While My Pretty One Knits (16 page)

How awful for her, Lucy thought. Maggie had worked so hard to build such a great reputation in town. She must be mortified. How will she ever live this down? Lucy’s heart went out to her. What a nightmare.

“Maggie!” Lucy drew closer and waved. Maggie looked up, a flash of hope in her features.

Her friends waved in unison. “Don’t worry, we called Christine,” Dana called out to her. “She’s going to meet you at the police station.”

A wave of relief washed over Maggie’s features. “Thank God”—Lucy saw Maggie mouth the words, though she couldn’t hear her.

They had reached the police cruiser. Walsh stepped aside to let Maggie get in. Lucy saw her hesitate a moment, then with resolve, climbed in the back of the police car.

The doors slammed and the patrol car pulled away from the curb.

The three watched, dumbstruck. The remaining policemen dispersed the crowd. “That’s it, folks. Nothing to see here…time to move on,” they murmured.

Lucy thought there was something to see. The Black Sheep was surrounded by yellow tape that read “Caution—Police Line—Do Not Cross.”

She turned to Dana. “Should we go down to the police station and wait for her?”

“It might take hours,” Dana said. “I don’t know if it would be that helpful, either.” Dana’s cell phone buzzed. She pulled it out of her pocket and checked the number. “It’s Jack. I called him before I left the office. He was going to try to find out what’s going on.”

Lucy waited as Dana spoke to her husband. She hated to eavesdrop but couldn’t help herself. Not that it helped. Dana’s side of the conversation was a lot of “uh-huh”s and “oh, I see”s. There was one “gee, that’s not good,” causing an instant knot in Lucy’s stomach.

Dana clicked off and looked back at them.

“What did he say?” Phoebe asked eagerly. “Has he heard anything?”

“He nosed around a little. It seems someone called in a tip and the police got a warrant to search for the murder weapon.”

“That doesn’t sound good,” Lucy said quietly.

“No…it doesn’t,” Dana agreed. “But let’s not get carried away. We don’t even know if they found anything.”

“Let’s just hope they didn’t. Then they really have no grounds to hold Maggie very long, right?” Lucy asked her.

“No grounds at all,” Dana replied.

Phoebe looked bleak and bit her fingernail. “Did anyone call Suzanne? She’s going to be extremely pissed if she’s left out of this.”

“Yeah, you’re right. I’ll call her,” Lucy offered, but before she took out her phone, Dana touched her arm.

“Listen, it might be a long night. Why don’t you come back to my house and hang out for a while? Christine said she would call me once she knew what was going on.”

That was enough to persuade Lucy. “Thanks, Dana. I just have to drop the dog off.”

“I’m there,” Phoebe said. “I can’t get into my own apartment yet anyway, and Josh has a gig somewhere.”

“Great. Let’s meet back at my house. I’ll fix something to eat,” Dana said. “Let’s not panic. Even if the police find something incriminating in all those boxes, there are a million reasons why it might be in Maggie’s shop.”

A million reasons other than Maggie being the murderer, Dana meant. Reasonable doubt. Wasn’t that what they always said on lawyer shows? “So why do I feel so panic-stricken?” Lucy wondered.

Phoebe gave Lucy and Tink a lift back to the cottage, so Lucy could drop the dog off. She hated to leave Tink alone her first night home, but the dog did seem tired out from the long walk and all the excitement. Tink inhaled her kibble, then curled up on her new bed. She looked pretty much done for the day.

Lucy patted her head. “I’ll be back in a while. Be a good girl.”

She headed for the door, then ran back to the sitting room and grabbed her knitting bag. Dana said it could be a long night. What else would they do all that time?

Though it would hardly be the same to sit and knit all night without Maggie.

T
hey haven’t formally charged Maggie with anything, but she’s been brought in for questioning.” Dana’s voice, which was normally so clear and confident, had trailed off so quietly Lucy could hardly hear her. She had just finished talking to Maggie’s attorney, Christine Forbes, and put the phone down on the slate coffee table in her living room. The circle of friends sat in stunned silence. How many times had that ever happened? Lucy couldn’t remember.

As Dana had predicted, it had turned into a long grueling wait. Stationed in the Haegers’ spacious living room, they ate, drank, knit, and commiserated about Maggie’s unjust incarceration. Dana put together a platter of fruit, cheese, and French bread, along with a bottle of cabernet.

Mostly, they waited for updates from Maggie’s lawyer in order to learn what was going on. Dana took a deep breath and picked up her knitting. Lucy watched as she settled her troubled expression into something more resigned and controlled.

“How can they hold her for questioning about anything? They don’t have any proof,” Phoebe insisted.

“Christine just told me that the police say they’ve found the murder weapon,” Dana reported. “They say they took it out of the shop, in one of the boxes.”

“A weapon? What was it?” Lucy could hardly imagine. She’d looked through all the stock in Amanda’s store and then had looked in most of the boxes again this morning, searching for the dog sweaters. There was nothing even vaguely resembling a weapon. Not that she’d noticed.

Dana tugged on the ball of yarn she was using. “The police believe Amanda was struck on the head with a heavy blunt object. They’ve found a wooden hat block in the shop, at the bottom of a box of yarn. The bloodstains match Amanda’s blood type,” she added. “That’s about as much as they can know for sure right now. Except checking it for fingerprints. They’ve sent it to a lab for DNA tests. But that will take a while.”

“Okay, so they found this hat block that someone probably used to kill Amanda. The killer left it in the Knitting Nest and Maggie comes along, buys all the stock, and ends up with it in her shop. Even if it has her fingerprints on it, how does that in any way prove Maggie is the murderer?” Suzanne argued angrily.

“Detective Walsh is totally desperate and pathetic. How could this ever hold up in a courtroom?” Phoebe agreed.

“I never saw a hat block.” Lucy had been thinking about it and knew she’d remember something like that. “I was with Maggie last week, when she went through the stock in the Knitting Nest. It’s not something you’d miss seeing or not remember. If it was in the Nest all this time, why didn’t the police see it when they searched after Amanda’s murder?”

“They couldn’t find it if it wasn’t there,” Dana pointed out. “Whoever used it on Amanda—Peter, most likely—must have taken it with them and hid it somewhere,” Dana pointed out. “Didn’t Maggie say Peter brought over more boxes from his house?”

Lucy frowned. So Dana thought Peter had killed Amanda, took the hat block home with him, and then planted it in a box when he delivered the stock? That seemed logical. But why hadn’t anyone seen it sooner?

“I looked through most of those today. I never saw it.”

“I didn’t see it, either,” Phoebe added. “But there were about a zillion boxes and even a bunch of shopping bags. We probably just missed it.”

“Anybody notice that we’re back to Peter Goran again?” Suzanne’s smile was tight and disdainful. “It’s very obvious. Peter’s trying to frame Maggie for the murder. That’s why he was so pushy about her buying the stock and rushing her to take it out of the shop.”

“Maybe that’s why he didn’t bargain with her,” Dana pointed out. “Didn’t Maggie say her offer was ridiculously low and he just took it, no questions asked?”

Lucy sipped her wine and nibbled on an apple slice. She remembered Maggie saying that a few times and that she’d even felt guilty about cheating him.

“Nobody does business like that,” Suzanne said knowingly. “He’s desperate for money, too. I was at the office today and this agent I’m friendly with told me she went over to appraise the Gorans’ house this week. Peter wants to put it on the market and wanted to know what he can get. He said he was waiting for the police to close Amanda’s case. Of course, he gave her that bull about the murder being a robbery and all that.” Suzanne shook her head. “Get this, the agent says there was a woman there, you know, living in the house. A girlfriend. Who knows how long that’s been going on?”

“Dana’s yoga teacher, Wanda, told me that she thought Amanda was having an affair,” Lucy recalled. “So maybe they both had extramarital activities, hidden from the other,” Lucy said. “Now Peter is free to do as he likes.”

“Right. Maybe he
freed
himself of Amanda to do as he likes,” Suzanne said. “But aside from the girlfriend, he starts asking the real-estate agent how fast he could close the deal so he can leave town. He told the agent he has some debt to pay off. Some serious debt. Not just a few credit cards…now what does that mean?”

Dana looked down in her lap and fiddled with her knitting. “Peter has a gambling problem. The attorney who was handling the divorce told Jack. I wasn’t supposed to tell anybody but…since you seemed to already know most of it…well, don’t ever say you heard the rest from me,” Dana added. “That was the big issues in their divorce. Amanda wouldn’t agree on sharing his debt.”

“Maybe that’s why he went to talk to her the morning she was murdered?” Lucy recalled. “Maybe he hadn’t even found out about her affair. Maybe, when she kept saying she wouldn’t help him with his debt, he got so angry that he went over the edge.”

“Does it really matter what they argued about? For once, he got the last word,” Phoebe finished for her.

Lucy felt her skin crawl. She could picture it now…Peter and Amanda. The way they had argued. The hat block in Peter’s hand, striking her on the head….

“So why is poor Maggie sitting in the police station, being browbeaten for the past three hours?” Suzanne demanded to know. “What’s wrong with this picture, ladies?”

“How long can they keep her there?” Phoebe asked Dana.

Dana shrugged. “I don’t know. I guess it depends if they can tie the hat block to her somehow. If they have enough evidence to charge her, she can still get out on bail. But she’ll have to go before a judge. Probably tomorrow, at this rate.”

The thought of Maggie going through that ordeal made Lucy feel sick to her stomach. And angry. At the police, Peter Goran…at whoever had done this to her.

“Fingerprints would be pretty flimsy, don’t you think?” Lucy asked Dana. “Considering the block was in the shop and she could have handled it by accident?”

Dana nodded. “I’m sure Christine will be able to talk them out of something that weak. Christine is smart and tough. She can put two and two together. She knows Peter Goran probably did it and he passed all that stuff to Maggie. I’m sure she’s going to argue that scenario to Detective Walsh.”

“Just in case, next time you speak to her, please relate the highlights of this conversation?” Lucy asked.

“Of course I will.” Dana reached over and touched Lucy’s hand. “Jack says the police are really tiptoeing around this case. They want to make the charges stick. This is an election year for the county DA and he doesn’t want to be embarrassed.”

“I guess that’s something in Maggie’s favor. I just wish it wasn’t taking so long to get her out of there.” Lucy sighed.

“The wheels of justice grind slowly.” Dana’s tone was solemn.

“And the wheels of injustice seem to grind even slower,” Lucy countered.

“Doesn’t the American Civil Liberties Union have a hotline or something?” Phoebe asked mournfully.

Suzanne was the first to go and very reluctantly, a few minutes after midnight. She wanted to stay longer, but she had a full day to look forward to, getting her kids up and off to school in the morning and then holding an open house in town.

The big sectional sofa was comfortable and Dana had started a fire in the hearth. The leaping yellow flames made a hypnotizing contrast to the smooth granite mantel. Lucy watched the fire, struggling to keep her eyes open. She wondered if Tink was all right being by herself, but she didn’t want to leave without hearing from Maggie. The platter of fruit and cheese was picked over and just about empty, the same for the wine bottle.

Dana sat on the other end of the sofa, still steadily knitting. But Phoebe had fallen asleep, curled into a ball in one of the leather chairs, her long legs tucked up to her chin, her knitting dangling off her lap. More crazy-looking socks for Josh, it appeared to Lucy. Her features had relaxed in sleep, making her look much younger.

Dana had noticed it, too. “She looks like a little girl,” she whispered.

“Yeah, one that’s allowed to get piercings and tattoos,” Lucy whispered back.

Dana laughed but luckily Phoebe didn’t wake up.

They did wake her up, though, when Christine Forbes called again at about half past one. It was good news. Maggie was being released. The police were not charging her, for lack of evidence, her lawyer told Dana. They couldn’t find a fingerprint match on the hat block, which was good news. The bad news was they were still trying to link it to her someway.

“Did you speak to Maggie?” Phoebe asked with a groggy yawn.

“No, I didn’t get to speak with her. Only with her lawyer.” Dana sat back and sighed. “Looks like we’ll have to wait until tomorrow to hear the whole story.”

Lucy rose and stretched her legs. She picked up her knitting and stuck it back in her tote. She was still working on the second hat. It seemed to have stalled out in all the excitement.

“This is the first time we’ve ever met and knitted without Maggie,” she said to Dana and Phoebe.

Dana was also putting her knitting away, including one of the flowers she planned to felt and use to embellish her new sweater. “I was thinking the same thing,” she admitted. “Let’s hope it’s the only time.”

Maggie and the Black Sheep knitting shop had made the local newspaper again, the second time in less than two weeks. Finally on the front page, though hardly the way Maggie had hoped, Lucy thought with a cringe.

A half-page article with a photograph covered the surprise police search and Maggie’s night of questioning at the station, “in connection with the recent murder of Amanda Goran, Plum Harbor resident and former owner of the Knitting Nest.”

“In connection with the recent murder of…” The phrase made Lucy shudder. At least they hadn’t called her a “suspect.” That would have been too much to endure.

Lucy could only imagine how Maggie felt reading any of it. Or how she felt trying not to read it.

As Tuesday wore on, she could only imagine it, since Maggie would not speak to anyone all day. Lucy called around to her friends—Dana, Suzanne, and Phoebe. They were getting the same silent treatment. Maggie just wouldn’t talk to anyone.

“This has been a real shock for her. A real blow to her self-esteem. She needs some time to process,” Dana told her. “We can’t take it personally.”

No, they couldn’t. Lucy wanted to be there for Maggie but it seemed the only way to do that right now was to give her some space. Lucy understood that.

When Lucy went out to the supermarket at 5:00, she drove past Maggie’s house. The curtains were drawn and the windows dark. She decided not to stop after all.

When Lucy got home she found a message on the machine. “Hi, Lucy, it’s me. I’m sorry I didn’t pick up when you called. I’m all right. I was exhausted from being up all night and slept most of the day. We’ll talk tomorrow, okay?” Maggie hadn’t said whether or not she would open the shop tomorrow, Lucy noticed. Maybe she didn’t know herself.

There was another message after Maggie’s. This one was from Matt McDougal. Lucy had almost forgotten about him. Almost…not quite, she admitted to herself. She did feel a tiny ping of victory, hearing his voice. “Hi, Lucy, it’s Matt McDougal. I’m just calling to see how Tink is doing. Give me a call at the office if you have a chance…I’d really like to say hello.”

Pretty much a standard doctor-patient follow-up call. Except for the closing. He’d like to say hello? Really like to? Well, that was something. She had to agree with Phoebe. Men were timid woodland creatures and this was moving so slowly they were practically going backward.

The next morning, Lucy had just come in from giving Tink her morning walk when she heard the phone ring and then Phoebe’s voice on the machine. “Lucy? It’s Phoebe. Maggie just called—”

Lucy picked it up. “Hey, what’s up?”

Phoebe sounded upset. Lucy hoped it wasn’t more trouble with the police. “Maggie’s not opening up today, either. Bummer, right? She says she’s still too tired. But I think she’s just afraid to show her face on Main Street after that story in the newspaper and all. It’s really so unfair. The police are fascist pigs—”

When Phoebe got nervous she just kept talking. Lucy had to interrupt her. “I think she’s embarrassed, too. I’m not sure what we can do,” she added, remembering what Dana had said. “She probably needs more time, Phoebe.”

“Yeah…I know. I just hate to see her in lockdown mode, acting as if she really did clip Amanda on the head, when it’s not her fault at all. Know what I mean?”

Lucy did know what she meant. It wasn’t like Maggie to crawl into a hole like this. She was more the type that came back out swinging.

“I don’t think it’s a good idea for her to be alone right now, either,” Phoebe added.

“I thought of that, too.” Not that there was even a remote chance of Maggie harming herself. But it wouldn’t make her outlook any lighter to skulk around alone in her dark house.

“Why don’t we just go over there?” Lucy said suddenly. “I’ll call Dana and Suzanne. If she really doesn’t want to see us, we’ll go away but at least she knows we’re thinking of her.”

“An intervention. I like it.” Phoebe sounded relieved.

“Can you meet at her house in fifteen minutes?”

“I’m there,” Phoebe promised.

Dana and Suzanne were upset to hear that Maggie planned to stay barricaded in her house today and both liked the girlfriend intervention plan. They dropped what they were doing and jumped in their cars to meet Lucy and Phoebe. Suzanne had just bought bagels and cream cheese for a morning meeting at her office but offered to donate them to the cause.