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Authors: Elizabeth Lynn Casey

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BOOK: Needle and Dread
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Charles returned his attention to the book just long enough to add the information to the bus driver's page. When he was done, he looked up, his chin jutted outward with his trademark attitude. “Now it makes sense why that woman spent so much time yakking about signatures. She had a built-in one.”

“Whoa. Slow down. By ‘that woman' you mean Opal, yes?”

His nod was barely discernable as he continued. “Being
nasty
was her signature. In sewing and in life.”

Chapter 20

With a potato chip bowl in one hand and a pile of napkins in the other, Tori stopped behind Milo and lingered a kiss on the back of his neck. “Thank you for this, honey.”

“For what?” he asked as he turned around, pulled her in at the waist, and returned the gesture with a kiss on her lips.

“For this,” she said, gesturing around the kitchen with the chip bowl and toward the back deck with her chin. “I know it was incredibly last minute of me to ask six people to join us for dinner the way that I did. But, in my defense, I was kind of desperate for a night off from reality.”

“And I don't provide that with my endless supply of questions about your day?” he joked as he turned back to the counter to finish stacking hamburger patties for their trip out to the grill.

She tucked the pile of napkins under her opposite elbow and used her newly free hand to guide her husband's eyes back onto hers. “Hey. The fact that you care enough to really ask about my day is one of the most beautiful gifts you give me on a daily basis. Don't think, for a minute, that I don't treasure that time together each evening—because I do. But sometimes, when my mind has too many threads going at one time, a complete change of pace helps me figure things out in a way talking doesn't.”

“Hey, I'm kidding. You don't need an excuse or a reason to want to spend time with your friends.” Milo added the salt and pepper to the tray and lifted it off the counter. “Besides, I adore these people, too. So let's go spend time with them, shall we? Last I left Charles, he was discussing the finer points of the moisturizer Leona let him try.”

“I love you, Milo. You know that, right?”

“You show me that every day.” He kissed the tip of her nose and then waited for her to lead the way out to the deck.

She held the door for Milo and the tray of burgers and then threaded her way through her friends to the table Beatrice was quietly organizing. The youngest of her sewing circle sisters, Beatrice's preferred role at a party or gathering of any sort was that of the observer and the helper. “I got the chips and the napkins,” Tori announced as she placed the bowl on one end of the table and the napkins on the other. “Milo is putting the burgers on the grill as we speak.”

“Oooh, I love crisps.” The British nanny scampered
over to the bowl of chips and helped herself to one. “I didn't realize I was even feeling peckish until I saw them.”

“Have as many as you'd like; there's two more bags inside.”

Leona sidled up alongside the table, inspected the offerings thus far, and then lifted a nose-twitching Paris until they were eye to eye. “I'm sorry, my precious baby. Aunty Victoria doesn't have anything for you to eat, does she?”

“Don't mind my twin none, Victoria. She's so persnickety, she wouldn't be happy in a diamond mine.”

Leona returned Paris to her holding spot inside the crook of her bejeweled arm and made a face at Margaret Louise. “I'd be plenty happy in a diamond mine, dear sister of mine.”

“And that is why Mama says if she tossed you in the river, you'd float upstream.”

“Mama doesn't say that!” Leona hissed.

Margaret Louise waved at her sister like a bothersome gnat. “Aw, don't go gettin' your tail up and your stinger out, Twin. I just think you're takin' the long way 'round the barn just to get a carrot for that rabbit of yours. Why don't you just try askin' instead of guiltin'?”

“Amen,” Tori muttered just loud enough for Beatrice to hear.

Or so she thought.

Leona's glare widened to include Tori. “What was that, dear?”

“I'll get a carrot for Paris right—”

“Never fear, Charles is here.” Charles glided over to the table, pulling a carrot from his pocket as he did. “I
grabbed one from the fridge just now, Victoria. I hope that was okay.”

“No, no, that was perfect. Thank you, Charles.” Tori took in the status of the hamburgers she could see from her vantage point and then leaned against the deck railing, content to do nothing for a few brief shining moments. “Those burgers are smelling mighty good, aren't they?”

“Things always smell better when someone else is cooking.” Rose shuffled her way across the deck until she, too, was part of the growing circle around the picnic table. “Leona, did you tell Victoria about your friend? The one at that TV station in New York?”

Charles stopped picking at his nail long enough to swap glances with Leona. “So you called her?”

“I did. She's marvelous just like you said, darling.”

Nail picking turned to preening as Charles rolled his head around on his neck. “I told you, didn't I?” At Leona's nod, he continued. “So? Is she going to do it?”

“Do what?” Tori and Beatrice asked in unison.

“A feature piece on SewTastic!” Rose beamed as she, too, helped herself to a chip. “Can you believe it?”

“Wait.” Tori looked from Leona to Rose and back again. “Why would a television station in New York want to do a feature on a sewing shop in Sweet Briar, South Carolina, of all places?”

“Margot is a features editor for one of the national morning programs,” Charles explained. “Their home base is out of New York but they cover things all over the country.”

“Okay. But Rose and Leona don't need any more coverage about what happened there on Saturday. They need positive, upbeat stuff like Miranda is trying to secure with stations around here.”

Charles called for a momentary pause in the conversation to rearrange the various condiment bottles and then took up where he left off. “Margot can make a cemetery look like the kind of place you want to hang out in for hours. Trust me, SewTastic will be in good hands with her.”

Milo flashed the five-minute warning, alerting Tori to the need to gather the buns and side dishes. Before she headed inside though, she posed one last question to Rose. “But what about Miranda? I thought
she
was helping you.”

“And she is, dear.” Leona held Paris's carrot steady while the rabbit nibbled. “Around here, anyway. But if there's a chance to get the shop some national news, why not take it? Besides, our website means people can order from us no matter where they live. This kind of coverage just means more of those folks will know we exist.”

Leona was right. Anything that could give SewTastic a push was good news.

She excused herself to get the rest of the food and then shuttled it back out to the table with Beatrice's help. Moments later, Milo transferred the burgers from the grill to a plate, added them to the rest of the offerings, and declared dinner ready.

When everyone's plate was full and seats were secured, they dug in, the pockets of chatter and laughter that rang up around the backyard bringing a smile to Tori's mouth if not her heart.

Yes, having her friends around had served as a temporary distraction from the stress of the day, but it hadn't lasted. Try as she might, she couldn't keep her thoughts from straying back to Gracelyn and Travis. Both had
been burned, and burned badly, by Opal. The key was figuring out which one felt compelled to slip into SewTastic's project room and strangle the woman with a power cord.

“Hey, are you okay?”

Tori pulled her burger away from her mouth and turned her attention on her husband. “Sure, I'm okay. Why?”

“You're mighty quiet. Is the burger okay?”

“The burger is fantastic, Milo. Truly. I guess I'm having a harder time ignoring those threads than I thought I would.”

He took a bite of his potato salad and settled back in his chair. “Maybe ignoring them isn't the answer this time. Maybe talking through them
is.

“I'm sorry if I'm interruptin' but sometimes I can't help myself. 'Specially when I'm noticin' the same things Milo is noticin' 'bout your mood.” Margaret Louise polished off her burger and moved on to her pickle. “Maybe more 'n a barbecue, you need a day off.”

“I had that today,” Tori said.

“A day off you didn't take, sugar lips.” Charles winked at her from across the deck before turning his attention on Margaret Louise. “Our Victoria spent her day investigating.”

Tori tried to wave Charles off but all she succeeded in doing was spattering her blouse with ketchup from her burger.

Great . . .

Margaret Louise stopped en route to the table for a second burger and spun around. “Investigatin'?”

“I just read a few more articles from the
Jasper Falls Courier
is all.”

“Is that all?” Margaret Louise shrugged off that development and continued toward the table. “Why I already did that.”

“But Victoria has a motive now.”

“Motive?” Margaret Louise looked up from her empty plate, her eyes wide.

“For two different people—Gracelyn and Travis.” Charles finished picking off every bit of hamburger bun overhang and then took a bite, his eyes rolling back in his head. “Oh! Oh! Milo, this is truly the best burger ever.”

Milo set his empty plate on the armrest of his Adirondack chair and puffed out his chest with pride. “Thank you, Charles. It's a gift.”

Charles snapped out his reply. “Yes. It. Is.”

She tried to focus on the laughter around them, but the profound silence from the vicinity of the table made that impossible. There was something about everyone on that deck that Tori loved. With Beatrice, it was her sweetness. With Leona, it was her fierce belief in herself. With Charles, it was his all-in personality. With Rose, it was her quiet strength. And with Margaret Louise, it was her normally endless smile.

Excusing herself from the group, Tori stood and carried her plate of food over to the table and her clearly wounded friend. “Help yourself to seconds of anything you want.” She pointed at the pasta salad in the center of the table and then to the spot it had once taken on her own plate. “Your pasta salad was amazing, Margaret Louise. I'll need to get the recipe from you sometime.”

“It's in my head, but I imagine I can try jottin' it down.” Margaret Louise helped herself to another hamburger bun and then topped it with a burger and an assortment of toppings. “What's mine is yours, Victoria. I'm not 'bout keepin' secrets from anyone, least of all a good friend like you.”

“I wasn't
looking
for a motive for Travis and Gracelyn.” Tori shifted her plate to her opposite hand and watched as Margaret Louise made her way from one serving plate or bowl to the other. “I mean I was and I am, but when I sat down at my computer I was really just looking for a little bit more on all of them.”

“But I did all that readin' yesterday.”

“I know you did. I just figured it couldn't hurt to try to learn more about Opal. I mean, all we really know is that she was nasty.”

“And that she's dead,” Margaret Louise reminded.

“You're right. But I couldn't shake this feeling that knowing more about Opal might lead us to her killer.”

“And that knowin' led you to Gracelyn and Travis?”

“No. Gracelyn showed up at the library and it was while talking to her that a possible motive emerged.”

Margaret Louise's hand paused above the baked beans. “You didn't mean to learn what you did 'bout Gracelyn? You mean it just happened?”

She shot out her free hand. “Yes! Exactly! It just happened!”

“I reckon Travis was with Gracelyn?”

Tori felt her shoulders slump as the battlefield lengthened. “No. I saw him out at the B and B.”

With nary a word, Margaret Louise dumped a large spoonful of beans onto her plate and moved on to the
cheesy potatoes Rose had brought. “There ain't no reason for you to be at the B and B unless you're investigatin', Victoria.”

“Okay, I won't deny that. I
wanted
to talk to Minnie, but she scurried off to take a nap the second I brought up Opal. That's when I realized Travis had been listening to our conversation from a nearby window. And that he didn't want me to know he'd been listening.” She searched for something to say that would make Margaret Louise understand and then proceeded ahead. “Have you ever had a bad feeling about something? Like your gut knows something your head hasn't fully grasped yet?”

Margaret Louise looked up from her plate. “Just the other day, in fact. I was cleanin' my kitchen when I had this feelin' that Jake Junior forgot his lunch. I called Melissa and had her check in her refrigerator. And guess what? As sure as rats run rafters, Jake Junior's lunch sack was sittin' right there on the second shelf.”

“Wow.”

“I know.” Margaret Louise started to walk away from the table but stopped and went back for another scoop of beans. “These beans are so good it makes me want to swallow my tongue so I can eat my taste buds.”

She reined in her answering laugh and hurried to make her closing argument while the iron was hot. “Something about Travis's actions made me want to know more about him. So I went back to my office and plugged in his name, never expecting to find what I found.”

BOOK: Needle and Dread
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