keep an eye on them,” she said gesturing toward two scrawny looking junior-high-age boys hanging out in the magazine section. With the kids out of school, a lot of them had taken to hanging out in the bookstore and café. These two had been in before and were doing their best to look like tough gangster types with the baggy clothes, bandanas and oddly tilted baseball caps. I thought they were a little too small to really appear as menacing as they hoped. They both sported tattoos, but I bet they were the temporary kind. I knew the kids were local and had the feeling they’d left their houses in normal looking attire and changed after they left.
While keeping my watch on the pair, I noticed a police cruiser go by the window with its light flashing and siren whining. Ventura Boulevard ran in front of the bookstore and as the main street that ran along the southern part of the Valley, it wasn’t unusual to hear sirens. But after the third cruiser went by, I began to wonder what was going on. When two more whizzed past, I went to the window to see where they were going. My stomach clenched when I saw them barely slow at the corner and turn toward Dinah’s. I made a move for the door and as I passed Mrs. Shedd, I said something about being worried about Dinah.
“Go,” she said, with a wave of her hand. “But if it’s part of L.A. 911, please don’t tackle anyone.”
I rushed down the street and saw another cruiser pass Dinah’s and go down the street that ran in front of Kelly’s. I rang Dinah’s bell and when I got no answer, followed the trail of the cop car, but didn’t get far. One of the cruisers had blocked off the street. Up ahead I saw a cluster of people standing in front of Kelly’s house. The truck with the slats was still in the driveway and wasn’t going anywhere soon, as yellow police tape had been strung across the driveway and across Kelly’s whole front yard.
A black Crown Victoria drove past me and around the cop cars. It pulled in front of the Donahue house and Detective Heather got out. Not a good sign.
CHAPTER 7
“Well?” Mrs. Shedd said when I came back into the bookstore. My adrenaline was still pumping from seeing all the cops, and most of all Detective Heather, and my mind was out of focus. I gave Mrs. Shedd a puzzled look. “You were going to see what was going on. Is Dinah okay?”
Her question made me remember why I’d gone down the street in the first place. “She wasn’t even home.” I glanced around, wanting to get back to normal. “Right, I was working customer service,” I mumbled to myself.
“If it wasn’t Dinah’s, then where did the police go?” Mrs. Shedd asked. I winced at my lack of information. If it had been any detective other than Detective Heather, I probably would have tried to find out what happened. But we had a history and not a good one. I knew there was no chance she’d give me any information.
And that was fine because I wasn’t sure I wanted any information. Detective Heather was a homicide cop and if she was there, someone was probably dead. Judging by the yellow crime-scene tape, it was a safe bet it was someone from the Donahue house and last time we’d stopped by, the only one home was Kelly. I could just imagine Mrs. Shedd’s face if I told her we’d just been to Kelly’s and now she might be dead.
I knew what Mrs. Shedd would say, too. “Molly, I don’t know what it is about you, but dead bodies seem to show up wherever you go. You visited that poor woman and look what happened to her.”
The worst part was I couldn’t argue with Mrs. Shedd, because it was true. I certainly didn’t plan it, it just seemed to work out that way. I finally answered Mrs. Shedd and simply told her the cops had gone down the street and stopped in front of one of the houses. “I don’t really know what happened.”
“Some of us can find out,” Adele said in a haughty tone that made me want to scream. “Some of us have a boyfriend in law enforcement who is happy to give us important info.” I looked at her and thought what have I done? I was the one who’d