aimed at Sheila. Ever since the table had become a permanent fixture, so had she. Who could blame her? She lived in a rented room in a house in Woodland Hills. All his irritation was aimed at Mason, who was sitting next to Sheila and working on the red dog sweater for Spike.
“I thought you had the evening off,” Barry said to me.
“I would have if it hadn’t been for this afternoon,” I said, sitting up and trying to stretch the kinks out of my back. Barry gave Mason a dark look, apparently assuming my afternoon’s problems had involved him.
Mason put his hands up in innocence. “I had nothing to do with it. She forgot our plans, too.”
Barry glowered at the last comment. “I called your cell a bunch of times but just got your voice mail. What’s going on?”
“Really?” I said, fishing around for my cell phone. It had gone to silent, again. The screen flashed on and the message icon flashed. I put the phone on the table so I wouldn’t miss any calls, but it was kind of like shutting the door after the chickens got out. I looked at Barry. “I’m sorry that I forgot our dinner plans.” I nodded at Mason. “And I’m sorry I forgot I offered to help you with Spike’s coat.” I looked at both of them. “And I’m sorry I apparently made double plans. I’m sorry I didn’t answer my cell phone, too.” I let out a heavy sigh. “I’m tired,” I said, bringing up my aborted night’s sleep on top of a killer day on top of a two-day trip with Adele. “I thought I’d work through the afternoon and go home and crash. But life had other plans.” The three of them had concern in their expressions by now. I sounded pretty close to cracking.
“Okay, what happened this afternoon that changed everything?” Barry said, leaning on the table.
I explained about going home in the middle of the day to pick up the snowflakes, which as it turned out never got picked up. I described the scene with Emily and the paramedics.
“She told me that Bradley was dead, and then as they were loading her in the ambulance, she said her daughters needed to be picked up from school.”
“And you volunteered,” Barry said.
“What else could I do—leave the girls stranded at school? The couple in the suits certainly weren’t going to do it. They were already in their car.”
“Who were they?” Mason asked. I didn’t have an answer. They were gone before I had a chance to ask them and Emily had a few other things going on.
“So, what happened to the Perkins guy?” Barry prodded.
“I didn’t find out until later. I picked up her girls and went by the hospital. Emily was ready to be released. They’d determined she hadn’t hit her head and had just passed out from shock.” I described driving them all home with a side stop at a fast-food drive-thru.
“She told her daughters she’d taken a misstep off a ladder while trying to finish putting up the Christmas lights. She didn’t say anything about Bradley to them, so I guess they still thought he was away on a business trip. They bought the story about the ladder and she got them to take their merry meals into the den. When we were alone she dropped the cheerful pretense and took a letter out of her pocket and handed it to me. The torn envelope looked benign. It was addressed to her and postmarked Long Beach. The letter was anything but benign. Emily began to cry as I read it over.”
I took a deep breath, feeling my stomach clench at remembering the note. “It was a suicide note. He said by the time she read it, he’d be gone. That’s why he bought the one-way ticket on the Catalina Express. He knew it would be dark and not crowded and nobody would notice him go off the back of the boat. And why? He said he’d gotten in over his head with his business and this was the only honorable thing to do.”
I described how helpless I felt watching her holding herself and rocking back and forth. How I wished there was something to say to comfort her. Charlie’s death had been sudden and it had been hard to deal with, but he’d had a heart attack. Not the same as choosing to die.
“She had a momentary glimmer of hope. The note had said what he planned to do. Maybe he’d changed his mind. But when she checked her phone messages, there was one from the customer service people at the boat company. A wallet and cell phone had been found left on the evening boat the night before.”
I told them that Emily called the police officer she knew. He was the one who’d been there when the meter reader had mentioned the smell coming from my house. Since he knew Bradley from his daughter’s soccer team, she thought he could help her. I leaned back in my chair and tried to summon some energy. “I didn’t get back to the bookstore until this evening.” I didn’t mention how I had doubted Emily’s story before. Her reaction to the letter seemed genuine and the balance went toward believing her.
In my peripheral vision I noticed William had come up to the table.
“Somebody probably got in touch with the coast guard. I imagine they made a sweep,” Barry said. “But after that amount of time, and that amount of ocean, and sharks ...” Barry’s shrug said it all. They wouldn’t find anything. I was surprised when he offered to check it out to be sure. Mason didn’t take that information well. I think he was happier when Barry told me to stay out of things and Mason got to be the ear I turned to and my source for information.
Barry pulled out his phone and went off into the corner. William was too polite to interrupt and only now, when there was a lull in the conversation, said hello.
“If you’re looking for Adele, she isn’t back here,” I said.
“She’ll probably show up here any minute,” the clown author said with a knowing smile. “What’s going on? I heard you say something about the coast guard.”
I started to explain about Bradley, but as predicted Adele swept into the department and latched arms with his. I finally got it all out, even what was in the suicide note.
“That’s terrible,” William said.
“You’re so right, honey,” Adele added. “Those poor little girls, even if he wasn’t their real father. He won’t be there to take them to your next Koo Koo event.” She gave William’s arm a tug. “We better go if we’re going to make our dinner reservation.”
Barry returned just as they were walking away and said the coast guard had initiated a search by boat and aircraft for a possible person in the water and so far had found nothing. “There’s nothing more for you to do.”
Mason nodded in response to Barry’s comment, though Barry was trying to ignore his presence. Sheila had stopped crocheting as she listened to the story and the tension showed in her eyes.
“How strange. I just heard somebody talking about Perkins this morning, Sunshine,” Mason said. “I was getting a coffee to go at the French cafe and overheard two guys at one of the tables. One of them had funny hair and was telling the other one that Perkins had some magic system with investments. I remember thinking it sounded like the guy with funny hair worked for Perkins. You know, drumming up business.”
Barry grimaced both at the nickname Mason called me and the information he was offering.
I sat back and looked at my elephant project. I’d started working on the head, but the last round was inconsistent. “That’s it. Time to go. I can barely see straight and my stitches are horrible,” I said. I packed up my yarn work to take with. Barry said he’d follow me. Mason claimed to be at a crucial spot with his dog sweater and said he needed help and asked if he could follow me, too. Sheila had a forlorn look as the three of us got ready to leave.
“Why don’t you join us?” I said. Before I’d gotten
A short time later the caravan of cars pulled in front of my house.
As soon as we all got inside, Barry made me sit down on the couch. Mason said he’d take care of dinner. Sheila volunteered to take care of the animals. The events of the past few days had caught up with me big time and I felt exhausted. The doorbell rang a short while later and I caught a glimpse of a delivery guy bringing in a box. The smell of hot food wafted across the living room and my stomach responded with a hungry gurgle.
Every time I started to get up to help, one of the three told me they had it covered. Mason had ordered from the local Thai restaurant. Sheila made up a plate of pad thai, curried rice, big noodles in gravy and yellow curry made with tofu and brought it to me. I wasn’t used to being waited on but had to admit it felt good. Mason, Barry and Sheila joined me in the living room with plates of food. The conversation went back to Bradley.
“I don’t know where Perkins got the idea killing himself was the
“I wonder if his wife realizes that whatever mess he made is probably going to fall in her lap,” Mason said.
Sheila was quiet and I knew all this was stirring up her own issues. She’d been brought up by a grandmother
