Cast On, Kill Off (A Knitting Mystery)

by Sefton, Maggie

  “Yes, it certainly was tragic. All of us knew Zoe Yeager because she was the seamstress who designed and made our bridesmaid gowns. She was very talented.”

  “That is such a shame to see someone die so violently. And your friend is convinced Mrs. Yeager’s own husband is the one responsible. That is simply dreadful. In my personal opinion, I’m surprised the police haven’t arrested the man yet. According to this woman Vera, he’s a habitual wife beater and a drunkard as well as a thief. Apparently he stole her savings. I am shocked the man is still roaming about free.”

  “Well, I have to agree with Vera’s assessment of Oscar Yeager, but I’m surprised she revealed so much.”

  “Oh, I’m used to it, Kelly. As a lawyer, people come into my office with various problems, and we start talking. Then, the next thing you know, they’ve told me far more about themselves than they’d planned.” He laughed softly.

  “Well, I’ll bear that in mind, Mr. Chambers, the next time I come into your office. I’ll make sure not to spill any secrets,” she teased.

  “Don’t worry, Kelly, your secrets will be safe with me,” Chambers said, smile still in his voice. “We’ll visit in a couple of weeks; meanwhile, you and your friends enjoy the nuptials.”

  “Thank you, Mr. Chambers, we plan to,” Kelly said before clicking off.

  She shoved her phone into her jeans pocket, noticing that Carl was finally off his bed and stretching a long doggie stretch. She checked her watch. Nearly noon. She could have an early lunch, then check on her shawl before she returned to the Housemann accounts. By four o’clock she needed to leave on shoe errands.

  Carl was beside the door, ready to go out. Kelly saw that Brazen Squirrel had finished burying his nut stash and was scampering across the yard. Carl hadn’t even noticed yet.

  “Okay, Big Guy, go out and see who’s been creeping around your yard,” she said as she slid the glass door open. Brazen was already safely on the top rail of the fence, dashing toward the cottonwood tree.

  Carl stepped outside, gave another big stretch, and sniffed the air. His head lifted, catching a bit of Brazen’s scent drifting by, no doubt. Then straight as an arrow, Carl trotted over to the flower beds and snuffled around.

  “Too late, Big Guy,” Kelly said before she closed the patio door. If you snooze, you lose.

  * * *

  “I can tell you hated Eduardo’s chicken salad,” Jennifer said as she poured a black stream of coffee into Kelly’s carryout mug.

  Kelly dropped her napkin on her empty plate and pushed back her chair. “Oh, yes, it was dreadful,” she said with a wink. “Where are you and Pete catering this evening?”

  Jennifer cleared Kelly’s plate and wiped the table. “A local philanthropic sorority is having a fund-raiser tonight for their scholarship fund. It benefits older women students, so that’s definitely a worthy cause. Pete’s mom went back to school after her kids left for college. So that’s a cause that’s close to his heart.”

  Kelly grabbed her shoulder briefcase and mug. “Pete’s a great guy, no doubt about it,” she said, walking with Jennifer toward the café counter.

  “Got that right,” Jennifer said with a grin. “And speaking of great guys, have you heard from yours lately? Is he still in the mountains with that new client?”

  “Yes, he is. But last Friday he was back in Denver to draw up more house plans, and he drove up that night so we could go to dinner at the Bistro.”

  “Well, that was sweet of him,” Jennifer said with a big grin. “Back to your favorite place. I’ll bet you two had a great time.”

  Kelly took a deep drink of Eduardo’s brew and savored. “It was nice. Really nice. And for the record, Steve didn’t want to go back to Denver that night, but he had to. Clients were waiting early in the morning.” She grinned slyly.

  “That’s good to hear. I’d say this wedding is coming right on time. Steve is going to be here for the rehearsal Friday, right?” She walked around the counter and placed the dishes in a large plastic tub.

  “Absolutely. He’s cleared his schedule . . . and so have I.” Kelly gave her friend a wink, then headed down the hallway to the knitting shop.

  Remembering her shawl, Kelly walked into the classroom area and looked around for the stretching board. It was nowhere to be seen. Glancing into the adjacent office and storage room, Kelly spied the rectangular board leaning against an office file cabinet, her blue shawl still there.

  “Hey, Kelly,” Rosa said from the corner file cabinet, where she was obviously searching for something. “Coming to check on your shawl, I bet.”

  “Yeah, Mimi unpinned it over the weekend, so I wanted to see how it looked. I’ve steamed and stretched it for several days, exactly like you said to do.”

  Rosa looked over at her with a younger version of a Mother Mimi smile. “You did good, Kelly. Your shawl stretched a lot.”

  Kelly walked over and stared at the fuzzy blue triangle hanging on the board. The shawl was tacked only at the top edges. She visually traced the edges of the triangle, comparing the left side to the right side. The right side to the left side . . . wait a minute. Kelly peered at the triangle. The offending left side had stretched, but not enough. It was still more than an inch shorter than the right side.

  “What? It’s still shorter! How could that happen? I steamed and steamed it again and again. And look! It’s still shorter!” Kelly pointed accusingly at the offending shawl.

  “It did stretch, Kelly,” Rosa consoled. “Just not enough.”

  “Arrrrgh!”

  “I thought I heard your voice, Kelly,” Mimi said as she entered the room.

  “Look that that!” Kelly waved her finger at the fuzzy blue triangle. “How could that happen, Mimi? I checked those edges just three days ago and they were perfect. Both sides were even. And as soon as those pins were removed, it shrank again!”

  “Well, wool will do that sometimes,” Mimi said.

  “Bad wool! Bad wool!” Kelly glared at the shawl. Rosa snickered beside the file cabinet.

  “Don’t worry, Kelly,” Mimi soothed. “I can fix it.”

  “What? More steaming? It doesn’t work. My shawl will be the only one that looks different. That is so frustrating.” She frowned at the shawl again.

  “No, no more steaming. I have some other tricks up my sleeve,” Mimi said archly. “I’ve learned how to outsmart wool over the years.” She beckoned Kelly toward the classroom again.

  “Are you sure?” Kelly asked, still dubious as she followed Mimi. She cast one last accusatory look over her shoulder.

  “Absolutely. I promise I can fix your shawl so the left side will match the right or get so close, you can’t tell the difference.”

  Kelly gave Mimi a skeptical look. “You sure about that?”

  Mimi held up her palm. “I swear,” she said with a big smile. “Trust me, Kelly. Now you go settle at the table and get into your accounts. In fact, I think there may be a couple of donuts left from this morning’s group. Go relax with your numbers.” Mimi made a shooing gesture. “Leave the shawl to me.”

  “Okaaaay,” Kelly said as she headed to the main room. “Mother Mimi knows best. I trust you. Put your Mimi Magic to work.”

  Burt was at his wheel in the corner, spinning away, as Kelly entered. “Hey, Kelly. You can settle in and keep me company, okay?”

  “Boy, I’m glad you’re spinning, Burt,” she said as she plopped her briefcase and mug on the table near the corner. “That will help me relax after my bout of Knitting Angst.”

  Burt grinned. “I heard. Go on, have a donut. Keep me from eating another.”

  Kelly settled into a chair and withdrew her laptop and files. Glancing toward the nearby plate, she spied two donuts—one powdered, the other covered with cinnamon and sugar. A favorite. She had no business eating a donut. She’d just had lunch. Normally, Kelly would have been able to ignore the donut’s sugary call, but not after a bout of Knitting Angst.

  “Don’t mind if I do.” She snat
ched up the cinnamon-sugar one and took a bite, following it with a deep drink of coffee.

  Coffee and donuts. The downfall of office workers everywhere. One-person offices or corporate high-rises with scores of employees. Donuts were everywhere. Sugary temptations leading people astray. Bad donuts. Bad donuts. Who invented donuts anyway?

  She polished off the sugary morsel while she watched the familiar icons flash onto her screen, and her worksheets filled the page. Work beckoned.

  “Before you get into your accounts, Kelly, I’d better fill you in on what I heard from Dan this morning.” Burt’s spinning wheel slowed to a stop and Burt leaned back in his chair.

  Kelly observed her friend and mentor. “You don’t look very happy, Burt. I take it the police still haven’t found anything linking Oscar to the church parking lot.”

  “Well, you’re right about that, Kelly. The closest connection they found was a part-time waitress who told them Oscar hit on her after he left the bar. Apparently they’d been together before. Oscar wanted to come over, but she turned him down. She did say that Oscar followed her in his car for several blocks, then turned onto the same main street that runs past the Presbyterian Church on the west side of town.”

  “Whoa, Burt, that’s great!” Kelly exclaimed. “That proves Oscar was near the church that night. Or close by. That’s great news.”

  “Not really. It proves nothing except Oscar was driving around that night before he went home. There’re still no witnesses who saw him or his truck in or around the Presbyterian Church that night.”

  Kelly scowled. “Darn it!”

  “But I do have new information which involves the church parking lot. Dan said he was finally able to talk to the female employee who was cleaning the church that night. She works for a cleaning company in town, and they’d said she was afraid to talk to Dan and the guys at first. Apparently, she’s undocumented and was afraid she’d get in trouble if she talked to police.”

  “So what did Dan do to convince her?”

  “Dan told her boss at the company that he was only interested in learning what she’d seen the night of Zoe Yeager’s murder. She was working at the church during that time period. So her boss got another worker to translate for her and explained the situation, and she agreed to talk to Dan with the other guy translating.”

  “Did she see anything?”

  “She sure did. She said she noticed the women in Zoe’s classroom when they left and went outside to the parking lot. She was cleaning the main entrance hallway at the time. Basically, she confirmed what Anna had told them, Dan said. They all got into their cars and drove away.”

  Kelly leaned forward eagerly. “Did she see Zoe drive back into the parking lot? Did she see anyone approach the car?”

  Burt hunched over the drafted wool in his lap, hands folded. “She didn’t see Zoe drive back into the church parking lot because she was cleaning the rooms on the other side of the hallway then. But she said that later on, when she was cleaning the rooms beside the parking lot, she did see Zoe’s car outside. And she saw someone standing beside the car, talking to Zoe.”

  “Was it Oscar, I hope?”

  Burt shook his head. “No, Kelly, I’m afraid not. It was a woman. She said it didn’t look like any of the women from Zoe’s class, but she couldn’t tell. It was completely dark outside by then, and the woman standing outside the car wore a hooded jacket, so she couldn’t even tell what color hair she had. But she said she’s certain it was a woman from the slender body and the bare legs.”

  Kelly sat back. Damn! She had hoped this cleaning woman spotted Oscar Yeager in the parking lot. He’d threatened Zoe repeatedly. And yet there was no trace of Oscar showing up there that night. Instead, a woman was seen standing beside Zoe’s car. Kelly looked over at Burt. His expression matched hers.

  “That’s even more bad news for Leann, isn’t it, Burt?”

  Burt shook his head sadly. “I’m afraid so, Kelly.”

  “Oh, brother . . . I feel that noose tightening around Leann’s neck,” Kelly said. “Did Dan give any indication of what he was thinking?”

  “Not yet, but I know him. He’s a smart detective. He’s got to conclude the woman was Leann. I would in that situation. It doesn’t matter if I know and like the person or not. Nice people can kill, too, if they have enough reason. I’m afraid it happens all the time. Leann had the motive, the means, and the opportunity to kill Zoe.”

  Sadly, Kelly had to agree with him. “Have you told Mimi yet?”

  “No, and I don’t think I will. She’ll find out in time. Especially if Leann’s arrested. A lot of the evidence will come out then.”

  “Boy, I’m glad I gave Leann those lawyers’ phone numbers. She didn’t know any lawyers. Thank goodness Marty was able to give me names of ones who do pro bono work.”

  “When did you speak with Leann?”

  “I went over there Friday. I simply wanted to ask her about her affair with Oscar.” Kelly shrugged. “And I admit, I wanted to watch her face when I asked her about the investigation and what the police were saying.”

  Burt quirked a brow. “Did you pick up anything?”

  “Not a thing, Burt.” Kelly shook her head. “Leann swore she didn’t kill Zoe. And she had no real explanation for her affair with Oscar, except it didn’t last long and she regretted doing it.”

  “I’m wondering if she helped Oscar. Maybe that’s the explanation. I mean, if she really loved the guy, maybe . . . I don’t know.” Burt shrugged.

  “I don’t, either, Burt. This is one frustrating case.”

  Burt gave her a wry smile. “You can say that again, Sherlock.” He pushed away from the spinning wheel and rose. “I think I need some coffee. Can I get you some, Kelly?”

  “That’s okay, Burt. I’m good.” Kelly lifted her mug.

  “I’m going to stretch my legs outside a bit, too. I need some fresh air,” Burt said as he left the room.

  Kelly returned to her spreadsheets, hoping the numbers would quickly chase away the thoughts about nice people doing bad things. Things like killing. But her cell phone distracted her first.

  Megan’s name and number flashed on the screen. “Hey, there, Bride-to-be, how’re you doing?”

  “Not so good, Kelly. I’m in the bathroom of the La Creperie Café, escaping for a few minutes. I’m here with my mom and dad and sister, and they haven’t stopped talking since they got up this morning. In fact, they haven’t stopped talking since they got here on Saturday. Jeeeez . . .”

  Uh-oh. Kelly could feel Megan’s stress coming over the phone. Not good. “I guess they’re super excited about the wedding—”

  “Excited!” Megan blurted out. “They are waaaay beyond excited. Excited I can handle. It’s the questions that are driving me crazy! I swear, if my mom asks me one more time about the caterer, I’m gonna scream. At her! And that’s not good. She’ll start to cry, then I’ll feel awful . . .”

  Oh, brother . . . Kelly sensed a Megan Meltdown was imminent. “I bet they simply want to feel involved, that’s all. You live pretty far away from them,” she ventured.

  “You sound like Lisa. You’re right. Absolutely right. Ohhhh, now I feel bad.”

  “Can your sister help? Tell her you need her to help distract them somehow.”

  “No, she’s no help at all. This round of morning sickness is worse than the other two. Janet’s either throwing up in the bathroom or asleep with the medicine the doctor gave her.”

  Think fast, Kelly prodded herself. A Megan Meltdown would not be pretty and could spoil the happy pre-wedding festivities. To be avoided at all costs. What to do? What to do? Suddenly, Kelly knew.

  “Hey, Megan, I’ve got an idea. How about if we give you a little break? Let me ask Mimi if she and Burt could take your parents to dinner this evening. That would give you some time alone.”

  “Ohhhh, Kelly, that . . . that would be wonderful! I just called up to complain in private. I wasn’t expecting you to solve it. I mean . . .” />
  “Hey, I like solving problems. It’s what I do for a living. Albeit, number problems are a heckuva lot easier to solve than people problems.”

  “Boy, is that the truth. Do you think Mimi and Burt can do it?”

  “I’ll bet they would. In fact, they’d probably enjoy it. Plus, you and Marty could spend time together. I’m sure his relatives are driving him nuts, too.”

  “You don’t want to know. They’re hordes of them, scattered all over Larimer County and Colorado. He says he never knew there were so many Harringtons and Stackhouses. He swears he’s seen people he’s never even heard of.”

  “Okay, hang in there. I’ll suggest to Mimi that they go over in the late afternoon. So why don’t you take your folks to the mall, where there are lots of other people around. Plus open space.” She laughed.

  “Good idea. Oooops, someone’s knocking on the bathroom door. Gotta go. Thank you, Kelly. You don’t know how much I appreciate this!”

  “Yeah, I do,” Kelly said before Megan clicked off.

  Kelly shoved her phone into her jeans pocket and reached for her coffee mug. She took a deep drink of caffeine, then walked toward the front room where Rosa and Mimi were helping customers. It was time to ask Mother Mimi to ride to the rescue once again. This time, it wasn’t unruly yarn that needed soothing; it was wild and woolly relatives.

  Sixteen

  Kelly ran up the steps to Pete’s Café and shoved open the front door. Today she wanted one of Eduardo’s big breakfasts. She was starving. Those familiar tempting aromas drifted past her nose—eggs, bacon, sausage, pancakes, biscuits. Yum! Her stomach growled.

  “Hey, Kelly, over here,” Lisa’s voice beckoned. Kelly spotted her friend waving at her across the crowded café. Kelly headed straight for the empty chair at Lisa’s table.

  “Perfect, now I can order faster,” she said as she pulled out the chair across from Lisa. “I don’t know why, but I’m starving this morning. I ran the usual distance, so maybe it’s wedding prep anxiety or something.”