Nicholas was waiting on someone and I realized it was William. I tried to calm Ashley-Angela by pointing out William was Koo Koo the clown. For a moment she stopped fussing as she watched Nicholas hand him a shoe box. But as soon as she saw the shoes were some kind of brown wool-lined ankle boots instead of the red clown shoes she expected, she started fussing again.
My window of opportunity hadn’t even opened and already it was shutting. I went up to the counter and didn’t even wait for Nicholas to finish wishing William a nice trip before I interrupted.
“I’m sorry, but it’s kind of an emergency,” I said, pointing at Ashley-Angela. “She needs to use the restroom.” I gestured toward the door to the back area.
Nicholas glanced toward the kids. Ashley-Angela’s fidgeting gave credibility to my request. I knew he was going to go for it. He started to step away from the counter and I waved for Ashley-Angela to come. She broke free of Dinah’s hand and ran up to me.
“Aunt Molly, why did you say I have to go potty? I don’t have to go,” she said. She looked up at Nicholas. “I didn’t tell her I had to go.” She rushed back toward the front door. “C’mon, I want to see the puppet show at the library. We’re going to miss it.”
How could I have forgotten that kids were loose cannons?
Dinah went on up the street toward the library and I headed to the bookstore. She said they’d be back in time for the Hookers’ gathering. Dinah looked a little worn. As much as she liked the kids, having a pair of almost five-year-old fraternal twins 24/7 was getting to her. I was glad I’d said I would take care of them for her evening out with Commander.
As soon as I walked in, Mrs. Shedd and Mr. Royal were in my face. There were all kinds of logistics to go over about the launch party. It was the biggest event the bookstore had ever been involved with and there was even more riding on its success. Though I wondered if selling a bunch of books in one night would be enough to save the bookstore. “The eyes of the world are going to be on us,” Mrs. Shedd said. “We don’t even know who we’re dealing with. Suppose it’s some high-strung person who freaks out when faced with a bunch of people. There has to be a reason they’ve been keeping their identity secret.” Obviously, Mrs. Shedd had discounted what Adele said about it being her boyfriend.
“Molly, all your events turn out off center,” Mrs. Shedd continued. “They’re interesting and people seem to like them. But this one is different. This one can’t end up in a riot.”
We had a summit meeting in the café and by the end I think I’d calmed them both. I reminded them this wasn’t going to be an event where an author gave a talk. It was just going to be a long line of people getting their books signed. The key was how to handle the line and how to make sure it kept moving. We decided to have a 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.”