Murder of a Needled Knitter Read Free Page B

cruise.”
    â€œMaybe they won’t be too bad,” Skye murmured, watching as a beautiful woman in her early forties arrived. She had a camera around her neck, but it didn’t obscure the view of the décolletage revealed by her low-cut tank top.
    The new arrival ignored the angry mutterings about her tardiness, murmuring, “Birdbrains of a feather sure flock together.” She curled her lips in disgust and began assembling everyone on the steps. When she was satisfied with the arrangement, she handed the large poster she’d been carrying to a woman in front. While the group leader lined up her shot, Skye read the sign. Printed in a nautical blue was the phrase W ELCOME U - KNITTED N ATIONS . Centered underneath were the wordsD IAMOND C OUNTESS 2007 .
    Another flash of apprehension trickled down Skye’s vertebrae. This was a knitting group, hence the knitted cowboy hats. Her mom and dad were taking a cruise with May’s knitting group. She
had
seen her mother yesterday. Oh. My. God. Her parents were on her honeymoon!

CHAPTER 2
    Anchors Aweigh
    â€œI ’m telling you, my mother and father are definitely aboard the
Diamond Countess
,” Skye insisted for the fiftieth time, as she kept her eyes peeled for a glimpse of them.
    She’d been repeating this same sentence to Wally every few minutes for the past three hours while they ate a light lunch at the outdoor café and relaxed on their double chaise, enjoying the warm sunshine. The only time she’d stopped was when they were snorkeling off the island’s white-sand beach, and she had started up again as soon as her head was above water.
    Wally, on the other hand, had been maintaining that there must be more than one knitting cruise that her folks could have taken. But now, as he and Skye stepped onto the tender that would take them back to the cruise liner, he finally admitted, “Even if they are here, it’s a big ship.” When the boat suddenly rocked from side to side and Skye nearly fell, he helped her take a seat and added, “There’s a good chance we’ll never run into them.”
    â€œSeriously?” Skye looked at her new husband and wondered how he could be so clueless. “You’ve workedwith my mom for how many years? Ten? Twelve? But you still don’t really know her, do you?” May was employed as a dispatcher on the police force Wally commanded. “If my mother’s on board, and I’m pretty darn sure she is, she planned this whole so-called coincidence, and she has every intention of ‘running into us’ as often as possible. For all we know, she and Dad are in a cabin on our deck—or even next door to us.”
    â€œBut why?” Wally slid an arm around Skye’s shoulders, pulling her against him as the tender shot away from the dock. “May would have to be aware that her showing up on your honeymoon would tick you off.”
    â€œYou’d think so, wouldn’t you?” Skye felt her stomach do a loop-the-loop and wondered if it was motion sickness. The Sea-Bands she wore around her wrist, which utilized acupressure to control symptoms of nausea, and the Dramamine, a good old-fashioned drug, had kept her feeling fine, but suddenly she thought she might vomit. “Too bad my mother views the world through the distorted Saran Wrap vision of her own reality. Her version of what’s real and everyone-else-on-the-planet’s version aren’t the same.”
    â€œWell . . .” Wally tugged at the neck of his T-shirt as the truth started to sink in.
    â€œMom changes the facts to suit herself.” Skye blew out an exasperated breath of air. “In her mind, we’ll be thrilled she surprised us, happy to see her and Dad, and excited to have them join us at dinner and on shore excursions. I wouldn’t be at all shocked to find her in our suite when we get back.”
    â€œMay wouldn’t really do