Thread and Buried (26 page)

50

T
IME SEEMED TO STOP, AND THEN START
again in a rush as the Opal lookalike broke loose from Max and started running toward us.

Zara let out a startled yelp. “Mom! What are you doing here?”

But if Zara’s mom heard her, she didn’t let on. She rushed to Opal, threw her arms around her, and cried out in a mixture of pain and joy, “Opal! I was afraid I’d never see you again!”

“Pearl,” Opal said, and then the two women were hugging each other and laughing and crying.

Detective Gartener sauntered to Haylee. “So I guess they really are your cousins?” he asked her quietly.

“I guess.”

“Opal looks happy,” he pointed out. “Except that she’s crying.”

Vicki was still beside us. She elbowed Gartener. “That’s what women do when we’re happy.”

“Remind me never to make some woman happy, then,” he retorted.

Vicki and I exchanged glances and laughed. She eyed Clay with his arms around me and my silvery blanket. “Are you warming up, Willow?” she asked.

I nodded.

“Next thing we know, you’ll be crying,” she joked.

“No way,” I said. “Tears are wet and I’m already soaked.”

“Doc Wrinklesides—Gord—called an ambulance for Bitsy. Do you need to go to Emergency, too?”

“I’ll be fine when I’m warm.” My voice wavered.

She scrutinized my face, then teased, “For a second, there, I thought you were crying.”

Clay chuckled and hugged me tighter.

I told Vicki, “Those two kittens are yours if you want them.” Actually, I hoped she’d say she didn’t.

“I think I should leave them with Sally-Forth, don’t you?”

I nodded.

She added, “But if you ever need a pet sitter, just ask. I’ll do it if I can.”

I asked her, “And Cassie’s in the clear?”

“Yep. She’ll be okay.”

I shuddered. “With a mother like that?”

Vicki frowned. “One good thing about this, if anything can be good, is that Neil’s mother, Cassie’s grandmother, hasn’t seen Cassie since she was about two, and wants to meet her.”

“Did you ever find out about Cassie’s adoptive father?”

Vicki gave a decisive nod. “Turcotte died of lung cancer when Cassie was four, two years after Yolanda left him. There was absolutely no suspicion of foul play.”

“So you’ll charge Yolanda only with selling stolen goods and dumping kittens? And you’ll charge that Brad guy with stealing asparagus?” I demanded.

“We’ll charge them with whatever we can make stick. That guy, Brad, actually has no sense of smell. Can you believe it?”

I laughed. “Easily.”

Opal and Pearl stood arm in arm, beaming at each other. Up close, I could see that Pearl was older, with careworn creases in her face that Opal did not have. But while Pearl must have worried about what had happened to her little sister, Opal had probably never had to worry whether Pearl was healthy, fed, and housed. And Naomi and Edna had supported Opal emotionally all these years.

I turned to see how Opal’s best friends were taking the reunion. Her eyes glittering, Naomi beamed at the two sisters. Edna stood behind Gord, who was still kneeling beside Bitsy. Edna smiled down proudly at Gord’s shoulder. Her left hand rested lightly on it.

And then I saw what she was smiling at. Her hand. Her ring finger.

It sported a ring with a colossal diamond. Bling for our bling-loving Edna.

I shrieked, “Edna!”

She jumped and placed her left hand over her heart. “What? What’s wrong, Willow?”

But I was smiling so hard that my lips hurt. That diamond twinkled, and Haylee noticed.

She shrieked Edna’s name, also, then grabbed Edna’s hand and held it where Naomi and Opal could see it. “You didn’t tell us!”

Edna tilted her head in her birdlike way. “I was waiting for someone to notice.”

Gord rose to his feet and accepted our congratulations. Everyone, even Zara, who had abandoned her waiflike posture but not her pout, crowded around to admire Edna’s ring.

Leave it to Gord to begin humming. Mendelssohn’s “Wedding March,” of course.

He smiled down at his fiancée. But she and the two women who called themselves The Three Weird Sisters were gazing fondly at Haylee, standing very close to Ben, whose gaze also appeared to be turned in her direction.

Vicki sidled to me and whispered. “Don’t you look so smug, Willow Vanderling. It’s late now, but I’ll talk to you tomorrow about how you just
happened
to entangle your feet in one of Tom’s fishnets.”

That smoke detector was becoming almost unbearable.

“Okay.” I fingered the thin, silvery blanket. “Do I get to keep the blanket?”

Vicki shrugged. “Sure.”

I called to Edna and Gord, “I know what I’m wearing to your wedding!”

Edna cocked her head. “But how can you embroider it?”

I answered seriously, “Very carefully.”

Clay tightened his arms around me and the blanket.

Pearl’s eyes were wide and her hand covered her mouth. Suddenly, she dropped her hand and started laughing. “Oh! The survival blanket! I thought she meant the
man
.” And then she and Opal were clutching each other and laughing so hard they could barely keep their balance.

Smiling down at me, Clay murmured, “May I have this dance?”

W
illow’s
E
mbroidered
J
ewelry
P
ouch

You don’t need an embroidery machine to make one of these cute embroidered pouches, but life is more fun with an embroidery machine. Or two.

You Will Need:

1. Fabric:

Two squares of fabric about 12 inches across.

Two squares of fabric about 9 inches across.

Note: the fabric can be all the same, or you can choose coordinating fabrics.

2. Embroidery thread:

As many colors as your design requires, plus an additional color, if desired, for stitching around the edge.

3. Stabilizer—the correct weight for the fabric you’re embroidering.

4. Circle of plastic (you can cut one from a flat-sided juice container) about 2 inches in diameter.

5. Pretty cord in a color coordinating with fabric(s).

6. Spring-loaded cord lock like those found on outerwear (usually sold with buttons).

Construction:

1.
Use a dinner plate to draw circles on the wrong sides of the two larger pieces of fabric. Don’t cut them out.

2.
On the right side of the fabric, mark the center of the circles.

3.
Place stabilizer underneath one piece of fabric and place the fabric and stabilizer in your embroidery hoop with the right side of the fabric on top.

4.
Embroider a design, about an inch and a half in diameter, in the center of the circle.

5.
Embroider buttonholes that are just long enough to accommodate a safety pin (for inserting cord, see step 16 below) side by side about an inch and a half from the edge of the circle. If you can’t make the buttonholes with your embroidery machine, use your buttonhole attachment.

6.
If you didn’t have to unhoop your fabric for step 5, unhoop it now.

7.
Pin the two larger pieces of fabric, right sides together.

8.
Stitch around the circle you drew, leaving a gap for turning. Trim close to the seam, snip raw edges without snipping the seam, turn right side out, press, and edge stitch around the outer edge, being sure to close the previously unsewn gap neatly.

9.
Stitch two more circles concentric with the edge of the project, one on each side of your pair of eyelets or buttonholes. This will form a channel for your drawstring.

10.
Use a dessert plate to draw circles on the wrong sides of the two smaller pieces of fabric. Don’t cut them out.

11.
Pin the two smaller pieces of fabric, right sides together.

12.
Stitch around the circle you drew, leaving a gap for turning. Trim close to the seam, snip raw edges without snipping the seam, turn right side out, press, and edge stitch around the outer edge, being sure to close the previously unsewn gap neatly.

13.
With the help of spray adhesive or double-sided sticky tape specially designed for use with fabrics, center the plastic disk on the unembroidered side of the larger circle.

14.
With the help of spray adhesive or double-sided sticky tape specially designed for use with fabrics, center the smaller circle over the plastic disk.

15.
Being careful not to stitch over the embroidery on the lowest level of the project, stitch around the edge of the plastic disk, through all four layers of fabric. You have now encased the plastic disk between the two double-sided fabric circles.

16.
Using a ruler, mark four evenly spaced straight lines from the outer edges of the smaller fabric circle to the circle of stitches around the plastic disk. Stitch along lines, stopping at the center circle of stitches.

17.
Attach a safety pin to one end of the cord and insert the pin in one of the eyelets or buttonholes. Pull the pin around the circle and out through the other eyelet or buttonhole. Keeping the project flat, pull the cord about three inches beyond each outlet. Remove the safety pin. Pressing down on the button of the spring-loaded cord lock, push the ends of the cord through the hole in the spring-loaded cord lock. Knot the ends of the cord to keep it from unraveling, and adjust cord lock.

There. You have a pouch with a center section and four inner pockets, very handy for the next time you attend a jewelers’ convention . . .

W
illow’s
T
ips

1.
Keep water-soluble thread in a dry place, preferably in a well-marked box. You wouldn’t want to accidentally use it when stitching up swimwear.

2.
Experiment with different types of threads, but for metallic threads, which are extra fragile, be sure to use needles rated for them. Slip a fine mesh “stocking” over spools of stiffer threads to keep them from unwinding too quickly and snarling.

3.
If you’re wiring your sewing project for lights and/or sounds, avoid metallic threads in your designs.

4.
Protect all thread from light, dust, and damp.

And don’t forget to visit my website at www.threadville mysteries.com.

WILLOW