Cleo's EZ Kleeners Wardrobe

Cleo's EZ Kleeners Wardrobe is the collection of altered, dry-cleaned garments that Cleo Sherwood received from her married lover, Ezekiel Taylor, who tailored them to her body and hung them on EZ Kleeners wire hangers. The wardrobe becomes a crucial piece of evidence in Maddie Schwartz's investigation, revealing the secret relationship between Cleo and Taylor, and ultimately serves as a coded warning to Taylor that his secrets are known.

The Wardrobe in Mrs. Sherwood's Closet

When Maddie Schwartz visited Cleo's mother, Mrs. Sherwood, she was shown the daughter's wardrobe, each item shrouded in a plastic dry-cleaning bag. Maddie noticed that the clothes were all a little dated—not this season, not even last season. There was a sequined dress that was long by today's standards, a Chanel-inspired suit that could have been almost ten years old, and a very tasteful black wool dress with a label from Wanamaker's that looked exactly like one Maddie had worn to her father-in-law's funeral. It had been the height of style two years ago. Notably, not a single garment was yellow or green, contradicting the psychic Madame Claire's visions.

The Wanamaker's label puzzled Maddie. The Philadelphia department store had never had a Baltimore branch, so how did Cleo end up with a little black dress, a good one, from Wanamaker's? The label said size 14, but Cleo was almost certainly no larger than a 10. This discrepancy, along with the dated styles, suggested that the clothes were not purchased by Cleo herself but were gifts from someone who had altered them to fit her.

The Alterations and the Lover

Maddie's suspicion was confirmed when she learned that the clothes all fit Cleo perfectly, even though the sizes on the labels didn't match. They fit her like a glove. Maddie thought of the shape of the woman she had seen behind the lace curtain at Ezekiel Taylor's house—tall, not fat, but broader than slinky Cleo. She wondered if Taylor had gone so far as to pilfer some of his wife's clothes and have them altered to fit Cleo. The idea of Taylor bent over a sewing machine, tailoring those clothes to Cleo's frame, was a powerful one. Cleo herself reflected that when she thought of that, she knew he loved her and she loved him for loving him. He was a king and she could have been his queen, a better one than the one that was forced on him.

The clothes were all gifts from her man, but that didn't tell the whole story. Any man can buy a woman a dress, a coat, a scarf, but Cleo's man was much more cunning. He had to bide his time, then pounce on opportunities that presented themselves, just like he had pounced on her the second he saw her. Occasionally, alterations were required, and he did them himself. He knew her body that well.

The EZ Kleeners Connection

Maddie fought to keep the detail about all those altered clothes, hung on the paper-shrouded wire hangers from EZ Kleeners, in her newspaper story. She wanted Ezekiel Taylor to know that someone knew his secrets. The EZ Kleeners hangers were a direct link to Taylor, who owned the dry-cleaning business. The wardrobe was not just a collection of clothes; it was a physical manifestation of Taylor's secret relationship with Cleo, a relationship he had tried to keep hidden. The clothes, with their altered sizes and mismatched labels, were evidence of his careful, cunning efforts to dress his mistress in garments that fit her perfectly, even if they had originally belonged to his wife.

The Wardrobe as Evidence and Warning

The wardrobe served a dual purpose in Maddie's investigation. On one hand, it was evidence of the affair between Cleo and Taylor, a secret that Maddie was determined to expose. On the other hand, it was a warning. By keeping the detail about the EZ Kleeners hangers in her story, Maddie was signaling to Taylor that she knew about his relationship with Cleo and that she was not afraid to reveal it. The wardrobe, with its altered clothes and dry-cleaning hangers, became a symbol of the hidden life that Cleo led and the secrets that Taylor tried to keep buried. It was a tangible reminder that even the most carefully constructed facades could be unraveled by a determined investigator.