Knot on Your Life

by Betty Hechtman

  “I understand how Madison knows the Reborn group, but I don’t know about the rest of you.” I glanced around at the rest of them, as if to offer them the floor.

  Aileen spoke first. “If you mean was I insulted that they didn’t say hello when we passed each other in the Lodge yesterday? No. I’ve seen them in the hall and the lounge at work, but we’ve never spoken.”

  “Then you have an office there, too?” I asked.

  “Not an office really. I’ve made it into a classroom. I do homeschooling for people who want to homeschool, but have somebody else do it.”

  “I think that’s called a tutor,” Iola said.

  “I don’t think that’s correct since I have five students.” She turned to me. “I could have more if I could handle them. Homeschooling is quite popular now because kids have special needs or parents don’t want to be forced into getting their kids vaccinated.” She laughed at herself. “Listen to me on my soapbox. The point is I’m in the room with the kids or we’re out in the world watching tadpoles hatch or something. By the way, PJ just comes for the knit group so I doubt she knows them. We meet in the lounge after hours.”

  Iola spoke next. She smiled at the surprised looks from the others. “Yes, I can talk when I have something to say.

  “As I told you before,” Iola said, directing her comment at me, “my husband and I have an online business and we have an office we use to shoot commercials and stuff. I’ve seen them in the lounge for Nachos Night. Other than not seeming to know how to share, I don’t have a beef with them.”

  PJ came in a little breathless. “Sorry for being late. I couldn’t find my jacket and luckily brought a spare,” she said, showing that she was wearing a sand-colored jacket. She found her place and sat down.

  They all looked to Deani. I did, too, wondering what she was going to say. Deani had not mentioned any connection with Reborn when she’d stopped by the Blue Door. But Iola had told me Deani was their lunch service.

  “Aren’t you going to say something?” Madison said.

  “All right,” Deani said finally. “I had a connection with them, but not anymore.” She seemed finished, but Madison prodded her.

  “You can’t leave it like that, what happened?”

  “I wasn’t supposed to say anything. Well, Tim Moffat kind of insisted that I not say anything, but I suppose it doesn’t matter anymore. He’s the money guy and I always had to get him to okay their monthly invoice. I met with him on Monday and he said to finish out the month, but then my service was canceled. He wouldn’t say why, just that there were likely to be some changes. He said if I didn’t keep it to myself, I wouldn’t get paid for the last month of lunches. A while ago, he offered to help me get an app done for the service, but I didn’t want him in the middle of my business.”

  I didn’t say anything, but thanks to what Audrey Moffat had said I knew what Tim had been talking about. He was leaving and Reborn was going to be out of money.

  “Is that why you didn’t mention they were customers when you came to the Blue Door?” I asked.

  “It was all too weird. You telling me that he’d died. I just wanted to stay out of it.” She seemed tense as she looked down at the pink tote and made no pretense to hide Fifi as she reached in and stroked the little dog. I scanned the area outside the door and window and Kevin St. John didn’t seem to be lurking in the bushes, so I let it go.

  “Tim was the only adult in the group,” Madison said. “He was a little older than the rest of them and certainly more businesslike. At least, I think he recognized me.” She turned to me. “By the way, I was never really mad at you. It was just when I saw them sitting in our seats last night and they didn’t even look up. It was worse than that. Those people walk by me almost every day and when I passed them in the Lodge and went to greet them, it didn’t even register. I could have been invisible.” She shook her head with dismay.

  Crystal was getting fidgety and I noticed she’d looked at her watch a number of times. “Nothing personal, ladies, but we need to get started. You probably won’t be able to finish the project this weekend, but you’re all accomplished knitters, so once I show you what to do, I’m sure you’ll have no problem.” She was talking faster than usual. “Let’s start by having you take one of the skeins of yarn and your hook.” Madison was the only one to take a hook out of her pocket since she’d gotten it the previous night.

  They did as requested and then Crystal brought out a sample of the finished shawl made in the same sparkly blue yarn they had. “I picked a project that showed off the benefits of crochet and included the basic stitches.” She held up the shawl. “You’ll note this is made the long way. It’s easy to work the long way with crochet since you’re working one stitch at a time, and not easy if you’re knitting and you have to put all those stitches on a needle or cable.” She waited until they’d all nodded in acknowledgment before continuing.

  “I like to think that crochet is more playful than knitting. It’s so much easier to try different stitches, and if you don’t like them just rip them out with ease.”

  She had them start by making two hundred and forty chain stitches and told them to make a mark on a piece of paper for every twenty chains done so they wouldn’t lose their place. The room was completely quiet as they concentrated on their work. When they were done, Crystal had them take out the paper with directions she’d included. It had instructions on how to do the different stitches and the rows of stitches that was repeated until the shawl reached the desired size. She demonstrated single crochet, extended single crochet, half double crochet, double crochet and finally treble crochet. The plan was that they’d finish at least one section with all the different stitches while they were at Vista Del Mar and could do the rest as a group when they went home. I was glad that Crystal had picked up that this group was anxious to do more than yarn craft during the weekend.

  They stayed silent as they started the first row of single crochets, but it was a very long row, and once making the stitches became easy, the talking resumed.

  “Did anybody notice the guy with the gruff expression and the rumpled sport jacket?” Deani asked. “He looked kind of out of place, not like a guest.”

  “That Cadbury’s beloved local top cop, Lieutenant Theodore Borgnine,” Crystal said with a touch of sarcasm.

  “What’s a cop doing here?” PJ asked.

  “He’s probably investigating what happened to Tim,” Madison said. “Isn’t there always an investigation when there’s a death, even if it’s an accident?”

  “If it really was an accident,” Crystal said.

  “Huh,” Aileen said quickly. “If it wasn’t an accident what was it?”

  “Then somebody did it, as in killed him,” Iola said in her sultry voice.

  “Tell them what you told me,” Crystal urged, and suddenly I had them all staring at me.

  I didn’t know what to do. Should I explain or not?

  You could say I was saved by the bell. Before I could collect my thoughts, Crystal’s watch began to ping. “Sorry, folks, but that means time’s up. But the good thing about crochet is that it’s easy to stop in the middle of the row, just make note of what stitch you were working on.” She went on for a moment explaining about the benefits of taking notes to keep track of where you were in a pattern. “But as knitters, I’m sure you know all about that.”

  They packed up their things and filed out. As Madison passed me, she leaned in. “I’m sure you’ll explain all at dinner.”

  At least I had some time to figure out what to say.

  Chapter 19

  With everyone gone, I did my usual little cleanup, gathering some scraps of yarn from the table and picking up a couple of paper cups. So much for it being an easy-peasy weekend. I was never going to say that to myself again. It seemed to be the kiss of death, literally. There had been some kind of trouble at every retreat I’d put on.

  I regretted that I’d said anything to Crystal about what I thought had happened to
Tim. But then who knew she would blab it to the group. Now they were expecting some kind of inside dope from me. Now that I realized so many of them had a connection with the Silicon Valley bunch, I really didn’t want to discuss it. I mean, what if one of them was involved?

  I straightened the last chair and flipped off the lights before I went outside. The door to the other meeting room was open and I heard the scrape of chairs as they got up. Sky was the first one out of the door. He looked over at me and gave me a friendly smile. “Be sure to tell your retreaters not to miss the Roast and Toast tonight. We’re doing it mindful style.”

  His voice warbled a little when he said it and I picked up that he wasn’t all that confident about it. It was another effort by Kevin St. John to take a regular Vista Del Mar activity and make it seem part of their retreat. Sky didn’t have to ask me twice. There was no way I was going to miss seeing how he could make roasting marshmallows and toasting with cups of hot chocolate a mindful event.

  The rest of the group came out through their door and headed up the path. Elex was in the rear. I noticed he had a softcover book under his arm. He picked up on me looking at it and rolled his eyes. “Mindful coloring,” he said with distaste. He started to follow the others on the path and then he stopped.

  “As long as we’re stuck here, we really need another knitting lesson. I tried to work on mine this afternoon and, well, it’s a mess.”

  “You were planning to leave?” I said.

  “It’s kind of hard to be mindful after what happened to Tim. But that cop in the rumpled jacket killed that plan.” He looked at me intently. “What’s with him? Some small-town cop who takes his job too seriously? It was a horrible accident pure and simple, so why keep hassling me with questions. And telling me the group has to stay here for now.”

  Hearing that Lieutenant Borgnine had put a hold on them and was asking a lot of questions made me believe that what Dane said was true. He was pacifying Kevin St. John by not making a point that it might be something other than an accident, but he was investigating it as though it might be.

  “That’s too bad. You’d think he’d have some empathy after what happened,” I said. When I’d worked for Frank my main job had been making phone calls and getting information people didn’t want to give. I figured out that the best way to get it was to be friendly and sympathetic. It was always good if they wanted to complain and were grateful for a willing ear, too.

  Elex seemed surprised by my comment, but I noticed his expression relax. “That’s what I thought. My business partner and good friend just died and he was grilling me about how Tim ended up walking on the rocks alone.” Elex was looking off in the direction of the water. The days were so short at this time of year and the afternoon was fading into darkness. Without a visible sun to set, it was always very subtle. It always made me think of a dimmer switch going off in the sky.

  Elex seemed lost in thought and I wondered how I could prod him to continue. I was curious about that walk too. “I never quite understood what the plan for the walk was,” I said finally.

  “Oh,” he said, flinching, and I wondered if he’d forgotten that I was there. “The idea was that we’d walk somewhere on our own and focus on the moment, paying attention to the feeling of the ground, how the wind felt, stuff like that. We all went off in different directions. I had no idea where Tim was going to walk or I would have told him not to.”

  “And where did you walk?” I asked.

  “I followed the roadway that winds through the grounds. And if you want to know what I noticed,” he said, sounding like he’d been asked the question before. He offered a very detailed description of the cluster of newer buildings up the slope and a view of the ocean through an opening in the dunes.

  “Sounds pretty,” I said. “I suppose Lieutenant Borgnine asked you about your relationship with Tim,” I said.

  His eyes flared when he looked at me this time. “I just said he was my partner and good friend.” He eyed me warily. “What’s any of this to you?” Then he nodded his head in a knowing manner. “I get it. Didn’t your partner in yarn say you played around with being a detective?” He seemed annoyed. “The only thing we need from you is another of those workshops. You said you’d let me know. Well, how about it?”

  I was considering suggesting something else he might want to do with his needles when his face softened. “I’m sorry,” he said. “This isn’t the weekend I imagined for my group. I don’t mean to take it out on you. But we really do need another workshop. I tried doing some on my own.” He shook his head and smiled, thinking about it. “I somehow joined the two ends together and now it’s a tube.”

  I was glad I hadn’t made my comment about the knitting needles. Of course it made sense that he’d be stressed and upset after what happened and I knew more about it than he thought I did. I told him about the plan of having it at the yarn shop and he agreed. We agreed on a time for Saturday. “Don’t worry, we’ll undo the tube and show you what you did wrong so you won’t do it again.”

  The dinner bell began to ring and he thanked me and went on up the path ahead of me.

  • • •

  I made a pit stop in the Lodge to use the phone to call Cadbury Yarn. Now that Elex had agreed, I wanted to make sure the time worked for them.

  “Cadbury Yarn, we’re closed,” Gwen said when she answered. It was a real person and not a recording. I announced myself and she laughed. “For you we’re still open. What’s up? Please tell me it’s not some problem with the Delacorte sisters.” She stopped and continued in a fierce voice, “I didn’t realize how difficult they are. They can’t seem to understand that I don’t want any of their fortune. I just want Cory to be connected to Vista Del Mar because he has such an instinctive love of the place.”

  I agreed they could be difficult but urged her to give it some time. “Just let it mellow for a while,” I said. “At least through the weekend.”

  “You’re right,” she said. I heard her say good night to a customer. “Crystal already mentioned doing a workshop for that group. She said something about being mindful. We’ll set up some space for them and the two of you can do whatever you want. Tomorrow afternoon is fine.” She suggested setting up a yarn tasting, as she called having the opportunity to play with different yarns, but I told her they weren’t ready for that. However, I thought they might be interested in any kits she had for basic projects.

  It was completely dark when I walked out of the Lodge. It didn’t matter because the smell of hot food was like a magnet and led me right to the Sea Foam dining hall. The dinner bell had stopped ringing and I could see there was already a crowd inside.

  Kevin St. John had done a good job of keeping it quiet about Tim’s death. There was a din of lively conversation and everything seemed like a typical Friday night.

  The food smelled delicious and I remembered I’d only eaten a few cookies all day. It would have been nice to sit down to a plate of comfort food, but I had a feeling that wasn’t going to happen.

  Deani, Madison, Aileen and PJ were at the same table they’d sat at before. I scanned the room and saw that Iola was sitting with the bird group again. She seemed quite animated and took a fork of her food and offered it to a man in a khaki vest. He smiled as he accepted it and then she went back to talking to the people around her. Talk about not judging a book by its cover—she was so plain as if to be almost colorless, but she was full of surprises. First the sultry voice and now she seemed to be playing up to some man. It was not my problem and I turned back to my group. I was hoping they’d forgotten that I promised to tell them what I knew about the investigation, but when I saw all four of them look at me with eager faces, I figured it was still on their minds.

  I greeted them and saw that they’d already gotten their food. The meat loaf, mashed potatoes and peas looked delicious. My stomach rumbled, reminding me of how hungry I was.

  “I’ll just get a plate of food and join you,” I said, leaving my jacket on one of the empty c
hairs. A reprieve for a few minutes so I could think over what to say.

  I went through the entrance at the back of the room to the cafeteria line. Audrey Moffat was just ahead of me. She was looking over the food with the concern of someone who was used to having everything customized for her. I suspected she was super diligent about her diet and probably cringed at the butter pooling in the crater on top of the mashed potatoes.

  “It’s all delicious,” I said from behind her. She turned and smiled when she saw it was me.

  “I never eat food like this. Fish or chicken and steamed vegetables with a dab of rice is my usual dinner. Every restaurant we went to would prepare what I wanted just the way I wanted it.” She looked over the counter into the kitchen with the steam tables of food. “They don’t work that way here, do they?”

  She looked a little too thin and maybe a little peaked, too. But far be it from me to tell other people what to do. I saw that Cloris was working in the kitchen and I called her over. She remembered Audrey from the café and knew the situation. I explained Audrey’s desire and Cloris shrugged.

  “Don’t say anything to the boss, but I can put something together for you.” She nodded to Audrey, who turned to me.

  “You have a lot of clout around here.” Her shoulders dropped and her expression seemed tired. While we waited for Cloris to do her magic, I asked Audrey where she was going to sit. I couldn’t really invite her to join the birthday girls, but I hated to see her sit alone. “I’ll sit with the Reborn crew.”

  Cloris slid a plate over the counter with slices of chicken breast and a collection of steamed vegetables. There was just the tiniest dab of mashed potatoes, and she explained they didn’t have any rice. “It’s all about amounts. A little taste won’t do you any harm.”

  Audrey thanked Cloris and me and took her tray and left. I thanked Cloris again.

  “Mr. St. John has a hard time bending any rules. Sometimes you just have to. It’s all about what our guests want.”