Of course, Adele jumped in to the conversation. “Elise, Anthony is only a fictional character. Vampires aren’t real. Understand?” Without waiting for an answer, Adele continued. “I’m going to tell my boyfriend, William, he ought to do a vampire book. Maybe like Koo Koo Interviews a Vampire.”
“But you just said vampires aren’t real. I thought all of Koo Koo’s books were nonfiction, like Koo Koo Goes to the Dentist,” Sheila said.
Adele glared at Sheila. “I was thinking William should branch out.” I was surprised that she didn’t get the words my boyfriend in the sentence. Adele rarely said his name without adding my boyfriend. I think she hoped William’s next book would be Koo Koo Gets Engaged.
Elise gave a knowing nod. “That’s what they want you to believe—that they’re not real. Personally I think this A. J. Kowalski really is a vampire and the books are autobiographical.”
Elise focused on me. “You know the author’s real identity, don’t you?” All eyes were glued to me. I noticed Adele had a look of horror, no doubt thinking it might be true and once again she’d been left out.
“No,” I said. “Nobody but the publisher knows who A. J. is. And please spread the word that I am just as much in the dark as everyone else about who the author really is.” I gave them a recap of what it was like waking to find an intruder in my house. Adele interrupted to talk about how my house had been a crime scene when we returned from San Diego.
“So, who’s this neighbor of yours who took off?”
I said his name, expecting blank looks; instead, I heard a lot of sucked-in breaths of surprise.
Elise spoke first. “Bradley Perkins took off. That doesn’t seem like him.” Elise nodded to herself. “His wife must have done something really bad to make him that angry.”
I asked Elise how she knew the Perkins. “We’re what I’d call business friends,” she said. “I wonder if Logan knows about Bradley. Logan thinks he’s some kind of financial genius.” Logan was Elise’s husband and a member of the Tarzana Chamber of Commerce. He was one of the top real estate people in the area.
“That wife of his ought to thank her lucky stars for him,” Rhoda interjected. “The way he just stepped in and acts like a father to her two girls.”
“He’s not their father?” I said, looking up from my work. The body was taking shape.
“You don’t know?” Rhoda said, surprised. “They’ve only been married a couple of years. Emily’s first husband died.”
How odd that Emily had never mentioned either of these facts to me. Elise said Logan had sold them their house and he’d been taken from the beginning about what a great couple they were. “You have to give Bradley a lot of credit. He stepped right in as father to the girls. He even coaches their soccer team. I hear he’s at every PTA meeting. He ran a booth at the spring carnival at Wilbur Avenue Elementary. Logan said he always comes to the chamber of commerce meetings. He’s just this outgoing friendly guy. It’s hard to imagine him having a big argument. Emily is kind of moody. I bet she started the fight and is just telling everyone it was him,” Elise said.
So I wasn’t the only one to wonder about Emily’s story. All I had to go on was Emily’s version, and as Barry kept telling me, people lied.
Dinah came in at the end. I was going to bring her up to speed, but when I saw she wasn’t alone, I stopped.
All of a sudden I was pretty sure I knew what her news was.
CHAPTER 5
“DINAH, YOU DIDN’T,” I SAID AS WE HEADED TO the café. The crochet group had dispersed. I had held back from saying anything until we were alone. My friend’s dangle earrings jangled as she hung her head.
“I know it sounds crazy, but I missed them, and what are holidays without kids?”
She had a point about kids and holidays. Since my boys had grown, I’d let the holidays go. We had always celebrated everything so we’d made ornaments for our Christmas trees and lit Hanukkah candles and made donuts and potato pancakes. The last vestige had been our yearly Christmas Eve party and I’d let that go when Charlie died. Decorations and events at the bookstore had become my only way of acknowledging holidays lately.
Ashley-Angela told Bob she wanted hot chocolate and E. Conner said he wanted hot cider. The almost five-year-old fraternal twins were the children of Dinah’s ex, Jeremy, and his now ex-wife. If you were looking for a definition for irresponsible, Jeremy was it, although his newly exed wife was a close second. Dinah had ended up taking care of the kids a while back, and even though, if anything, she ought to resent them, she’d gotten attached. As she explained it, they were her son and daughter’s half siblings. Jeremy had finally taken over their care, but the damage was done. Dinah worried about them, along with missing them. She had invited them to spend the holidays with her.
“Jeremy is such a snake. I’m sure he was relieved about not having to worry about buying them any presents.” Dinah spoke in a low voice, so the kids off getting napkins wouldn’t hear.
“What does Commander think about them?” I said. Dinah didn’t say anything and I thought she hadn’t heard me, but she finally answered.
“He doesn’t exactly know yet.”
Commander Blaine was Dinah’s current male companion. Her choice of description. We were on the same page about the boyfriend term. I thought male companion sounded older than dust, which is why I didn’t use it. He owned a local mail-it center that catered to the many people working out of their houses.
Their relationship almost hadn’t happened. Dinah had found him too fussy about his clothes (think knife-sharp creases in his pants), too enthusiastic about everything, but his worst offense was that he was too obvious about liking her. She’d finally given him a chance, though I thought she was still having some trouble with the last part. She was the first to admit that she seemed to be attracted to jerks.
“But he does know Bradley Perkins,” she added quickly. “I was going to tell him about the kids, but I stalled and started telling him about what happened at your house.”
“What did Commander have to say about Bradley?” I asked.
Dinah scanned the area, then leaned a little closer. “You know how everybody keeps saying what a great guy Bradley is. Well, Commander didn’t seem so sold.” I was going to ask for specifics, but Adele sailed in the café and stopped at our table.
“Pink, where are the snowflakes I gave you to starch?” Adele didn’t even give me a chance to explain that they were drying on my dining room table. “We need them now.”
I looked out into the bookstore. Mr. Royal had finished putting the lights on the tree and had gotten on a ladder and started arranging the pine boughs around the windows—the big empty wall of windows where the snowflakes were supposed to hang. Mrs. Shedd joined us and Adele informed her I was the holdup in the snowflake department.
“Molly, I hate to ask you to do this, but could you go home and get them? Joshua is anxious to hang them up.”
I looked at Dinah and she responded with an understanding nod. We’d catch up later. I grabbed my jacket and headed for my car.
Generally my street was quiet in the middle of day. The dog walkers and exercise people came out in the morning and evening. So when I turned the corner I was expecting a big nothing.
Not quite.
A fire department ambulance facing the wrong way was pulled up in front of the Perkins’ house. The dark blue- uniformed paramedics were bending over a figure on the ground. I noticed a dark sedan facing the right way was parked behind the ambulance. A man and woman in business attire stood a little back from the scene.