turned to gather up our group, but they weren’t behind the food court sign. I did a three-sixty and still didn’t see them. I did notice that Emily and Madison had already been swallowed up by the crowd.
“Sorry,” Dinah said, squeezing between two teenage girls. The kids were holding hands and hanging on to her. “Bathroom stop.”
Adele appeared about the same time holding a bag from a women’s store. “We were just standing around,” she said by means of explaining. “I saw the perfect dress to wear to the book launch. I was just going to wear something I had, but that was before ...” She winked at me.
I threw up my hands at her wink and rushed ahead toward the parking lot. But when I got to the spot where Emily’s SUV had been parked, it was empty.
“We lost them,” I announced when the rest of them caught up with me a few moments later. Dinah put her head down and apologized again and then we turned toward Adele.
“Am I supposed to say I’m sorry, too?” she asked. We all nodded—even the kids. Adele seemed perplexed by the answer. “Okay, if it makes you feel better, Pink, I’m sorry you lost them.” She glanced back to the mall. “As long as we’re not in a hurry, there were some shoes that matched the dress.” Dinah shook her head in annoyance at Adele and told her if she didn’t watch it, we’d lose her.
“Don’t move,” I ordered Adele. I told them all to get in the car and wait. I had an idea.
I rushed back inside and retraced my steps to the Santa house. I checked elves until I found the right one. He was easy to pick out since he was kind of beefy and seemed more like Santa’s bodyguard than his helper. Under the makeup, he had a five o’clock shadow. There was something rough around the edges about him and I bet there were tattoos under the elf suit.
I mentioned seeing him talking to Emily and asked him what it was about.
“Who are you, the elf police?” he said in a grumpy voice. “You want to know anything, you have to get your picture taken. Or let’s just say you had your picture taken, if you get my drift.” He held out his green-gloved hand. I fumbled in my purse and pulled out a five and he shook his head. I found a ten and his shrug said that was acceptable, but barely. He looked over my shoulder at some kid sitting on Santa’s lap. “Hey, kid, I saw that. No pinching Santa. Do it again and you’re gonna get a sack of coal.” He turned back to me. “Kids ain’t what they used to be. Santa, either. He’s got a script now, you know. No more promising anything thanks to some idiot Joe suing the mall. Now it’s just he’ll see what he can do.” I asked him again about what he’d said to Emily.
“All I said was ‘The Grove.’ Whatever that means. I thought the guy who asked me to relay the message said Grover, like the Sesame Street character. You know, since he was talking to an elf and all. But he said no in an annoyed voice and made me repeat what I was supposed to say. Then he said he’d be watching to make sure I did it.”
“He did?” I said excited. “Is he still here?” I looked around and the elf did, too, but then he put up his green hands.
“Naw. Don’t see him.” I asked for a description, but the elf was getting impatient.
“Hey, lady, I didn’t really look at him. I was more interested in the fifty-dollar bill he laid on me. He was a guy, that’s all. I think he had on a baseball cap,” he said before walking away.
Dinah had managed to keep everyone in the car. I promised everyone snacks at the next stop no matter what. I told Dinah and Adele about my conversation with the elf and the message Emily had gotten.
“The Grove,” Dinah said with a exasperated sigh. “That’s all the way over the hill into the city and it’s rush hour. He couldn’t have picked another shopping area in the Valley.”
“All I could get out of the elf was that it was a guy maybe wearing a baseball cap who gave him the message for Emily. It could be Bradley,” I said as Dinah peeled out of the parking lot, heading for the 101. The most direct route was to take the freeway to the Laurel Canyon off-ramp and take the canyon into the city.
Traffic was thick as we started up the steep grade on Laurel Canyon Boulevard. At the top the road turned curvy as it threaded through the Santa Monica Mountains. The traffic clogged to a crawl as we passed Sunset Boulevard.
“I can’t believe Mrs. Shedd let you leave the bookstore to chase after your neighbor,” Adele said. I didn’t say anything, hoping she would drop it. I should have known—Adele never dropped anything. I heard a big
“Mrs. Shedd was in Perkins’ investment club, wasn’t she?” Adele didn’t wait for a confirmation. “Yes, that’s it.” She prattled on, wondering how much Mrs. Shedd had lost and then I heard her suck in her breath. “She didn’t lose the bookstore, did she?” When I didn’t say anything, Adele took it as an affirmative answer and got panicky. “Pink, you’ve got to do something,” she said. She glanced around as if the pieces were falling into place. “Mr. Royal doesn’t know, does he? Who’s the great detective now? Well, thank heavens William and I don’t keep secrets from each other.”
I guess she forgot about not being allowed in his writing room and his not mentioning anything about being A. J. Kowalski. By the time we turned off Fairfax Avenue into the shopping center driveway, Adele had forgotten her panic over the bookstore’s future.
“This is my fav shopping center,” Adele squealed as Dinah pulled into the entrance of the parking structure. “It’s like a little town,” she said to the rest of us as if we’d never been here. “The decorations must be amazing. The Nordstrom here is the best. You know this is where all the celebrities come to shop now.”
“No stopping until I say it’s okay,” I snapped.
Parking at The Grove was much more of a production than at either of the Valley malls. There were tickets to be had and a lot of levels and people directing cars to the level with open spots.
I figured that Emily and Madison had a head start on us, but since Dinah had driven like a race car driver, I was hoping we were close behind them. I was out of the car before Dinah had pulled all the way into a spot. I took out my BlackBerry as I ran to the escalator. I was ruthless, pushing through shoppers and baby strollers as I headed toward the Santa setup, figuring that was where they’d go.
Santa had his own gingerbread cottage here with Raggedy Ann and Andy handling the photos. I pushed through the throng of parents and kids waiting, while I surveyed the crowd. Someone brushed against me and I automatically turned. My breath stopped when I found myself face-to-face with Emily.
“Molly, what are you doing here?” When I looked down both she and Madison were empty-handed and going in the opposite direction. I studied the crowd ahead, looking for a man with a jewelry bag, but it was impossible to pick out anyone in the crowd.
I swore under my breath. They had won.
CHAPTER 17
MRS. SHEDD WAS IN THE FRONT OF THE STORE when Adele and I walked in. Dinah had just dropped us off and headed home with the kids. She had evening plans with Commander—this time the kids were included—and she was nervous.
“Well, how did it go?” Mrs. Shedd asked. Adele stepped in front of me and took over answering.
“We didn’t see the dead guy, but Pink thinks he’s alive because of what some elf told her.” Mrs. Shedd wasn’t smiling when she looked around Adele and our eyes met. “Don’t worry, I won’t tell Mr. Royal about the money you lost in the investment scam,” Adele said.
“How could you, Molly?” Mrs. Shedd said, her expression darkening. “I specifically told you I wanted to keep my situation a secret.”
For once Adele’s ego helped me. Adele insisted I hadn’t told her anything, she’d figured it out all by herself. “Pink’s not the only detective around here,” Adele said. Mrs. Shedd muttered something about the afternoon being wasted, but Adele held out her shopping bag. “No, it wasn’t. I got a new dress for the launch. I can’t wait to show it to William.” Adele kept giving me conspiratorial winks. Finally Mrs. Shedd asked her if she’d developed a twitch.
Adele looked horrified. “Of course not. Don’t you know a wink when you see it? It was just my signal to Pink about some special information we have.” Adele sighed. “And don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone who A. J. Kowalski really is and ruin the launch.” Adele fingered the little vampire hanging off her sweater.
“You know who the author is?” Mrs. Shedd asked.
Adele waited a beat to build up the suspense. “It’s William. My boyfriend.” Mrs. Shedd looked toward me and
