Dan’s eyes darted back and forth and then he stepped away. “I don’t know what you are talking about. I’d like to see that tape,” he said with a little nod. “Now, if you’ll excuse me we’re about to have our dollar-of-the-hour special.” He escorted us out of his office.
“That went well, Pink,” Adele said as he walked away from us. An announcement of the impending special played over the loudspeaker and I saw people beginning to push their carts into position. I grabbed Adele’s arm and pulled her toward the exit.
“You don’t want to be here for that special.”
Adele had insisted on driving, since my car was an antique in her mind, and hers was state-of-the-art. “Okay, what was that mumbo jumbo you said to him, Pink? Do we really have video cameras at the bookstore?” She started to throw a hissy fit, thinking Mr. Royal had installed them and not told her.
“No, there aren’t any cameras at Shedd and Royal,” I said trying to smooth things out. When it was so obvious it didn’t work, I didn’t want to answer her other question, but Adele was unrelenting.
Finally I told her about finding the crochet pieces and that I thought there might have been something in them, and when I mentioned the quarters in the little bags, she nodded. “Of course, it makes sense. They felt like they were weighted.” She asked me some more questions about the quarters and I finally showed her the photo on my BlackBerry. “Pink, sometimes you just miss the boat. You’re calling them quarters, when they’re collectible coins. Didn’t you look at the coin collecting set we’re selling now?”
“I wish we looked inside the crocheted pins when we had them,” I said, realizing Adele might be right.
“Well, thanks to Adele Holmes maybe you can,” she said practically twirling on her toes. “I wasn’t going to say anything about it because I thought you would get all weird about me taking any of Kelly’s pieces out of the bookstore. But now it looks like I might have saved the day.” Adele stopped to build up tension. I tried to act as if I didn’t care, but it didn’t work and I gave in.
“Just tell me what you did,” I said, impatiently.
Adele leaned close and her eyes grew animated. “There was a smaller box in the bin. It had some of the bullion stitch flowers and a toy decorated with more of those stitches. I needed some samples to look at, so I took the whole box home with me.” Adele had a self-satisfied smile. “I do detective work, even when I don’t know what I’m doing.”
“Could I see them?” I asked, beginning to want to grit my teeth. Adele wasn’t going to make this easy. “Like, maybe now?”
“Well, they’re at my house,” she said. Her eyes moved back and forth as she thought about it before finally saying okay, and then we left. I’d never been to Adele’s place. I didn’t even know exactly where she lived and was surprised when she pulled into a parking structure below the building next to Barry’s complex.
Adele had a one bedroom with a view of the driveway. I was shocked when I saw the inside. For all the colors that she wore, her place was all done in black and white. “It makes a better backdrop for me,” she said. She got the box right away and brought it into her small living room. “These were the nicest pieces Kelly made,” Adele said showing me the contents.
Adele picked up one of the flower pins. The two pieces of felt that made up the backing had been glued shut. Adele took a big needle and started to work the pieces apart.
“This is cute,” I said noticing a small Amigurumi owl amidst the pins. It had a few bullion stitches as decoration on its chest. When I picked it up, I was struck by how heavy it was.
“She must have put rocks in there,” Adele said.
“Or something else,” I said. I hated to destroy it, but there was no choice. I cut into the side. Little plastic pellets fell out and then I poked inside and felt something metallic. When I pulled it out, I saw it was a man’s gold watch. As I examined it, I noticed there was an engraving inside. It said “Love You Squiggie.”
Adele got the pieces of felt open and a small gold coin fell out. When