If Hooks Could Kill - By Betty Hechtman Page 0,106

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