If Hooks Could Kill - By Betty Hechtman Page 0,107
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.
CHAPTER 34
After all the time I’d missed at the bookstore lately, I didn’t dare ask for some time off. There was no choice, but to wait until the end of my shift. I was antsy to see if I was right about the stuff just being switched to another unit. If I was wrong, well, the information Mason had gotten me wouldn’t mean much.
It was getting toward evening when I left the bookstore. I had brought a lantern with me and my tote bag purse. I wasn’t going to be caught short this time. I parked as close as possible to the unit in question and grabbed the lantern and my bag. My heart was thumping as I rushed down the aisle, using my light to find the reflective tape on the lock.
My breath was a little choppy with anticipation as I pulled out the plastic bag with the key. I tried putting the key in the lock and it didn’t go. I sighed, thinking this might be the end. Not wanting to admit defeat, I retried the key and still it wouldn’t go. Maybe the other way? I turned it so the teeth went up and pushed it in the lock. It slid in and I turned until the lock fell open.
I pulled open the door and stepped inside. Everything had been rearranged in the move, but I recognized the markings on one of the boxes. It was the same stuff. The first thing I did was to take a picture of the outside with the unit number showing. Then I moved inside, hoping between the lantern and the flash on the phone, I’d get good images. I used a pen to poke through the boxes. I was curious about the leaded glass lamp, but my first priority was finding the gun. I moved further into the unit.
Suddenly I felt the hairs on my neck go up and I sensed I wasn’t alone. I turned my head slowly and my fear was confirmed.
“What are you doing here?” I said with a squeak in my voice.
“Your friend at the bookstore said I might find you here. The one with the colorful clothes. I think you have something of mine,” Stone said reaching toward my tote bag. “She was telling her boyfriend something about stepping down from investigating my sister’s case and that she’d put the crochet things connected to it in your bag.”
He fumbled with the pocket on the front of my tote