Criminally Spun Out: Book 5 of the Fiber Maven's Mysteries

by J. Traveler Pelton

  “I guess. Let’s cut through the cemetery, it’s shorter.”

  “Don’t step on any graves, stay on the paths.”

  “They’re dead, they won’t care,” he replied and took off at a trot. Emory started after him and then stopped a short distance in. He noticed she wasn’t there.”

  “What’s the matter?”

  “We need to get the cops. We need them, like now.”

  “Why?” He asked running back. He stopped, looked and shook his head. “Yeah. We need the Sheriff.”

  Chapter Thirty

  “There you are! Hello, baby!” the old woman said brightly, opening the closet door. She carried Kai to the kitchen where his sister was sitting in a playpen quietly sucking her thumb.

  “Now, Sheila, you know you daddy Jim doesn’t like thumb sucking. You get your thumb out of your mouth right now!” She pulled Enya’s finger out of her mouth. Enya’s eyes filled with tears but she didn’t make a sound. “He doesn’t even like pacifiers. And Daddy’s the boss.”

  “Now, Tommy, you sit right here with your sister while I get your bottles ready. I wonder if you’re ready for bananas yet? I’ll need to get some. Wait a minute, that nice health food store had baby food. Let’s see, here’s applesauce. Let’s try you two with applesauce. I am going to have to get a high chair. I wonder if Finian’s has one?” she talked to herself and the babies sat in the pen, watching all that went on. Kai crawled over and sat close to his sister. She leaned onto him. They sat with wide eyes and murmurs soft noises at each other. They noticed everything she did, were vigilant, and stayed close together.

  “Now, you two are going to have to start talking soon!” said the old lady brightly. “Here’s your bottles, but let’s get a diaper change done and then we can have this nice applesauce and maybe a teething biscuit and then your bottles. They’re too hot anyway.” She took first Enya and then Kai to the side table she was using as a changing table and quickly changed out their diapers. Neither child made a sound.

  She settled Enya onto her lap and spoon fed her applesauce neatly, then washed her face off and gave her a teething biscuit from a bowl of them she had on the table. The old lady talked continually as she fed the children. She got Kai and he ate his applesauce without a murmur, but without much interest.

  “You seem hot. Are you ill? Do I need to give you some Tylenol?” She felt his head. “You do seem a little warm. Let me just give you some medicine.” She sat him back in the pen. It was mesh, the bottom pad covered in a white sheet. There were two teddy bears sitting in the corners.

  “Here we are, this is baby Tylenol and let’s see, you’re just babies so under two, half a dropperful.” She drew it up and looked at the dropper doubtfully. “I wonder if half is enough? You’re a pretty big little man. I don’t want you to get sick and go to the hospital like last time. That was so scary. All those needles and the IV and all. You didn’t like that, did you Tommy? I didn’t either. And they kept you so long. I thought I’d never get you back. When I saw you in church with that woman from Children’s Services, I could not believe it. The government had you the whole time.” She gave him almost a full dropper of the medicine and then just in case, gave his sister some as well. She got their bottles, tested them, and picked up Enya to feed. She carried her over to the rocking chair and started to rock her, giving her the bottle, and starting to sing in an old voice, “Hush, little baby, don’t say a word, Daddy’s going to get you a mocking bird.” She stopped a moment and listened.

  “No, don’t hear Daddy back yet. He’ll be home soon and won’t that be fine? All of us together again. You know there’s a new family in the parsonage, and I have to get my organ music ready for next week. I need to get ready for the choir rehearsal.”

  She looked at the clock. Enya had stopped nursing and was watching her. She looked around and then said softly, “Mama?”

  “What?” exclaimed the old lady. “You called me mama? I knew you could talk. Say it again!”

  From the pen, Kai had pulled himself to a standing position. “Daddy?” he called. “Dada?”

  “Oh, you two sweeties, Daddy Jim will be so surprised! He’ll be here soon. Let’s just get you fed and I’ll go to choir practice and you can sleep for a while. I never thought I’d hear you say mama so soon.” She hugged Enya, sat her in the crib and then fed Kai. She sat him next to Enya and went to get their blankets. The twins crawled close to each other and muttered baby sounds. Enya yawned as did Kai as they lay down next to each other. Enya held onto his shirt and Kai kept his hand on her shoulder as they fell asleep. The old lady came and covered them with a baby quilt, smiling. She checked to be sure the stove was off, picked up her purse and headed out the door, locking it on her way out.

  “Hello, Betsy!” she called. “I’m just heading to the church to practice. I want to go over the music.”

  “That’s good. I’m heading back over to the store with my husband’s lunch. Been a busy Friday.”

  “I suspect it has. But it’s such a lovely day.”

  “Is everything ok at your house? I couldn’t help but notice all the curtains are pulled.”

  “I don’t want this bright sunlight fading my furniture,” she said brightly.

  “I suppose that’s true. Well, good practice.”

  “See you at church Sunday!” she called out and marched down the street.

  Chapter Thirty-One

  The police lab guys swarmed the cemetery.

  “It hasn’t been dug up,” remarked Erik to Brad.

  “This is Kai’s pacifier. And another spindle. And a shroud like the one in the office. What is going on?” sputtered Brad. He ran his hand through his hair and frowned in frustration.

  “I don’t know, son. This is a family plot. See, here’s the husband, died in Vietnam, April 15, 1970. The joint gravestone for his wife isn’t filled in yet. These two little lamb headstones are for babies born June of the year before and dying May 29, the year their dad passed. Whoever the wife was must have been in a world of hurt, losing them so close together. Still, it’s been fifty years. She might have moved away or must be in a nursing home by now.”

  “It’s the man who owns the cottage, Stoneman. His wife Alice lives over by Betsy Bayou. She’s old and according to all accounts, sort of rattly upstairs, if you get my drift. Plays organ at the church but no one ever actually sees her much, down in the organ pit. She doesn’t go to any meetings or anything, pretty much a loner. She had gone to some of the Yarn Sisters meetings but not many, just sort of sat alone.”

  “I lose husband and kids so close together, I think I’d have been a loner, too.” remarked a detective coming up. “No notes. A spindle, the pacifier you identified as belonging to your baby, the afghan. You say there’s one like it back at the office?”

  “Another case we thought was closed.”

  “I think it’s going to reopen.”

  “The perps are in jail,” protested Erik.

  “Doesn’t look it.”

  “Brad, you and me go to Sophia’s. I told her we’d be there today at 3 and it’s 2:30 now. Let these men complete their work. I’ll call ahead and get the file out for the other two shrouds. Let’s see, one left at the bank, one left at a funeral, this one at the grave of a long dead hero.” Sheriff Black paused. “I’d like to have some experts look and see if they were all made by the same person. Let me call Allyssa and Lydia to look at them in our office.”

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Sandra Armstrong sat by Annie’s bed. Casey had gone downstairs for some breakfast. Dr. Michaels entered the room.

  “So how do you feel about going home, Annie?”

  “Can’t wait!” she replied. “You have a nice hospital but I am really bored.”

  “Bored is one of the signs you’re ready to go home and make your mom crazy until you go back to school.”

  “When can I go back?”

  “No cheer practice for two weeks, but you can return to class Monday.”

  “M
aybe they’ll have found the babies by then,” she said sadly.

  Casey came in and signed paperwork with the doctor. She and her mother helped Annie get dressed to go. They gathered up her flowers and clothes, Bible and tablet. An aide brought a wheelchair in: Sandra went down to get the car. Annie loaded up in the back seat, covered in a blanket, all her things on the seat beside her and they headed for home.

  Casey was quiet until they got out of city traffic. “Brad tells me he has some strong leads. He does not think the babies are dead. Erik is sure they’ll have them very soon,” Casey said out loud, addressing her thoughts to no one in particular as her mom drove.

  “If he says so, I think he wouldn’t lie to us,” said her mother. “I’m just so worried about the little ones. I just don’t know. I feel frantic and useless all at the same time.”

  “Mom, can we drive by the station and ask if there is anything we can do?” asked Annie.

  “I’d like to but I think we need to follow the orders. He wants you to be home in bed most the weekend so you can go to school. However, once you’re settled in, I’ll call and see if anything has happened.”

  Annie had to be content with that. She watched out the window at the scenery going by, noticing the leaves were all gone down, and as they passed the school, the kids were out at various practices, cheer, football, band. She suddenly missed them all. Passing the museum and fabric/fiber/hobby store, she got a lump in her throat and for a moment started to feel a vise on her chest as though she couldn’t breathe. Her head began to spin.

  “Mom, I don’t feel so good,” she whimpered.

  “What? What do you mean?”

  “I don’t want to go back to the doctor but when we passed where it happened back there, and they’re all just going on like we haven't lost Enya and Kai, and I could see that hand on the stroller handle again. I felt like I was going to black out, and my head twinged like I was going to get hit again. I don’t know.”

  “That’s a delayed memory reaction, honey,” said her mother. “Sort of like a panic attack. After you’re a little stronger, we’ll work on extinguishing that reaction with you.”

  “Extinguishing?”

  “Yeah, stopping the flashbacks. I have them too, or did. I’d pass the store and suddenly be hyperventilating as I think of the babies. I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to spin again.”

  Annie was quiet a moment. “How do you do that, stop the flashback, I mean.”

  “You don’t relive it, you go to the place it happened, you force yourself to walk in. In the spinning, you take up the spindle and you spin again. You brain figures out it wasn’t the drop spindle that caused all this. Your body accepts the fiber store isn’t a dangerous place. You go on. I plan on doing it as soon as we find the babies. I don’t want to forget it until my babies are back home. I want to remember it all in case there is something Brad can use to help find them.”

  Annie nodded. “I think so too. I wonder if we should see one of those hypnosis people? You know, regress our memories and try to think of clues?”

  “Hypno-therapists? No, I don’t think so yet. Right now, we need rest, both of us. I can’t wait to get back into my bed, and neither can you. Brad will be home in a few hours. I’m taking a nap and then I’ll make supper.”

  Annie nodded. She said nothing for the rest of the drive. When they got to their home, they were surprised several cars were in the driveway. The sheriff’s wife was standing on the porch with another woman Casey didn’t know.

  Casey got out of the car and helped Annie.

  “What’s happening, Mom?” she asked Sandra.

  “The sheriff’s wives auxiliary came over when they heard Annie was coming home. They were here when I left this morning and told me what they were doing. It appears the police department wives stick together in times of trouble for support.”

  Casey and Annie moved towards the house, feeling just a little dazed. Women seemed to pop out of the woodwork as they approached the front door and went in.

  “Hi! I’m Becky, husband is the chief of police over in Berlin.”

  “My names Alexis; husband works at Millersburg station.”

  “Casey, your mom successfully staved off the Fiber Sisters from coming over and running one of their extravaganzas because she knew you’d be too tired. I went through something similar to this when Erik got shot years ago. All of the ladies here have been through the wringer because their husbands are in law enforcement. All we did was the laundry, clean the house, set out casseroles, and make supper. We’re going now because you both need rest. You just let us know what we can do to make all this easier.”

  “Can anyone find my sibs?” asked Annie.

  “We’ve got the best men in the country doing that,” replied Mrs. Black. “There’s a lot of prayers and a lot of work going on. For now, have faith it will turn out. If there’s anything you need, just call. Oh, and the guys in the dining room are there in case the phone rings with …” Mrs. Black’s words stumbled. “Well, to be frank, a ransom demand. We think they’ve been watching for you to come home. They knew you and Brad weren’t home, so nothing has come through but pretty sure it will now. We want to trace the call when it comes. Tuck Annie in, and then speak with them a few minutes and then go to bed yourself. Ladies, let’s shoo now. They need rest.” The ladies gathered their things, and each gave Casey a hug and said something comforting as they filed out, eleven of them.

  Mrs. Black was the last to go. “Erik told me they had some promising leads. The FBI is here. Brad’s running about with Ruckus and everyone in town has an eye out. We will find these babies,” she promised.

  Casey tucked in Annie, put a glass of ice water by her bed and shut her drapes. Casey then spoke to the two men with the machines in the dining room, and they explained what would happen if a call came in. Then she went into her bedroom, which smelled of lemon disinfectant, clean clothes, and despair. She laid down on the bed, pulled up the spare blanket, and cried until she fell asleep.

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  Brad, Rutherford and Sheriff Black knocked on Sophia’s door, which opened almost by magic at the first knock. Going inside, they were astonished to find not just Sophia, but what looked to be most of the Yarn Sisters.

  “Sophia, what’s going on?” asked Brad mildly. “I thought we were going to talk about Mrs. Stoneman.”

  “We are. We’ve just been gathering facts. All of us want to help. We have to find those dear future knitters.”

  Sheriff Black raised his eyebrows. He looked at the living room and the fifteen ladies waiting for him.

  Sophia plunged ahead. “Now we’ve been gathering data about Mrs. Stoneman. Susie over here got into the microfiche at the newspaper office. Mrs. Stoneman married Jim in her junior year of high school; they set up housekeeping in that dear little old cottage out in the boonies. She was pregnant and didn’t realize it when he enlisted and went off to Vietnam. He was hoping to use the GI bill to get a college education when he got back. Except, he didn’t get back.”

  “We knew he got killed in Vietnam,” said the Sheriff.

  “And she went ahead and had twins. A little girl and boy and their names were Sheila and Thomas,” said Hannah. “She had them in the hospital in Loudonville. Our hospital was only a clinic back then.”

  Sophia continued, “She was just 18 years old when her world fell apart like a jigsaw puzzle knocked off a table. Her husband killed, she got the flag delivered to her, all of that, she was alone. Her mom babysat the babies so she could work. It wasn’t easy. There wasn’t much welfare in those days and it took six months to get her widow’s pension from the military and she couldn’t get the social security pension because she was military. Once her pension came, she stopped work so she could stay with the twins. The babies were greatly loved and cared for, but they both came down with teething colds that somehow went into bronchitis. She took them to the hospital, but they died a few hours apart.” Sophia leaned back in her rocker and took
a long breath.

  “Alice came unglued,” Jane Long took over, nodding at Sophia. “The ladies in the Auxiliary back then interviewed people who knew her and were told she went into seclusion at that little house. She gardened, she stayed to herself, alone, and no one could reach her. Then the pastor before Pastor Primo made a visit, was horrified at what he saw, and insisted the church ladies get involved.”

  “I was there, I was just a young mom myself,” said Sophia in an important voice. “Mildred and I took her under our wing. We found out she could play organ and we got her hooked up to be the church organist. Betsy’s husband found out the little house next to us was up for rent to own, and we all convinced her to move into town. We all sort of took care of her all these years.”

  “And that’s why we just don’t see how she could be the kidnapper. It doesn’t fit. She’s very quiet, she plays organ for church and Sunday school, she doesn’t say boo to anyone. Even when she comes to yarn meetings, she sits quiet and doesn’t talk, just knits and learns and sometimes will drink tea.”

  Then Rosemary spoke up. “But I think she knows something about it. I’ve been in her house. It’s always clean, she has food but she makes these really weird afghans, with skulls in them, and ghosts. She has a sort of shrine set up in the hallway. It has the flag she was given in a box in front of Jim’s picture, she has pictures of the babies on each side and booties that were theirs. She keeps candles burning on that table. The table has one of her spooky shawls on it. I have suggested she go to a grief counselor.”

  Brad nodded. “Have you heard anything that would make you think the babies are at her house?”

  “Well, that’s the bad thing. Do you remember we told you about someone who came to the church asking for some baby things a few weeks ago? The ladies in the Auxiliary now are all younger and they didn’t know her. We talked to them though and she seems to fit their description of Mrs. Stoneman.”