The Long Stitch Good Night: An Embroidery Mystery (24 page)

“Don’t work so quickly. With ribbon embroidery, you have to take your time. Pull the ribbon slowly and more gently to make it come through properly without going too far.”

“I get impatient,” she said.

“I know. But try it almost like you’re in slow motion from your normal speed.” I had to stifle a giggle as Vera took “slowly and gently” to the extreme. But her rose looked beautiful when she’d finished. “See?”

She smiled. “Yes, I do! That looks fantastic!”

“It does. Now make another.”

She made another, this time picking up the pace a little but still slower than she’d been earlier. Again the rose looked great.

“I’m getting the hang of this,” Vera said. As she used the embroidery floss to prepare to make another rose, she asked, “Did your romantic rivals opt for pistols or swords yesterday?”

“What?” I asked.

“When I came in yesterday afternoon, I thought Todd and Ted were going to engage in a duel right then and there.” She sighed wistfully. “I remember when young men looked at me the way those two were looking at you. It’s wonderful, isn’t it?”

“Well, I don’t know that I’ll be looked at that way again by Todd anytime soon,” I said. “I made him angry this morning. Ted did ask me to go to dinner with him Sunday, though.” I decided I’d much rather talk about her. “How about your newspaper guy, Paul? Did you enjoy dinner with him the other night?”

“I did, dear. He and I had a wonderful time. After dinner, he took me dancing at the Starlight Room in the Tallulah Falls Tavern,” she said. “Have you been there yet?”

“No, I haven’t.” It seemed more to me like a seniors’ dance venue than a place I’d go to shake my groove thing. I wouldn’t have said that to Vera, though.

“It’s enchanting, and we danced for hours.”

“Has Paul said anything…?” I waved my hand dismissively. “No, of course he hasn’t. Never mind.”

“Has he said anything about what?”

“About the Graham Stott investigation,” I
said. “I just wonder what the local media consensus is on whether Blake and Todd are guilty.”

“In general, pretty much everyone thinks they’re guilty, including the media,” Vera said. “Haven’t you been keeping up with the daily write-ups?”

“No. I was afraid they’d only depress me,” I said.

“You should reconsider. At least read Paul’s articles. They’re available online, and they’re fair-minded. Paul has written some informative background articles this past week, as well as the articles detailing the crime, what police are saying, and all that.”

“Thanks for letting me know, Vera. I’ll look at them.”

“Paul is very talented,” she said. “And I’m not saying that only because we’re dating.”

At five, I locked up the shop and put the clock sign on the door indicating I’d be back at five thirty. I normally close the shop at five on Friday, but I wanted Andy to know that I’d be returning in case he arrived there before I made it back. Even though I wanted to stress to him that this was a friendship dinner and
not a date, I didn’t want him to think I’d stood him up.

I took Angus home, fed him, and let him out into the backyard. Then I jogged upstairs and changed my T-shirt for a nice blouse.

When I pulled up to the shop, I saw that Andy’s yellow Camaro was already there. I quickly unlocked the door, removed the clock sign, and then relocked the door.

Andy pulled up beside the sidewalk. “Ready to go?”

“Yes,” I said. “I’ll follow you in my Jeep.”

“Why can’t you ride with me?”

“I have to get up early in the morning to come to work,” I said. “I thought that by taking separate cars, we could cut down on the drive time by eliminating an extra trip here.”

He shrugged. “Whatever you think. Is the Italian place in Depoe Bay all right with you?”

“That’ll be fine.” I smiled. “Lead the way.”

I could tell he wasn’t happy about the arrangement, but after he went kind of nuts on me yesterday, I wanted him to be absolutely certain that all we were having together this evening was dinner.

The Italian bistro—called Bistro Bella—in Depoe Bay wasn’t anything fancy, but the food smelled delicious. As soon as that aroma
wafted in my direction, I realized I hadn’t eaten lunch today. Small square tables adorned with blue-and-white-checked tablecloths filled the dining room. Each table was designed to accommodate four diners, and a couple of larger parties had pushed two or three of the tables together.

Andy and I found an available table and sat down. A waitress came over and asked what she could bring us to drink. I ordered a diet soda, and Andy requested a beer. She left, and Andy and I looked at each other, struggling for something to say.

“Did you have a nice day at school today?” I asked, realizing a fraction too late that the question made me sound like his mother.

“Yeah…thanks,” he said. “Did you have a good day?”

“It was okay.” I looked around at some of the other diners. There was a couple who had two children—a little girl who appeared to be about six years old and a boy in a high chair who was only a few months old. I smiled at the baby. “He’s so cute.”

The waitress brought our drinks.

I thought of something else I could say. “I understand Tawny changed her name to Sarah. Did you call her Sarah or Tawny?”

“She was always Tawny to me,” Andy said.

“What did Drew think of your calling his mother Tawny instead of Sarah?” I asked. “Didn’t he think that was odd?”

He shook his head. “We told him it was a nickname. And, of course, that made sense to him because his Grampa John also called her Tawny.”

“Right,” I said. “That makes sense. I have to say, though, that I’m sorry I nosed into everyone’s past. I had no right to do that, and now I feel like a complete heel.”

“Aw, you’re being too hard on yourself,” he said. “You were concerned about your friends, and you were trying to help. Anyone could understand that. Besides, I’m sorta glad you got involved. If you hadn’t, we wouldn’t be friends now.”

I smiled. “I’m glad about that part too.”

“Let’s not talk about depressing stuff tonight,” said Andy. “You know something about my college days. Why don’t you tell me about yours?”

Before I could think of something to tell him, the waitress returned to take our order. I was glad because it gave me time to think of something funny.

“Well, Sadie and I were roommates in college,”
I said. “Sadie’s mom is as sweet as can be, but she was like a helicopter—she was always hovering. As a matter of fact, I think she might still be that way. Anyway, it was hard for her to deal with her baby girl being in college. And Sadie was having a pretty hard time trying to deal with being in college herself.”

Andy smiled. “I knew her through Blake, but she didn’t say much about her academic career.”

“She changed majors more than once. In fact, she’d already been there a year when I was a freshman. I think her parents thought she was going to major in everything and be in college until they went bankrupt.”

“How about you?” he asked. “Did you always know what you wanted to do?”

“Not in the least. But I knew I was good with numbers, so I went with accounting. I’d dreamed of opening my own business, but I never thought it would happen.” I sipped my soda. “Anyway, one night after Sadie had been particularly stressed-out and depressed, I decided to throw her a pity party. I mean, she’d been in the dumps all week, and I thought enough was enough.”

“And you actually threw her a party?”

“I did.” I laughed. “I invited a bunch of girls
who lived in the dorm with us, and they all brought silly stuff like Kleenex, and diapers, and baby food, because they wanted to make it obvious they thought Sadie was acting like a baby.”

“Was Sadie mad?” Andy asked.

“Not until her mother called,” I said. “I didn’t know it was Mrs. Van Huss. I was thinking it was one of the girls who hadn’t got to the party yet. Did I mention there were wine coolers involved?”

“What did you do when Mrs. Van Huss called?” He was grinning, already anticipating my mortifying response.

I bit my lip. “I answered the phone,
Hi, Madame Sadie’s House of Satisfaction. What’s your pleasure?
”

Andy’s jaw dropped and then he dissolved into a fit of laughter. “What did Mrs. Van Huss say?”

“What did she
say
? Nothing. I didn’t even know it was her until she called Sadie back and demanded an explanation. She merely screeched and slammed down the phone on me,” I said. “And
that
is what snapped Sadie out of her depression. That, and the fact that she and Blake made up the next day.” I thought a minute. That’s why she’d been depressed. She and Blake had had a horrible fight and
broken up. They didn’t speak to each other for over a week. I thought their relationship was over for good. That must’ve been when Blake had the one-nighter with Tawny.

Andy was still laughing over the incident, but I was racking my brain to remember what time of year that had been. It was cold…I remembered that much. And we’d delivered the diapers and baby food to a local women’s shelter the next day. When we arrived, the administrator was taking down the New Year’s decorations that had been up over the weekend. New Year’s Day had been Saturday.

I was guessing that Blake’s indiscretion with Tawny probably took place around the time of some sort of New Year’s Eve drinking binge. If that was the case, and if Blake was the father of Tawny’s child, then Drew should have been born in October.

“Is everything all right?” Andy asked. “You’re looking solemn all of a sudden, and we decided we weren’t going to be depressed this evening.”

“I’m not,” I said with a smile. “My mind just drifted to Drew. He’s a beautiful child. When’s his birthday?”

“December 30. He’s a Capricorn. I’m an Aries—my birthday is March 25. When’s yours?”

“My birthday is in August. I’m a Virgo,” I said. “Did Tawny have any problems with the pregnancy? I’ve heard first births can be really tough.”

“Not at all. She carried Drew to full term, and he was healthy and happy.” He inclined his head. “Why all the questions about Drew?”

“I feel sorry for him. I mean, it’s great that he’s got you, and his grandfather, and Charles, but he’s lost his mom. That’s bound to be tough. It would be on anyone, but—”

“Charles?” Andy interrupted.

“Yeah … um … Tawny was married to Charles Siegel.”

“Charles Siegel,” he murmured. “All along, Tawny was married to Charlie?”

“Would you excuse me just a minute?” I asked. “I need to go to the ladies’ room.” I got up, retrieved my purse, and walked down the hall toward the bathroom. One, I was mortified that I’d dropped this bomb on Andy, but, two, I was desperate to let Blake know he was in the clear. For the umpteenth time, I tried to call Blake. And for the umpteenth time, my call went straight to voice mail.

“Blake,” I said, my voice urgent. “Drew’s birthday is December 30. No way.” Then I hung up. Hopefully, that was cryptic enough
to slide by Sadie if she happened to overhear the message.

I gathered up the nerve to return to the table. As had been the norm today, I’d said something stupid and caused someone to be hurt. I really needed to go home, crawl into bed, and stay there for the rest of the weekend. Or, at the very least, I needed to duct-tape my mouth shut.

Our food arrived, and I tried to make small talk while we ate. But Andy was distracted. As soon as dinner was over, he paid the waitress and we went our separate ways.

I wished I hadn’t offhandedly mentioned Tawny’s marriage to Charles. It didn’t make sense that Tawny wouldn’t have told Andy who she was married to. And why wouldn’t she have told Charles she’d remained friends with Andy? Had she been afraid Charles would feel threatened by their friendship? Or maybe Andy and Charles had never gotten along all that well, and that’s why she hadn’t told them about each other. Either way, with Tawny dead, Drew could use as many caring and supportive people as he could get in his life.

W
hen I turned down the street to my house, I could see the MacKenzies’ Mochas van in my driveway. Blake usually drove the van, and Sadie drove their BMW convertible. I pulled in beside the van. Blake was sitting in the driver’s seat just staring into space. When I got out of the car, he got out of the van.

“Blake, are you all right?” I asked.

He shrugged.

“Please tell me you haven’t been drinking,” I said.

“I haven’t.” At my skeptical expression, he breathed in my face. His breath wasn’t minty fresh, but it didn’t smell like alcohol. “See?”

“Thanks for that,” I said, raising an eyebrow.

“Made you believe me, didn’t it?” He grinned.

“You could’ve given me a
cross my heart
or a
Scout’s honor
or something.” I unlocked the door and flipped on the light. “Does Sadie know you’re here?”

“She doesn’t know where I am. When I left your shop, I called her and told her I needed to clear my head. I told her that with her parents at our house and people thronging the coffeehouse to gawk at the killer, the stress was too much for me and that I needed to get away for a little while.”

“‘A little while’?” I asked. “That was hours ago. She’s bound to be worried sick.”

“How did you figure out I’m not the father of Tawny Milligan’s son?” he asked.

“I remembered when you and Sadie had that falling-out and broke up for about a week. It was around New Year’s. I figured that’s when you and Tawny…you know…reconnected.” I put my purse and keys on the hall table and avoided Blake’s eyes. “Andy said Drew’s birthday was December 30. That’s how I knew it didn’t add up.”

“Andy?” Blake scrunched up his nose. “What were you doing with Andy?”

“He asked me to have dinner with him. And I went—as friends. I felt like I owed him that, since I was so deceitful with him when I asked him to dinner to see what he knew about Graham’s murder.” I told Blake to go ahead and have a seat while I let Angus in.

I went through the kitchen to the back door and opened it for Angus. He bounded inside and jumped up to give me a hug. Afterward, he followed me into the living room. When he saw Blake sitting on the sofa, he ran over, placed his front paws on Blake’s knees, and began licking his face.