Haven. I guess she told you it’s my pet charity. I want to thank you.” Despite the bland looks, his dark eyes were sincere and he had some charisma.
Patricia hugged him. “You’re so right, hon. I am frazzled.” She hugged me next. “Of course, Benjamin is right. I know you’ll take care of everything.”
Benjamin walked toward some people looking at magazines and began introducing himself, while Patricia stayed close to me. “The whole thing at the Cottage Shoppe has left me feeling permanently upset. I can’t seem to get that picture of Drew Brooks out of my mind. And then all the questions by the police.” Patricia looked at me and sighed. “You realize you must have seen whoever did it.”
“We could have walked right by them,” I said. We both shuddered at the thought. I again brought up the bald man with the Harrods bag.
Patricia thought a moment. “Maybe I do remember him.” She looked up and saw Benjamin pointing toward the door. “We’ll talk about it again. We have to get to a fund-raiser at the country club,” she said and then followed her husband to the exit.
I finally got my red eye and added two of the just-baked chocolate cookies, which would have to suffice for dinner. I settled into one of the easy chairs by the window in the cafe and sipped my coffee. Bob took out a batch of carrot spice bars, and their sweet cinnamon scent mixed nicely with the pungent smell of fresh coffee. He brought one over and said my “dinner” needed some vegetables. It was a relief not to have to worry about anybody else’s meal. Morgan had her own stash of food, however low calorie, and took care of her own eating—or not eating. I’d already fed Blondie and Cosmo during a pit stop on the way back from the yarn store.
When I returned to the event area, a crowd had already started to fill in the chairs. Who knew so many people were into container gardening? My gaze stopped on two figures toward the back. They were a particular surprise.
“I didn’t expect to see you here,” I said, stopping next to Barry and his son Jeffrey. More than not expect, I didn’t want him here. What happened to the idea of some space in our relationship? It wasn’t enough he kept stopping by whenever he felt like it to take care of his dog—now he was frequenting bookstore events, too?
“I thought some plants might be, ah, nice on the patio. You know, they say dealing with nature is good for your soul.”
Jeffrey was looking at his father as if he were nuts. While Barry tried to come up with more reasons why they were there, Jeffrey pulled out a page from his school paper and handed it to me proudly. It was a review of the drama club’s production of
“Well, enjoy the program,” I said with a just a little roll of my eyes. “I expect to see your patio full of plants.”
I walked away, but Barry caught up with me and pulled me into the space between the bookcases in the travel section.
He held both my hands and tried to look me in the eye, but I avoided his gaze.
“Barry, I’m working,” I said, trying to pull away, but he had a tight grasp, probably from hanging on to all those suspects that tried to run off.
“Okay, maybe I’m not as interested in starting a container garden as I implied. But I needed to see you. How about we all get some dinner later?” When I didn’t respond right away, he clenched and unclenched his jaw a few times, a sure sign he was upset.
“Look, babe, I spent my afternoon telling a woman with two small kids that her husband had been killed. I need something positive to balance it off.” He was usually able to maintain a benign expression, but this time he looked drained.
I was a little stunned. Barry generally didn’t give away that many details about his job. Sometimes he looked more haggard and I knew he’d dealt with something particularly awful. And on the occasion when some case had worked out well, he seemed to have a sense of satisfaction. But it was usually reading between the lines on my part. Barry’s comments tonight were enough to get my full attention. I touched his shoulder.
“Can we talk about this later?” I said gently. I was on the lookout for Poppy. She wasn’t there yet, and it always made me nervous when authors cut it close.
He moved so his face was in front of me. “Please just give me a minute. This is important. You’re important. I can’t begin to tell you what it does for me to see you. It’s like I rejoin a world where people are happy and dogs
