Inherit the Wool

by Betty Hechtman

  There was no question that he would accept.

  He was munching on his third cookie and drinking black coffee as my people came in. Lucinda looked over the group and then up at me and I knew what she was thinking—one of them was a killer. I was still having a hard time accepting that fact and I was sure it was slowing down my investigating process. I pulled myself together and put on a bright smile.

  I mentioned the fresh cookies and drinks and that Theo was there to give more meditation lessons. He didn’t appear very enthused about it but forced himself to sort of smile. He zeroed in on Zak. “You’re up,” he said, putting down his coffee cup.

  Zak’s face clouded. “Why not ladies first,” he said, indicating Madeleine and Lucinda.

  I stepped in and said the point of the lessons was to help the group deal with Vanessa’s death. “After Zak, Theo will be offering second sessions to anyone interested.”

  Zak shook his head. “I don’t really need a lesson. I know my way around a mantra. I did a story on a Buddhist monastery and I spent time with the meditators in Iowa.” To further prove his point, he bowed to the cop and said, “Namaste.”

  Zak was all friendly smiles, but something in the way he looked at Lieutenant Borgnine made me think he’d seen through the ruse.

  Madeleine had already put down her needles. “I’ll gladly take his place. I’ve heard about meditating.” She went on about the new chapter in her life and how she was all about trying new things. She was out of her chair and on her way to the door before I could find an excuse for her not to have a lesson.

  As Lieutenant Borgnine left with Madeleine, he threw me a backward look. Whatever good cheer the coffee and cookies had brought was gone. Not only was it a waste of time for him to talk to Madeleine, but he had to watch himself because she and Cora were heads of the Police Benevolent Committee.

  Crystal had arrived looking like a rainbow just as they were leaving. On the way out Madeleine reached out and grabbed her hand. “Tell Cory I put in a good word for him.”

  “What was that about?” Crystal said to me.

  “She really likes your son and I think she wants to help him. She always says nice things about you, too,” I added. My helper’s expression clouded, but then she put on her game face before going to the head of the table. She laid a couple of samples of the scarves on the table and offered help to anyone who needed it.

  They’d already taken out their knitting and were working on the scarves. When I saw how much they’d done and how comfortable they’d become with knitting, I believed they would be able to finish by Sunday. I decided to sit down with them and took out the scarf I was working on, thinking it might be easier to pick up information if it seemed like I was one of them.

  I pulled out an empty chair next to Zak. He’d really taken to knitting and was surprisingly dexterous with the needles. It wasn’t a stretch to think he could handle other kinds of needles, too. I was sure Frank was wrong that I was going soft on him. If Zak was the guilty party, I’d go after him. My concern must have shown in my face because he suddenly leaned close to me and whispered, “Don’t worry, I didn’t let anything out about last night.”

  “You two look pretty cozy,” Blair said. “Getting together for old times’ sake?”

  Zak looked at me and seemed a little uncertain. “There is no old times’ sake. I think we were always circling each other but we never connected.”

  It stung that he didn’t remember the walk in the rain, but then it probably didn’t mean anything to him. Lucinda threw me a sympathetic look. Courtney seemed very tense and dropped one of the big plastic needles a number of times. She struggled through a row of stitches. She glared down at her work and let out a loud ugh and threw her work down on the table. “This is a hopeless mess. I thought knitting was supposed to calm your nerves.”

  Courtney had always seemed so poised and in control, it was strange to see her melt down over some yarn. Crystal leaned over and picked up the needle that had her work on it and examined the stitches. The worst of the problem seemed to be that the eyelash yarn was hanging off in a loose loop. Crystal undid a few stitches and picked up the errant yarn so that all the stitches now had all three strands. Then she straightened the three balls of yarn and handed it all back to Courtney. “There, it should be better now.”

  Despite having her work straightened out, the lawyer Baller-rina didn’t seem any better. “What’s wrong?” I asked. “It seems like it’s more than twisted yarn.”

  Courtney was staring straight ahead now. “I’m finished,” she said. “Over, done with.”

  “What do you mean?” Lauren said, putting a hand on her shoulder.

  “They’ve gone ahead and settled the case I was working on,” she said.

  “That sounds like a good thing,” Lauren said.

  “You would see it that way. You were always the one to smooth everything over. But it’s not good at all. Our side is the loser in the settlement. I’m getting the blame because I was supposed to be available and they couldn’t reach me about some documents I had. I would have if I could have, but there was no way with no WiFi or cell reception.”

  “Maybe if you explain the situation, your boss will understand,” Lauren offered, still trying to make everything okay.

  Courtney snorted. “Are you kidding? Excuses aren’t allowed. You have to do what’s expected of you or you’re dead.”

  “At least you’ve got your family,” Elizabeth said.

  Courtney seemed surprised by the comment and shook her head with regret. “It’s all Vanessa’s fault.” But then it was as if Courtney suddenly realized what she’d said and her expression changed abruptly as she straightened up. “Forget I said any of that. It was just a momentary lapse. I’m fine. You’re right, Lauren, I’ll straighten it out and I’m sure I can make them understand.” Despite her words, she still looked like a rubber band pulled too tight.

  It was then that I noticed that Lieutenant Borgnine had returned. I didn’t know how long he’d been standing in the doorway, but he was definitely eyeing Courtney with interest. He was alone and I wondered what had happened to Madeleine. I went over to talk to him.

  “Where’s Madeleine?” I asked. I had visions of her lost in la-la land still sitting on the sand. “Was there a problem?”

  He almost smiled. “No. She was so happy with her lesson she went off to talk to Kevin St. John about adding a meditation class to the Vista Del Mar events. She even asked me if I’d be willing to teach it.” He’d kept his voice low and I knew he was choosing his words carefully so as not to let on that his meditation credentials were limited, to say the least.

  Courtney was already pushing her chair away. “I’ll take a second session.” I had a feeling it was more about making an exit after her outburst than any hope the meditation would help.

  He ushered her out the door and looked back at me with a hopeful nod. To his thinking Courtney had walked right into his web.

  Lauren checked around, and when she seemed satisfied they were gone she turned to the rest of us. “Her career is everything to her. She did it all by herself with no support from her family. She was always jealous of Vanessa and the way everything seemed to fall in her lap.” She made another check to make sure they were gone. “I think there’s something off with her family, too.”

  “I’m stunned,” Blair said. “If I’d guessed there was one of us who would never crumble, I would have picked Courtney. I used to laugh when I heard her worrying about grades. I don’t think she even knew what a C was.”

  “If she’d ever gotten a C, I think she would have died on the spot,” Elizabeth said.

  “It gets worse than that,” Lauren said. “I ran into her when she was in law school. She was upset about something, and you know me, I asked her what was wrong, hoping I could help somehow. She let down her defenses and told me how worried she was that she wasn’t first in her class anymore. I tried to smooth it over and said that second in her class sounded pretty good to me.
But she said as far as she was concerned it was number one or you were number none. To her, being second was the same as being at the bottom of her class.”

  “Poor Courtney,” Elizabeth said. There was just the glint of satisfaction in her expression.

  “I wonder what she meant about it being Vanessa’s fault,” Blair said.

  There was no chance to ask Courtney about her Vanessa comment. When she came back from the meditation interlude it was as if she’d never had the meltdown. She took her seat and picked up her knitting and went back to work. It was a little spooky how she could go from falling apart to poised and in control.

  Lieutenant Borgnine made a half-hearted attempt at offering anyone a second session and seemed relieved when no one said a word.

  “Well, then namaste to you all,” he said with a rushed bow and headed for the door. I followed him out the door, saying something to the group about wanting to thank him.

  “Well?” I said expectantly when I caught up with him. The afternoon was fading and the air felt cold without a jacket.

  “Well, nothing. That Courtney is sure tense, but also very controlled about what she says. I couldn’t get anything out of her about Vanessa. I tried to act like the understanding older male figure.”

  “You mean like a father?”

  “No,” he said quickly. “I was thinking more like an older brother. I am not old enough to be her father,” he said indignantly. He shook his head with regret. “I shouldn’t have let you talk me into wasting this afternoon. The time with Madeleine was a complete waste. Not for her,” he said. “She wanted to know all about meditation and said it would do her sister some good. She’s probably right. That sister of hers is sure a sourpuss. Then Madeleine started telling me I ought to try wearing jeans. She said they have stretchy ones that would be perfect for me,” he said. I was having a hard time not chuckling picturing the stumpy man in stretchy denim. “I thought I might get something out of your lawyer friend, but every time I tried to get her to talk about what was on her mind she just turned to me and said om over and over.” I think it’s rather suspicious that Zak begged off. But that’s all over with. I’m going to tell them the truth that Vanessa was murdered and go to standard procedure and tell them that nobody leaves until I get a chance to talk to them. And no nicey-nice either. It’s going to be sit them down and shine a light in their face.”

  “You can’t do that,” I said.

  He got a half smile. “Oh yes I can.”

  “It won’t work. Just like I told you before. Once they figure out they’re suspects they won’t talk.”

  He was back to his usual unhappy self. “They won’t talk about themselves, but I bet they’ll talk about each other.” He turned like he was going to go back in the room and start interrogating. We bartered back and forth and I finally got him to agree to leave everything as is until the morning. There were a lot of muffins promised and a lecture on how he’d never listen to me again.

  Only Lucinda looked up when I returned and I gave her a secret thumbs-up. When the allotted time ended, there was a run on the cookies and drinks. I started to remind them they had free time until dinner, but Elizabeth started to shake her head.

  “No free time. It’s our last chance to rehearse before our performance,” she said. There was a lot of head shaking, but she persisted. “I’ll go get the balls and meet you all there.”

  “Are we really doing this?” Courtney said. “Who wants to watch us bounce balls with lame dance moves?”

  “It’ll be fun,” Lauren said. “Nobody cares if we suck.”

  “Easy for you to say,” I said. “Nobody knows any of you. It’s a different story for me.” Then I thought about it. It would be hardly the first time I’d done something embarrassing in public, or the last, as I thought of the Sunday magic show. “Fine, you’re right, who cares?”

  “Meet you all there,” Elizabeth said, going out the door. I hung back to help clear stuff up. Lucinda left with them, saying she needed to change her ballet flats into sneakers.

  “Sorry I’m going to miss the show,” Crystal said with a chuckle. I told her she was welcome to observe, but she passed. Just as she was about to go, I reminded her of Madeleine’s comments about Cory.

  Crystal grabbed her tote bag. “I’ll mention it to my mother, but don’t expect her to change her mind.”

  I was about to shut off the lights when I saw that Crystal had forgotten the sample scarves. I put them in my bag and went to catch up with her. But I forgot all about it when I found Zak waiting outside. He seemed to have something on his mind. “About what I said back there.” He looked at me intently. “It is true that we always seemed to be circling each other, but we did make contact. I do remember a very special walk on a rainy night. But it seemed like you didn’t want them to know.”

  Chapter Twenty-four

  I was thinking over what Zak had said as I went to Hummingbird Hall. So he did remember after all, and I liked the way he said we’d been circling each other. Elizabeth was waiting on the stage bouncing one of the red balls, impatient to start. The rehearsal was short and sweet, maybe not so sweet. We all did the swagger in okay, but when it came to the rumble all hell broke loose. I found myself going on autopilot when it came time to throw my ball and I threw it to the wrong person again. I had to deal with the wrath of Elizabeth, and even my explanation didn’t help. “You were the one who said our bodies would remember the moves. I just went back to who I threw to back in the day.”

  “Forget I said that about your body remembering.” Elizabeth glared at me, shaking her head. “This is now and you throw to Courtney.” She pushed bandanas on us as costumes. The Sharks got red ones and the Jets got black ones. I think we were all on the same page. Just get this stupid thing over with.

  There was still a little time before dinner and everyone scattered. I cut through the Lodge thinking of going home for a few minutes. As I passed the registration desk, the clerk called me over.

  “They have you doing this now,” I said, recognizing Cloris with her choppy multicolored short hair. She reminded me that she was always looking for extra hours and someone had been let go recently and she was filling in until they got a replacement. I was pretty sure I knew who’d been let go, but that was beside the point.

  She held up an envelope. “This is for one of your people. I think it’s been here for a while. Everything has been a little off since the bomb scare.”

  I opened it and found an itinerary and boarding pass for a flight to Chicago on Friday for Vanessa. Now I understood why her suitcase had been packed up. She’d been planning to leave. As I looked over the documents I realized that when she’d disappeared during our lunch at the Blue Door she’d gone down the street to Cadbury Travel to make the arrangements. I wondered if it was just because she was so unhappy with the accommodations or if it was something else.

  “It’s kind of pointless now,” I said. “These flights have long gone and Vanessa is the one who had the heart attack.” I suggested she put it in the pigeonhole for Vanessa’s room and give it to her husband. I noticed something as I looked over the wooden slots. The red tote bag I’d left for Blair was stuck in one of them. When I told Cloris it was supposed to have been given to Blair, she got very apologetic.

  “I wasn’t on duty then, but like I said, everything has been a little off.” She went to hand me the tote bag and mentioned that the keys were still in the slot. “They must have given her a different room.”

  I stuffed the tote bag inside my larger one and realized I still had Crystal’s sample scarves. I’d give them back to her tomorrow. The time to go home had disappeared and the dinner bell had started to ring. Cloris told me she’d be working breakfast. “I heard they’re making popovers.”

  I joined the rest of my group at the table. Elizabeth was already wearing her red bandana and wanted the rest of us to put ours on. She got a couple of cold stares in response. Lucinda shrugged and put on hers, mentioning it added a spot of color to her b
lack Eileen Fisher outfit. She grabbed the ice tea pitcher and made the rounds. Zak had a wicked smile on his face and seemed to be enjoying the group’s preperformance jitters. I was sure he was planning on making a video of our moment in the spotlight and would probably torment all of us with it afterward.

  They were just worried about looking like fools with red balls, but Frank’s tick tock was going off in my head. Why couldn’t I figure out who had killed Vanessa?

  There was no hanging around the table having second cups of coffee. Kevin St. John went around the dining hall urging everyone to move on to Hummingbird Hall for the talent show. Not that anyone seemed to mind the rush. I was sure that at least Lauren and Courtney were on the same page I was—anxious to be done with it.

  Lucky for us, we were second on the roster, so we just stood by the side of the stage right behind the first group.

  Kevin St. John was acting as master of ceremonies. I’d never realized how much he liked being in the spotlight until I saw him take the microphone and keep it for too long. Did anyone really care that the Saturday night talent show was left over from the time Vista Del Mar was a camp, like over a hundred years ago?

  I glanced over the audience and was surprised to see Lieutenant Borgnine back to his cop clothes sitting in the third row. He’d agreed not to interrogate anyone until tomorrow, but he hadn’t said he wouldn’t keep an eye on them.

  A family of jugglers went on first and they were quite accomplished, though a little repetitive, and their act seemed to go on forever. My nerves were jangling when they finally took their bows.

  I listened as Kevin introduced us. Elizabeth must have given him the copy. He gave the rundown that our act had started in a gym class and we’d stayed friends through the years. He didn’t mention anything about Vanessa or that Lucinda had taken her place. As we took our positions, I saw Zak, and he was holding his phone up, no doubt already taping. I hoped he didn’t have blackmail in mind.

  The song from West Side Story began and we did out strut in. I tried to just focus on the next few minutes and get it right. We did our bouncing and then turned to our so-called menacing poses before the rumble began. I was determined not to make a mistake, but when our dancing fight began I started to throw to the wrong person again. But I managed to stop myself in time. Even so the balls went all over the place. Not that it really mattered—we still ended by all falling to the ground. Elizabeth had added her own finish and stood up and said, “Violence is never the answer.”