7 Madness in Miniature by Margaret Grace

Author:Margaret Grace [Grace, Margaret]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: cozy mysteries, San Francisco peninsula, craft store, amateur sleuth, grandparenting, miniaturists, mystery fiction, crafting miniatures
ISBN: 9781564747822
Publisher: Perseverance Press
Published: 2014-03-21T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 11

Maddie was more cheerful on Monday morning. “I don’t need any breakfast,” she said. “Uncle Skip called me this morning. He called direct to my cell phone.”

“That’s pretty special,” I said, returning one bowl to the cabinet and pouring cold cereal for myself.

“You know, cops get free tickets all the time, and yesterday he got coupons for Willie’s and he wants to take me there for breakfast. Sometimes he gets them for Video Jeff’s and Sadie’s.”

Free tickets for food and games. That was enough reason in itself for a little girl to aspire to be a cop. “That sounds like a lot of fun.”

“Did you put him up to it?” she asked.

“What? Why would I do that?”

“To get rid of me, because you have something to do for the case.”

I let out a relieved breath. So far, Maddie hadn’t caught on to Skip’s agenda for today. When the chips were down, I wondered if Skip would really broach the boy talk.

“I’m not sneaking around you,” I said, eating my cereal while Maddie drank from a small glass of juice.

She’d changed her mind and made herself a piece of toast also. I watched her remove the bread from the package, toast it, butter it, add blackberry jelly, place the nicely prepared breakfast on a plate. All with great dexterity. Did her ability to move around the kitchen like a grown-up, manage her own meals and often mine, qualify her as old enough for a boyfriend? Abso-totally-lutely not. She was still a little girl.

“What are you going to do today?” she asked.

“I’m going to work on the data for your alibi chart. When I see you this afternoon, I should have the input ready for you.”

Maddie laughed. “Data and charts and inputs. It sounds so funny when you say it.”

I needed to improve my math image with the preteen set.

* * *

Skip came to pick up Maddie at about nine-thirty. She was wide-eyed with excitement. Not so Skip, who seemed to be straining under the assignment I’d given him. A lot had changed over the years. Usually this would be the moment when Skip would grab her and swing her around in the air while she pretended to want him to put her down. But lately with Maddie’s meteoric rise in height, he’d been settling for a big hug, as he did today.

Before they left, Skip gave me a droopy, helpless look that told me it was touch-and-go whether this brunch date would yield any information on the source of Maddie’s angst. I was hopeful, and also grateful to have my precocious granddaughter out from under me so I could use my next hours in a productive way before my police interview.

I needed an excuse to talk to the SuperKrafts principals. Catherine, Megan, and especially Leo, for whom I didn’t have an alibi I could record on my data list. Or whatever it was called. The idea of confirming the workshop schedule seemed lame once I gave it some thought—I could confirm by phone or email.

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