starting to grill them. This is where Detective Heather had a distinct advantage. All she had to do was show her badge.
I didn’t have a badge, but I had cookies. Bob had made passion fruit ice tea and butter cookies in the shape of pineapples. I picked up a couple of the cookies and offered the two men each a free sample. I doubted Detective Heather got the smiles and happy response I did.
Now that I was closer I could see both men looked older. They both had brown hair and leathery tanned skin. I introduced myself, went into Stone’s appearance, and then asked if they were surfers.
“Heck, not like him.” The first man stuck out his non-cookie-holding hand. “Fred Robinson. Pleased to meet you.” He jerked his thumb toward his companion. “Zeke Nichols.” They almost looked like brothers, but Fred seemed to be the older of the two.
“I see so many people in the bookstore,” I began. “But you two look familiar.” I left it open-ended hoping they’d say what they did and give me an opening to ask about Kelly. Doing anything in the entertainment business had a certain cachet to it, so they were only too happy to bring up what they did.
“People don’t realize how important props are. Any kind of obscure item a director wants, we find it or make it. You know the perfect blue needle pine that Sandra Bullock carried in Secret Santa?” He pointed at his chest. “I did it. Nobody realized it was a fake. I made it out of wire and a lot of bottle brushes I spray-painted.”
I nodded in interest. “So, then you two are the ones who put all the trees in Kelly Donahue’s yard.” Both men’s expressions faded. “And you were in the yard the day she was killed, weren’t you?”
Fred seemed to be the spokesperson. “We kept having to bring in more pots. The director wanted the look of total green and we had to block out the house.” He stopped talking and swallowed hard. “If we hadn’t gone around the corner to pick up our lunch at catering, we might have been there. . . .” He swallowed again. “Maybe we could have done something to save her.”
Zeke nodded. “I understand it’s just a matter of time before they arrest her husband.”
Instead of discussing Dan’s possible guilt, I wanted to see what they knew. “Did you see anyone around the front of the house when you left?” I asked.
“Naw, nobody,” Fred said.
“The street was dead,” Zeke added.
Their answers troubled me. Were they lying or did they just have bad memories? I didn’t consider Dinah, Adele and me as nobody, and we were there as they left for lunch. I also noticed they didn’t say anything about knowing Kelly from before. I tried to draw them out by asking what they knew about her. Fred spoke up first.
“She was very accommodating about us using her yard. She gave us full access, no problems.” Fred stopped and looked at his coworker. Zeke gave him a go-ahead gesture. “I knew Kelly, a little anyway. We worked on the same show a while back. Her father was in the business and she helped him out.” I waited to see if he was going to say more, but he quickly changed the subject.
“That neighbor of Kelly’s was nothing but trouble. Kind of a tough-looking woman with blond hair cut like knife blades. Every time we’d pull into the driveway, she’d come out and start fussing at us. She said Kelly was going to ruin the peaceful quality of the street by letting productions use her house. She fussed when we parked too close to the edge and another time when some leaves fell off one of the bushes and blew onto her sidewalk. She complained to me about the cars the production had parked on her street.” Fred said he’d tried to explain to her that he had nothing to do with that.
“If you want my opinion. I think she was jealous. She wanted the production to use her yard.” Zeke said, joining the conversation again.
“Did you ever see Kelly and the neighbor talking together?” I asked. The two men looked at each other and seemed to be considering what to say.
“Let’s just say, I think Ms. Donahue should have thought twice before borrowing any sugar from her neighbor.” Fred glanced toward the entrance of the café. “What’s he doing here?” The two men nodded a greeting as North Adams