Skein of the Crime (20 page)

Everyone laughed as the woman to the left of Kelly held up a long, tapered knit hat. Something about the woman looked familiar to Kelly. Maybe she’d seen her around Lambspun before.

“And Lynette has the special ski hat. Felting will make it even warmer. And you’ll want to check that washer vibration after fifteen minutes and see if the hat is down to the correct size. Or you can do as Kelly will be doing.” Mimi picked up a rubber kitchen sink plunger. “She’ll be shrinking her hat by creating agitation in the tub with the plunger.”

“Okay, a washing machine agitation I understand,” Kelly said. “So describe how I’m going to create the same agitation with that plunger. Going up and down won’t be as strong a movement as the washer.”

“That’s exactly why we do certain items in the washtub with a plunger,” Mimi replied. “They either don’t require much shrinkage, like yours, or they’re more delicate fibers. Some items are a combination of wool and silk.”

“You can felt silk?” Marianne asked, astonished.

“Your knitted item needs to be at least seventy percent animal fibers, like wool. But it can have as much as thirty percent silk in it. No cotton or synthetics, though.”

“Why?” Lynette asked.

“Plant fibers do not felt. Only animal fibers will felt. They’re completely different in texture. That’s why I told all of you to bring knitted wool items to felt.”

“No plant fibers? What about the silk?” Stacy asked.

“Silkworms, remember?” Mimi replied.

Stacy hit her forehead with her hand. “
Right!
Forgot about those little guys.”

“Okay. Heat, water, and agitation,” Marianne repeated. “Agitation in the washer with hot water, right?”

“Really hot. As hot as you can get it,” Mimi said, lifting a bottle of shampoo. “And we use a very gentle, clear shampoo because shampoo is made for hair. And wool is
sheep
hair.”

“Love it,” Kelly said with a chuckle. “Do the washing machine folks keep checking the size as they go along?”

“You bet. Or you may wind up with something way too small. Once each item is finished, we rinse thoroughly in hot water and agitation to get all the soap out.”

“Do we put them all in the dryer afterwards?” Stacy asked.

“Ohhhh, no.” Mimi shook her head. “That would continue to shrink them with the dryer heat. After we rinse, we put each item on a clean, dry towel and pat them damp dry, then place the item on another clean dry towel to let it air-dry.”

“Okay, then how do we get started?” Kelly prodded.

Mimi gestured to the other women. “I’ll take two of you to the laundry room downstairs where they’re allowing us to use two of their washing machines. So one of you can watch while the other items are agitating. It won’t take long. Usually a half hour agitation will do it.”

“So if a machine takes half an hour, then how long do I take with the tub and plunger method? Two hours? Good thing I play ball. My arms are strong.”

Mimi laughed. “No, no. A half hour should be enough for you, too, Kelly. But make sure you check it after fifteen minutes and see where you are. You don’t want to shrink Steve’s hat.” She winked.

“Got that right. Do we have a tape measure in all these boxes? I want to measure the hat now, so I can keep track.”

Mimi pointed to a smaller box on the table. “There are several paper tape measures in there. Everyone take a tape and measure your knitted items right now. That way you’ll have a starting point.”

“Good idea,” Lynette said, reaching for the box.

“And don’t worry about hot water, Kelly. Burt is heating a pot of water on the stove in the kitchen right now.”

“Okay, then.” Kelly picked up the plunger in one hand and the empty tub in the other and started weight-lifting movements. “I’d better wake up my muscles right now. Half an hour is longer than you think.”

 

 

 

The heavy cotton chenille robe felt luxurious against Kelly’s skin as she walked along the path that led to the sunken thermal pools. The forested hillside that contained the pools overlooked the lake, which was shimmering now in late afternoon reflected sunlight. Kelly pushed a pine branch out of the way as the path twisted through trees. It led to the middle pool, which hugged the cliff. Women’s voices drifted out as the breeze caught phrases and words and tossed them into the trees or across the lake.

Kelly paused, enjoying the sound of the wind in the pines overhead, whistling in that distinctive sound it makes in the high country. There was a different sound at higher altitudes. The breeze spoke to you.

Turning a secluded bend in the pathway, Kelly came upon the pool. Literally cut out of the mountain, smooth rock lined the clear waters, sides and bottom. The stone-edged pool had a squashed circle shape and hugged the very edge of the mountainside.

“Oh, my gosh . . .” Kelly breathed, standing and staring at the lake. Trees were everywhere, so there was ample shade for those in the pool. A sunny pool was farther up the path. “This is gorgeous.”

“It sure is,” said one of the two women already relaxing in the pool. This woman was a stranger, obviously another visitor to the mountain lake resort, enjoying a getaway. The other woman was Lynette from Mimi’s fiber retreat. Steve’s felted hat was drying in the sunshine on the deck beside their classroom in the lodge with all the other felted projects.

“The water looks too inviting,” Kelly said, slipping off the robe she wore over her bathing suit. “How hot is it?”

“Perfect,” replied Lynette.

Kelly stepped carefully down the uneven, narrow stone steps into the water. Hot. Hot. Heavenly hot. She let out a long, loud sigh of pleasure.

“That’s where I came in,” the other woman said as she headed for the stone steps. “Enjoy, ladies.”

Kelly picked a spot around the pool edge where she could relax in the water and look out on the lake at the same time. Two mountain jaybirds fussed in the branches above her head. Kelly stretched her arms out onto the rock-rimmed pool edge and leaned back . . . and relaxed. Really relaxed. She felt every muscle respond to the heated water, releasing tension she didn’t even know she had.

“Feels good, doesn’t it?” Lynette smiled across the pool at Kelly.

“Ohhhh, yeah,” Kelly said. “I don’t know why I never found this place before. My friend Jennifer at Lambspun told me about it. I’d never been here before today, but I’m definitely coming back.”

“Me, too. If I can work it around my schedule.”

Kelly had finally remembered where she’d seen Lynette. She was one of the paramedics who came to Holly’s funeral. “You must really need some relaxation in your line of work. How many shifts are you scheduled on the ambulance crew? Four a week? Five a week?”

“I usually do four, since I’m trying to take a class at the university, too.”

“Are a lot of paramedics taking classes?”

“Yes, several of us are. But it’s hard to juggle more than one class, due to the length of the shifts.”

Kelly was silent for a moment, letting the peaceful view and blissful water take over. “That was so sad. What happened to Holly, I mean. But I bet you guys see a whole lot of those overdose cases.”

Lynette’s smile disappeared. “Way too many, I’m afraid. Some kids just keep pushing up against the edges of that cliff until they fall over. Some pull back in time. Others don’t. Holly didn’t.”

“Well, I only hope Tommy comes to some sort of closure or peace of mind about it. I get regular e-mails from him asking if I’ve learned anything new.” Kelly shook her head. “I’ve told him everything we’ve found out about the party that night. Well, almost everything. It turns out there are a lot of different relationships going on. Holly was involved with several groups of people. So nobody knows where she got the drugs from.”

“That doesn’t surprise me. Holly seemed to be deliberately pushing the limits these last few months. Ever since Tommy was accepted into med school in Denver. She was driving him crazy.”

“Really?” Kelly had never heard that opinion expressed before.

“Yeah. He didn’t let on to many people, but he and I worked together on several shifts, and he’d talk to me.” Lynette ran her fingertips through the water, creating ripples. “She’d call him up when he was in the middle of a shift, and they’d get into an argument.”

“What about?”

Lynette shrugged. “The same old thing over and over. Holly would tell Tommy she needed him to pick her up from a party when she knew he was on duty. Tommy would get all frustrated and tell her he couldn’t. Then Holly would start to cry. She’d tell him he didn’t love her anymore, and he was going to forget her now that he was in Denver, and on and on and on. The same old garbage every time. It was making him crazy. Tommy told me he didn’t know how he was going to be able to handle his medical studies and take care of Holly at the same time. He was at his wit’s end.” Lynette had a disgusted look on her face.

Kelly stared at Lynette. Here was someone else who corroborated Rachel’s assessment of Holly’s manipulative behavior. It showed that Lisa’s earlier assessment of Holly was right on. “That’s interesting. Tommy’s description of Holly made it sound like she was a little lost lamb, and he was trying to protect her.”

Lynette gave a rueful smile. “That’s Tommy for you. I’ve seen him do that for the three years I’ve known him. But he couldn’t lie to me. I was usually sitting next to him or in the ambulance with him whenever Holly called. So he told me the truth.”

Kelly couldn’t contain her curiosity. The water’s relaxing effects were temporarily forgotten. “And what was the truth? Was Holly a lost lamb or a sly fox?”

“I’d say she was more fox than lamb. She was playing on Tommy’s guilty conscience for not being at her beck and call like he had been before he went to med school.”

“Any idea why Tommy had that guilty conscience? I mean, we all feel guilty about something, but it sounds like Tommy’s was set on overload.”

“Yeah, it was. He told me Holly tried to kill herself about two years ago. She took some sleeping pills and called him before she passed out.”

“Whoa . . . that would definitely get Tommy’s attention, wouldn’t it?” Kelly caught Lynette’s glance. “Do you think maybe Holly deliberately tried suicide? I mean, to make Tommy feel guilty?”

“Sounds like it to me. I’d never met Holly, so I don’t know. But some people try a halfhearted suicide attempt as a call for help. You know, taking only a few pills then calling a friend or family member. The lucky ones get counseling. I don’t know why Tommy didn’t insist Holly go to a therapist. He told other people when they needed it.”

Kelly thought for a minute. “Maybe Tommy thought he could ‘save’ Holly. His mom Barbara said at the shop that Tommy had been ‘taking care’ of Holly for years. Feeling responsible for her, somehow.”

Lynette nodded. “That’s exactly it. A lot of people who’re attracted to emergency medical teams and medical fields are what we call ‘classic rescuers.’ They want to save people, and in these jobs, you get good at it. The problem is some people get saved and some don’t. I mean, we can pump someone’s stomach if they’ve taken an overdose of pills. But if they don’t start counseling to find out why they took those pills, a lot of them will do it again. And sometimes it’s too late. We can’t save them.”

Kelly let Lynette’s somber comments settle. She was right. It was exactly what Jayleen had once said. “That reminds me of what a friend from Fort Connor said. ‘People have to save themselves.’ ”

“That’s right.”

Kelly let the hot water command her attention and relaxed. Still, it was only a few minutes before little thoughts started creeping from the back of her mind.

Tommy was definitely under a lot of pressure since he’d started medical school. Kelly knew friends who’d gone through that rigorous routine to become doctors. There was no such thing as spare time. No wonder Tommy had been losing patience with Holly and her demands. He didn’t have time to be at her beck and call anymore. Add to that Holly’s track record of perpetual drug abuse, and Tommy must have felt pushed to his limits.

Kelly decided to voice her thoughts out loud. Lynette was obviously Tommy’s close friend and knew him better than anyone. “You know, it sounds like Tommy was finally starting to see through Holly’s selfish manipulation. What do you think?”

Lynette glanced toward the lake. “Yeah, he was. That’s why he drove up from Denver that Friday. He wanted to tell Holly in person that he wasn’t going to be here for the weekends anymore. He had to study.”

“How’d Holly take it?”

“Not good. Tommy said she blew up at him. Yelled and screamed and said if he really loved her, he’d stay in town.”

“What’d Tommy say?”

Lynette looked down into the pool. “I don’t know. He told me he just turned around and walked out the door, Holly still yelling.”

“Wow . . . that must have been really hard for him to do.”

Lynette ran her fingertips through the water again. “You have no idea. Tommy was all torn up inside afterwards. He called me on his cell as he was leaving Fort Connor. He was a basket case. I could tell he needed to vent or he wouldn’t be able to concentrate on his studies. I was off duty that night, so I asked him over to my apartment for dinner. I live right outside town in Loveland.”

Kelly watched Lynette’s hand slow its movements in the water. She also noticed the expression on Lynette’s face change. It softened, as did Lynette’s voice.

“Tommy needed a sympathetic ear. He can’t talk to his mom. She’d go into another rant about Holly. I was the only one he could open up to.”

Kelly’s instinct picked up something else. Something Lynette wasn’t saying. “I’m so glad Tommy had you to turn to, Lynette,” she said quietly. “He needs a close friend.”

Lynette glanced at Kelly, then back at the water. “Yes, we . . . we’ve become really close.”

Kelly saw her instincts confirmed in Lynette’s brief glance. “Sounds like Tommy really needed to relax. Did he spend the night?”