meeting with everybody working the event later and we’d have sort of a dress rehearsal.
When we dispersed, I went back in the bookstore and headed for the worktable. The Hookers were having their own little holiday gathering, and it was going to be our last meeting until after Christmas. We were celebrating with food and wrapping the scarves and other items we’d collected for the shelter. Everyone had nice comments about the elephant when I’d set it with the other things to be wrapped. The response to my other project was a little different.
I’d made the most of the vampire look of the sparkly white head and sparkly black body by altering the penguin wings to look like arms and adding feet. I’d embroidered on happy-looking eyes and a smiling mouth with a drop of red dangling from a fang. Finally, I’d added puffy black hair. When I had set him down, Elise had squealed and named him Anthony. Then everyone, including Rhoda, said they wanted to make one, too.
The store was busy for morning and now that our table was surrounded by the yarn display, we had shoppers around us looking at yarn and accessories while we had our get-together. I had to straddle being at the Hookers’ meeting and trying to help customers at the same time. Adele was doing the same thing, but I had to be on the lookout for any knitters. Though Adele had been okay with them once, who knew how she’d be the next time.
I was surprised to see Madison Perkins come into the area. I hadn’t seen Bradley’s sister since the mall event. I wasn’t sure if I should offer my condolences again, now that Bradley was really dead. I think everyone else was thinking the same thing. Madison helped end the awkward moment by asking what we were all working on. While she looked over the collection of warm things for the shelter and admired my toy creations, I asked her if she’d seen Emily. Her face grew stern.
“Under the circumstances I don’t want to see her,” Madison said. The circumstances being that at least Detective Heather was certain Emily had killed Bradley. “I wasn’t close to my brother, but still ...” She paused a beat and then added she’d had nothing to do with his business dealings. I looked at Dinah and nodded. We were on the same page. Could it have been Madison on the mountain bike?
Madison walked over to the bins of yarn, saying she needed more of the royal blue yarn she’d gotten before. I hadn’t realized it, but it must have been pretty popular yarn because the bin was empty. I asked Madison for her phone number, assuring her I’d call her when some more came in. Really I just wanted a way to contact her.
BY THE END OF THE DAY, I WAS BEGINNING TO rethink my offer to babysit the kids. Sitting on my couch and crocheting sounded better than trying to entertain Ashley-Angela and E. Conner. But I knew Dinah was looking forward to the evening with Commander.
Mason was about to walk into the bookstore as I was coming out. He had his crochet bag with him, and when he saw me, he pulled out the half-done dog coat and said he needed help.
When I told him about my babysitting gig, he wasn’t dissuaded and said he’d come along. We walked up the block to Dinah’s. She was all done up for her evening and so happy about going out she hugged both me and Mason while thanking us. Commander’s reaction was similar without all the hugs. When I saw how he looked at Dinah, I was extra glad I’d made the offer.
His eyes really did light up.
Once they left, Mason asked how it was going with my mountain-bike investigation.
“Not well,” I said, mentioning that I’d only been able to check one set of tires against the photo. I hadn’t told Dinah, but I was having second and third thoughts about the whole line of investigation. “And even if I find the right tires, what am I going to do?”
Mason nodded in agreement. “Just because someone was riding up there doesn’t automatically tie them to the murder. Sorry, Sunshine.”
“We want to play dreidel,” E. Conner said, coming up next to us as we sat on Dinah’s chartreuse couch. He disappeared and a moment later came back with the one they’d decorated. It wasn’t enough for just the two of them to play with the top, so Mason and I got looped into joining. Mason didn’t remember how to play and E. Conner explained the gambling game. He’d added some of his own rules. Instead of everyone having the same kind of candy to bet with, E. Conner’s rules had everyone beginning with something different. E. Conner got chocolate kisses, Ashley-Angela got little candy bars, Mason got raisins and I got chocolate coins. Mason and I weren’t exactly into it and we went back to talking about the whole situation with Bradley Perkins.
We went back to the beginning and Mason brought up how the SEC investigator had based his belief that Bradley had taken his own life on the hunk of money left in the checking account. “What did you say the guy said?” Mason said, “Something about someone running off would never do that. They’d clean out everything.” Mason looked up at me as he absently fiddled with the holiday top. “Obviously the investigator was wrong and Perkins was clever enough to figure out that was what the SEC people would think.”
I thought about it for a moment as E. Conner put one of his chocolate kisses into the pot. When no one else made a move to put their bet in, he took one of Mason’s raisins from his pile, a chocolate coin from mine and then reached for a candy bar from his sister’s. Ashley-Angela started to fuss because her brother hadn’t let her do it herself. I tried to calm her down and told her she could spin first.
I turned to Mason. “Does it make sense that somebody who’d be calculating enough to leave money in an account to validate his suicide would also gamble away millions of dollars?” I said. Mason asked me how they figured out Bradley had lost the money by gambling. “I overheard the SEC investigator say that there were piles of checks written to different casinos and no money besides the amount in the checking account.”
Ashley-Angela’s spin came up with the Hebrew letter Shin that meant she had to put one of her pieces into the pot. E. Conner went to add it for her and she went into a tantrum and said she didn’t want to play anymore. She went to take back her pieces, but instead she took all of her brother’s candy kisses. While I tried to keep them from socking each other, E. Conner said, according to the rules you couldn’t start with one kind of candy and then when you quit, take something else out. Mason made a joke that it was candy laundering.
“I wonder ...” I was staring at the candies and thinking. “What if that’s what Bradley did—like Ashley-Angela, he put in one thing and came out with something else?”
Mason’s face lit with understanding. “Good thinking, Sunshine, but in his case the stakes were a little higher,” Mason said with a chuckle. “He could have been putting in checks and coming out with cash.” Mason reached for his BlackBerry and started scrolling through numbers. “There’s a way to find out.”
Mason said he had a contact in Vegas, which was no surprise. He seemed to have contacts everywhere. He made a call, and when he hung up, he was smiling and nodding. Mason’s contact was someone who acted as a concierge for big gamblers. He worked for one of the major hotels and it was his job to keep them happy. He knew who Bradley was right away.
“He said the guy would change a big check into chips, he’d hang around and play a few hands of blackjack or something and then start turning in the chips for cash. He knew that as long as he turned in less than three thousand dollars worth at a shot, there was no paperwork. The guy I talked to said he thought Bradley spread money around and had some help with cashing in the chips and did the same thing at a lot of casinos. So now the question is, what happened to all that cash?” Mason said. He was standing now and walking back and forth thinking. “I’m guessing he stashed it somewhere offshore.”
“So he didn’t lose all of Mrs. Shedd’s money after all,” I said.
He put up his hand to temper my excitement. “Don’t rush and tell her. The money is probably in an account somewhere, but only the dead guy knows where.” He was right and I felt my initial enthusiasm drain out. The money might be stashed somewhere, but for all intents and purposes it was still gone.
The kids had long since stopped arguing and had fallen asleep on the couch. We carried them into the bedroom and put them to bed.
Dinah came home glowing. She pulled me aside and said Commander had accepted the kids no matter who their parents were. He realized her involvement with them showed what a big heart she had. Her smile dimmed when I told her what Mason and I had figured out. “But what’s the point if nobody knows where the money is?” Dinah said and I agreed.
CHAPTER 27
TWO DAYS WENT BY AND WE WERE NO CLOSER TO finding Bradley’s stash. It was down to the wire for the
