“Do you think she was lying about not being there for Daisy’s demise?” Dinah said. We were sitting at the table in the yarn department waiting for the rest of the Hookers. I had told her about my morning at the Langfords’.
I had taken out the blanket I had started and just begun a row with black yarn. I still had to pay attention to what my hook was doing so had stopped working at Dinah’s question. “She was so adamant that she wasn’t there. Maybe I was wrong. There was a lot of commotion.”
The Hookers had begun to come to the table, and as soon as CeeCee arrived I asked her if she remembered seeing Taylor at the event. “You said you knew who she was—Andrew Palmer’s second wife.”
“Dear, there was so much going on that the crowd was a blur to me. And honestly, while I know who Taylor Palmer is, I can’t say I’d recognize her.” Then came the obvious question of why I was asking.
I told CeeCee about the mommy gathering and how when I’d mentioned Daisy and the bookstore event, Taylor had said she wasn’t there.
“Hmm,” CeeCee said. “Maybe she was there and wanted to distance herself from what happened. Did the woman you saw give a statement to the police?”
I thought back and shook my head. “A lot of people took off as soon as Daisy collapsed and I don’t recall seeing her when the police were there.”
“Have you heard anything more about what exactly happened to Daisy?” the actress asked. “It certainly was a disastrous evening.”
“You can say that again,” Elise said as she pulled out one of the chairs. “I never even got a chance to talk about the kits.”
“Really? You’re bringing up not selling kits to crochet vampire scarves, when a woman died?” CeeCee said, shaking her head. “How about me. I was all dressed up as Ophelia and had to sit in that uncomfortable dress for hours until the police let us go.”
Adele had joined us by then. She plopped in her usual chair at the end of the table. “I wouldn’t know because I wasn’t there,” she said in a disdainful tone. “Maybe next time you plan an author event that includes crochet, you’ll include me.” We all ignored her comment.
“To answer your question,” I said, going back to what CeeCee had said. “I haven’t heard anything for sure, other than I know they took a square of the carpeting where Daisy’s drink had spilled.” As I was debating whether to mention that I thought Rick Carlson had been looking at my search history on my work computer, Adele continued to be difficult.
“It’ll be hard for you to investigate now that you’re not with Barry anymore,” Adele said as the rest of the group rolled their eyes. “I was just stating facts. Of course, I’m sorry that Pink is single again.” She gave my arm a sympathetic pat. “But I still have a door to the inside,” she said. “As a motor officer, Eric has his ear to the ground. All I have to do is ask him and he’ll tell me everything.” Adele glanced around the table. “I can see what he knows about what happened the other night.” Despite what Adele said, we knew that Eric wasn’t likely to know about a death investigation unless it had to do with traffic.
Rhoda Klein had joined us and she gave me a squeeze on my shoulder before she sat down. “Molly, I have someone I could fix you up with. We met with our CPA yesterday and we got talking. He’s a widower and lonely. He has a house and a nice business. He’d be a good catch.”
“But does he like having fun? Or being surrounded by dogs, cats and chaos?” I said
Rhoda’s expression flattened. “When you put it that way, maybe you’re not a good match.”
Eduardo heard the interchange and joined in. “If Molly is looking for a boyfriend, I have friends—” I stopped him before he could say more.
“I am not looking for male company,” I said. I thought it sounded silly to talk about boyfriends when you were in your fifties. “I am not lonely. Just the opposite. Between everyone being at my place and having to take Marlowe to the mommy group, I’m glad for some time alone.”
“You could always sign up for one of those online dating sites,” Elise said, totally ignoring what I’d just said.
“No, thank you,” I said. “Not only do you have to worry about being scammed or worse, the idea of getting all dressed up to go on a date with a stranger who may or may not be a serial killer or scam artist is not for me.”
“And you’d have to get all dressed up, with heels and all. But not for the CPA. We actually talked about high heels. He said his late wife wore them and she ended up getting her heel stuck in the dirt and falling in the mud. When I told him about you, his first question was about your shoes.”
“I don’t know about that,” CeeCee said, looking under the table at her footwear. “These flats are nice for coming here, but I certainly wouldn’t wear them with an evening gown. I wore kitten heels with Ophelia’s dress for the event.”
“Any heels can be deadly,” Rhoda said. “You must have heard about that woman who fell down the stairs at that big house. She was wearing heels and she died.”
“You’re saying the heels killed her?” Dinah asked.
“You could say that. She wouldn’t have fallen if she wasn’t wearing those shoes. Though what really killed her was she hit her head and was home alone,” Rhoda said. “But if she’d been wearing sneakers or even flats, she probably wouldn’t have fallen in the first place. I think the article said something about they thought her heel caught in the carpeting. There was a photo of the house. It looked huge. It was kind of sad that she was there all alone. You’d think she’d have a housekeeper.”
“Maybe it was their day off,” CeeCee said.
“Or maybe she wasn’t alone and it wasn’t the stupid shoes that killed her. Maybe somebody pushed her.” Elise looked around the table with an intent expression. “It sounds pretty suspicious to me,” she said in her bird-like voice.
“I still say if she’d had any sense and worn something like these, she’d still be alive and living in that fabulous house.” Rhoda stuck her foot out from under the table and showed off her silver Crocs. She wasn’t finished with her rant and we all listened politely as she continued.
“I’m telling you they should outlaw those shoes. Well, they do in Carmel, California. You have to have a permit to wear them because they have all those pushed-up sidewalks from tree roots. They don’t have street addresses either,” she added as a non sequitur. “Not only are those shoes death traps, but they destroy your feet. People are finally wising up. Crocs have become stylish. My teenage granddaughter wanted to borrow these.” She stuck her foot out from under the table again and showed off the silver plastic shoe with the jeweled decoration stuck in one of the holes that covered the top.
“How about we get down to crocheting,” CeeCee said. “If we’re going to donate blankets we have to make them first.” She looked around the table and nodded at Sheila, who had slipped in unnoticed. “Okay, folks, it’s hooks up.”
I was glad that it was a simple pattern with two rows that kept repeating. The only thing that changed was the colors. I had chosen to have two rows of black and two rows of colors. It was a good way to use up all the partial skeins of black worsted-weight yarn I had and the leftovers of bright-colored yarn. The talk died down as we all began to work on our blankets. CeeCee, Eduardo and Adele could have easily carried on a conversation while moving their hooks through the yarn, but the rest of us needed to pay attention to what we were doing. But that didn’t mean I couldn’t think about something else. I wondered if I really was being considered a suspect in Daisy Cochran’s death.
Adele was right. In the old days I would have called Barry. He had always objected to giving me any inside information, but I always got it out of him. I wondered if Barry had told Rick Carlson anything about our past.
I looked up from my work. “CeeCee, you and Elise where there. Did you see anything happen to the smoothie I’d gotten for Daisy?” It was a bit of a non sequitur and they both gave me puzzled looks for a moment until they realized what I was talking about.
“The only thing I noticed, dear,” CeeCee said with an edge in her voice, “was that all you had for us was water.”
“Yeah,” Elise said. “You could have at least gotten us some of that fancy water instead of store brand. It was pretty clear who was important and who wasn’t.”
“Really?” Dinah said. “Considering what happened to Daisy, you should be glad you got sealed bottles of water.”
CeeCee looked stricken. “You mean you think there was something in her drink that made her have a seizure?”
“There might have been poison, though I can’t figure out how,” I said. “I watched them make it and I put it on the table. It was covered with a straw sticking through the lid.”
“Covered and a straw? I don’t think so,” CeeCee said. “Though I suppose she could have taken the lid off. I remember seeing her pick up the cup and take a sip out of it. It smelled really good of strawberries and something else.” She paused to think a moment, never stopping her hook action. “I know. I thought she might have spiked it.”
“You mean with alcohol?” I said, and CeeCee nodded.
“It reminded me of a liqueur.”
“Whoever it was would have had to get the poison in the drink in front of everybody.” When I looked around the table, I saw that Lily had sat down with the group and I greeted her.
“So this is your Hooker group.” She looked around the table as I explained who she was and her business of making the cocoons. She was wearing a red one over a pair of black leggings and black top. She got up and a did a model twirl to show it off as she explained the combination of fibers the cloth was made of.
“Since I’m into fibers and cloth, I thought I’d see what crochet was all about.” She’d barely gotten the words out when Adele stood up.
“Anything you want to know I’m your crochet ambassador.” Adele turned to me and I knew she was going to call me Pink, so when she’d barely gotten the P out, I interrupted and told Lily that Adele was our well-loved story-time leader who would be handling the mommy group event I put on. “In addition, she is starting a new business of putting on kids’ birthday parties.”
Adele forgot about whatever she was going to say to me and turned to Lily and started to pitch the parties. Adele, as usual, was very dramatic as she popped out of her seat.
“Imagine a children’s party like there’s never been before,” Adele said. “Starring me, Queen Adele, as I’m called.” She went on how there would be food, unique entertainment, decorations and party favor bags without Lily saying anything.
The rest of us were all rolling our eyes, but Lily seemed interested. “I like the idea that it’s something different and I’m in a bit of a bind. The venue I was going to use for Alexander’s fourth canceled out. A pipe burst and the place is a wreck. It’s too late to find any spot worth having, and I’m going to have to do something at my house.” She took one of Adele’s cards and said she would definitely be in touch.
She glanced around the table and asked what they were all making. After Elise showed off the granny square striped blanket she was making, the rest of them showed the personal project each had stashed in a tote bag. When Sheila pulled out the piece she’d brought, Lily oohed and aahed. The rest of us were used to the reaction by now.
Sheila’s specialty was using a number of strands of mohair yarn in shades of blues, greens and lavender. The colors ended up with a soft hazy look that reminded people of an impressionist painting. She had pulled out the beginning of a knitted blanket and with an anxious eye on Adele shoved it back in the bag and took out a crocheted one.
Lily took off the cocoon jacket and showed how it was constructed. “Could you make something like that?”
I knew that Sheila would be self-effacing and probably say she couldn’t make anything like the Cuddle because she was worried it wouldn’t measure up. I spoke for her and said she could make anything, mentioning the display of her pieces at Luxe, which happened to be just up the street. Lily seemed interested in the mention of the store.
“I’m glad I stopped here and got to meet you all.” She thanked us but turned down the offer of a crochet lesson this time, and I went to walk her to the front. She commented on how the group was more than she expected.
“I know you thought we’d all be sitting in rocking chairs, wrapped in shawls.” She laughed at my description then admitted it was true.
“You know, I overheard some of the conversation before I sat down, and it’s no surprise that someone wearing Crocs would be hostile to heels,” Lily said with a laugh. “You do know that the house the woman in the Crocs was talking about is Taylor’s. You saw the staircase for yourself. I heard the first thing she did when she got the house was to rip out the carpet.”
With that Lily rushed off, saying she wanted to have a look at the lifestyle shop. It sounded like a perfect place to carry a selection of her cocoon wraps.