Seams Like Murder Read online

  Babs had just walked in the front door, and she was looking around the store. I knew what she was looking for—me. She’d said she would come back with the information I’d requested.

  I couldn’t let her meet up with Kelsey and Pia. Not after Kelsey’s suggestion that I stay out of sleuthing. I could just imagine what Babs would say about how she was helping me with my detective work. She might even take it further and start asking Kelsey questions.

  Babs saw me and waved frantically as she started to walk toward us.

  What was I going to do? Just when it seemed hopeless, I heard Pia say, “I can’t stand that woman. I don’t want to hear any more of her neighborly nonsense.” Pia looked around frantically. “Let’s use that side door.”

  Kelsey nodded in agreement and shoved a bunch of bills in my hand. “Take out whatever the lotion costs and use the rest as the deposit,” she said, fairly running for the door. The side door they’d spotted was actually an emergency exit, and an alarm went off as the door opened, but it was a small price to pay.

  Babs caught up with me as I was trying to reset the door. “I got your information,” she said in an excited voice. “It turns out everyone knew about the gate. Even with those bushes around her place, balls from the neighboring houses ended up in the yard.”

  “That was fast work,” I said, grateful Kelsey and Pia weren’t there to hear it.

  “It was easy. I asked someone who was familiar with the whole area.” It must have shown in my face that I was a little disappointed, because Babs asked me what was wrong.

  “I’m still trying to figure out how Delaney ended up in the guest quarters. I thought if only a few people or, best of all, only one person knew about that gate, it would narrow it down. But if everybody but CeeCee was aware of the gate, it isn’t much help.” As we moved away from the emergency exit, Babs looked back at the door.

  “I don’t understand why they left that way. I thought for sure they saw me.” Babs seemed genuinely perplexed.

  * * *

  It was dark outside when I went to the event area, ready to act as host. The cloudy skies had given way to a light rain, and the big window facing Ventura Boulevard had gotten fogged up from the warmth inside. Mrs. Shedd had left for the day, and there were a couple of part-time clerks there to help with sales.

  By now other people had started to come in. I figured a lot of them were Esmaya’s friends, as they all seemed to have an ethereal thing going.

  Esmaya arrived at last. Decked out in a long, pale blue dress with a floaty purple layer over it, she definitely looked the part. She had lots of bracelets, a silk scarf wound around her neck and hoop earrings that had feathers hanging off the bottom. When I looked closer, I realized they were actually tiny dream catchers. Usually the authors stood off behind a bookcase somewhere until I did their grand introduction, but Esmaya stayed right in the front, surveying the people as they came in. I hadn’t tried to get the Hookers to come, so I was relieved to see the chairs beginning to fill, and not totally surprised when I saw Babs had come back to the bookstore and had taken a seat in the back. It only took a moment before she came up to me and offered her help.

  “I think I have everything under control, but thank you,” I said. She went back to her seat, and Adele came out of the kids’ area and stood to the side of the chairs. Adele had been fussing that Esmaya’s book had made no mention of crochet as an aid to meditation. I could just picture Adele jumping up and raising her hand when Esmaya took questions.

  Most of the seats were full, and I stepped to the front to begin the introduction. I’d barely gotten out the welcome to the crowd when I was interrupted.

  “Excuse me,” Kelsey Willis said, coming right up to the front. I was surprised to see her back at the bookstore so soon. Pia Sawyer was in tow, and they were dressed in similar Burberry rain gear. “I have to return this lotion.” Kelsey held it out accusingly toward me. “It has lanolin in it.”

  Esmaya stepped right in. She took the tube of cream back and handed her another one. “You want the vegan version, then.” She turned to the crowd and explained that lanolin came from sheep.

  Kelsey seemed surprised that the exchange had gone so easily, but Pia’s interest had apparently been piqued. She walked over to the display table of books and picked one up. “Meditation, huh?” she said. “It’s the hot thing right now.” I had to keep myself from adding that though it seemed to be trendy at the moment, it had actually been around forever. Pia held up her hand, admiring her mint green nails next to the green cover of the book. “It kind of goes with our mani-pedis,” the taller blond said to Kelsey. “It’s sort of a spa thing. Maybe we should stay.”

  “I don’t think so,” Kelsey said, gesturing with her arm toward the crowd. Babs was waving wildly and pointing to the two seats next to her.

  The way things turned out, I was glad they had left.

  I returned to the front of the crowd and finished my introduction. Esmaya began her program. “The first thing we do is purify the space.” She had a big wad of something pungent-smelling in her hand.

  “Is that marijuana?” Adele called out.

  I got the feeling Esmaya had been asked that before. “No, it’s sage and perfectly legal.”

  She held it up and lit it with a lighter, and it began to smoke. She waved her free hand and urged everyone out of their seats and had them form a line behind her. Then, she led the line around the perimeter of the bookstore, waving the smoking wad of dried plants.

  “Pink, you better stop her,” Adele said, catching up with me. “I’m telling you—” The rest of what she said was drowned out by a loud wail as lights around the bookstore began to flash off and on.

  “I tried to tell you,” Adele said. “Mr. Royal installed a new super-sensitive smoke detector system, and it automatically calls the fire department.”

  “Oh no,” I said, grabbing my phone to call and try to stop the fire department. But apparently, once the call went in, nothing could stop it. The fire department was only a few blocks away, and within seconds I heard the whine of their sirens. Meanwhile, the lights kept flashing and the alarm continued to go off.

  To make it worse, I saw that the way the windows were steamed up, it could appear the place was filled with smoke. All the engines pulled right in front of the bookstore, and the firefighters came in wearing their full gear, holding axes and a hose. Esmaya waved the smoking sage toward them, I guess in an effort to purify them, but of course all they saw was something burning. One of the firefighters grabbed it, threw it on the ground, and let loose with a fire extinguisher while another went to turn off the alarm.

  “I’m so sorry,” I said to the captain. This wasn’t the first time one of our author events had led to their arrival. Babs had pushed to the front of the crowd.

  “I’m from Iowa City, and we know how to treat our brave firefighters.” She turned to me. “We need to do something special for them.”

  I did feel terrible for dragging them out on a false alarm, so we got our barista, Bob, to make them all special drinks and offer them his creation of the day, coincidentally called Hunka Hunka Burning Love Cookie Bars.

  After the firefighters left, things went a lot smoother, although Adele did make a fuss, saying Esmaya should have something in her book about crochet being an aid to meditation. The author played some soothing music and was able to get everybody to join in a group meditation. She did a whole spiel on the creams after that and sold quite a few tubes despite one of the audience members bringing up that even all-natural ingredients could be a problem for some people.

  Babs came up to me at the end, and I thought she was going to congratulate me on how well the event went, even in the face of the fire alarm incident. Instead, she said, “I can’t believe Kelsey and Pia didn’t see me again. I’d almost think they were trying to avoid me.”

  CHAPTER 19

  “I should
have been there,” Dinah said when I finished telling her about the meditation event the night before.

  “I was surprised that Sheila didn’t show up. She always comes when there’s something about being calm,” I said. “I’m afraid she’s avoiding things.” We were sitting at the table in the yarn department of the bookstore. It was late afternoon, and it was nice to see that the days were getting longer. “The real test is if she shows up for this meeting.”

  We called meetings at this time our Happy Hour. Some people had drinks and snacks to relax; we crocheted. Dinah already had a ball of bulky tan yarn on the table, and she showed me the beginnings of a scarf. “It’s for Commander,” she said.

  “Then you have decided to say yes.” I touched the yarn, and it was amazingly soft. When she didn’t answer, I turned to her. “If you’re making him a scarf, you have to expect that he’ll be around when you finish it.”

  Dinah was usually very upbeat, but she put her head down. “I didn’t think about that. Oh dear . . .” She let out a long sigh. “Can we talk about something else? Any news about how Delaney ended up at CeeCee’s?”

  I had forgotten to bring a project to work on. Luckily, I had the one I always carried in my purse. I was using purple worsted-weight wool yarn, and for now I was just making a long strip. Eventually I was going to sew the ends together and make it into an infinity scarf. My hook started moving as I began talking. With everything going on, this was the first chance I’d had to evaluate the pieces of news that had come in recently. “Let me see,” I said, mentally going back to the last time Dinah and I had talked. “Did I tell you they still aren’t sure whether her death was an accident, suicide or murder?”

  “No,” Dinah said, surprised. “Who told you?” I realized I hadn’t gotten to tell her about Barry’s last visit. I quickly recounted how he’d come by to collect on his favor for getting us out of the clutches of his fellow officers. I even told her the part about him falling asleep.

  “I don’t suppose you mentioned that to Mason,” she said, and I shook my head. “Is that all Barry told you?”

  “He did begrudgingly tell me that I was right—the cause of death was carbon monoxide poisoning.” As I was talking, other tidbits from the past couple of days popped into my mind. “There’s more. How could it all have slipped past me? It’s about Tony—Rosa said something that makes me think he’s taking advantage of CeeCee’s good heart.” I glanced around to see if there was anyone listening. “And there’s even more. Remember how Tony said he didn’t know Delaney? Well, the teller at the bank told me that Delaney was very friendly with an actor who had been in a soap and that he’d said she could be an extra in a show he was doing.”

  Dinah stopped in mid-stitch. “Wow. It had to have been Tony she was talking to.”

  I had a sinking feeling as I thought of something else. “Remember Rosa said that he didn’t want her to take care of cleaning up the guest quarters before we found the body, or when the cops released it.”

  “When you put that together with the new information, it doesn’t sound good for him,” Dinah said.

  “But it’s mostly based on what other people have said. Maybe there are other explanations. And the teller said Delaney was too friendly with the customers. She had access to a lot of information. Maybe someone realized she knew too much?” I stopped to think for a moment. “Mr. Royal must have dealt with her when he brought in the bookstore’s deposits before I got the job. Plus, he must have known her since she worked at the bookstore for a while.” I took a deep breath and went back to crocheting. “Now that we know she could have come in that back gate, it opens up the possibilities. Babs told me everyone around there knew about the gate. Something about the local kids retrieving balls that had landed in CeeCee’s yard.”

  “Did you ask Babs if her son and daughter-in-law are customers of the Bank of Tarzana?”

  “You don’t think that they could be involved,” I said, trying to remember what I knew about them.

  “Didn’t Babs say her son has his own financial management business?” Dinah said. A long strand of variegated yarn had gotten stuck to the purple yarn I was crocheting with. I went to pull it and stared at the way the colors changed before I dropped it into my bag. When I looked up, I saw that Babs and Adele were walking toward us, and I gestured like I was zipping my lips as I looked at Dinah. She laughed and nodded in silent agreement.

  As soon as they got to the table, Adele opened a crochet magazine and showed Babs things she intended to make for her wedding. “I’m working on my bouquet now.” Adele fished around in her bag and brought out something wrapped in tissue paper. It was some crocheted pink roses. Babs was fascinated.

  “I thought you might bring CeeCee,” I said as Babs chose a seat near Adele.

  “The poor dear can’t get out of her place. The newspeople are set up in front again and go chasing after anybody who comes out of the house. I suggested she go out through that back gate you found, but she said the police have it roped off now and are looking around. The only good news is that the police are done with the guest quarters and Tony has arranged for that dangerous old vent to be taken care of tomorrow.”

  “That’s terrible,” I said. “What about Tony? Is he stuck there, too?”

  “CeeCee said he had to go out. Something about getting things together for the web show. I suppose he isn’t as nice as CeeCee and probably just stepped on the gas hard and got through the reporters and paparazzi.”

  Eduardo came in just as Babs was finishing. They hadn’t been introduced yet, so I did the honors. I saw her mouth fall open. “Wait until my girlfriend finds out I met you,” she said. He smiled good-naturedly as she gushed, naming the titles of some of the many romance novels of which he’d graced the covers. She knew every product he’d been a spokesperson for, too.

  “These days he runs the Crown Apothecary,” Adele said, explaining that it was basically a super-fancy drugstore. I think Eduardo liked the fuss Babs made over him. She really cranked it up when he took out his crochet work. I had to laugh when she gave up her seat next to Adele and moved into one next to Eduardo. A moment later, she was snapping a selfie of them. “I’m sending it to everyone.”

  He let out a sigh of relief as he began working with the fine white thread. “Some people have a cocktail; I make a doily,” he said with a wink. His Irish grandmother had taught him how to crochet when he was a boy, and by now, I imagined he could do it with his eyes closed.

  I couldn’t even see the tiny ring of stitches that started off his work, but by the time Rhoda had arrived, there were already multiple lacy rows around it.

  “Hi all,” Rhoda said in her New York accent. She seemed like the kind of person who had both feet firmly planted on the ground and could come through anything unfazed, so I was surprised when she appeared a little done in as she set her large tote on the table and took the chair next to Eduardo.

  She looked around the table. “Where’s CeeCee?” Babs gave her the same story she’d given us, and Rhoda sighed when she heard that Tony had gone out and left her. “I suppose the show must go on.” She took out a blanket she was working on but also the felted pieces she’d had at the preview the other night. Seeing how the crochet stitches had disappeared into a solid fabric still amazed me.

  “I thought I’d show my class a bunch of samples, even though they’re all going to be making a pouch purse,” Rhoda said. Babs admired the array of pieces and went to pick up a purse done in multicolors. Rhoda’s hand intervened. “If you’re sensitive to wool, don’t touch it. We don’t want a replay of the other night.”

  “Oh, nothing bothers me,” Babs said.

  I looked toward the door. “I hope Sheila comes. I was thinking maybe we could get her to do an impromptu rehearsal of her class in front of us.” I picked up one of Rhoda’s samples. “I’m glad to see that there are no problems with your class.”

  “Actuall
y, there is one little problem,” Rhoda said. “It’s best to use a washing machine to felt things, and I was hoping to take the class to that Laundromat on Victory Boulevard and have everybody felt at once, but the place is never open. I think we’re going to have to do it with pails of hot water here.”

  “A Laundromat that’s never open? Sounds like the only thing they’re laundering is money,” Eduardo said.

  “Really?” Rhoda said. “So that’s why you think it’s never open?”

  “Nah, it was just my lame attempt at making a joke.”

  Elise had come in at the end of the conversation. “Laundering money? Do you mean actually washing it?” she said in her chirpy voice. She appeared frazzled as she put down her tote bag and grabbed a chair.

  “No, there’s no actual washing of the money,” Eduardo said. “It’s just a front. Nobody knows if the money really comes from people washing their clothes, or something else. But you could launder money through any kind of retail business.” He glanced around the interior of the store. “Even a place like this, or for that matter, the Crown Apothecary.”

  It was just like that show Mason had been watching. Now I understood. There was something about deposits under ten thousand dollars being taken without question.

  “Is CeeCee coming?” Elise asked as she took out a lap robe she was making to donate to a retirement home. We had talked her into doing it in more colorful yarn than her usual vampire style of black, white and red, but she’d insisted on doing it in half double crochet, or as she called it, fangs.

  Babs continued as spokesperson and repeated her story. Elise seemed confused. “Is she staying there because she wants to or is it that the cops won’t let her leave?”

  I was thinking that through when Sheila finally showed up. She tried to slip in quietly and take a seat, so I was glad when Rhoda stepped in and suggested the impromptu class. “Just get up in front of us and start talking.”