“Is the store doing okay?” I asked, thinking Eduardo might know.
“It’s more about his passion than profit,” Eduardo said. “He’s always upbeat when there are customers around, but I’ve seen him when he was pretty dark.”
Mrs. Shedd interrupted and seemed frantic about me helping in the front with customers. I didn’t have a chance to think about Nicholas again until I’d left the store and gone to Dinah’s. The girl across the street was going to stay with the kids while we did some holiday shopping. I had hoped to crochet presents for everyone, but I’d finally accepted time was running out. Maybe next year. Lucky for us the mall was staying open until midnight.
On the way there, I told her about the whole discussion about Nicholas.
“I think Emily does have something going on with Nicholas,” Dinah said. She reminded me that when Bradley had first gone missing, Emily’s first stop had been at Luxe. “Remember the tea she offered us?”
“Right, and she went to the store to return things when she needed money,” I said.
Dinah reminded me that Nicholas had said she was returning things. “How do we know he didn’t just give her some money?”
“And when she was trying to avoid being followed, she slipped out through the back door of Luxe.” I stopped as another thought surfaced. “Suppose she told Nicholas she was going to meet Bradley? She could have even told him where she was meeting him,” I said.
“He had motive. There’s the money he lost, and if there was something going on between him and Emily—” I stopped myself and shrugged hopelessly. “But none of it means anything if we can’t tie him to the murder. Sheila said he practically lives at the store, so I’m guessing the mountain bike is there. Maybe the afghan and knife, too.”
We’d gotten to the mall and the only investigating we did for the next couple of hours was to find a store that hadn’t sold out of the electronic juggling bear the kids wanted. Several hours and a lot of packages later, Dinah drove into the back parking lot that serviced the bookstore and the other strip of stores along Ventura. She had pulled next to the greenmobile and I started to gather my packages. I glanced up at the back of the building. It was easy to figure out what windows went with Luxe.
It was late enough that everything was closed and I wondered if Nicholas was in the back section of his shop. I pointed toward the window next to the door we’d seen Emily come out of. There seemed to be some light coming from it. Dinah turned off the motor. Our minds were so in tune, we didn’t even have to discuss it.
We got out and approached the back of the building and moved along the wall until we got to the edge of the deep-set window. My heart was pounding in anticipation as I leaned in just enough to get a peek. I leaned back quickly and Dinah nudged me.
“What did you see?” she whispered.
“Nothing. The window’s frosted.” We stepped straight back and looked up at the window. The bottom might be frosted, but it looked like the top part was clear glass. Again, no discussion was needed. Without a word, we both started looking for something in the parking lot to climb on.
Dinah pointed out one of the Tarzana trash cans under a light pole. The square-shaped tall bins were part of the Safari Walk, as the stretch of Ventura Boulevard that passed through Tarzana was designated, and were supposed to add to the character of the area. Each side had the silhouette of a wild animal. The important thing was the flat top made it easy to climb on, and it was empty and moveable. The trash bin made a scratching noise as we started to drag it over the pavement. Dinah held up her hand and came back with one of the unfolded gift boxes she’d gotten at Macy’s. We slipped it under the can and were able to pull it without noise. We stopped and gave each other a high-five at our cleverness when we got the can under the window. Dinah had wound her scarf around her neck so there were no long ties to catch on anything. I boosted myself on the top of the receptacle and then twisted around until I was on my knees. I figured I could balance against the sides of the window as I stood up. Dinah’s job was to make sure I didn’t step off the can.
I went from kneeling to crouching and began to ease my way to standing. Dinah and I had done things like this before, but it still sent my heart into flutter mode.
I had my hands on either side of the window as I moved up past the frosted area. Just a little more and I’d be in the clear area.
And then I felt two hands grab the back of my legs.
This was one of the problems of having a car that stood out. Maybe if I’d parked in the shadow instead of right under a light pole, he wouldn’t have seen the greenmobile.
“Do you want to tell me what you’re doing?” Barry said after he’d gotten me off the trash can.
“No,” I said. He surprised me by laughing. He replaced the decorated can, while telling me I was lucky he, instead of a patrol car, had found me.
I told Dinah it was okay and to go on home, so she could let the babysitter go. Barry followed me back to my house.
He helped me take in the packages and looked around the inside of the house, making a few jokes about expecting Mason to pop up with his dog sweater.
“Okay, Sherlock, what were you up to this time?” Barry asked. It was late and I was tired so I just told him. I showed him the pictures of the tire impressions and said Nicholas had admitted to having a mountain bike.
After being down on the idea before, Barry’s reaction totally surprised me. I wasn’t sure if it was real or just because Mason was so willing to be my cohort in investigating.
“Interesting idea. I checked and there are a lot of different kinds of mountain-bike tires, and I suppose each person’s would wear differently,” he said, examining the print, which by now was getting a little worse for wear. He wanted to know what I would have done if I’d seen a mountain bike parked in the back room of Luxe.
“You don’t want to know,” I said in a teasing voice.
“You’re right,” he said in a light tone as he put his arm around my shoulder. We flopped on the couch. “Just remember, all arrows point toward your neighbor. Heather thinks there was no blood on her clothes because she was wearing some kind of covering like a rain poncho and had on gloves. She hasn’t bothered you again, has she?”
Samuel came in later and the noise of him rummaging around the kitchen woke me up with a start. I was sitting up on the couch nestled next to Barry. We must have fallen asleep in midconversation. After thinking my bike tread idea was good, Barry’d gone back to telling me to let it go. When I said nothing, I think he’d smiled, thinking it meant I was agreeing.
Not exactly.
CHAPTER 26
I MET DINAH OUT IN FRONT OF LUXE THE NEXT day. She was taking the kids to a holiday program at the library, and I was on my way to the bookstore. I had come up with a quick plan I thought would get me into Nicholas’s secret back area.
“We could just ask to see his mountain bike,” Dinah said. “You could give him the same story you gave Mr. Royal about wanting to get one for Samuel.”
“I already told Nicholas I was shopping for bike accessories. By the way, Mr. Royal hasn’t shown me his bike yet. He might have just said yes to end the subject and had no plan to follow through. He could know why I’m so anxious to see his bike. Remember the biker might have recognized us as he zipped by.” I looked at the kids. My idea was better. Who could turn down children?
There were several customers browsing in Luxe who I recognized from the bookstore and I nodded a greeting. The kids wanted to leave and Ashley-Angela was getting dangerously close to a meltdown so I figured it was time to put the plan into action.