hooks hitting the floor. “Nope, not in my crochet bag.”
“The person might not have gotten as far as your house,” I said. “I was thinking about stopping by Kelly’s.”
“I’m in,” Dinah said. “Just give me a moment to throw on a scarf.”
I parked the greenmobile in the bookstore parking lot and walked over to Dinah’s. She was standing on her tiny porch, with a long, white gauzy scarf flapping in the breeze over an outfit in shades of olive green. Her salt-and-pepper hair looked perky with all the uneven spikes. She was down the steps before I opened the gate to her yard.
“Are we climbing in any windows?” my friend asked with a sparkle in her eye. “It’s so good to be sleuthing along with you again.”
“I was thinking we could just knock at the door and ask?” I said. “I’d rather go there when Dan isn’t home.”
Dinah nodded. “Right, we don’t want him to know we’re investigating.” As we walked around the corner and down the street we talked about Dan.
“Maybe he has two guns. The legal one he showed Detective Heather and another one he used to shoot Kelly. I’m betting that one isn’t legal. But what did he do with it and how did he manage not to have residue on his hands and clothes?”
“Maybe it won’t matter. If the real estate agent saw him and can place him there a while before he went running for Eric—”
“He’d certainly have some explaining to do,” I said interrupting Dinah. “But we don’t even know for sure there was really a real estate agent at the door.” By now we were in front of the Donahue house.
“What if nobody is home?” my friend said.
“We come back,” I said.
“Or we climb in a window,” Dinah said with a naughty look.
Before we walked down the short path to the Donahue’s door, I glanced next door at the Silvers’. The house was quiet for now and the driveway empty. A SUV was sitting in the Donahue’s driveway with a surfboard attached to the top. Stone opened the door before we could ring the bell, apparently on the way out. He was carrying a wet suit and a towel. His sunglasses hung from a cord around his neck and, as usual, he smelled like coconut suntan lotion. He seemed surprised to see us.
I broke the ice by telling him how pleased my bosses were that he’d agreed to the book signing. “I’m sure it will bring in a big crowd,” I said. Then I got down to why we were there and told him the story about the mysterious real estate agent and how they might be able to place Dan at the house before he’d said he’d arrived.”
“By all means come in and look around. I don’t recall seeing a pad of paper with a photo on it, but that doesn’t mean anything.” He led us inside and we looked around the living room and came up empty. “Maybe my sister took it into her workroom,” Stone suggested. “Anything to help nail Dan.”
I felt a little less unsettled going into Kelly’s workroom this time. The room looked different. There were things on the computer table I didn’t recognize from before. Stone explained that Dan was using the computer.
“Is he handling her online business?” I asked, but Stone shook his head. “All he cares about is his own business.” Stone helped us check every surface for one of those dollar-shaped pads all the real estate agents used as advertising. I even opened one of the plastic bins. I’d expected to see the neat skeins of yarn, but it was a jumble of twisted yarn, hooks and other paraphernalia. Stone noticed my expression. “It’s kind of a mess. Dan’s been going through all the bins like he’s looking for something.”
We did one more look around and then Dinah and I admitted defeat. Before we left, Stone pulled out a box from the closet. “I left some stuff with my sister when I moved to Hawaii. This might come in handy,” he said, handing me a publicity photo of him surfing. Stone walked us out and thanked us for trying to help before he climbed into Kelly’s SUV and headed for the beach.
I noticed a car was in the Silvers’s driveway now. “Maybe all isn’t lost. How about we pay her a visit.”
Nanci Silvers seemed surprised to see us and hesitantly invited us in. I nudged Dinah when I saw the box of Orioles chocolate