Turn up the Heat

down at the stiletto heels, almost anything at all. Most auctions lasted for about a week. If you won an item, a congratulatory message showed up in your e-mail.
    But my purpose wasn’t to win. Rather, if the stolen kitchen equipment actually was on eBay, I was hoping to find one seller who listed all of the items. Sellers used eBay IDs, not their real names, to identify themselves. In theory, the entire process of selling and buying was fairly anonymous, except that if you actually bought something, you had to give the seller your name and address, of course. I had no idea whether it was possible to identify sellers’ real names. If I found the items from Simmer, could I trace them to Blythe? I didn’t know. But I had to start somewhere.
    I began by looking for an eight-inch chinois, which seemed to be the most distinctive item missing. It took me a couple of tries to remember to check the little box marked “Search title and description.” When I did, I got nine results. In a store, I’d have expected to pay at least a hundred dollars for a chinois. The bidding was about to close on the first item in my list of results. The high bid was just over fifty dollars, plus shipping, of course. I clicked on that first result and got the item’s page, which gave the details, including the place from which it would be shipped. This first chinois was coming from Ohio. I returned to the list and tried again. The fourth try pulled up a chinois from Boston. Yes! I clicked a link to see the seller’s other items.
    Yes, dammit! Along with the chinois, this seller was auctioning off a handheld stick blender, a mandoline, and not one, but two, Wüstof chefs’ knives. Also, a very cute “gently worn” green peacoat, a desk lamp, a king-size Calvin Klein duvet cover, and a “vintage” Santa Claus statue that looked more tacky than vintage to me. But what were the odds that somebody not affiliated with Simmer would be selling all the items missing from the restaurant? If this was Blythe, as Isabelle thought, why was she ripping off her place of employment? Maybe Isabelle had been mistaken; maybe the thief was someone else. Who was likely to steal from Gavin? If Blythe wasn’t the culprit, why had Isabelle said that she was? What could Isabelle have against Blythe? And did the stealing have anything to do with Leandra’s murder? Could Leandra have discovered that Blythe was stealing and then threatened to tell Gavin? Leandra could have done what I was doing; she could have searched on eBay for proof that Blythe was a thief. If Leandra had confronted Blythe, I couldn’t imagine that her response would’ve been to grab a Simmer apron and use its ties to strangle Leandra to death. Still, as I’d just reminded myself, I had to start somewhere.
    The only way to find out whether the eBay seller was, in fact, Blythe was to win an auction. Payment might be sent electronically to an e-mail address, but the seller would provide a return name and address on the package, or so I assumed. There was one minor hitch: If I bought something from Blythe, she would obviously recognize my name. The seller wanted payment by check or PayPal. Either method would provide my name; there was no way to use an alias. But I didn’t have to be the buyer. Blythe knew who Adri-anna was but probably didn’t know her last name. Consequently, I decided to enlist Ade and to bid from her computer. There was probably no way to trace me if I used my own computer, but I felt a tad paranoid and didn’t want to risk it. Besides, Adrianna would look great in that peacoat.
    I called Ade, who said that her computer was still hooked up. “Why do you need my computer? What are you...?”
    “See ya in a minute."
    I drove to Adrianna’s apartment. When she opened the door, she had a leery look on her face. “What’s going on, Chloe?” Her thick blonde hair was in a simple ponytail, and she wore a fitted scoop-neck top and cargo pants. She was the most adorable pregnant lady I’d ever seen.
    “How would you like to become the proud owner of a green peacoat? Or a stick blender? Or perhaps a desk lamp for your new apartment?”
    “Not particularly.”
    “Too bad. You are.” I explained what I was doing and promised to reimburse her for whatever she ended up spending. I said nothing about the possible connection between Leandra’s murder and the eBay items that had been filched from Simmer. Ade was already upset that Owen was being questioned by the