Skein of the Crime

by Maggie Sefton

  “Oh, yeah . . . I know where that is,” Rachel said, eyes lighting up. “It’s in the back of that knitting shop, right?”

  “Yep. It’s a great place to work. Plus the boss, Pete, does a lot of catering at night, too.”

  “Well, keep me in mind if he needs some extra help,” Rachel said, flipping her order pad closed. “Can I get you two some water first?”

  Kelly decided this was as good a time as any to jump in. “This may sound funny, but you look a little familiar, too,” she said with a bright smile.

  Rachel studied Kelly for a couple of seconds. “I don’t think I remember working with you. Are you at the university, too?”

  “No, no, I’m over at the knitting shop a lot, and I think I remember seeing you a few days ago. Didn’t you go to that girl Holly Kaiser’s funeral? There were a lot of college students there, and I thought I saw you.” Kelly tried to sound as casual as possible. Jennifer was watching her closely.

  Rachel’s pleasant expression disappeared. Her face hardened. “I’m afraid you’re wrong on that one. I know who Holly Kaiser is, but there’s no way I’d go to her funeral. I grew up with her, and she was a conniving bitch.”

  Kelly blinked. She couldn’t help it. Rachel’s harsh comment on Holly’s character was beyond blunt. “Wow . . . it sounds like you two go way back.”

  “Oh, yeah,” Rachel said scornfully. “We went through high school together. She was a manipulating bitch then, too. If you got in her way, she’d bad-mouth you to anyone who’d listen.”

  Kelly noticed Jennifer looked as surprised as she did. Kelly couldn’t resist following up. “Well, I didn’t really know her, not really. But I know Barbara Macenroe at the shop and saw her son, Tommy, who was all broken up over Holly’s death. He was her boyfriend apparently.”

  “Tommy was too good for her,” Rachel said in a bitter tone. “I never could understand what he saw in her. Holly used to jerk him around like a puppet on a string.”

  Kelly feigned an amazed expression. “Really? Wow, it sounds like Holly had two different personalities.”

  Rachel’s expression turned scornful. “Yeah. Around Tommy she was all sugary sweetness. But when Tommy wasn’t there, she was cheating on him behind his back with another guy.”

  Kelly didn’t have to feign shock this time. “Are you sure? All I’ve heard is how Tommy and Holly were sweethearts since high school.”

  Rachel’s eyes narrowed. “Yeah, I’m sure. I saw her with some Greeley dude all summer. He and his friends come into Fort Connor regularly to party. Everybody knows about him. Even Tommy’s old buddies from high school. Nobody wanted to tell Tommy, of course.” Rachel glanced around the café. “Well, enough of the soap opera. I’ve gotta get back to customers. Your order won’t take long.”

  “Sorry we delayed you, Rachel,” Jennifer offered as Rachel turned to walk away.

  “Whoa . . .” Kelly said, watching Rachel head to another customer’s table. “I wasn’t expecting that.”

  “Yeah, I could tell, but only because I’ve been briefed on this soap opera. You handled it well, though, I have to admit. You’ve gotten to be an effective liar.” Jennifer sent her a sly smile.

  “Gee, thanks. I’m not sure that’s a compliment.”

  “It’s not. But it is a useful trait when you’re out sleuthing around, right?”

  Eight

  Kelly guided her sporty red car around the curving canyon road. She was a lot more careful driving these winding mountain roads since her accident a year and a half ago. Of course, it wasn’t winter now, so the roads that wound through Bellevue Canyon were clear and dry, not coated in ice. Even so, Kelly treated those curves with more respect.

  At this higher altitude the nights had already dropped to freezing, so fall’s colors were on display. The aspen trees were bright splashes of gold among the thick evergreens crowding the hillsides. Bushes that normally went unnoticed during spring and summer boldly proclaimed their presence, adorned now in pumpkin orange and scarlet red. Deep burgundy vines hugged the hillside and ran between rocks and into crevices. Color was everywhere.

  Fort Connor was five thousand feet above sea level, and Bellevue Canyon rose in a steady incline nearly two thousand feet above the city. Alpaca rancher Jayleen Swinson’s ranch wasn’t at the very top of the canyon, but it was close, so Kelly loved the opportunity to drive out there. Spring, summer, or fall, the mountain scenery was always gorgeous. Summer green or autumn gold and orange, the drive through the canyon was almost therapeutic. Kelly always started to relax the moment the road started to climb. Winter driving, however, was a different story.

  “Some folks simply have to live up here in the mountains,” Jayleen had once told her, and Kelly believed it. She’d thought she’d found the perfect place two years ago, but she’d been proven wrong. That ranch proved to have “bad juju,” as Jayleen put it. Kelly dumped the property and hadn’t regretted it.

  Her cell phone rang on the seat beside her, and Kelly debated answering. Driving one-handed through the canyon was definitely trickier. She slowed down and reached for the phone. Patty’s name flashed on the screen.

  “Hey, Patty, thanks for returning my call,” she said, guiding the car around a curve.

  “No problem, Kelly. You said you’d learned something?”

  “Yeah, my friend Jennifer works at Pete’s café at the back of Lambspun, and she said she’d waitressed with Rachel Gebbard before, so I got her to take me over to the Grill where Rachel worked. After what you said the other day, I wanted to check her out.”

  “Really?” Patty sounded surprised. “Well, uh, did you talk with her? What’d you think?”

  “Yeah, Jennifer started because Rachel recognized her from the university catering jobs. So, I kind of jumped in and said she looked familiar, then I asked if she’d been at Holly’s funeral last week. I’d remembered seeing several students there.”

  “You didn’t!” Patty’s voice sounded shocked. “Jeez, what’d she say?”

  “Well, you were definitely right when you said she didn’t care for Holly. She let us know exactly what she thought of her. And how Tommy shouldn’t have wasted his time with her.”

  “See, I told you she hated Holly. She’s always been jealous.”

  “Well, Rachel also went on to say something that surprised me. She said Holly was cheating on Tommy with this guy from Greeley. I wondered if you’ve heard anything about that when you’ve asked around.”

  “What! She’s gotta be lying.”

  “Well, she sure sounded believable when she told us. She said she’d seen Holly at several parties, and she was with this new guy. Seems he and his friends come in from Greeley regularly to party here.”

  Patty paused. “Well, she was hanging with that different bunch lately, but I don’t think Holly would cheat on Tommy.”

  “Well, I questioned Rachel, and she said even some of Tommy’s old buddies from high school have seen her with this guy. Nobody wanted to tell Tommy, of course.”

  “Really?” Patty went quiet for a moment. “That makes me curious.”

  “That’s why I called you. It made me curious, too, so I thought maybe you had heard something.”

  “Not really. Nothing specific, I mean. But, you know, some people did mention this guy. They just didn’t go into detail. Now, I’m going to start asking other people what they know.”

  “I figured you would. And while you’re at it, find out if anyone else saw Rachel selling pills. I want to tell Burt.”

  “Uhhhh, you better not. I . . . I asked my friend Colleen about it again, and it turns out she was talking about someone else. Not Rachel. She got them mixed up.”

  “So, she didn’t see Rachel selling pills?”

  “No, it was another girl in the kitchen who was talking to Rachel. Colleen doesn’t know who the other girl is.”

  That sounded strange to Kelly. “How’d she get them mixed up? Do they look alike or something?”

  “I don’t know. Coll
een drinks a lot, so she probably got confused. You know, fuzzy memory.”

  Kelly didn’t have personal knowledge of that, but she’d seen enough people in a chemically impaired state and fuzzy memory was definitely part of the picture. Kelly couldn’t help but remember Jennifer’s warning about the party scene “swamp.”

  “You know, that makes me wonder if Colleen really saw an argument between Rachel and Holly or not. Maybe she was confused about that, too.”

  “I asked her again, and she swore she remembered them getting into a fight.”

  Kelly held the car steady around a curve as a large truck passed on the other side of the narrow road. “Okay, let me know if you learn anything else, Patty.”

  “Will do. Listen, I’ve got to run to another class. I’ll talk to you later, Kelly.” She clicked off.

  Kelly tossed her phone on the opposite seat again. Jayleen’s ranch had come into view after that last curve, and Kelly slowed down to turn into the gravel driveway. She saw Jayleen’s new silver-gray truck parked beside the barn. Alpaca grazed in the pastures, lifting their heads at the sound of tires crunching on gravel. The elegant creatures observed Kelly’s arrival. Some returned to grazing while others wandered toward the fence bordering the corral and barnyard, curious.

  Jayleen stepped out onto a porch that wrapped around the front and side of the log-beam mountain home. She waved as Kelly pulled her car to a stop beside the barn.

  Kelly grabbed her shoulder bag briefcase as she left the car. “Hey, Jayleen. Have you got any coffee? I drained mine on the way up the canyon.”

  “You betcha, Kelly. I put a fresh pot on after you called me from the interstate,” she said as she approached.

  Kelly took the portfolio from her briefcase and handed it to Jayleen. “Here are your August statements. September is looking even better so far.”

  “Well, that’s good news.” Jayleen accepted the long package. “Why don’t you claim one of those rockers on the porch while I bring us some coffee.”

  Kelly looked over at the rockers, then the gorgeous mountain views across the pastures. “You know, that’s exactly what I need right now.”

  Jayleen grinned. “Figured it might be. You’ve been out in Brighton all day?”

  “Just about. Warner asked me to come in early this morning so I could go around with him to the building site for a new shopping center. He wanted me to get in on the ground floor so I’d know what was happening. That took all morning. Then he wanted me to have lunch with some of his partners, so it was after two before I left.”

  “Sounds like you’re making yourself real indispensable, Kelly girl,” Jayleen said as they walked toward the porch. “You’re gonna have to get me up to speed with these new clients of yours. You go settle in and start relaxing, while I fetch the coffee.”

  Kelly didn’t need further persuasion. She dropped her briefcase on the porch and chose a rocker. Nudging the chair into its gentle movements, Kelly kicked off her heels and settled back to enjoy the sight of snow-capped Rockies peeking over a forested ridge in the distance.

  Jayleen rested a ceramic mug on her denim-clad knee as she rocked beside Kelly. “I’m really proud of you, Kelly. You grabbed those two introductions Curt gave you and ran with them. Now, it sounds like you’ve got yourself two first-class clients. You won’t be hurtin’ for money anytime soon.”

  “Well, you’re right about that,” Kelly admitted with a smile. “I can never thank Curt enough for those recommendations, that’s for sure.”

  “A recommendation will get you into the door, that’s all. It was up to you to seal the deal with those businessmen. And once they saw the quality of your work, they were sold.” Jayleen lifted her mug in salute. “Congratulations, Kelly. You done good.”

  Kelly returned the mug salute. “Thank you kindly, Miss Jayleen, ma’am.”

  Jayleen chuckled. “Sure beats bookkeeping, doesn’t it?”

  Kelly grinned. “Yep. It sure does. And speaking of bookkeeping, your accounts are looking really good. Income growing and expenses are in line. Congratulations on that. And I’m glad to see you got that new truck you were talking about. I’ll bet you got the payment you wanted, too.”

  “Sure did. Car dealerships are hurtin’ right now, so I felt like I was helping them out.”

  Kelly gazed at the distant peaks. September snows had already set the mountaintops glistening white. Snow always came early in the high country. The late afternoon sun set the peaks sparkling with an orange glow. Soon the setting sun would turn the orange to red.

  The view from Jayleen’s wide front porch looked out over a broad stretch of green that wasn’t fenced pasture. This stretch of land was edged with evergreens and small brush. It was a perfect place for picnics, and Jayleen had invited Kelly and her friends several times. Like Curt, Jayleen was an enthusiastic host and enjoyed sharing the mountain scenery with others.

  “This is such a pretty view. It drained every last bit of stress out of me,” Kelly said with a laugh. “I’ll have to come up here every time I go traipsing off to commercial sites in Brighton.”

  “Come up anytime, Kelly. I told Curt I’d be glad to have the party here, but he wants to have it at his ranch. Makes sense, too, since Marty is his nephew.”

  “What party?” Kelly stared blankly at Jayleen.

  “Oops, I let the cat outta the bag.” Jayleen slapped her leg. “Oh, well, Curt said he’d be calling all you folks today. So expect a message on your phone. He’s planning to throw an engagement party for Marty and Megan in a couple weeks or so. He’s gonna invite all the Colorado kin and Marty and Megan’s friends. It’s gonna be a steak cookout. So, you and Steve come hungry.” Jayleen laughed then sipped her coffee.

  “Hey, that’s a great idea. We haven’t had a barbeque since early August. I’ll be sure to leave Carl at home.”

  Jayleen hooted. “Lord, lord, you’d better. I don’t want him anywhere near that grill.”

  “I remember how mad you got years ago when he stole one of Curt’s huge steaks you were grilling.” Kelly cackled.

  “Don’t remind me. I was so mad I was about to wring off that puny excuse for a tail of his.”

  Kelly rocked for a minute. “I was kind of surprised at Marty and Megan’s announcement, weren’t you?”

  “Not really,” Jayleen said, leaning back in her rocker. “That’s what young couples do when they’re in love. After a while, they tie the knot.” She sipped her coffee. “And Megan and Marty seem to be a perfect match.”

  Kelly pondered that for a long moment. “Lisa and Greg are a perfect match for each other, but they never talk about getting married. And they’ve been together five years.”

  Jayleen shrugged. “People are different. Some just aren’t the marrying kind. Some people don’t like to be tied down. Some are scared off by their parents’ bad marriages. Some of us have a bad track record at marriage, so we shy away.”

  Since Jayleen had opened the door on this topic, Kelly decided to follow up. Curt and Jayleen had been “seeing” each other for nearly a year now. They showed up together as a couple at get-togethers. They co-hosted barbeques at their respective ranches. They gave every indication of being a couple, except they both lived separately.

  “Speaking of relationships, you and Curt seem to be getting along smoothly. Everybody was taking bets on when you two would get together.” Kelly gave Jayleen a devilish smile.

  Jayleen grinned. “Yeah, we could tell. You folks are as subtle as a pack of hounds who’ve picked up a scent.”

  Kelly laughed. “Everybody was really happy to see you together. You make a great couple.”

  “Well, let’s just say we enjoy each other’s company. We get along about as well as most couples. Nothing between men and women runs smoothly. There’s always some choppy water. Trust me.” Jayleen chuckled low in her throat.

  That open conversational door beckoned invitingly. Kelly felt like she and Steve were definitely trying to row through some choppy water. And
it wasn’t easy.

  “Is that why you two still live separately?”

  “That and other reasons. I’m of the mind that it’s good to have your own place. Everybody needs their own space. And some of us have gotten used to a lot of space over the years.” Jayleen tipped back her mug.

  “Well, whatever you two are doing, it seems to be working,” Kelly said, looking out over the pastures. “You and Curt certainly look happy. Whether you’re with each other or not.”

  Jayleen glanced over at Kelly. “I sense this rough patch Steve is going through right now is taking a toll on you, too.”

  “Ohhhh, yeah,” Kelly said, still staring at the snowy peaks. “Talk about choppy water. Boy.”

  “Curt’s told me what’s going on. I know it’s hard, Kelly, but Steve’s just going to have to weather this stormy period and find his footing again. You two will get through it. We know you will.”

  Kelly gave her a rueful smile. “If the choppy water doesn’t swamp our boat, first. But right now, all I see are waves rising higher.”

  “You two will ride it out. This rough period is bound to turn around sometime next year.”

  “I sure hope so,” Kelly said, staring at her ceramic mug.

  Jayleen didn’t say anything else, and both of them rocked quietly for a few minutes. The setting sun was turning the snowy peaks reddish gold. Kelly stared at the burnished color, letting anxious thoughts loose.

  Finally Jayleen spoke. “How’s Barbara doing? I haven’t seen her since before that funeral. She’s not been in the shop when I’ve stopped by.”

  “She’s back to teaching her fiber classes. I’ve seen her in the classroom when I’ve dropped in to knit. She seems to be doing okay. Burt says she’s still worrying about Tommy.”

  “Is he still grieving over his girlfriend?”

  “Yeah, big time. But what had us all concerned was Tommy wanted to stay in Fort Connor and try to find out who gave Holly those pills. They were some form of opiate narcotics, apparently. And Holly had never used those before. So, I promised Tommy I’d start asking around to see if any students remembered seeing Holly at the parties.”