was staying right down the street. Adele had her storm cloud face. It was making her crazy that she was out of the loop.
“Do you think he’d be willing to come in and sign his photo in some books?” Then Mr. Royal considered what he was asking. “I suppose it might be in bad taste under the circumstances.”
“I can ask him,” I said. Mr. Royal brightened and said he’d check with the distributor to see if he could get in a stack of copies.
“What a wonderful idea, Joshua,” Mrs. Shedd said, noticing the hefty price on the book’s jacket. She’d joined us and overheard the plan.
I hadn’t noticed that North Adams was carrying one of Bob’s primo cappuccinos and was standing on the outskirts of our little group. The star of L.A. 911 held the coffee drink up as if making a toast. “The cappuccinos here are the best.” He took a satisfying sip and set the cup down on the table with the e-readers. “I couldn’t help but overhear.” He turned his attention to me. “You’re investigating that woman’s death? Are you some kind of amateur sleuth?” he asked.
Adele answered for me. “Pink likes to think she’s a modern day Nancy Drew. But some of us are the real deal instead of just imitation fictional detectives. Adele Abrams, ad hoc PI, at your service,” she said.
North looked like he didn’t know whether to laugh or not, but then he seemed to figure out she wasn’t joking. Ad hoc private investigator? What did that even mean? “Maybe I can help. Being a detective on this show for all these years has given me some investigative skills.” His gaze went back and forth over both Adele and me.
Adele rolled her eyes, which luckily happened when North was looking at me. I thanked him for his offer and said I’d let him know when I heard anything new.
Later on Mrs. Shedd pulled me aside. “Good work, Molly,” Mrs. Shedd said. “Our goal is to keep Mr. Adams coming in here. If he wants to play armchair detective with you, we don’t want to stop him. But do what you can to control Adele.”
As if I could!
CHAPTER 14
I worked until the bookstore closed and evening was sliding into night when I headed for home. Even though it was August and the weather said summer, the daylight hours were dwindling. I drove home, thinking about a refreshing bath and an ice cream dinner. That plan died the moment I walked into my backyard.
The outdoor lights were on, illuminating Jeffrey and a group of his drama friends gathered around the umbrella table. They all had a bunch of stapled pages and I figured out they were doing a table read of some play. Jeffrey lifted a hand in greeting and then went back to hovering over his script.
Cosmo was enjoying all the activity, the small black mutt stretched out on the pavement watching. Having people around had the opposite effect on my other dog, Blondie, and without even looking I was sure she was holed up in my room. The cats were nowhere to be seen.
I walked into the kitchen and stopped short in the doorway. Barry was setting several pizza boxes on the counter. Next to him Detective Heather was counting out paper plates and napkins. She was still in her work suit and, when she moved, I saw her badge and her gun in a big belt around her waist. She flipped open the top pizza box and started putting slices on the plates. “I’ll take them out to the kids,” she said. As she turned and headed to the door she almost rammed into me.
“Oh,” she said and looked toward Barry.
“Molly, I’m so sorry. I thought this would be over before you got home. The place the kids were supposed to do the read fell apart at the last minute. Jeffrey asked if they could come here.”
Barry knew I had a soft spot for Jeffrey, or as his drama friends were probably calling him, Columbia. “Whatever. It’s okay,” I said. Detective Heather and I were still clogging up the doorway.
“I heard you were at the Donahue house today,” Heather said.
“Don’t go oiling your handcuffs,” I said trying to get past her. “It was just a condolence call and I thought I’d forgotten something when I was there before.” I should have left it at that, but I thought of Adele’s golden triangle of guilt. “I heard you found Dan’s gun.”
Detective Heather looked