by Janet Bolin
Later, I’d seen Loretta and Clay together in the carriage house. Not only together, I reminded myself. Hugging each other.
Usually, Haylee and I talked to each other at least once a day.
I took all four pets out, then ushered the cats inside. Sitting on my picnic table with my feet on the bench, I watched Sally and Tally play and explore. In many ways, I envied those two dogs for their happy, uncomplicated lives.
Half surprised that Dora didn’t come out of Blueberry Cottage to chat, I called my dogs and we went inside. I fed my pets and told them, “When the going gets tough, the tough go shopping.”
No response from the dining animals.
“For fabric,” I prompted them.
Still no response. Obviously, fabric stores excited me more than they excited my funny little animals. I phoned Haylee and asked if I could visit her shop.
Of course she said yes.
I went upstairs, let myself out of In Stitches, and ran across the street to The Stash.
It was only mid-September, and lots of people must not have decided yet what costumes to make for Halloween. Haylee had filled tables near the front of her store with Halloween fabrics.
Mutely, I stared at them. Colors and patterns jumbled together.
Haylee asked, “Do you need anything in particular?”
Haylee was my best friend, but suddenly, I didn’t know how to tell her about Loretta and Clay.
“Willow?”
Running my hand down glossy black fabric embellished with metallic gold spiders and their webs, I blurted, “Clay has found someone else.”
I didn’t look at Haylee, but her silence said everything.
I stroked the golden filaments on the cloth in front of me. “You knew, didn’t you?”
She cleared her throat. “I don’t know anything like that. Besides, I doubt that you’re right.”
“You could sound more convinced.”
“Clay likes you, Willow. He wouldn’t suddenly change his mind.”
Still without looking at Haylee, I moved down the row to dancing skeletons embossed on velvet, soft underneath my fingers. “You saw him with her, didn’t you?”
“Who?”
“Loretta from TADAM. When Ben was trying to revive Antonio, I asked you where Clay was and you avoided answering.”
“I did see them together, but I didn’t think it meant anything. She barged into the kitchen when Antonio was telling Clay how much better his contractor had done than Clay could have—as if! Loretta stared at Clay for a few seconds, and then she very dramatically asked him if he was Clay Fraser. When he said he was, she threw herself at him and claimed she recognized him from fourth grade. You know Clay. He never wants to hurt anyone. I didn’t think he remembered her, but he disentangled himself and they talked for a while, then they went out the back door together, and I didn’t see either of them again. What makes you think he’s fallen for her? He seemed to be politely attempting to ditch her so he could return to you.”
“But he didn’t.” Finally, I raised my head.
Her mouth was a small o. “He didn’t? What happened after Ben and I left?”
“I . . . I saw them. Together. They were in the carriage house, and they were hugging each other. Then she took him by the hand and pulled him back to the mansion. Dora and I were in the kitchen when they came in. Loretta explained that Clay had been her first love, and he said that they’d been discussing ways of turning the carriage house into an apartment. Probably a love nest for the two of them.” I meant it as a joke. Clay had built himself a large home on acres in the country.
Haylee laughed at my rather flat attempt at humor, but it wasn’t exactly a hearty laugh. “What did Clay have to say about that?”
“Not much. They must have been out there together at least forty-five minutes.”
“Huh . . .” It was more like a sigh than a word, almost a resigned belief that Clay had fallen for Loretta.
I immediately leaped into denial mode and tried to give Clay the benefit of the doubt. “He did seem to want to get away from her. He said he’d walk the rest of us home, but Loretta wanted him to stay behind and help her lock the mansion.”
“And he did?”
“No. Vicki had Antonio’s keys. She said she’d help Loretta, instead.” I grinned at the memory of Vicki’s adept treatment of Loretta. “So Loretta had to stay with Vicki, who sent the rest of us, including Clay, away.”
“Good for Vicki! What did Clay say after that?”
“I don’t know. I went ahead with Ashley, Macey, and Macey’s roommate, Samantha. Dora made Clay walk with her. Then Dora must have dragged her feet on purpose. Clay couldn’t catch up with us.”
“So, knowing Clay, he escorted Dora all the way to Blueberry Cottage, and by then you were outside with your pets, and you had a chance to talk to him.”
I looked down at my feet. “I stayed out of sight until he was gone.”
“Willow!” Haylee wasn’t easily scandalized.
“Loretta’s lipstick was smeared, and Clay had a red smudge of it on his shirt.”
Haylee’s face froze for a second before she pointed out, “She was all over him! He didn’t reciprocate.”
Not when anyone else was watching. “She made certain that everyone noticed the lipstick, too. She apologized for getting lipstick on his shirt. She offered to remove the stains.”
“Nothing like putting a man on the spot for the spots on his shirt.”
I gave her a weak smile. “I guess it is a little funny.”
“What did he do, tear off his shirt right then and there and hand it to her?”
“No. He went all stony and said he could take out the stains.”
“Aha. He obviously wasn’t falling for it. Or for her.”
I balled embossed velvet into one fist. “I suppose there’s hope.”
“There is. Talk to him.”
“Don’t they say that if you want something, you have to let it go?” I didn’t sound very sure of myself.
“That doesn’t seem to be Loretta’s method.”
“Meow!” I let go of the velvet. Fortunately, I hadn’t creased it, much. Something like excitement shining from Haylee’s eyes caught my attention. I asked, “What happened between you and Ben?”
“Nothing. He walked me home.”
I clapped my hands. “Great.”
She shrugged. “He’s a gentleman. He didn’t even touch me. But get this. He said he’d see me at firefighting practice Tuesday evening and when we reconvene at the pub like we always do. It’s a start, I guess, for him, actually mentioning that we’d all go out together afterward.”
“It’s almost a date!”
“Oh puh-leeze. Clay will also be there on Tuesday for practice and at the pub. The four of us always have fun together. You and Clay will be back where you were before that woman intervened.”
Maybe the best thing would be to pretend, at least around Clay, that I hadn’t seen him with his arms around Loretta. I changed the subject. “Meanwhile, want to go to the free introductory fashion design class at TADAM tomorrow evening? Ashley and I are going.”
“I heard about Antonio’s death. Too bad. He wasn’t old. But I didn’t think much of TADAM. Do we have to return there, even for a class?”
“After Antonio collapsed, his wife accused Dora and me of murdering him. But he wasn’t dead. And she was cagey about whether or not he had heart trouble.” I told Haylee about the candy and allergy medicine that someone may have planted in my cubicle that morning. “But the state trooper didn’t seem impressed by my deductions.”
“Vicki probably wouldn’t have been, either. She thinks we make things up so we can investigate.”
“Still, I wonder if Paula, who would have known if Antonio was allergic to almonds, slipped him some, and also hid his allerg
y medication.”
“Loretta did it!”
I wanted to believe that and wanted to hope that Loretta would be jailed for murder. But if Antonio had been intentionally harmed, we needed to look at every suspect, not only at people we wished would vanish from Threadville. “Maybe that dissatisfied-looking man in the muscle shirt arranged things so that Antonio would go into shock and maybe die.”
“Dissatisfied?” Haylee repeated. “He looked just plain mean.”
“Who wouldn’t, around the rest of that crew?” I told her about seeing him outside the conservatory shortly after I’d seen a light moving inside it and had noticed an open door that, last we’d known, had been locked. “I’d seen Loretta go into what I think is her apartment building a few minutes earlier. Then, when I went back with the dogs later, the conservatory was locked again.”
Haylee suggested, “Maybe Paula, Loretta, or Muscle Shirt hid the evidence right after the fashion show, and before the reception.”
“Muscle Shirt and Paula were already at the reception when we got there.” I frowned. “And Loretta beat us there, too, even though she locked the conservatory behind us. I’d only just left my cubicle when she caught up to us at the main door. To have hidden things in my cubicle before she joined us, she’d have had to have been quick.”
Haylee raised an eyebrow. “She’s a fast worker, all right.”
I laughed. “Who wouldn’t be, around Clay?”
“You.”
I raised my shoulders in a helpless shrug. “I’ll work faster, if I get another chance.”
“You will. Wasn’t Loretta supposed to open the conservatory this morning at nine? She could have gone early and moved the evidence around.”
I stroked orange fleece printed with smiling yellow pumpkins. “Could be. I didn’t arrive at nine on the dot, and the door was already open. At first, I didn’t see or hear anyone. Then people—TADAM students, probably—started moving chairs in the main room.”
“Maybe Paula was the one with the flashlight in the unlocked conservatory. Vicki offered to drive both Gord and Paula home from the hospital last night, if Paula was ready to go when Gord was. Let’s find out what Edna may have learned from Gord about if and when Paula returned.”
We left The Stash. I’d be back soon, no doubt, to touch all the wools, corduroys, and flannels that Haylee had stocked for winter sewing.
Beyond Opal’s yarn store, Edna’s shop, Buttons and Bows, had closed for the evening, but it was still unlocked, and we let ourselves in. Edna sold almost every type of button and trim imaginable. The front room of Buttons and Bows was narrow, with buttons lining the wall, floor to ceiling, on the left side of the aisle, and ribbons, lace, fringe, and trims lining the right side of the shop. Edna kept things in almost rainbow order, but many of her notions were gold, silver, or sparkled like diamonds, and had to be displayed outside the spectrum.
It was a beautiful sight.
Edna must have heard her door chimes jingle their “Buttons and Beaux” tune. She called to us from her back room. It was wider than the front room, with tables holding shallow bins of beads, sequins, crystals, and notions like bias tape and various types of fasteners. Edna held up a deep red zipper with crystal teeth like rubies. “Isn’t this lovely?”
We agreed that it was. After admiring the latest in wooden beads shaped like baby animals, I asked her, “Did Vicki bring Gord home last night?”
Edna blushed. “Yes, he arrived around one thirty this morning, the poor dear, and told me what had happened to Antonio.”
Oops. One thirty was about the time I’d been wandering around the village with the dogs. I hoped that Vicki hadn’t spotted us prowling around. I hadn’t seen her, but Vicki often noticed more than I wanted her to and may have seen us.
I asked Edna, “Do you know if Vicki also drove Antonio’s wife, I mean widow, home at the same time?”
Edna bobbed her head up and down. “She did. Gord had to sit in the backseat, which, he said, is cramped. The widow sobbed all the way back from Erie, and Vicki actually asked Gord if he carried sedatives with him. Gord told me that he thought the sobbing really irritated our calm and collected police chief.”
Haylee asked, “And did Gord have sedatives, Edna?”
“He’s not a walking pharmacy. Besides, as far as he knew, he was only going to a fashion show and a reception.” Edna picked up a handful of tiny white pearl beads and let them flow like water between her fingers and back into their bin. Slowly, as if words were hard to find, she said, “I shouldn’t pass along gossip, but . . . being a doctor and assisting the coroner, Gord has seen his share of grief and crying over the years. He thought Paula was faking it.”
I asked, “Did Gord tell Vicki that?”
Edna raised her chin. “He couldn’t, with the grieving widow right there. Vicki brought Gord home first, and I don’t think he’s talked to Vicki since.”
However, after I told Edna about the candy-coated almonds and the medication vial missing its prescription label, she came up with the same idea I’d had. “Someone could have tucked an almond into Antonio’s pocket and hidden his allergy medicine to try to kill him, and then planted those things in your cubicle. I’ll ask Gord to talk to Vicki about the grieving of the new widow.”
We told Edna we were going to the next night’s free introductory class and asked if she planned to attend.
“I do now, after what you’ve told me. We should all go.”
I walked with Haylee back to The Stash. As we parted, Haylee said, “Stop fretting about Clay and Loretta. She won’t get her claws into him.”
“There’s no point in worrying.” I was proud of what I thought was a nonchalant tone.
“But you will, anyway.”
She was probably right.
13
Mondays, the Threadville shops weren’t open. I took my animals outside, fed them, baked cookies to serve in the shop during the week, fulfilled orders for embroidery designs, planned the week’s classes, and worked on a jacket I was making for myself. Red, with petite ruffles and touches of embroidery around the hem and cuffs, the jacket would look great with jeans or a skirt during cool autumn days.
After supper, the phone rang.
Clay calling, finally?
It was Ashley. “Are you still going to the class at TADAM?”
“Wouldn’t miss it.”
“We should go early in case it gets crowded.”
I had to smile. Last I knew she was afraid that the course would be canceled due to lack of interest.
But now she had another concern. “I hope the class won’t go on too long. If it does, I’ll have to leave early to pick up my sister from band practice. They’re rehearsing at the conservatory. They’re having a concert there next week.”
“The conservatory is open today?”
“It’s not usually open on Mondays, but the band teacher told the kids he’d have the key.”
Maybe yesterday’s state trooper hadn’t been excited enough about my “evidence” to close the conservatory as a potential crime scene. If I helped pick up Ashley’s sister, I would have another chance to snoop backstage. I told Ashley, “I’ll come, too, even if we have to leave the class early.”
“They’ll call that a threadly sin, too!”
Apparently, she’d recovered from the insult that Antonio had thrown at her.
After my pets were safely inside following another outing, I put on a deep green blazer that I’d made and embellished with tiny embroidered fall leaves, went out to my patio, and locked the sliding glass doors.
Purse in hand, Dora stood on the back porch of Blueberry Cottage.
“Yoo-hoo!” she called. “Are you going to that fashion design course tonight? I’ll walk with you!” She marched to my patio. “Did you confront Clay about That Woman yet?”
Escorting her up the hill
to my front yard, I suggested, “I’m not sure that confronting a man about another woman is a great ploy, unless one wants to alienate the man.”
“As long as you’re happy.”
“There’s not much I can do if he’s fallen for her.”
“Encourage him to fall for you, instead. You could have tried harder.”
I tried to sound indifferent. “It may be too late.”
“You give up too easily.”
Haylee hadn’t thought that Clay seemed interested in Loretta, but Haylee hadn’t seen the embrace and the lipstick. Maybe an upbeat approach would get Dora off my case. “Who knows? Next time I see him, Clay and I may be back to normal.”
“He’s special. Look at the job he did on Blueberry Cottage before I moved in.”
Laughing, I opened the gate. “It’s no wonder you like it, since most of the ideas were yours.”
She pointed to the front porch of In Stitches, then across the street to the other Threadville shops. “And he did all of these renovations, too, and don’t forget the Elderberry Bay Lodge. Clay helped Ben restore it to its Victorian glory.” She barely took a breath before adding, “I wonder where Edna and the others are. What if the class fills up? They’ll miss it.”
“I left early to pick up Ashley. Mind going the long way around, or do you want to wait for Edna and the others?”
“I’ll come with you.”
Looking happier than she had recently, Ashley joined us near her front walk. “My dad’s lined up a couple of good job interviews,” she told us. She chattered about the potential jobs, neither of which would require moving away, until we turned the corner to the TADAM mansion.
The Threadville tour bus from Erie was parked outside it.
I stopped walking. “I wonder how they found out about the introductory course.”
A dimple showed in Ashley’s cheek. “I may have made a few phone calls.”
“I hope Haylee, Edna, Naomi, and Opal arrive in time to get in.” Dora’s voice was dark with foreboding.
Inside the mansion, the room where Antonio had collapsed was set up as a classroom, with rows of chairs facing a long table, an easel, and a voluptuous dressmaker’s dummy with an impossibly small waistline.
