A Wicked Yarn

by Emmie Caldwell

  Lia muffled a cry. She wants to pick out craft pieces as she did for Darren! She wants to surround—

  Brady tapped Lia’s arm. “Go to Hayley,” he whispered. “I’ll look after this one.” He tipped his head toward Ginny.

  Lia crept into the barn, keeping an eye on Ginny, whose back was to her, until she reached the walled-off walkway. She hurried down it and to the office door, then slipped silently inside. The sight of Hayley, wrapped and tied, her head lolling to one side, was both shocking and wonderful. She was breathing. She was okay!

  Lia began working at the ropes. Ginny had tied multiple knots tightly, and Lia’s fingers fumbled in her haste until she forced herself to slow down. She got one knot loose and was working on another when she heard shouts coming from the vendors’ area. Then the sound of broken glass. She froze. More shouts. Then a gunshot!

  Lia leaped to the door and locked it. Realizing that might not be enough, she jammed the second office chair under the doorknob and wheeled Hayley’s to a far corner. She didn’t know what had happened out there, but Brady hadn’t been carrying a gun. Had he been shot?! If so, how badly?

  Agonizing minutes of silence followed. Lia managed to loosen the remaining knots binding Hayley to the chair and carefully slid her daughter to the floor. The knob of the office door rattled. Hayley moaned, and Lia clamped a hand over her mouth. She heard footsteps lead away. Was Ginny leaving?

  Another long silence followed. Worried about Brady, Lia was about to get up when a bullet crashed through the office window. She threw herself over Hayley. A second bullet hit the wall above them. Then more agonizing silence—until Lia picked up the glorious sound of sirens in the distance!

  Lia heard a car start and screech away. It had to be Ginny fleeing. After a brief internal struggle, Lia cautiously left the office—and Hayley. She had to check on Brady, who might need her more. She first verified that Ginny’s car was indeed gone, then went searching for Brady. Lia found him, bleeding from a shoulder wound but still alive on the floor near Maggie’s booth. She quickly grabbed one of her friend’s beautiful quilts to press against Brady’s wound.

  “Hayley . . . ?” Brady mumbled.

  “Hayley’s fine. You will be, too, I promise!”

  She worked to staunch the bleeding and was relieved to soon hear the sirens racing up the road to the barn. When voices called out, “Police!” she responded with “Over here! An officer’s been shot. My daughter needs help. We need ambulances!”

  Two police officers rushed in and took over as Lia quickly filled them in on what had happened. “Ginny Norton shot him,” she said. “And now she’s on the run.” She gave her bare-bones description of the car.

  “Don’t worry,” one of the officers assured her grimly. “She won’t get far.”

  When Lia hurried back to Hayley, she was relieved to see her eyes opened, though blearily.

  “Mom?” Hayley tried to raise herself but flopped back. “Are you . . . ? Is she . . . ?”

  “She’s gone. Everything’s okay,” Lia said. Or it would be as soon as Hayley and Brady got to a hospital. But Hayley didn’t need to hear about Brady’s situation just yet. There was time for that—thank goodness.

  Chapter 40

  I’m so sorry,” Belinda said for at least the twentieth time as they sat in Lia’s living room the next day. “I shouldn’t have gotten you into this.”

  “I got myself into it, remember?” Lia said.

  “Yes, but I should have stopped you. I should have taken care of it myself.”

  Lia smiled to herself, knowing just how that would have gone, but said nothing.

  Belinda had come to the hospital the previous night—the same one Lia had rushed to two days before—and stayed with her until they were assured Hayley would be fine. After catching a brief couple of hours of sleep, they’d returned to bring Hayley home, but not before she’d gone to visit Brady, whose recovery from shoulder surgery would be much longer than her own. Belinda continued to hover over both Lia and Hayley at Lia’s place, although there was little she could find to do for them beyond offering food and bringing cups of coffee or tea.

  More food arrived soon from next door as Sharon appeared with a casserole. She was followed within minutes by Jen Beasley, who came as the representative of the Ninth Street Knitters and loaded with goodies from them all.

  “I suggested that the others wait a couple of days before dropping by, but they all send their love,” Jen said.

  “So thoughtful!” Lia said, bringing her in to join the other three as Hayley got up from the sofa to give Jen a hug and help carry her bags to the kitchen. Hayley had assured Sharon she was fine and now did the same for Jen, probably glad that the entire knitting group hadn’t shown up to have her repeat her reassurances several more times. But she also looked touched—and much better than she had some hours ago.

  “So, how is that young man doing?” Jen asked after they’d settled in the living room.

  “Brady came through his surgery great,” Hayley said. “And the doctors think there shouldn’t be any permanent damage—thank God. I know how he loves being a police officer. I’d really hate to see that derailed because of that horrible woman.”

  “So was she the one who called you and claimed Hayley had been in an accident?” Sharon asked Lia.

  “I’m sure she was. She must have picked up that I was starting to figure things out and thought that would distract me.”

  “The thing is,” Hayley added, “Mom didn’t have anything solid on her. If Ginny had just played it cool, she might have gotten away with everything.”

  “Would she?” Jen asked. “She must have been awfully unstable to do what she did. I’d expect someone like that to give herself away eventually.”

  “Perhaps,” Belinda said. “But what further damage might she have done in the meantime? Who else might have died?”

  Hayley nodded vigorously, agreeing with Belinda. “If she didn’t see you going off to prison after she’d killed Joan, I’m sure she would have tried something else.”

  “And that’s why you went to see her?” Jen asked Hayley. “To force a confession?”

  Hayley squirmed. “Kind of,” she said. “I was just so mad to think she had done those awful things and nobody could prove it. I’m not sure exactly what I had in mind. Maybe I thought I could trip her up somehow. Instead she tripped me up, literally. I never knew what hit me. I just remember waking up on the floor, and she was urging me to swallow something, telling me it would help me feel better.”

  “They said at the hospital that Ginny got some kind of powerful prescription sleep aid into you,” Belinda said. “After she conked you on the head.”

  “Yeah, my head hurt really bad, and I vaguely remember thinking she must be giving me aspirin or something like that. But I wasn’t thinking too straight at the time. The next thing I knew I was waking up in your office, Belinda, totally confused and trying hard to keep my eyes open.” Hayley turned to Lia. “I’m sorry, Mom. I ended up causing a lot of trouble.”

  Lia reached out to squeeze Hayley’s hand while biting her tongue to keep from saying a lot of things that sprang to mind.

  “She caused it,” Belinda assured Hayley. “Ginny! And now she’s been stopped because of you. No more murders, my reputation is cleared, and the craft fair will recover—at least I hope so.”

  “It will,” Jen said. “It might take a while, but it’ll come back, maybe stronger than ever.” She turned to Lia. “I want to know about Annie. She seemed to be putting herself under grave suspicion by her recent actions.”

  Lia sighed. “I know. But I heard from Olivia this morning. She said she’d had a heart-to-heart with Annie, which both surprises and impresses me, since Olivia finds that sort of thing difficult. But perhaps the shocking news coming out about Ginny inspired both of them.

  “It turns out that the bitter fight An
nie had with Joan just hours before Joan’s murder was over Annie’s husband. Annie has been under increasing stress lately, and she had little patience left for Joan’s constant complaints flowing from the booth next to hers, which in Annie’s view were frivolous. Apparently she voiced her annoyances more and more until Joan, who wasn’t known for holding back, had enough, and the two of them fought it out, verbally. Joan hit hard when she claimed that Annie used her husband as an excuse for her own shortcomings and expected everyone around her to kowtow to her—or something like that.”

  Hayley gasped.

  “I know,” Lia said. “Cruel. The shocking behavior of Annie’s at the 7-Eleven the other night that you described, Jen, apparently came from caretaker fatigue and stress and her turning to Band-Aid solutions. Olivia may have convinced her she needed help and to look into either a support group or counseling.”

  “Good girl,” Jen said.

  Lia nodded. “I hope Annie will follow through on that.”

  “Well, I guess I can stop looking for something between Martin Brewer and Joan,” Hayley said. “The professor is off the hook.”

  “As well as Darren’s partner, Adam,” Belinda said. “Unfortunately. Well,” she said, “maybe we can catch him on something else.”

  “I have a feeling his wife will catch him on something, eventually,” Lia said. “If Eva cares enough, that is. All those phone calls to his office from a mysterious woman, along with his general shiftiness about where he was or what he was doing, should start to add up.”

  “It would to the average person,” Jen said. “Eva doesn’t seem to fit that description. Well,” she said, “whatever works for her.”

  Lia agreed. “She seems content with her somewhat narrow life,” she said, then added with a smile, “And Tracy might get to knit a few more dog sweaters.”

  “What I want to know,” Belinda said, “is how Ginny got Darren to the craft barn so late at night. And how she got in!”

  “I’d like to know how she lured him there, too,” Lia said, “and I hope it will come out during police questioning. But remember your missing key, Belinda? You told the police after we found Darren’s body that it had been stolen.”

  “That’s right! So she must have taken it. I wonder how she did it.”

  Lia shrugged. One more detail that may or may not be explained.

  After picking over the subject until they’d exhausted it, Jen and Sharon took off, to be followed soon—at Lia’s urging—by Belinda.

  “You’ve been great,” Lia told her. “But you need to catch up on some of that sleep you lost while sitting at the hospital with me last night.”

  Lia had lost the same amount of sleep and could feel herself drooping. But a parade of well-wishers, neighbors, and fellow craft fair vendors continued to show up at her door, most carrying something edible in their hands. Finally Sharon, who’d observed it all from her window, called and offered to be a gatekeeper.

  “Enough is enough,” she declared. “I’ll sit on your porch and express your regrets. And I promise not to eat anything that they leave with me. You need some peace.”

  “You’re an angel,” Lia declared.

  Hayley was in better condition after resting at the hospital the entire night, and because of her own natural energy. But she appreciated the break for another reason. “I want to head over to the hospital tonight to see Brady.”

  “I’d wait until morning,” Lia strongly advised. “He’s had major surgery. But tomorrow he’ll be much more responsive. You could take him one of the treats from our growing pile. There’s far too much for us.”

  “Okay,” Hayley agreed, though reluctantly.

  She brightened when Lia suggested texts to him would be okay. “But don’t be too surprised if he doesn’t answer right away. Give him time.”

  * * *

  * * *

  The next day was Saturday. The craft fair had been closed—temporarily—and Lia was at home, waiting to hear Hayley’s report on her trip to the hospital.

  “Brady looks so much better!” Hayley said when she returned, clearly in high spirits. “It was scary how he looked the last time.”

  “People coming out of anesthesia are never at their best. I’m so glad he’s improving,” Lia said.

  “We had a great talk. He told me about everything that had gone on while I was totally zonked. It really was a brave thing he did, wasn’t it? I mean, closing in on Ginny like that. He said he needed to stop her when she started heading back to me. He didn’t know she had a gun, but he had to consider it a possibility. Can you imagine?”

  “He’s a police officer,” Lia said. “I don’t want to say it’s their job—even when they’re off duty—but they’ve been highly trained, and as a whole they’re the kind of people who run toward danger to protect others.”

  “And I’m ashamed to say I never thought about that. Or appreciated it. I certainly appreciate what he did that night! And what you did, Mom. And I wish like crazy I hadn’t put you both in such danger!”

  Lia reached out to hug Hayley. “You didn’t know what she might do. And I think it’s safe to say you’ve learned from it.”

  “Uh-huh,” Hayley murmured, hugging back tightly. She stepped back and sniffled, then managed a smile. “I learned something else today, something you were wondering about.”

  “Oh?”

  “A couple of Brady’s police buddies showed up while I was there. Ginny’s in custody, of course, with plenty of charges against her, and they think there shouldn’t be any problem getting convictions. Along with a pile of other evidence, they said they found Ginny’s burner phone at her house. It had the texts she’d exchanged with Darren Peebles that brought him to the craft fair barn that night. Apparently she convinced him she had damaging information about Annie’s husband that she would hand over. Something that would put an end to the lawsuit Annie and Ken had filed against him.”

  “Aha!”

  “And that’s not all, Mom. There was the text she sent to Belinda pretending to be Joan and arranging to meet her at the coffee shop that night. It also contained the fake email she’d used to set up the Facebook and Twitter accounts under Joan’s name.”

  “I think Ginny must have felt a lot of resentment toward Joan,” Lia said, “because of all the praise and attention she received for her paintings. It was probably one reason she chose Joan as her next victim in her drive to implicate Belinda. Ginny certainly worked hard at her crimes. Too bad she didn’t just apply all that effort and cleverness to something legitimate and productive.”

  “Speaking of working . . . ,” Hayley said, her eyes dancing.

  “Yes?”

  “I was going to tell you when you’d come back from that drive to Boggs Creek, but all that stuff that you found out from Ginny’s family made me put my stuff on hold.”

  “And . . . ?”

  “I got a job! And it’s something I know I’m going to absolutely love!”

  “How exciting!” Lia cried. “Please tell me more.”

  “It’s at the alpaca farm.” Hayley held up her hand. “Don’t worry! I won’t be mucking out stalls, though I wouldn’t mind all that much. I’ll be using my communications background to promote everything about the farm and help make it as successful as it can be.”

  “That’s terrific, Hayley! But when did this all come about?”

  “Remember I stopped at the farm on my way here from Philly? It wasn’t just to pet the alpacas again. I also talked with the Webers. They didn’t know at that point that they needed someone like me, but I explained to them why they did,” Hayley said, laughing. “They had to think it over, of course, so I didn’t say anything to you right away. It might have come to nothing. But then they called me back for another discussion and said they thought having someone like me on their staff would be a very good thing.”

  Lia threw her hands
into the air. “Yippee!”

  “Mom, I’m so excited. I get to do the kind of work I studied four years to do, and I get to promote a business and a product that I’m so enthusiastic about. Everything I’ll be saying about it will be one hundred percent genuine, unlike, well, never mind. And I’ll be setting up special events and fun things. I can hardly wait! And on top of it, I’ll get to be around Rosie.”

  “Rosie?”

  “My special alpaca friend, remember? Now you won’t have to adopt her and raise her in your backyard for me.”

  Lia laughed. “As if. But does that mean you’ll be moving to Crandalsburg?”

  “Gosh, I haven’t really thought that far ahead. I can’t stay in Philly, that’s for sure. Commuting to the farm from Crandalsburg wouldn’t be bad, but I’ll have to see. Can I stay with you until I figure it out?”

  “Of course, dear. As long as Rosie stays at the farm.” Lia felt like dancing a jig, delighted as she was with the wonderful news and the thought of Hayley settling so much closer.

  “I told Brady,” Hayley said. “I hope you don’t mind me telling him first?” When Lia laughed and flapped her hand, Hayley explained, “He asked me when I had to go back to Philly, and he was looking so down about it that I just blurted it all out. You would have thought I gave him tickets to the Super Bowl! He’s so sweet. Now that I’ll be around, and once his shoulder is back in shape, of course, I can help him work out to get the rest of him back in shape. You know, we really have a lot in common. We both like jogging and sports, and we both . . .”

  Lia smiled as Hayley went on about things that Lia had already picked up on but never dared to voice. She didn’t know where this budding relationship would go, but Hayley could do a lot worse than draw closer to a young man of obviously excellent character and intelligence, and who was clearly smitten. She felt a nudge at her ankle, and Lia looked down, her smile widening as she was reminded of the third occupant of the house who would also be delighted to see more of Brady. She reached down to ruffle her affectionate ragdoll’s fur.