By Hook or by Crook

she said: There was something Mary Beth and that woman wanted to hide.”

I kept walking, but Dinah stood her ground. I heard her make an exasperated snort and mumble something about it not being her fault if I ended up in the Catalina pokey. A moment later she caught up with me.

We walked into the small grocery store. There were a few shoppers and one cashier. She had curly black hair and a friendly smile. Her name tag was clearly visible on the red smock. I’d found Delia. Or more correctly, she found me.

“You’re the one the sheriff took in,” she said pointing at me. She had heard the whole story already, including my explanation that I’d dropped my keys. “The deputies don’t have a lot to do around here so they get real excited when they have an actual perp.” She punctuated her comment with a laugh and roll of her eyes. “I know what you’re really up to.”

I swallowed hard. “You do?”

“I may live on this tiny island, but I get around. It’s obvious you’re a PI investigating Mary Beth Wells’s death.”

I nodded and said nothing. She was right—almost. I was investigating and I was private, but I didn’t have a license nor had I been hired by anybody.

When I glanced toward the door, I saw the deputy from the day before stop outside the store. He clearly saw me—and his expression was grim.

He walked inside. “Aren’t you supposed to be gone?” he said, stopping next to me.

Delia made a gesture to wave him off. “Relax, Allen. She just stopped in to buy some snacks for the trip before she goes over town.”

At first I wondered at the comment but then remembered more of Adele’s travelogue. The islanders used the expression over town when they referred to going to the mainland.

“I’ll just be waiting outside to make sure you get to the dock okay,” he said.

As soon as he’d stepped back outside, Delia leaned over the counter.

“I don’t want you to get in trouble, so I’ll just tell you what I know. Mary Beth came in here to shop and she was always nice, though maybe a little distant. It was a different story with her cousin-in-law Matt Wells. What a doll—all personality and pretty good to look at, too.”

“There was something a long time ago. Mary Beth made a lot of trips with another woman—” I said, afraid she was going to get lost in talking about the cousin-in-law’s dreamy eyes or something.

“Oh, that’s what you want to know about? It was when Mary Beth first started coming to the island. I guess for the first year, she didn’t come because that husband of hers had the seasick problem, but then she started coming on her own. Mostly, she came with another woman. I don’t remember her name, just that it reminded me of a flower. They kept to themselves. I’m the only one who knew anything about them because they came in here to shop. And believe me, even I didn’t know much, except the woman with the flowery name had a baby here. Just popped it out at home with old Doc Bender assisting, or so his wife told me.

“That doesn’t happen much anymore,” Delia said with a dismissive wave. “Everybody goes to Long Beach. I’m guessing they were pretty quiet about it because the father wasn’t around, if you know what I mean. Back then people still felt some shame at having a baby and not having a husband.” Delia laughed and waved the air. “Not anymore. What with women going to sperm banks or having affairs just so they can get pregnant and then dumping the guy once he’s done his job.”

I noticed the deputy looking in at us. He was shifting his weight and obviously getting impatient. Delia launched into a rant about maternity clothes, rambling on about how women used to try to hide their condition. “Not like now where they’re all wearing tiny tee shirts that don’t even cover their baby bump. You should see them on the beach here in their bikinis,” Delia said in a disapproving tone.

I was beginning to get uneasy. How long would Officer Daniels continue to believe we were paying for some snacks? I rushed to speak. “So after that, did the three of them come back to the island a lot?”

“Who? The women in the bikinis?” Delia said, perplexed.

“No, no,” I said quickly, looking toward the door. The deputy was holding the handle. “I was talking about Mary Beth and the other woman.”

Delia shrugged and shook her head. “I never saw the woman or the baby again. And like I said, Mary Beth was always kind of aloof, so I couldn’t ask her.”

The deputy opened the door and pointed at his watch and then the water. It was time for our boat to leave, and I was pretty sure if we missed it, I’d see what the inside of the Catalina jail looked like.

I thanked Delia before Dinah and I left. The deputy followed us all the way to the boat and stood there until it pulled away from the dock.

“Hmm, you realize that gives the Sagittarius figure a new meaning,” Dinah said as we sat around one of the window tables on the boat. “It’s the baby’s sign.”

CHAPTER 14

“PINK?” ADELE SQUEALED WHEN I WALKED INTO the bookstore office. “They let you out, huh? I was just telling Mrs. Shedd about what happened and offering my services to take over for you until you got out of jail.”

Mrs. Shedd looked at both of us. “Molly, you certainly lead an interesting life. Adele said you’re in the middle of another murder. Well, actually she said you were in a muddle over a murder and you got caught breaking into a house.”

I gave Adele a frozen smile, and Mrs. Shedd continued. “You don’t have a felony on your record now or anything?”

“I wasn’t even arrested, just detained,” I said.

“I’m sure it was just a misunderstanding,” Mrs. Shedd said. “Catalina’s so small, they probably don’t even have a jail.”

“Believe me, they do.”

I was relieved when Mrs. Shedd dropped the subject and went back to bookstore business. She wanted to know if either of us had any idea who the subject of the Making Amends episode was going to be. “I heard a rumor that it’s Bob,” Mrs. Shedd said, glancing out the door of the office in the direction of the cafe. “Something about his father walking out on the family when Bob was three and now wants to come back into his life. What about you, Adele? Do you have some secret wrong that needs to be righted?”

“I sure do,” Adele said, glaring at me. I knew what she was thinking: Her big wrong was me getting the job she wanted.

Mrs. Shedd didn’t ask for any details and again urged us to cooperate with any of the TV people who came in. “This could be a major move for the bookstore. We could become a tourist stop,” she said, putting some things in her tote bag. “Well, I’m off. You two enjoy the day.”

Adele wanted to know how I had avoided getting arrested. I couldn’t tell whether she was disappointed or just interested. “Luckily, William came and picked the rest of us up since you weren’t around to drive us,” she continued. “He was waiting when we got off the boat.” I wondered if he would use the experience for his next book, Koo Koo Hangs Out at the Harbor.

Dinah and I had gotten off the boat and I’d dropped her home and come right to work. The caffeine jolt of the red eye she’d gotten me had worn off. I went into the cafe and ordered a black eye.

“Tough morning, huh?” Bob said, pushing the coffee with a double shot of espresso across the counter. I nodded as I picked it up.

Back in the bookstore, I took my drink to our television-and-theater section. There was a coffee table book about Lance Wells Sr., and I dragged it to one of our reading stations.

The black eye definitely cleared my mind, and my eyes were now fully opened. As I thumbed through the pictures, I recognized the inside of the house in Catalina. The windows had real curtains instead of the filet panels, and there were blank spaces on the walls where I’d seen the crocheted pictures. Lance Sr. was standing by the fireplace. There was a grace in the way he held himself. The copy below it mentioned the house in Catalina, which turned out to have a name: Paradise Found. It also mentioned that the dancer-actor often brought groups of people over for parties, and he entertained them with his magic tricks. It went on to explain he was fascinated with illusion and that the house had secret panels. I stared at the fireplace and suddenly knew why Mary Beth included it: There