While My Pretty One Knits (15 page)

Cara wasn’t so bad, she reminded herself as she headed for her car. I’m just jealous of her success. Maybe even a little jealous of the way Maggie makes such a fuss over her.

Lucy knew she and Maggie were much closer friends and would always be. But the former star student obviously held some special place in Maggie’s heart. Cara seemed somehow charmed in Maggie’s eyes in a way that Lucy, with all her endearing ticks and insecurities, knew she’d never be.

It was nearly a quarter to ten by the time Lucy reached the animal hospital and announced herself to the receptionist.

“I’m here to pick up Tink Binger?” she said, as if talking about a child to the school nurse.

“She’s ready. You can go on back.”

Lucy nervously touched her hair as she walked down the narrow corridor to the kennel room. She’d skipped the perfume and earrings entirely but had swiped on some lip gloss and had used a little hair product. After Phoebe’s analysis, she hadn’t wanted to look too overdressed, just better than normal.

She knocked on the kennel room door and it quickly opened. The vet tech she’d spoken to on the phone that morning was there, a tall thin woman named Amy.

“You’re here for Tink, right? She’s all ready for you.”

Lucy saw Tink standing up in her cage. She barked and wagged her tail. The dog looked as good as new, Lucy thought…except for a big swatch of fur that had been shaved off around her middle and a white, funnel-shaped collar, which Lucy knew would prevent Tink from getting at her stitches.

“Hey, Tink, how are you? Ready to come with me? I bought you a lot of chew toys.”

“Those should come in handy. She’s a strong girl,” the vet tech said. “She really needs a nice long walk after being stuck in that crate all weekend,” Amy pointed out.

Lucy planned to get into a good dog-walking routine, just as the dog books advised. It would give her exercise every day, too.

She handed Lucy a big manila envelope and gave her instructions about Tink’s medications. “It’s all written down. Everything is in there.”

“And the bill?” Lucy asked.

“Oh…the doctor made a note.” Amy plucked a yellow sticky off the envelope. “Says you can settle that later.”

Where is the doctor? Lucy was about to ask her. But Amy rushed on. “Do you have a leash?”

“Right here.” Lucy pulled the leash out of her pocket, hot pink with white paw prints.

“Here she comes.” Amy opened the crate and Tink sprung out like a wild thing. Amy held Tink’s collar while Lucy clipped on the leash, which was no small feat.

“She’s up to date on all her shots, so you shouldn’t have to come back for a while,” Amy said brightly.

“Right…” Lucy nodded. Not what she wanted to hear. “How about her stitches? Don’t I need to come back to have them taken out?”

“Nope, they just melt away,” Amy said cheerfully. “It will take about three days. Then you can remove her collar. Easy, right?”

Too easy, Lucy thought.

Tink jumped and hopped around Lucy’s legs, biting her leash and pulling toward the door.

“Gee, she really wants to get out of here, doesn’t she?” Amy observed with a laugh.

Lucy didn’t answer. So, that was it? She wasn’t going to even catch a quick glimpse of Matt?

She stared at the door that led to his office, trying to summon her X-ray vision, but it was impossible to tell if he was in there.

“Is Dr. McDougal around? Matt McDougal, I mean?”

Tink pulled her from side to side, panting so hard her tongue dragged on the floor. It was difficult for Lucy to maintain an air of nonchalance while hanging on to the crazed beast.

“He’s in surgery. An emergency came in. Do you have a question? You can ask me.”

Lucy smiled quickly. Would you like to catch a movie with me sometime, Amy?

“That’s okay…it’s not important,” Lucy mumbled.

She grabbed the big envelope with the medicine and quickly turned her attention to Tink. “Come on, pal. I think we’re done here.”

As the dog books advised, Lucy kept Tink confined to a limited space, the kitchen and her office, which Lucy had set up in a closed-in porch that adjoined the kitchen. As she proved herself worthy, the dog’s territory would expand. So far, Tink seemed content, mainly watching out the kitchen door at birds and squirrels in the backyard, as if glued to the Nature channel.

When Lucy finally checked inside the manila envelope, she found a sheet of postoperative care instructions and two bottles of pills. She felt very proud giving Tink her medicine, hidden in chunks of peanut butter, a dog-care tip she’d found in one of the books.

The envelope also contained the vial containing the stomach obstruction. She had thought it was a third bottle of pills, until she pulled it out. She took one look, shrieked, and the vial went flying.

The dog stared up at her, looking concerned, then ran to find the bottle, obviously thinking her wonderful new owner was playing “let’s fetch the lab specimen.”

Lucy raced the dog to the vial, which had rolled under the drawing table. She squatted down and quickly snatched it from Tink’s eager jaws. She ended up nose to nose with the shaggy yellow hound. “That’s all we need. You eating this darn thing twice. What are the odds of that happening?”

Lucy didn’t even know why Matt had included the gross souvenir in the packet. Maybe it was just protocol? The way car mechanics give you the old parts to prove they fixed something?

Or maybe, seeing her reaction the first time, it was some slightly twisted Doctor Doolittle prank?

Cripes. She had to stop calling him that. Even in her private thoughts. She was just thankful the bottle had not broken open. Who wanted to clean up that mess? Holding her face away so she didn’t even have to look at it, she slipped it back in the empty envelope and tossed the whole thing into the garbage.

Even though she’d started her workday hours later than usual, Lucy decided to finish up at around half past four so she could take Tink into town before dark. The poor dog had been held hostage for days and Lucy had read more than once that exercise was the key to good behavior. “A tired dog is a good dog.” Given the choice, Lucy wanted a good dog rather than a bad dog and she was eager to introduce Tink to her pals at the Black Sheep.

She and Tink had made it less than two blocks from the cottage when Lucy realized this dog-walking business was harder than it looked. Tink was either pulling Lucy’s arm out its socket or so engrossed in sniffing something on the sidewalk they would stall out.

By the time the pair reached Main Street, Lucy was exhausted. She’d taken a shortcut and instead of coming into town at the harbor, she’d walked down a side street that intersected Main about a half block from Maggie’s store. She rounded the corner, panting as heavily as the dog, then pulled up short.

One…two…three police cars were parked in front of the Black Sheep. The lights on top slowly turned and radios crackled. A group of onlookers were gathered on the sidewalk in front of the building and some cops in uniform stood around on the sidewalk, keeping them back.

Lucy ran up to the crowd with Tink. The shop door stood open, and she could see a lot of activity within. Lucy saw more men, some in uniform, some not, walking in and out. She pushed through the gathering, ran up the path and up the porch steps before anyone could stop her, dragging the dog behind her without thought.

“Hey…whoa there.” A uniformed policeman held out his hand and stopped her at the top of the steps. “You can’t come up here. The store is closed, miss. Sorry.”

“What’s going on? Is anyone hurt?”

“Police business. Nothing to worry about.”

“My best friend owns this place. Is she here? Can I speak to her, just for a minute?”

Lucy strained to see inside the shop, the policeman doing his best to block her view with his broad body. “You can’t go any farther. This is a closed area.”

A closed area…what the hell did that mean?

Lucy ignored him, weaving from side to side. She finally caught a glimpse of Maggie in the back room standing with Detective Walsh. Lucy could tell by her gestures that she was upset, very upset. She was arguing with Detective Walsh.

She heard Maggie’s voice rising, though she couldn’t tell what she was saying. Not a good sign.

“Hey, did you hear what I just said?” The policeman got into her face again. “You have to get down on the sidewalk. Right now.”

He stepped forward and Lucy stepped back. She stood her ground for a moment, then turned and pulled Tink down the few steps to the stone walk, then down to the sidewalk.

Meanwhile a swarm of blue uniforms carried cardboard cartons out of the Black Sheep, all the boxes of yarn that had come from the Knitting Nest. What in the world was going on?

Even more people were gathered on the sidewalk by now and she stood at the front of the group, waiting for another glimpse of Maggie.

Maggie was in trouble, that much was clear. But what in the world was going on here?

Lucy pulled out her cell phone and called Dana’s office, hoping to catch her in between appointments. The message tape played and Lucy waited for the beep. “Dana? The police are at the Black Sheep. They’re taking a lot of stuff out of the shop…”

“Lucy, what’s going on? You sound hysterical.”

“Thank goodness you picked up. I’m sorry, but it’s really bad. There are a ton of cops here. They won’t let me talk to Maggie. They won’t even let me inside—”

“Hang on, I’ll be right there,” Dana said quickly. “I’m going to call Christine Forbes,” she added. “Maggie needs her.”

They said good-bye and Lucy hung up. She turned to see Phoebe’s little red VW Bug pull up, parking down the block since the patrol cars took up the spaces near the shop. Phoebe got out and ran toward the shop. Lucy saw her stop to talk to a policeman who stood by a cruiser, probably to ask him what was happening. Lucy ran to meet her.

“I’m sorry, miss. You can’t go in the building for a few hours. Until they’ve finished the search,” Lucy heard him say.

“A few hours? I live in there. That totally sucks,” Phoebe told him.

Lucy tugged at her sleeve, pulling her away before she had two friends arrested tonight. Phoebe turned to face her and gripped her arm. “Oh my God, Lucy! The police are going to arrest Maggie! What should we do?”

Phoebe looked about to cry and hopped up and down. Her black eyeliner was already smudged and about to drip down her face. Lucy let out a long slow breath. She felt exactly the same way but was too old and self-conscious to act out so dramatically.

“Hang on, Phoebe. Maggie is in there talking to Detective Walsh and they’re taking the boxes from the Knitting Nest out. That’s all we know.”

Phoebe nodded, her chin trembling. “But we have to help her. We know she didn’t do anything wrong. It’s just not right…”

It wasn’t right. And she was positive Maggie had done absolutely nothing wrong. But there was no use trying to argue that point right now.

“Dana called Maggie’s lawyer. I hope she can get over here soon. That’s all we can do right now. They won’t even let me up on the porch.”

“Yeah…I know. That cop said I couldn’t even go up to my apartment. Doesn’t that stink? What about a person’s constitutional rights. This is turning into, like, a police state…”

Lucy nodded. The whole situation stunk. What in the world did they hope to find? The police had already searched the Knitting Nest for several days. There was nothing new here, except for the extra boxes that had come from Amanda’s house, Lucy recalled. But she’d just looked through practically every carton today, searching for the dog sweaters. It was yarn, yarn, and more yarn, with maybe a few boxes of knitting needles or crochet hooks thrown in.

She was starting to think Peter Goran was right. The police around here so rarely investigated a murder, they didn’t know what they were doing. They were making a mess of it, creating some big mystery when it had simply been a random robbery. Now poor Maggie was taking the brunt of their ineptitude and inexperience.

“Oh, is this your dog?” Phoebe sounded all weepy as she leaned over to pet Tink. “Oh, Lucy, she’s beautiful.”

Grateful that someone had noticed her, Tink lifted her head and softly licked Phoebe’s hands, exposed by fingerless gloves.

Lucy didn’t answer, just looked down at Tink. All the excitement seemed to have made the dog wary and she sat calmly at Lucy’s feet, leaning against her legs. The feeling of her warm body was comforting.

With their gazes fixed on the front door of the shop and the porch swarming with cops, they hadn’t even noticed Dana coming down the street until she stood right beside them.

“Anything happening? Did they take Maggie out yet?”

“Take her out?” Lucy spun around to look at Dana. “God, I hope not. She’s still in there, talking to Walsh. Maybe he just wants the boxes.”

Dana pursed her lips a moment, her expression grim. “I think we’d better prepare ourselves. Looks like they’re going to arrest Maggie for Amanda’s murder.”

Lucy felt stunned. “They can’t…she didn’t do anything. Dana, how can they do something like that? She’s completely innocent!”

Now it was Dana’s turn to calm Lucy. She rested a hand on her shoulder and spoke in a slow soft tone. What you would call a very therapeutic tone…and for good reason, Lucy realized. She was about to totally lose it.

“
We
know she’s completely innocent. But they must be looking for something that will tie her to the murder. Something that’s come into the shop by accident probably, along with the stock from the Knitting Nest.” Lucy had already figured out that much, though she couldn’t imagine what that something could be.

“Even if they don’t arrest her, I’d say it’s one hundred to one they’re taking her to the station for questioning tonight. Don’t worry, it will all be sorted out,” Dana added. “Christine is very good. She won’t let them hold Maggie a minute longer than necessary.”

“Oh my God…look! It’s Maggie, she’s coming out.” Phoebe gasped. Lucy drew close and put her arm around Phoebe’s slim shoulder. She thought the poor kid was going to faint.

Maggie walked between Detective Walsh and a uniformed policeman. She wasn’t in handcuffs, thank goodness, Lucy noticed, but she did look more or less trapped between the two large men. She certainly wasn’t happy about going with them. Her coat was open, flapping in the breeze. She looked down as she walked, obviously embarrassed to be seen by the group of looky-loos that had gathered on the sidewalk.