Free If Hooks Could Kill by Betty Hechtman

personal bible when it came to learning how to sleuth. “You always look at the closest person first. They usually have means and opportunity. All you need to do is find their motive and some incriminating evidence.”
    Adele tried to dismiss what I’d said. “I was just telling you that in case you get any ideas about investigating. Eric has it under control.”
    I just smiled and nodded and didn’t even bother mentioning that Eric rode a motorcycle and gave out traffic tickets when he was on duty. Yes, he might show up when there was a riot or an earthquake, but he wasn’t a detective. He didn’t detect or investigate like my boyfr— I stopped the thought in my head, glad I hadn’t said anything. I didn’t need Adele to remind me again that Barry and I weren’t anything any longer.
    Adele walked off saying that she had to get back to the children’s area. She was in the process of planning a big event. She was going to have Eric as the special guest reader of
Officer Pauly Solves the Case of the Missing Parakeet.
    Dinah hugged me again and said she was going back home. Before she left she glanced toward the café and saw North sitting at one of the tables. “What’s he doing here?” she asked. I just shrugged as an answer.
    After the shoplifter’s caper, Mrs. Shedd suggested we keep the e-readers behind the information desk and only let people try them right in front of us. Mr. Royal wanted to keep it easy for people to play with them and said he’d figure out a way to keep them on the table.
    Eventually, I went into the café for a late afternoon red eye and saw that North Adams was still in there. Nice as the café was, I thought it was odd that he was hanging out there alone.
    As I stopped to pick up a lid for my drink and some napkins, the two men who’d been working in Kelly’s backyard, putting the trees along the back of her house, came into the café. They made some chitchat with Bob, our barista, and said that they wanted coffees for the road. They seemed surprised to see North and stopped at his table when they’d gotten their coffees. I was curious about their conversation and, shall we say, took my time getting a lid and napkins.
    “You do know they shut us down and sent everybody home,” the older of the two jean-clad men said to North. When the actor nodded, the man seemed perplexed and asked why North was hanging around. He was going to stay perplexed, too, because North avoided the question by changing the subject.
    Instead North asked, “Do you guys know what happened exactly? I was in my trailer.”
    The older man whose name was Fred said after lunch he and Zeke had been ready to start laying out the props for the next setup, but had gone back to the Donahue yard to add some more bushes. “We never got to do it. Our security guy was out front with the mister from the house. Then a bunch of cop cars came tearing down the street.” He explained that as soon as the police heard they’d been working in the Donahue’s yard, they wanted to question them. “The cops gave us the bare bones of what happened.” Fred paused and let out a sigh before he repeated what the cops had said—that a woman had been found shot in the house.
    “Do you know who she was?” Fred said. North answered with a shrug. “You remember Rexford Thomasville?” When North seemed to draw a blank, the prop guy continued. “He’s a set designer. Or he was. I heard he has a store in Santa Barbara now. Kelly was his daughter. I didn’t recognize her at first, but she remembered me and showed me some things she was selling online in case we needed them for an upcoming production. It turns out back when, she tried working with her dad, and we all worked together on
McCavity
. Of course, when she told me who she was, I remembered her. All you had to do was see her smile. The whole family has matching dimples.” North had a glazed look, like he was getting a much longer answer than he’d expected and way too much