Hooked on Murder: A Crochet Mystery

way along the fence. Something scampered through the bushes, brushing past us. Dinah started to squeal, but caught herself and muffled it. 'What was that?'

'I don't think we want to know,' I said, moving along the chain-link barrier.

'Is it really that important to find out who's visiting Lawrence?'

'What happened to your sense of adventure?'

'It ended when something crawled inside my ear,' she said in a frantic whisper. She squirmed around, and I heard her brush something off as she made an ew sound.

'Found it,' I said, feeling the post and then metal top of the gate. It was old and probably rusted, but with some jiggling,it finally opened. We slipped through and hit another wall of greenery on the Sheridan side. I remembered admiringit the day I found Ellen. The whole perimeter of the yard was filled with trees and artfully trimmed bushes. Beautiful to look at, but difficult to get through. We had to feel our way until we found some kind of opening in the hedge. Dinah was holding on to my belt loop by now and brushing things away from her face.

We managed to squeeze through, but not without getting souvenir leaves and twigs stuck in our hair and clothes. Dinahmet up with more crawly things and did her best not to shriek.

The crouching had gotten painful, and we began to crawl around the side of the yard. It saved our backs, but our knees paid the price. The Sheridans apparently weren't big on window coverings, and just like in the front, all the windows on the back of the house were exposed.

With a certain degree of relief, I noticed that while the lights were on in the master bedroom, it appeared empty. No chance of seeing Lawrence in his undies. Yay.

The living room seemed to be where the action was. I made out the top of Lawrence's head, but couldn't see into the room well enough to make out whom he was with. We'd have to get closer.

I sent up a silent prayer for our convenient clothing choices. Not only did the ninja black make us hard to see as we crawled along the edge of the yard toward the house, but all the grass and mud stains would hardly show. We turned when we reached the perimeter of the house, and crawled through the flower bed past all the windows until we reached the living room.

A little voice in my head went off, asking me if I had lost my mind. Was I really crawling through the Sheridans' backyard? Thank heavens Barry didn't know.

We were right below the living room. Just a little peek, and I'd have my answer. I swallowed a few times and gatheredup my courage. Slowly I began to inch up. Finally I took the plunge and lifted my head eye-level with the window.I dropped down abruptly.

'Who is it?' Dinah demanded.

'It can't be. You look,' I said. Dinah did the same sort of move I had done.

She dropped down and was about to say something when two things happened that changed everything. From inside, the black poodle began to bark, and from outside, the sprinklers went on.

I heard the sound of someone unlocking one of the French doors.

I grabbed Dinah's hand, and we made a run for it across the yard through the cold spray. The dog ran out and stopped at the sprinklers, but kept up the barking. I caught a glimpse of Lawrence peering out into the darkness. 'Stop,' he yelled.

Like we were really going to do that. I pushed Dinah into the bushes and we found our way to the gate. SomewhereDinah lost a shoe, and I really had to go to the bathroom,but we made it out into the other yard. With amazing energy and grace, we ran to my car, started the motor and pulled away.

By the time we got the two blocks to my house, we heard the unmistakable thwack of a police helicopter as it began circling the area, flashing down its bright beam.

Only when we were inside and we had collapsed on the couch did Dinah and I look at each other.

'What was Sheila doing with Lawrence Sheridan?' I said.

'Do you think she's Miss Water Glass?' Dinah said, referringto my discovery during my snooping when the crochetgroup had met at the Sheridans' to get the squares. 'Wow, she's really full of surprises. First she starts making those gorgeous scarves, and now we find her hanging out with Lawrence. Go figure.'

As soon as the helicopter gave up, a soggy Dinah hobbledout on one shoe and went home. I changed into dry clothes but was too wired to do anything. Finally, glad that CeeCee couldn't see what I was working on, I pulled out the yarn store shopping bag and began making the chain-stitchfoundation for my scarf. The phone rang, making me jump. It was Barry on his cell, telling me that he and Jeffreywere at my back door, which for once was locked.

I let them in, trying to act as if everything was normal.

'We were on our way home when I saw the helicopter,' Barry explained. 'I wanted to make sure you were all right. The 911 call said something about an intruder in the Sheridanbackyard.' He gave me a funny look.

'Really?' I said innocently. 'I've just been here crocheting.' I held up the beginning of the ruffly scarf. But then Barry leaned toward me and pulled a twig and a leaf out of my hair.

CHAPTER 18

After the leaf removal maneuver, barry and Jeffrey hung around for a while. Being the good detectivehe was, Barry got me to spill everything about our backyard adventure. I tried to tell him about Lawrence and Sheila, but he waved it off.

'Are you out of your mind?' His tone was serious. 'Just think, if Sheridan had seen it was you.'

'But I am just trying to find out who really killed Ellen Sheridan,' I protested.

'You have something more immediate to worry about.' He'd cornered Detective Heather's partner and found out she was close to making an arrest. 'Molly, honey, I hate to tell you this, and I hate even more that there doesn't seem to be anything I can do about it--but the someone she's about to arrest is you.'

'Me!' I shrieked, feeling my legs go weak. Barry noticedand started to put his arm around my waist for support,but he glanced toward Jeffrey and held my arm instead.

'Molly, you should line up an attorney.' He was all business, and the exhilaration of escaping the yard was replacedby a feeling of doom.

'Maybe this is when I should take off for Brazil,' I said.

'This isn't a joke. I mean it about the attorney.' He made a move toward me again, but looked over at Jeffrey playing with the dog and stopped himself. Blondie had appearedwhen they came in and immediately bonded with Jeffrey. It was the happiest I'd seen Jeffrey, and the most excited I'd seen Blondie.

I told him Peter already had somebody in mind. Barry seemed relieved, but not when he heard I didn't even have the lawyer's number.

'This is really serious. You should talk to him and make arrangements.'

I gave him my best you-don't-really-mean-that look, and he just gave me his serious-detective blank face back.

Barry reluctantly looked at his watch and said somethingabout having to get Jeffrey home. It was obvious neitherone of them wanted to go, but Barry was caught up in doing his superconscientious dad act. Because of his son's presence, Barry gave me a restrained hug and whispered that he'd try to come back later. Blondie followed them to the door, and Jeffrey gave her a final pat before they walked out.

I looked back at my crocheting and realized I'd totally lost my place in the foundation chain for the scarf. I tried counting all the chain stitches, but my mind kept wandering.I'd been worried before, but it was somehow vague and I was able to brush it off. It was just too ridiculous to think anyone could believe I killed somebody. I was the person who wrapped up spiders in paper towels and took them outside rather than squashing them. But having Barry tell me to find an attorney meant it was serious, real.

Even if I did get arrested, I'd get off, right? Maybe there were a few facts that made me look guilty, like I was found hanging over the body. And yes, I did seem to be doing bettersince Ellen died. I felt a shiver of doom. It probably didn't help either that Lawrence seemed convinced I did it, and he had probably been complaining to some bigwig that I was free on the street while his wife was dead. Didn't anyone see that he might be making all that noise to get the spotlight off of himself? That thought brought me back to the earlier adventure and seeing Sheila with Lawrence.

She hadn't been with him, with him. They weren't touching or anything, but there was a definite friendliness in their eye contact. I racked my brain trying to remember what Sheila had said about her boyfriend. He'd done some kind of intervention to get her on drugs for her nerves, which sounded like the kind of thing Lawrence might try. He wasn't your meditation sort of guy. Ah, but she'd said they'd broken up when she