Yarn to Go by Betty Hechtman Page A

had any children. Unless something happened to change things, all their holdings would be left to a charity in town.
    My aunt Joan had gotten to know them. Apparently, they’d been impressed to meet the former Tidy Soft toilet paper lady; they had sparked on her idea to put on yarn craft retreats, encouraged her to use their conference center and offered her a very reduced rate. I’d met Madeleine and Cora Delacorte only in passing and then again at my aunt’s funeral.
    He was offering me an out, and I should have jumped at the chance, but instead I said, “No,” and folded my arms. “If the Delacorte sisters are so set on me giving up, let them call and tell me themselves.”
    Kevin made a tsk-tsk sound. “Do you even realize what you have to do now? You have to save the weekend for your retreaters. Manage to make it a success when one of their own died on the first night. I thought you’d be relieved to be able to walk away.” The manager looked down and shook his head as he tried to shoo something away. The black cat I’d seen before sauntered across the path.
    “Well, I’m not relieved by your offer nor do I want to walk away. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to find my people.” I walked away in a huff, as if his suggestion was totally ridiculous. Thank heavens he wasn’t a mind reader or he would have known how uncertain I was.
    When I got to the dining hall, I found Bree, Olivia, Melissa and Sissy huddled around one side of a round table. None of them had their food, and they were staring at me as I approached the table.
    I felt a pang of guilt that I had even considered abandoning them.
    “What’s going on?” Olivia said, for once seeming to be in focus. “Mr. St. John came to our meeting room and told us we couldn’t go back to our rooms before lunch.”
    “And I thought I saw a police car,” Bree said with a worried look. “Where are Kris and Lucinda?”
    I stepped close to them and took a deep breath. “I’m very sorry to announce that Edie has died.”
    “How?” Melissa asked with a gasp.
    “I’m not sure, but the cops are calling it suspicious.” I tried to sound reassuring, but it didn’t work.
    “You mean, she was murdered?” Melissa said with another gasp.
    Kris and Lucinda came across the large room slightly apart but caught up to each other before they got to the table. Kris sank into a chair with a heavy sigh, and Lucinda grabbed the seat next to Bree.
    “I told them about Edie,” I said. “Or at least the basics.” I shared what I knew, which it turned out was more than either of them.
    Kris appeared all in. “The last thing I expected this weekend was to get questioned by the police.”
    Lucinda had managed to freshen her lipstick and comb her hair and seemed the least discombobulated of the three of us. “Poor Edie.” She shook her head sadly. “She was so excited about being here.” She pulled out her cell phone. “I better call Tag and tell him I’m okay.”
    Bree shrieked and then took out her phone, saying she ought to do the same. “It’ll probably be all over the news and my family will be worried.”
    “Are you going to give us any details?” Melissa said, sounding upset and worried. She’d pulled her abundance of curly hair into a ponytail to get it off her face.
    “Mother, can’t you see they’ve all had a shock,” Sissy said, her voice full of reproach.
    “Melissa is right; we need to tell you what happened,” I said. I waited until Bree finished her call and then explained how we’d found Edie. They all cringed when I mentioned the double-point knitting needles.
    “Who would want to kill Edie?” Bree said.
    “Let’s see,” Lucinda said, “by my account, though I don’t think she realized it, she managed to insult just about everybody.”
    “I think she meant well, but she did have a way of sticking her foot in her mouth. She even upset the manager of Vista Del Mar,” I said before explaining how uncomfortable he’d looked when