it. I’d thought Adele was going to come, but so far, she was a no-show. I was about to give up on her and start the festivities when Adele and Eric came in the door. It was more accurate to say the couple made an entrance.
I should have known she would dress for the occasion. Her costume consisted of white capri pants topped with a brick red Hawaiian shirt and a whole tube of self tanner that had left her skin with an orangy tan. I’d never seen Eric out of uniform and was surprised to see that she’d played dress up with him and gotten him to wear a matching outfit—only his pants went all the way down to his shoe tops. He seemed a little self-conscious. Who could blame him. He looked like he’d eaten too many carrots and they’d turned his skin orange. “I thought you said everyone would be dressed this way,” he said as they walked toward the front row.
Welcome to Adele’s world.
Mr. Royal gave me a nod and a wave, which meant he was impatient for me to start. I stepped to the front of the group and started to talk about Stone. Mr. Royal had written the introduction. The gist was that Stone had conquered what was considered the most dangerous beach in Hawaii and had stopped competing while he was still on top.
There was a hardy round of applause as Stone stepped from behind the bookcases that surrounded the area we’d set aside for the event. He leaned against the table and smiled at the crowd, displaying his dimples.
I was surprised to see Barry standing at the back. I guessed he’d heard enough about Stone and wanted to see what Mr. Adorable looked like.
“Thank you all for coming. You’re too kind to an old surfer dude past his prime.” His self-effacing comment won over the crowd and they said “aw” in unison. He began the talk by describing the thrill of surfing and was segueing into the energy drink when there was the sound of an alarm going off. A whirr of running figures flew by the outskirts of the chairs. Before Mr. Royal could respond, Eric in all his orange glory jumped out of his seat and took off after them.
Stone instinctively stopped, but I encouraged him to continue, and then I followed Mr. Royal to find out what was going on.
Eric came back inside after a few minutes. He was out of breath and leaned against the counter. “They disappeared into the darkness,” he said. “Sorry.” Mr. Royal thanked him for his efforts and then Mrs. Shedd, Mr. Royal and I made the rounds to see if anything was missing. One of the e-readers had been pulled free from its leash and was gone. The chocolate rack was missing some bars and when we walked back to the yarn area, skeins were laying all over the floor and the cabinet was open and the plastic bin that had held Kelly’s crochet pieces was on the floor. It was empty except for a few stray strands of yarn.
“Those kids again,” Mrs. Shedd said, shaking her head with dismay.
Adele checked out the mess in the yarn department while making some comment about how terrible it was that all of Kelly’s donations were gone. I looked intently at Adele. “No chance of CeeCee seeing all those bullion stitch flowers now, is there?” I said, waiting to see her reaction. She let out an annoyed huff at my implied accusation.
The other thing—actually the other person—missing, was Barry. When I asked Eric, he said that as he was chasing the shoplifters he’d spotted Barry getting in his Tahoe. Very strange.
CHAPTER 21
“I missed all the excitement,” CeeCee said in a disappointed tone. It was the next day and the Hookers were assembled at the worktable in the yarn department. I’d just finished fixing the last of the mess from the night before. CeeCee glanced over the wall with the cubbies of yarn and the cabinets beneath. “Did they take anything or just make a mess?”
I looked at Adele, who’s eyes had suddenly become big with fear. She made eye contact with me and even put her hands together in a prayer posture as she threw me a silent plea.
She didn’t have to worry. I wasn’t going to bring up the fact that the crochet pieces Kelly had given us for the street fair were missing. It would only open a bunch of problems. CeeCee would want