CeeCee passed around the snowflake pattern she had and everyone agreed to make some. I went off to make more copies. When I came back, Sheila had arrived and Adele was just taking out balls of black and white. They were attached to something, and I realized she was making Elise’s vampire scarf. She announced she was making it for her boyfriend, William.
Rhoda couldn’t contain herself. “Enough with repeating that Koo Koo is your boyfriend. We get it.”
CeeCee reached over and picked up Adele’s work and examined it. “I think I’ll make one for Hugh,” she said. She didn’t need to add
“What kind of vampire crochets?” Rhoda said under her breath. Then she answered her own question. “A foofie one.”
We all kept looking toward the front, but Elise never showed up. But someone else did. Emily and the women I’d seen in her den the night before walked into the yarn area. Everyone looked up automatically when someone entered our yarn area, even though I’d tried to get the group to be a little less territorial. One of these days some knitters were going to come in during our meeting and I didn’t want a scene.
I introduced Emily to everyone and she turned to the woman with her. “This is Bradley’s sister, Madison. She crochets, too.” Now that I knew who she was, I saw the resemblance. She had the same reddish hair and lean shape. But she didn’t have same magnetic personality of her brother, although from what I’d been learning, having his outgoing nature wasn’t necessarily a positive.
Everyone knew about Bradley’s suicide and they offered their condolences to the pair. Adele added something extra. She wanted to know if Madison was the one who’d made the afghan, and when she nodded, Adele laid into her.
“It was a good idea, but I think you made a lot of mistakes,” Adele said.
Madison seemed surprised by Adele’s comments and said she’d actually made another version of the afghan. Adele wanted to see it and Madison went to the car and got it. She laid it out on the table. I knew right away that it was what she was working on the night before at Emily’s house. It was green like the other one but made in one piece and the flowers were bigger and fewer.
It took a moment for Madison to recognize CeeCee. She got all flustered and said she was a big fan of CeeCee’s reality show,
“There are supposed to be swatches on all the bins,” Adele said before offering to help her.
Madison said she knew what she wanted and went over to a bin of royal blue wool she said she wanted for felting. CeeCee complimented Madison on her choice and said it had worked for her.
Once the pair left, the group went back to work. I kept looking for Elise, but she never showed. When we finally broke up, I got ready to walk Dinah and the kids outside.
“Here, Aunt Molly,” Ashley-Angela said, holding out the chain she and her brother had made. “You could put it in the window till you get all the snowflakes you need.”
I hadn’t realized they were listening. I was touched and said I’d find a special place to display it.
The sky definitely said winter with its leaden gray color. The kids pulled on their hoodies and zipped them up. I smelled moisture in the air as we walked to Dinah’s car and wondered if it was going to rain. This was our season for it. She was parked next to a black Element, and as soon as I saw the bumper sticker about being citizen of the month at Wilbur Avenue Elementary, I thought it was probably Emily’s. I glanced at it as Ashley-Angela got in Dinah’s car and saw something sitting on the driver’s seat. It was the shopping bag from the jeweler’s. I called Dinah and pointed it out to her.
“It’s strange that she’d be driving around with it,” I said.
“Maybe she’s giving it to his sister,” Dinah said.
“And in exchange the sister is giving her a hastily made afghan that barely resembles one she gave away and didn’t like to begin with,” I said.
“Where’s my truck?” E. Conner said, tugging on Dinah’s sleeve. I said it was probably still on the table and offered to get it.
I went in the store and found the truck. On the way back, I looked in the cafe. Emily and Madison were sitting at a table. There were drinks on the table, but only Madison seemed interested in hers. They weren’t talking or even looking at each other. Emily was holding her wrist and kept checking her watch. Suddenly I got it and rushed back to the car.
“I think I know why the watch is in the car. What if they’re planning to meet someone and that someone happens to be Bradley?” I said as I handed E. Conner his truck. “No way would he show up here. They have to be going to him.”
“What should we do?” Dinah asked.
“We could follow them,” I said. Dinah hesitated a minute, looking at the kids. I knew she was concerned for their safety.
“They’ll be fine. It’s not like we’re going to shoot it out with Bradley if we find him.” I bent down closer to the kids’ level and asked if they wanted to go for a ride. No surprise, they said yes.
Dinah’s silver Honda blended in with all the other silver cars and was perfect to follow someone in, unlike the greenmobile, which blended in with nothing.
“I’ve got to tell Mrs. Shedd,” I said. I rushed back into the bookstore and found my boss. She was straightening up the Anthony area. More books had come in and she had taken some more things from the yarn area and added them to the table. There was also a small sign saying there was more of Anthony’s favorite yarn in our new yarn department.
“Do you think the sign’s too much? I wouldn’t want to upset the author. I’m sure he’ll see it when he comes in,” she said.
“You said
“I have an idea. I’m sure you have someone you think it is, too. In my case it’s a he, so that’s how I’m referring to him until I know otherwise.” Two women came up to the display and Mrs. Shedd smiled as they picked up two copies of the books and, after looking at the sign, headed toward the back of the store.
When I looked up I saw Dinah standing outside her car waving her arms and it brought back why I was there. “I need to leave for a while,” I said in a gush.
Mrs. Shedd’s face clouded with concern. “This isn’t the best time. Could you wait a—” I was shaking my head before she finished.
“I think Bradley Perkins might be alive. I’m trying to find out or sure,” I said, getting right to the point.
“By all means, go then,” she said. Adele had just stepped next to Mrs. Shedd.
“Where’s Pink going?” Adele said as I walked toward the door without looking back. I was out the door, when she caught up.
Dinah’s waving had gotten more frantic by the time I got outside. She’d moved the car away from Emily’s Element and was pointing toward it. Emily and Madison were in the process of getting in. I sprinted toward Dinah’s car with Adele hanging on to my purse strap.
I pulled open the passenger door and got in quickly. Adele stood by the car a second before Dinah and I both yelled at her to get in the backseat.
Adele hadn’t quite gotten the door closed before Dinah put the car in gear. Emily had already backed out and was almost to the driveway that went onto Ventura Boulevard. I heard something like a yelp of surprise coming from the backseat and I twisted to see what was going on.
Adele had just realized Ashley-Angela and E. Conner were in the backseat with her. She might run story time, but Adele’s basic opinion about children was that they were from an alien planet. We were stuck in the line of cars waiting to exit onto the street and I offered Adele the chance to change her mind now that she saw who her seat companions were, but she declined, saying Mrs. Shedd had wanted her to go with me.
“She did?” I said. “Why?” The car was on Ventura now and Dinah was frantically trying to get close to the Element. Up ahead I could see the SUV had its right turn signal on.
