Monica Ferris_Needlecraft Mysteries_02 Read Online Free PDF Page B

sunk.”
    â€œI don’t remember them sinking the Hopkins ,” said Martha, pausing to consider. “Maybe because it was just an old wreck they finally got rid of, not a news story. But I definitely remember Carl disappeared in July of 1948, and if the Hopkins was sunk in 1949, then of course he never knew.” She looked around with uneasy defiance. “And yes, a woman who worked at the Blue Ribbon Café disappeared at the same time. Some people assumed they ran off together.”
    Jessica gave a sniff of support without looking up from her crocheting.
    Patricia said, “There was all kinds of talk, I suppose, about Carl disappearing.”
    Kindly shifting the focus from Martha, Godwin said, “I hear the boat was very hard to sink. They had to fill it with stones and concrete to make it go down.”
    Betsy said, “That’s right. Jill told me the divers said it was a real job to remove that rubble before they raised her, and I saw them throwing the last of it overboard just before they found the skeleton.”
    Martha, who had stopped work to think, said, “You know, it’s a funny thing my not remembering them sinking that boat. I remember all kinds of other unimportant things. Like it being damaged by ice two or three years earlier. It sat against the shore over by the dredging company not far from our house. My neighbor’s little boys used to fish off the back of it.” She smiled at Betsy. “The younger one grew up to be mayor of Excelsior.” She frowned. “But I don’t remember anything about them sinking the Hopkins .”
    Patricia said, “It’s interesting how everyone still calls it the Hopkins . Because it sailed the lake from 1926 to 1949 under the name Minnetonka III .”
    Betsy said, “I understand how you know these things, Pat, being one of the volunteers who run the boats, but how do you know so much, Godwin?”
    â€œBecause I am not from here and therefore am interested in local history,” said Godwin loftily. Then he grinned. “Besides, John is a member of the museum, and he puts their monthly magazine in the little stack of reading material in the bathroom. They did a long article on the Hopkins in the last issue.”
    Martha chuckled. “My husband used to call the bathroom the reading room.”
    In the middle of the nods and laughter that remark drew, Emily began to look funny and once the ladies found she’d been having these kind of cramplike pains every twenty minutes or so, a part joyous, part worried fuss began of notifying her husband and her doctor and arranging for her to get to the hospital—all despite her protest, “But when the cramp lets up I feel just fine!” And by the time Emily was safely on her way, the Monday Bunch meeting was over.
    â€œGodwin,” Betsy said when the last woman was out the door, “why do you keep building me up so those ladies can put me down? You keep telling me how well I’m doing—”
    â€œYou are, you’re doing beautifully!” insisted Godwin.
    â€œSure I am. Did you see how they laughed when Jessica pointed out I don’t use DMC numbers to identify colors? I’m sure they all saw how I had to keep going back and picking up dropped stitches in that mitten. Thank God they don’t yet realize how bad it really is; how little I know about all sorts of needlework—or running a needlework business, for that matter.”
    â€œOh, pish-tush; I repeat, you’re doing just fine .”
    â€œI wish I could believe that. Especially late at night, when I’m trying to fall asleep after suffering through Quicken and the checkbooks and withholding, and could just cry. But the little failures hurt, too. I thought Shelly was going to have a stroke trying not to laugh out loud when a customer asked if I thought she should do the background of her project in oriental or gobelin.” Shelly was a part-time