with the multicolored flowers, I reminded her that she had told me to give it to some charity sale. I pulled CeeCee into the conversation to explain.
“You passed on that afghan, didn’t you?” I asked. CeeCee nodded and said she’d given it to the Hearts and Barks holiday sale.
“But the sale hasn’t taken place yet, has it?” Emily said with desperation in her voice. She reached toward CeeCee and I thought she was going to grab her. I was struck by the change in my neighbor. The pleasant-looking suburban mom had been replaced by a wild-eyed woman. Now she looked gaunt.
“Well, no, dear,” CeeCee said, edging out of Emily’s reach. “It’s in a few days, but the display has already been set up and the insiders have had a chance to look at everything. I think someone put a hold on it. It would really be bad form to take it back now.”
“You have to get it back.” Emily’s voice had risen to almost hysterical. “I’ll pay whatever price was put on it plus twenty bucks.”
CeeCee shook her head and Emily made a move toward her, and this time it was clear she was going to grab the actress. I stepped in to protect CeeCee, assuring Emily I’d get the blanket back for her.
“What was that about?” Dinah said, coming in at the end of the exchange just before Emily and her daughters made a fast exit. Ashley-Angela and E. Conner were clutching my friend’s sweater and taking in their surroundings. When they realized they were standing next to Koo Koo, they started jumping up and down. I thought they would faint with excitement when he offered to escort them into the children’s area.
I brought Dinah up to speed, and then told CeeCee even if it was bad form, she had to get the blanket back.
“You’re too nice,” CeeCee said. “There’s a name for what she’s doing. I’d say it, but it’s not politically correct these days.” She looked around, no doubt checking for any paparazzi who might catch her in the faux pas. When I stood firm, CeeCee pulled out her cell and said she’d see what she could do.
“It’s not totally about being nice,” I said to Dinah. “Think about it. She didn’t care about the afghan before— she didn’t even like it. Now suddenly she has to have it back. There’s something going on with it, and I am sure it has something to do with Bradley.” I reminded Dinah that when we’d followed Emily to the malls, she’d had the watch and an afghan, and even if Barry had tried to convince me there was no proof she’d actually connected with her supposedly dead husband, I was sure she had.
Dinah and I headed toward the kid’s department. She wanted to check on Ashley-Angela and E. Conner and I wanted to see what Adele had set up for the event.
“But if she already took him an afghan—why another one?” We crossed onto the carpet with the cows jumping over the moons. I was surprised at all that Adele had done. Handling story time had been the consolation prize Mrs. Shedd had given her when I was hired to arrange the bookstore’s events. Adele had been less than thrilled with it and kids in general, but maybe being the girlfriend of an important children’s author, as she referred to William, had changed her. Or maybe it was all about helping him sell more books. William as Koo Koo was standing adjacent to a display of the full Koo Koo library. Adele had also set up a table with a dreidel and was inviting the kids in the area to play.
She held up the four-sided top and showed the kids the Hebrew letters on the side. She let each of the kids take ten silver-wrapped chocolate candies. The way the game was played each of them put one of their chocolates in the pot, then someone got a turn to spin the dreidel. When it stopped and fell, depending on which letter showed on top, the player would get nothing, get to take all the candies in the middle, get to take only half of them or have to add one of their candies to the pot. Then the next person got their turn and so on around the table. At the end of the game whoever had the most candies was the winner.
Once the kids took their candies and began to play, we continued our conversation and Dinah repeated her question about why another afghan if she’d already taken him one.
“I’ve been thinking about that. When Emily first told me about Bradley being missing, she said one of the things they had argued about was that the afghan was missing. She had thought he was just angry about everything and had thrown in that comment.” I mentioned how she had said she didn’t even think he liked it. He had been the one to stick it in a drawer. “But suppose he really was upset she had lent the afghan to me.” A thought struck me and it was one of those moments when I knew I had hit the truth. “Someone came into my house right after he disappeared. Suppose it was Bradley looking for the afghan?”
“What about the second time someone broke in?” Dinah asked in a low voice.
I thought it over a moment and realized it was the same night I’d seen the motorcycle in the Perkins’ driveway. The motorcycle Emily denied was there. “That could have been Bradley, too.”
“Obviously Emily didn’t know whatever it is about the afghan that makes it so important or she wouldn’t have lent it to you.”
“Right. She said his sister had made it, so maybe she just thought he wanted another one made by her,” I said. “Like it had some kind of sentimental value like the watch.”
“But it wasn’t about the sentiment,” Dinah said. Her voice started to rise, but she forced it back to a whisper.
In the end we came up with two conclusions. There was something hidden in the afghan and once Emily had it back, she was going to get it to Bradley.
CHAPTER 19
CEECEE CALLED ME AT THE BOOKSTORE THE NEXT day. She wailed on about what a production it had been and how embarrassing for her, but she had gotten the afghan back. She said she would bring it to the next Hookers’ meeting. I didn’t want to wait and said Dinah and I would come to pick it up. CeeCee hesitated, at first anyway. It took a certain amount of bribery for her to agree.
“Did I mention I’d be bringing cookies?” I said. “Homemade butter cookies.”
“Well, I wouldn’t want those cookies to go to waste,” CeeCee said before setting up a time.
I had already spent the morning clearing up the bookstore from the previous night’s festivities and was going to take off for a while since I was working in the evening until closing. Ashley-Angela and E. Conner were at a play date with the neighbors and Dinah had come by to meet me for lunch.
We dropped our lunch plans and flew to my house to make the offered cookies. It took no time as I had mixed the dough up a couple of days earlier and formed logs and put them in the refrigerator. It was the same recipe I used for my showstopper stained glass cookies. When I made those I rolled out the dough and used cookie cutters and mashed up hard candy to make them live up to their name. For CeeCee’s, I just sliced them, sprinkled on some red sugar and baked them. Within a half an hour we were out the door with a plate of warm cookies minus a couple that Samuel had snatched.
I pulled the greenmobile to the side of the road in front of the wrought-iron fence surrounding CeeCee’s property. I got the cookies and we went up to the intercom on one of the stone pillars on either side of the gate. In the old days, the gate was unlocked, but the price CeeCee paid for her renewed success was the need for security.
The pillars were beautifully decorated with pine fronds and red bows. Once we announced ourselves, the wrought-iron gate swung open and we walked onto a path lined with poinsettias. The pathway led through a small forest to the stone cottage-style house, which looked like something out of a fairy tale.
We heard the “girls,” as she called her two Yorkies, before the door even opened. Once Talullah and Marlena got a whiff of the cookies, they ran over my feet and danced on their hind legs, looking up at the plate as I walked into the entrance hall. Two people were hanging more pine fronds on the archway that led into the living room. Even from the hall I could see the tree. It went up to the ceiling. Someone was on a ladder hanging the lights on it. For a moment I watched mesmerized. I knew celebrity-types hired people to decorate for the holidays, but it still seemed strange not to do it yourself.
CeeCee led us into the dining room, which seemed our usual place to meet. She’d already taken the plate of cookies from me and lifted the wax paper off the top. “Molly, these smell delicious.” She had a cookie in her mouth before she set the plate on the table.
The housekeeper came in from the kitchen with a silver tray set up for tea and coffee. She put it on the table. “Rosa, will you get that Neiman’s shopping bag on the service porch?” CeeCee said before taking another cookie
