A Fatal Fleece Read Online Free PDF Page B

against her legs.
    Nonna . . . Nana? Nell asked, “So you’re vacationing here with your grandmother?” Esther Gibson’s granddaughter, perhaps. She had so many that Nell never recognized them from one summer to the next.
    “Yes. No. Well, sort of, I guess.” Another grin, followed by a shrug. “It’s very confusing, isn’t it?”
    Izzy laughed. “So your grandmother is picking you up here?”
    “Yes. At six thirty sharp. She wouldn’t let me leave the house unless I promised I’d be here, and she gave me exact instructions how to get here, but I told her I’m very good at directions.” She pulled a phone out of her pocket and beamed. “It has a GPS app. But anyway, I was given strict orders. Two hours to explore and I couldn’t leave Harbor Road. I had to be at this shop, in this very spot,” she looked down at her feet, “at six thirty.”
    Gabby looked around the room again, then through the shop window that framed Harbor Road. A parade of cars and bikes. People strolling along the village street.
    Her face lit up. “There she is. She’s here. I knew she wouldn’t forget me. Is that the hugest old car you’ve ever seen in your whole life?”
    Nell, Cass, and Izzy stepped closer and followed her gaze. Gabby was absolutely right. It was the hugest old car they had ever seen. And one they knew well.
    Birdie Favazza climbed out of the front seat of her Lincoln Town Car, spoke briefly to her driver, Harold, and then hurried toward the yarn studio’s front door as if it were dependent on her to put out the fire inside.

Chapter 4
    “S o you’ve all met,” Birdie said, closing the shop door softly. “I’m sorry to surprise all of you like this. It’s been a crazy day. I didn’t have a second to call, but I thought I’d get here before Gabrielle to explain . . .” She smiled at the young girl.
    “Gabby. You can call me Gabby. Almost everyone does. Except for Heather. She thinks it’s too . . . too something. Too common, maybe?”
    “Gabby. All right, then,” Birdie said. She looked around at the others. They were standing side by side, patiently silent, but their eyes lit with curiosity.
    “Gabby came up to Sea Harbor with her great-uncle Nick to meet me.”
    The woman who got carsick, Nell thought. Oh, my, what a surprise.
    “We’re on a road trip to Maine—to see beautiful things and hike, eat lobster, and do whatever we want. We might even see Stephen King. We’re free spirits, Uncle Nick says.” She grinned.
    Birdie nodded. “And you still will do all those things, sweetie. But after a short break. In the meantime, you’ll be a lovely free spirit right here in Sea Harbor.”
    Gabby nodded, seemingly undeterred by the change in plans. “It’s okay, Nonna. This is a great place. It has lobster boats. And you.”
    Nonna . Nell watched a look of surprise fill Birdie’s face, followed by a look of confusion. She patted Gabby’s hand as she explained to her friends, “Nicholas got a call that his mother is very ill—”
    Nell gathered the words, sorting through them and putting them in some kind of sensible order. Nicholas’ mother. Joseph Marietti’s mother. Birdie’s mother-in-law.
    “She’s dying,” Gabby said softly, easing away Birdie’s attempt at subtlety. “She’s old. Older than sin—that’s what Sophie, our cook, would say. And she has more money than Donald Trump, Sophie said. She lives in Italy. Our families don’t talk to each other—my dad never even met his own nonna. Can you imagine that?” She wrinkled her forehead, as if remembering something, and then looked at Birdie with bright, excited eyes. “Me, either, but now I have.”
    “That’s right, you have,” Birdie said, finding a brief lull in Gabby’s explanation. “So that’s where Nick is. Gabby’s uncle went to be with his mother.”
    “But my passport is locked away somewhere, and we didn’t know where,” Gabby filled in, her hands moving along with her words. “So he