If Hooks Could Kill

CHAPTER 33


I finished my day at the bookstore with no interruptions. For once, none of the Hookers came in and I didn’t hear from Dinah all day. I really wanted someone to talk to about finding what I thought was the new location of Kelly’s storage unit and whether there was any point to checking it out.

I went home to a quiet house and hungry animals. There was a message from Mason. He really wanted to see me and discuss our relationship some more, but now that they’d locked in a location for the wedding, he was tied up with making arrangements. There were a lot of “I’m sorry”s about the previous night and promises to make it up to me. Perhaps a trip to Carmel after the wedding. Had he even heard what I said about keeping our relationship as is?

I was glad when Samuel came home, but he’d only come home to change his clothes. And I tried calling Dinah, but she was tied up with Commander Blaine. They were chaperoning a dinner cruise excursion.

I made myself a cup of tea and took it out into the yard. The sky was dark and velvety. Cosmo and Blondie came out and sat with me, but it wasn’t the same as a person. I hated to admit it, but I missed Barry’s company. All that peace was like a vacuum longing to be filled and my mind went into overdrive.

I didn’t like leaving everything hanging with Kelly’s murder. Was there anything I could do about the storage locker? If I checked it out and the things had just been moved to the new unit, what could I do? I couldn’t gather them up and bring them to Detective Heather. It would corrupt evidence. And there was no way I would get her to come to the locker. I had lost any credibility I’d had with her after the wild-goose chase.

Then I had a dark thought. When Detective Heather couldn’t get any direct evidence, and Dan didn’t confess, all the files and evidence would be filed in a box somewhere and it would become a cold case just like the ones Barry was working on. Frustrated, I decided to call it a night.


* * *

I awoke in the middle of the night twisted up in the sheet. I’d been having a bad dream and tried to recall the mishmash of images. I was standing in front of the Donahue’s looking at the cars parked on the street. Dan was holding a phone and looking at a pile of rocks, while Mason and Jaimee were arguing about pineapples. They were sitting on the beach with giant waves and a plane landed on the beach in front of them. A yellow invoice floated through the air and Detective Heather was standing with her hand on her hip, shaking her head saying “You blew it.” I was trying to tell myself something, but what?

In the morning, as I sat in the kitchen drinking my coffee, the images of the dream floated through my mind again. My thoughts were interrupted with a call from Mason.

“Have you thought about going to Carmel?” he said. I sighed and said he ought to just focus on his daughter’s wedding and not worry about our relationship. I didn’t even bring up being invited this time. But no one could accuse Mason of giving up easy.

“Sunshine, you’re breaking my heart. When the wedding is over everything will be different. We got her gift, we settled the honeymoon flight. So, the flight will take a little longer with the stop. It’s almost all done. How about I make those reservations for Carmel and you can think about it?”

“You can make the reservations if you want, but I’m still not sure about going.” It was the best I could do, but it was enough to make Mason happy. He said he’d call his travel agent right away.

I got dressed and went to work driving the back way so that I went past Kelly’s house. The street was lined with vehicles connected to the production and I glanced at them as I passed. Something about it was bothering me, but I couldn’t put my finger on it.

“Good, you’re here, Molly,” Mrs. Shedd said when I walked into the bookstore. “Please don’t tell me you’re running off somewhere.” She gestured around the store, which was quite busy.

When I got to the information desk to relieve Mr. Royal, he was looking through some books on a cart. He showed me a stack of biographies of North Adams and asked if I could use my influence with him to get them signed. More of the surfing books had come in, too, and he said Stone was going to stop in to sign the new batch before he left. I’d barely had time to settle in when a woman came up with a stack of travel books, wanting to know which one I thought was best. As she prattled on about her upcoming trip, something connected in my mind. Something that could turn the whole investigation of Kelly’s murder upside down. As soon as the customer was gone, I called Mason.

He was more than happy to help, but was on his way to court. He said he’d have his assistant call me and get me any information I needed. Within an hour I’d gotten it all, but I still needed the evidence—the evidence I’d seen in the storage unit.

I really didn’t want to go alone. I tried calling Dinah, but got her voice mail and remembered she’d said there was an all day, into the evening faculty retreat at Beasley to prepare for the start of the fall semester. Then I caught sight of Adele, who was just taking a break and was back at the worktable in the yarn department.

She was more dressed up than usual. She had on a tunic made of all black granny squares over a longer hot pink dress. Rows of ruffles peeked out from below the black. Her hair was held back from her ears with large pink crocheted flowers she’d attached to barrettes. She was humming to herself as she worked on a dark purple cowl.

I couldn’t believe I was going to do what I was about to do, but I was out of options.

I slid into the seat next to her. “You know how you’re always saying you like to be part of the action, that we’re like the three, well, in this case two musketeers?” I said. Adele looked up and listened as I told her there was a storage locker I wanted to check for evidence. “If I’m right, I’m just going to take pictures of everything and then show them to Detective Heather. Then she can get a search warrant and get the evidence she needs to solve Kelly’s murder. I’d like to have a witness.”

Adele swallowed hard. “Pink, I can’t. I know I said I wouldn’t let anyone tell me what to do, but I have definitely given up my detective work.” She hung her head. “Eric said it was a deal breaker if I did any investigating. You’ve got to understand. Cutchykins gets who I am. I think he’s the one, my soul mate, the yin to my yang—”

She was going to go on, but I cut her off. “I can’t believe you are going to let someone tell you what you can and can’t do,” I said.

“Pink, I’m not letting him tell me what to do, it was my decision. All my decision. Besides, you’re not even sure about the storage locker.”

“Could you at least ask Eric a question for me?” The words were barely out of my mouth when Adele shook her head in a definitive no. “Don’t you even want to know what I figured out?” I said. She started to weaken and then seemed to pull herself together and shook her head decisively.

It looked like I was on my own.