Yarn to Go (15 page)

I asked him if he was driving back to L.A., but he shook his head. “I’m not leaving until Edie’s killer is caught,” he said. He got into his blue Ford Focus and pulled out of the parking spot in a hurry. He was already down the driveway before I’d walked away. I noticed a card on the ground that must have fallen out when he got in. When I examined it, I realized it was one of those folders hotels use to hold plastic key cards. It was empty, but when I turned it over I saw the logo of the Lighthouse Inn.

Why wasn’t he staying at Vista Del Mar?

18

I STOPPED IN THE LODGE BEFORE I WENT TO MEET
up with the group. Kevin St. John was holding court with some guests, telling them the history of the place and how it was truly a step back into a more peaceful time. He didn’t appear happy to see me, but that seemed to have become a given. I waited until the group headed outside before approaching him.

I had two things to ask him and didn’t think he’d want to answer either of them, but there was no choice.

“Everything went fine with Lou Spaghazzi,” I began, trying to smooth the way.

Kevin St. John nodded and repeated that he could have handled it. “The only reason we brought him in the dining hall was that he wanted to meet the person his wife had talked so much about.” The manager flicked a bit of lint off his sleeve. “I didn’t realize until too late that he meant your aunt.”

Now it was a time for my questions. I couldn’t stall, because he’d merely walk away. “I noticed that you gave Lou only one key, but didn’t Edie have two?”

Kevin St. John looked perturbed. “Not that it is any of your business, but I gave Mr. Spaghazzi the key the cops found in her room and gave back to me.”

I sputtered and said I was sure that Edie had asked for two.

“Really?” Kevin St. John said. “In the interest of settling this quickly . . .” He waved for me to follow him behind the counter. He motioned to the hooks that went with the rooms in Sand and Sea and pointed to 103, which had been Edie’s room. A key was hanging from the hook. “Mr. Spaghazzi has the other one for the rest of the weekend since the room is paid for.”

What? I knew I wasn’t crazy. I’d heard Edie ask for two keys. Well, I now knew how the murderer could have gotten into her room. They must have lifted one of her keys—not a problem since I saw her put it in her sweater pocket and she tended to drape it over the back of the chair in the dining hall. Then whoever had done so just brought it back here. And who had the easiest access but the man glaring at me? I realized it was useless information on its own. No one would believe me, anyway.

“Was there something else, Casey?” Kevin St. John said when I didn’t walk away. I brought up extending the retreat through Sunday afternoon and explained why.

He took his time thinking about it. Then he surprised me by saying yes. He picked up on my surprise. “I’m doing it for the reputation of retreats at Vista Del Mar,” he said curtly, then turned his back, making it clear our moment was over.

I’d already missed the beginning of the workshop, but at least I was bringing good news.

They all looked up when I came in, and I told them right away about the extra workshop. They surprised me by giving me a mini round of applause.

I was glad to see that they were all working on their projects. I’d decided the correct title for Kris was workshop leader. A pair of knitting needles and something royal blue was on the table in front of her. When she wasn’t helping anyone with their project, she spent the time on her own project. She’d explained at the beginning of the weekend that she was making a cardigan sweater for her daughter.

She had barely talked about her family at all, or her personal life. Just a passing remark about being a single parent with two teenagers. I couldn’t imagine what that was like. I found it hard enough to just take care of me.

Kris pointed to my seat and urged me to get going, reminding me that there was no workshop in the afternoon. When I looked puzzled, her face lit up in a perky smile. “You didn’t forget the yarn tasting, did you?” They all laughed when they saw my stricken response.

“Don’t worry, your aunt made all the arrangements, down to the van driving us into town,” Kris said.

I picked up the tiny bit of scarf I’d made so far. It looked pathetic when compared to the progress the rest of them had made. I felt even worse when I saw the stack of finished squares everyone had turned in. Mine was a lost cause. There was no way I would have it finished in time to give it to Kris. I would stick with the scarf. I began to work my needles.

Melissa was standing next to Kris, and they were poring over the black-and-white scarf Melissa was making. It was pretty impressive to see the houndstooth pattern come out of the combination of the two yarns, though apparently there was a mistake somewhere.

“Did you make that?” Melissa said, touching the heathery gray sweater Kris had on over a pair of tan cargo pants. I suppose I shouldn’t have been surprised when Kris nodded. Melissa watched as Kris expertly unknitted until she reached the problem. As Melissa took back her project, she asked for the pattern of the shawl the workshop leader had worn the first night, saying it looked like just the thing to work on when she was watching television. I looked at my strip of scarf again and thought about how out of their league I was.

Scott was the only one of the group who didn’t seem to need any help, but then his mountain to climb had nothing to do with cables or two-color knitting, but was just about outing himself. I envied the bliss on his face as his needles clicked away.

Melissa sat down and turned to her daughter. “You don’t have to bother Kris if you have trouble with your cables. I can help you.” Sissy rolled her eyes so far up in her head, I thought they were going to disappear.

Olivia had really taken off with the cashmere yarn, and the sparkly purple shawl was coming along nicely. I couldn’t believe how fast they all knitted. I seemed to be moving at a snail’s pace.

Lucinda went up to Kris after Melissa had finished. My friend seemed to be having trouble figuring out whether she was supposed to start a row with a knit or a purl stitch.

I was surprised when Scott joined the two women. “I think I can help,” he said. He demonstrated on his work. His yarn was so big and the stitches so obvious it was easy to see the bumps and smooth spots. Lucinda got it right away, and he seemed pleased.

“I wish I could teach my own daughter how to knit,” he said, and his shoulders slumped. “But if I did, well, then everybody would know.”

“What’s so bad about that?” Melissa said. Scott hung his head.

“I know what Kris said about sailors knitting, but I don’t think my wife would buy that. And you don’t understand. I’m a regional manager of the Sandwich King chain. If the people under me knew, they’d . . .” He shook his head. “I don’t think they’d respect me. They’d think I was some kind of goofball. And as for my boss. Ha,” he said. “If he knew, I could just kiss that promotion good-bye.” He looked at all of us. “C’mon, you have to see what I mean.” He picked up his needles and started a row. “I look weird, right?”

I was surprised when Olivia was the one to speak. “Not weird. Just surprising. I don’t get why it’s anybody’s business that you knit. Your wife, well, yes, but why do the people under you and your boss have to know about it?”

“You’re saying that because you think it really is weird that I knit,” he said. “Edie thought it was weird that I wouldn’t tell anybody. Every time I went to her house, she worked on me to be up front about it. The thing about Edie is that sometimes she pushed things too hard.”

Melissa joined in. “It’s not the usual thing men do. You could look at it as being special. What do you think, Bree? What if your boys wanted to learn how to knit?” All eyes turned to her. She’d been looking at the table, staring at her work. When she looked up, tears were rolling down her cheeks. “My boys,” she said in a warbly voice. “I called and they didn’t want to talk to me. They were in a hurry to go out on some adventure my husband cooked up for them.” She stopped. “If they don’t need me, then who am I?” She did her best to swallow back her tears. “Sure I’d teach them to knit if they even remember who I am when I come home.”

It was a relief that when the workshop ended, they could all go to their rooms and have a little free time before lunch. Lucinda hung back and we found a bench on the boardwalk that gave us some privacy.

“Tell me everything,” she said.

I did an information dump on her, and by the end her mouth was hanging open. Of all the things she could have commented on, she brought up Dane.

“I knew he liked you,” she said with a devilish smile.

“He likes everybody. I’m not interested in being one of a crowd. I can only imagine what kind of stuff goes on in his
studio
.” I turned the subject back to Edie’s murder. I asked Lucinda if she remembered Edie asking for two keys, and then I told her why I was asking.

“To be honest, I don’t remember. And even if she did, it’s not that hard to get behind the counter in the Lodge. Anybody could have slipped back there and hung up the key.”

“Gee, thanks, just when I thought I had something to show that Kevin St. John killed Edie.”

“Don’t you just wish,” Lucinda said. “What about Edie’s husband?”

“I don’t know what the story is about him. I’m not sure if he’s the grieving husband or he’s just trying to make it look that way.” As I said that, I took out my cell phone and called the Lighthouse Inn. “I have a hunch.”

I used what I’d learned from working for Frank. The first thing to do was make friends with the person you wanted the information from. It was easy with the woman who answered for the Inn because she was bored and happy to talk to somebody. I fudged a little bit and said that I worked at the Blue Door and that I was in charge of reservations and thought I’d made a mistake. “We have a reservation for a Lou Spaghazzi. He gave the Inn as a contact number. The trouble is I’m new and I got things mixed up and I can’t tell if it was really an old reservation for Thursday night or if it’s for tonight.”

I got a little nervous when she offered to ring his room. “If you don’t mind, I’d rather he didn’t know I was so inefficient. If he said something to my boss, it could be my job,” I said in a confidential manner. “You know how it is. You make one little mistake and you’re out the door. In this case, the blue one,” I said, trying to make a joke.

Lucinda was watching it all incredulously.

She was very sympathetic and asked me what she could do to help. “Could you tell me when he checked in?” I said, trying to sound casual. “If he didn’t check in until Friday, he wouldn’t have had a reservation for dinner on Thursday, now would he?”

“That’s nothing. Hang on,” she said. A moment later, she came back on the line. “The reservation must be for tonight because I see he checked in on Friday,” she said. She stopped abruptly, and I heard her saying, “Hmm,” as she seemed to be checking something. “This is kind of odd. Someone checked in on Thursday for one night and listed the same license plate number.” I asked her what the name was. “Lance Sloan,” she answered. “Maybe whoever checked them in got the plate number wrong.” She said, “Hmm,” again and then mentioned that Lance had paid cash.

“Thanks, you’re a lifesaver,” I said. When I clicked off the phone, Lucinda acted mock-indignant.

“I had no idea I was such a tough boss,” she said with a laugh in her tone. Her smile changed to openmouthed stunned when I repeated the conversation. “Lance Sloan,” I said, with a knowing nod. “People tend to keep the same initials when they give fake names. It’s obvious he checked in for one night as Lance and then after he’d gotten the call from Lieutenant Borgnine checked in as himself so it would look like he just got there,” I said. “Well, it’s official. Lou Spaghazzi is a suspect. As for motive, he seemed crazed that Edie was meeting someone up here.”

“But she kind of was,” Lucinda said. “There was the guy I saw her having dinner with and the man Melissa saw her with when she met Joan.”

I remembered the picture on her cell phone from the first night and told Lucinda about the man in the baseball cap with the sunset in the background. “What if Edie’s husband saw that photo and got suspicious? He could have followed her up here and seen her talking to the guy and gone into a jealous rage,” Lucinda said.

“Who would have thought that Edie was juggling men and managed to stir up so many people,” I said. “She seemed like such an ordinary woman.”

“Looks can deceive,” Lucinda replied.

In the distance the lunch bell began to ring. Lucinda stood up. “It’s such a treat to let somebody else worry about getting all the food out. Are you coming?”

I shook my head. “I need to take care of some stuff at my place. Will you oversee lunch for me?”

Of course, Lucinda said yes. You can take the woman out of the restaurant, but you can’t take the restaurant out of the woman.

I had gotten halfway across the grounds when I crossed paths with Kris. She looked upset about something as she stopped me.

“I’m not sure what to do with this information,” she said. “Edie told me that if Scott didn’t come clean to his wife by the end of the weekend, she was going to do it for him. I know she meant it in the best of ways, but if he found out, well . . .” She let her voice trail off as I got her drift. “Do you think I should tell Lieutenant Borgnine?”