For Better or Worsted (20 page)

CHAPTER 28

“
HAVE YOU DECIDED WHAT TO DO?” DINAH SAID. WE
were sitting in my car outside of CeeCee’s house the next afternoon. Everything Thursday had told me had been rolling around in my mind the whole night and on into the morning as I assembled the tea sandwiches. The only person I’d told was Dinah.

“No,” I said, pulling the key out of the ignition. “I can’t tell Mason. His daughter has to be the one to tell him the truth about Jonah and Ben. And I don’t want to tell Barry yet. I agree that after what Thursday told me, Ben could be a suspect. Everyone seems to agree that the shirt I found belonged to either someone who slipped in dressed like a server or one of the help. Ben fits that. I understand some of the servers brought spare white shirts. He could have brought one, changed into it, and just blended in with the crowd. They’ve never found any bloody white gloves. He could have just put on clean ones and stowed the other ones in his pocket. I say he
could
have done it, but I’m not
sure
he did.

“I don’t know if Thursday is sure Ben is the killer or she is just worried that he is. She’s convinced that Ben will do the right thing and confess if he’s involved. If it’s true, it would be better for him if he came forward with a lawyer already in place. Maybe they could make a deal since she thinks Ben would have been trying to protect her after seeing Jonah manhandling her.”

I turned to Dinah. “But for now I need to focus on going to CeeCee’s where we can get everything together for the birthday party.”

We went over a checklist. I’d brought the tray of sandwiches, and we’d picked up the cupcakes for all of us to taste. Kirsty was the one who packed them up and insisted that since they were samples, she didn’t have to decorate them. Rhoda was bringing samples of the project along with sheets with the directions. Elise had all the stuff to make up the kits. Eduardo was bringing the party favors, and Sheila was coming to help. CeeCee, as always, was generous about offering her house. And I think Adele felt her mere presence was enough.

We all loved going to CeeCee’s. Her house was set far back from the street in a mini forest and the stone cottage look of it made it seem like something out of a fairy tale. We got out of the car and gathered up our parcels and headed up the stone path that led to the door.

I could hear CeeCee’s two Yorkies, Tallulah and Marlena, yapping at the door. As soon as CeeCee opened it, the two dogs starting dancing around my ankles. I don’t think they were as happy to see me as the trays of sandwiches and the cupcake platter Dinah and I were holding.

CeeCee sniffed the air and smiled. “Goody, you brought the treats. You know I would have made something. . . .” She rolled her eyes and laughed in her musical way. “But we all know I could burn water.”

We were the first to arrive, and CeeCee took us right into her dining room, which was the usual spot where we met. I started to set down the sandwiches on the dark wood treadle table when I looked up at the wall.

“Wonderful, isn’t it?” CeeCee said. When she’d mentioned having a mural done, I hadn’t realized she meant in her dining room. It was a scene from the
Caught by a Kiss
movie. CeeCee in her Ophelia evening garb was talking to Anthony the vampire. I noticed the artist had included a hook and some yarn in his hand. Dinah and I both commented on how good the likeness was of CeeCee and Hugh Jackman who played Anthony in the movie. There was an empty space in the middle of the mural, and it seemed unfinished. I brought it up to CeeCee and she explained.

“You all know about the Oscar buzz for my performance,” she said, giving the picture a loving glance. “There’s just enough space for the muralist to paint in an Oscar. Otherwise, she’ll just fill it in with background.”

Dinah and I set out the food and then made coffee and tea. When we returned to the dining room with the drinks, Eduardo had just arrived with a box with clear cellophane bags of candy. I was glad he was staying. Ever since he’d bought the Crown Apothecary, it was hard for him to make a lot of our get-togethers. Now that he’d mostly given up his cover model/spokesperson career, he was dressing more businesslike, which meant he had retired his leather pants. He complimented CeeCee on the mural and took a seat on the side of the table.

Sheila came in next. She was still dressed from her day working at Luxe. I practically drooled over the champagne-colored silk jacket covered in sunny orange embroidered flowers.

We all looked expectantly toward Rhoda when she came in. I’d already seen the crochet project for the party that we’d agreed on, but the others hadn’t. Before Rhoda sat down, she unloaded her tote bag and laid a smaller bag on the table. She handed me a stack of papers with the directions.

“I can’t tell you how much I appreciate this,” I said. Putting on the party was my job, and here they were all jumping in to help.

“Molly, it’s in our best interest to have this party succeed,” Rhoda said. “We all know what shaky ground the bookstore is on. So we’re glad to help. Besides, I think I would kill Hal if I didn’t have someplace to go to and hang out.”

“I’m sure this is just a onetime thing, anyway,” CeeCee said. “Once Molly gets the parties going, it will all be more routine.”

Rhoda looked at me. “I also brought a sample project for the shower. Has the woman committed yet?”

“She wants to see how the birthday party goes first. She was one of the guests at the wedding, so I can understand how she’d be concerned with things not going as planned,” I said. There was no need to explain which wedding—everybody knew which one I was referring to.

“How are things going with that?” CeeCee said. “I don’t recall hearing that the police have arrested anyone. Actually, I haven’t heard anything about it lately.”

They all looked to me and I didn’t know what to say. Luckily, I was saved by the bell, or really the barking dogs, as they started a ruckus at the door.

But the commotion didn’t end when CeeCee answered the door. Adele sort of embodied a frenzy as she joined us at the table. First she looked around in a frantic manner, then sighed with relief.

“I was afraid Leonora might be here,” she said, sinking into a chair. We all knew Adele was just being her usual dramatic self. There was absolutely no reason why her boyfriend’s mother would have come to our get-together. Adele made a big point that finally she could be herself and then went on about how overwrought she was, having to deal with the birthday party on the same day she was having a major children’s author come to story time.

“You all know who Kate Moore is,” Adele said. I was surprised when Eduardo nodded and said his mother had read him
Pig Tales
when he was a kid.

Adele jumped from her major author event to talking about the yarn bombings. “Pink, we have to do something. There’s been another yarn attack.” Adele brought out her cell phone and displayed a picture of a band of color around a street sign. Like one of the other bombings, the colorful piece seemed to have something done in surface crochet. It was hard to tell in the photo, but it seemed like one side of a square.

“Even though you were the one arrested at the mall, Eric thinks it’s me doing the yarn bombings. No matter what I say, he just shakes his head.”

There was a flurry of discussion about the yarn bomber and who it was. “Pink, if you’re such a great amateur sleuth, why can’t you find out who the real yarn bomber is?” Adele had a pleading look. She didn’t have to say it, I knew what would follow. Eric was the yin to her yang, the one, etc., and she didn’t want to mess it up. I said I would help her. I know, why should I care, considering how thoughtless she seemed to be? Maybe there was something in me that hated to see the wrong person accused of a crime, even if it was Adele.

I told Adele to send me any pictures of the yarn bombings she had and Eric’s as well. I would look over all of them and see if there was some unifying element.

“Oh, Pink, ever since we had French toast together at your house, we are like French toast sisters now.” She threw her arms around me as the dogs started to yip again.

Elise came in at the end, dragging a stack of plastic bins on a luggage carrier. She was a small woman who looked like the wind could blow her away, and I wondered how she managed such a bulky burden. Eduardo jumped up and took over.

“Sorry I’m late,” she said with a happy smile, sounding cheerful. “I’ve been busy with my other business. Weight loss knows no season.” Her gaze fell on Adele and her mouth went into a straight line. “All my customers adore the weight-loss powder and have shed lots of weight.”

Adele put her hook on the table and brought out some cotton yarn. “I stand behind what Dr. Wheel said. Crochet is my cure-all.” Then Adele repeated what Dr. Wheel had said about distraction helps to deal with assorted issues and how there were no side effects, except maybe ending up with a beautiful scarf or shawl. “And nobody dies from crochet,” she added.

Elise gave Adele an exasperated glance. “I looked into it. It was a bad shipment and once they realized it, they recalled all the orders. There is nothing wrong with the ingredients. They are a proprietary blend of herbs, all recognized as safe,” Elise said, sounding like she was reading from a script.

Dinah nudged me and said I ought to do something to calm everyone down. I snatched Adele’s crochet and shoved it in the pocket of my vest and said, “Why don’t we all try the food while Rhoda shows us the project she’s come up with for the party?”

CeeCee took the lead and made a plate for herself with the others following. I watched as they tasted the sandwiches and cupcakes and was relieved when even Adele didn’t have a criticism. When they were done and the plates cleared, Rhoda opened the bag on the table with a flourish.

“And here it is, the party scarf,” she said, taking out a long red, ruffly scarf with red fun fur along the edge. As she held it up, the light caught in the metallic glitter in the yarn. She took out versions done in gold, black, and hot pink. The consensus of the group was “Wow.”

They looked over the pattern and saw that it used the most basic skills and yet ended with something spectacular-looking. “The girls and the mothers will love it,” Dinah said. There was one father in the group, but they said he could give it to his wife.

Elise, Dinah and I laid out the supplies and we made an assembly line. To speed things along, Elise had already done the glitter glue writing on each of the cloth tote bags. With us all working together, it took no time to get everything assembled. Elise packed them in the plastic containers for me to take.

“There’s one more thing,” CeeCee said. She disappeared for a few moments and then came back. “I remember how the girl liked the pet mat I was making and said she wanted to do something for animals. I had an idea.” She set a bunch of yarn on the table and the beginning strip of one of the mats. “What about them passing the mat around at the party and asking each person to crochet a row until it’s done? Then we can add it to our donation. Maybe Lyla would even like to come with when we take the mats to the shelter.”

We all agreed it was a great idea. “I think Emerson will be very happy with the party. Or at least I hope so,” I said, holding up my crossed fingers.

As we were getting ready to go, Rhoda pulled me aside. “Remember when you were at my house to talk about the project for the birthday party, and I said there was some kind of scandal at one of the houses across the street? I asked Hal and he said it had something to do with embezzling money.”

Why did that sound familiar?

CHAPTER 29

“
WHY DON’T YOU PUT EVERYTHING ABOUT THE MUR
der out of your mind until after the party,” Dinah suggested. We’d gone to a party store to pick up the paper goods.

“I feel terrible, knowing what I know and not doing anything about it. Even if Barry hasn’t found any concrete evidence, I’m sure he’s still grilling Paxton Cline. I worry,” I said, letting my voice trail off. “There is such a thing as false confessions and Barry is very persistent.” I followed Dinah to the birthday section.

“But Paxton could be the killer,” Dinah said. “If what Thursday says is true, her groom was a troubled person, and who knows what went on between him and his former best man.”

On the way, we passed the wedding department. Seeing the brides and grooms for the tops of wedding cakes and all the flowery banners spouting eternal love gave me a chill. “‘Troubled’ is a nice way to put it. It’s lucky for Thursday she didn’t stay married to him. It sounds like his view of her changed as soon as that ring went on her finger. If Jonah grabbed her arm at the reception in front of all those people, you can only imagine what he might have done when they were alone.”

I still felt bad that Mason didn’t know what had happened between Thursday and Jonah, but I couldn’t be the one to tell him. Dinah pulled me away from the wedding stuff. We passed through all the different themes in the birthday area, but none of them seemed right for Lyla.

Much as I’d said I wanted to put Jonah’s death out of my mind for the moment, it just wouldn’t go away. “I admit that Ben certainly could have had a motive. . . . From the sounds of the reason for his breakup with Thursday and what we saw of them together later, Ben definitely still had feelings for her. And then to witness her being manhandled for talking to him? It’s not a huge stretch to believe Ben could have acted without thinking.”

Dinah nodded. “But it could be somebody else entirely. There were a lot of servers and people dressed like them, and they’re all from around here and some of them probably have a connection to the groom’s family.”

“You’re right,” I acknowledged. “And there was also the DUI case of Mason’s. If his client hadn’t gotten off and kept their license, they might not have caused a deadly accident. Mason worried one of the servers might have been a family member of the accident victim’s who blamed him for it and wanted revenge. Mason never gave me any of the names of the people involved.”

We ended up leaving the kids’ party area and choosing paper products in pale shades of pink that would go with the writing on the tote bags. We passed on decorations, thinking Lyla would find them too childish. After we’d checked out and headed toward my car, we both agreed that if Ben was the culprit, we wished he would just come forward.

Back at the bookstore, Dinah helped me stow the party goods in the yarn department.

“There’s Ben now,” Dinah said. He was standing near the table we’d set up with writer’s reference books. I remembered that he was dropping off some materials to be copied for the kid writers’ group.

“If he’s involved, maybe we can convince him to do the right thing,” I said.

Together we crossed the bookstore and surrounded him. He looked a little startled, particularly when we walked him into a quiet corner.

“Did you want something?” he said in a tentative voice.

I gave the floor to Dinah. With all her experience dealing with stuff like getting her immature students to admit someone really hadn’t infected their computer with a virus that ate their homework, I figured she’d be good at talking to Ben. I knew her approach was to act as if the person were guilty, and she was in the know. It always seemed to flush them out.

Dinah stepped close to him. “We know what you did and we understand why. But you need to do the right thing. You need to face up to the facts and not keep hiding.”

Ben appeared stricken. “It wasn’t like I had a choice. I just took advantage of the situation. What’s done is done. I don’t see any reason to say anything.”

“It’s going to keep haunting you unless you face up to it,” Dinah said. “I’m sure if you take the first step, you can make some kind of arrangements. Some kind of deal.”

“I don’t know,” Ben said, looking woeful. “I think it might be better just to leave everything as it is. Nobody knows, except you two. What will it take to keep you from talking?”

“We’re not going to keep it quiet,” I said, jumping in. “It’s better if you handle it yourself, but if you don’t, I will.” I looked him in the eye. “Now tell me you will take care of it.”

Ben sighed and finally nodded. “Just give me a few more days of freedom.”

When he walked away, Dinah and I looked at each other wide-eyed. “Did he just confess?”