the loss of his brother. Kevin asked some questions about how long it would take to put on the addition and said he needed to be able to stay open during the remodel.
I was so busy listening I almost forgot where I was and started to shifted around to a more comfortable—no strike that, less uncomfortable position. My legs were beginning to hurt from being jammed under my chin. I started to stretch them out, but quickly realized they’d stick out past the end of the desk and probably be in plain sight. Forcing myself not to groan, I wrenched them back. Didn’t they want to take their discussion downstairs where they could actually see the areas Kevin wanted changed? I thought longingly. Then I could get up and stretch and we could make our escape.
No such luck. Instead Kevin sat down at his desk, though thankfully he didn’t pull his chair in or stick his legs underneath. I had squeezed sideways now so as to take up less space. I peeked under the bottom of the modesty shield and noticed something was moving. I was so contorted by now I could have auditioned for the Cirque du Soleil, but I saw that Dinah had come out from behind the love seat and was crawling against the wall toward the door. Mr. Work Boots was standing in front of the desk and must have been blocking Kevin’s view of her because they just kept talking like nothing was going on. Work Boots was saying he needed a check to get started, and judging by the drawer opening, Kevin was going to give it to him. I watched Dinah’s feet disappear out the door.
Kevin kept talking—and not getting up from his desk. I was beginning to feel a little panicky, like maybe I’d never get out of here, or worse, be discovered. Then I heard the scrape of his chair as he pulled it closer to the desk. I turned and saw that his knees were moving under the desk and any second they were going to hit me.
And for the life of me, I couldn’t come up with a valid reason I could give for being there.
My heart was pounding and the adrenalin rushing, but it wasn’t a good feeling this time—more like it was making me nauseous. I took a few deep breaths and prepared to face the consequences. His knees were so close I could smell the cleaning fluid from his pants. I battened down my personal hatches and prepared to hear him scream when his knees made contact.
There was a sound all right and it was loud, but it wasn’t human.
CHAPTER 10
KEVIN’S SHOES TOOK OFF LIKE A SHOT IN RESPONSE to the loud whine. Mr. Work Boots followed close behind. I gave them a moment, then race crawled out from under the desk. When I got downstairs there was pandemonium as everyone was rushing out the back door.
I followed the crowd and found Dinah standing with the others in the parking lot.
“Thank you, thank you, thank you,” I said hugging her.
“You didn’t think I’d just leave you there. It’s lucky I was listening when Dorothy mentioned the alarm on the back door. All I had to do was push the door and it went off,” Dinah said, glancing around at the frantic faces of the group in the parking lot. “Though, I just wanted to create a distraction, not cause a panic.”
Kevin moved through the former shoppers, checking everyone to see if they were holding any merchandise. Dorothy was leaning against the building, looking very pale.
“I suppose everyone overreacted because of the murder,” I said as Kevin stopped in front of a woman in designer jeans and heels, holding a lamp. Judging by his body language, I suspected that he thought she’d tried to leave with the lamp and set off the alarm in the process. Too bad he didn’t take the time to think it through. I mean, if she was trying to steal a lamp, would she just hang around waiting to get caught?
In the distance I heard the whine of sirens. “Uh-oh. We better get out of here,” I said, grabbing Dinah’s hand. We took off and as we ran, we both got the giggles. By the time we reached the bookstore cafe, we were breathless and laughing so hard, tears were running down our cheeks.
“What’s up? You two look like you just did something naughty,” Bob said as we both flopped into chairs at a table by the window.
“Us?” I said with my best innocent, middle-age widow look, which made us both start laughing all over again. Bob shook his head with disbelief as a hook and ladder roared past the window.
Bob was very serious about his barista duties, and his round body shape suggested that he did a lot of taste testing of the cookies. He had a small clump of hair on the bottom of his chin that looked like a shaving mistake. Is that even called a beard? And he always reminded us that he was working on a screenplay—some kind of alien adventure story. Maybe the idea for his face hair came from that.
When we finally regained our composure, I tried twisting my body to get the kinks out. “It wasn’t fun being squished under that desk,” I said.
Bob brought us drinks and some cookie bars he’d just made using a recipe of mine. Since I’m only a marginal chocolate fan, they were more or less chocolate chip cookie bars without the chocolate chips. Instead I added more nuts and bits of dried apricot. After seeing our condition, Bob must have figured we’d had enough caffeine, so he brought us both camomile tea.
We looked out the window and saw the hook and ladder had pulled around the corner from the Cottage Shoppe. Two firemen had jumped off and were headed toward the front door carrying axes. Most of the shoppers had left, but a few were hanging around to watch what was going on.
“I guess someone must have freaked when the alarm went off and called for the works,” Dinah said, wincing with guilt. A rescue ambulance stopped in front of the store and another fire truck followed. Two police cruisers came from the other direction and barely stopped before the doors flung open and four uniforms popped out. A black Crown Victoria pulled up and Detective Heather got out of the driver’s side as her partner got out on the other side. Instinctively, I shrank back from the window as if her detective eyes could pick me out from across the street and a half a block down.
Maybe she couldn’t boil an egg, but she could sure wear a suit—though I couldn’t imagine how she functioned in the pencil skirt and the heels. Barry occasionally made reference to some of the ucky places he had to go. Places with bugs and rodents, and he wasn’t talking butterflies and field mice. Personally, I’d want to wear armor.
Kevin Brooks came out and met up with the emergency people. It appeared there was lots of pointing and apologizing. All the uniforms headed back to their various vehicles. Detective Heather made no move to leave and continued talking to Kevin. Her appearance wasn’t lost on him. Even from across the street, I could tell he’d be glad to do any egg boiling necessary. I was relieved to see he had apparently let the lady with the lamp go and was now holding it himself.
“I suppose it must be a shock to her that she can’t get Barry. She does have a lot going for her besides looks,” I said, watching her conversation. “She’s smart, focused, ambitious and—”
“Cold as an iceberg,” Dinah said, finishing my sentence.
We ate the cookie bars but shunned the tea as we watched the hook and ladder roll past the window, shaking the floor as it went. Neither of us wanted to do anything to mess with the nice afterglow of the adrenalin rush.
“What’s going on?” Even though the voice was coming from behind us, I recognized the speaker as Adele. When I turned, she was standing next to the table, following my gaze. Lately, she’d been getting a little more serious about her clothes. They were still outrageous, but ever since the Koo Koo the Clown signing, she’d been going for blander colors. I called this outfit the Butterscotch Kiss. She had on pants and a top in a dark golden yellow with a crocheted scarf the same color tied around her head. She’d barely mentioned their date except to say he really liked her, but she wasn’t into dating a clown, even if he was a published one.
“Somebody went out the back door of the Cottage Shoppe and set off an alarm and the cavalry was called in,” I said. My lips started to quiver as I looked at Dinah, and I had to fight to keep the giggles from coming back.
“How come you know so much about it?” Adele sounded jealous that we knew what was going on rather than interested in the answer. She sat down at the table before we had a chance to invite her to join us. Leaving out our little side trip upstairs, I told her we’d gone over there to check out the specials. I gestured toward the banners on the windows.
“And probably snoop, too,” Adele said. “Pink, I know how you operate.” Shocked, I turned my head toward her, thinking she knew what we’d done, but then I realized she meant
