I’m Lucy Binger – graphic artist, knitter, jogger, dog lover –and someone who can’t help getting tangled up in every foul situation in town. At least that’s what my boyfriend Matt says.

“Lucy, please mind your business. Leave it for the police. It’s just not safe.” That’s what he always tells me. But I can’t help it. I guess I could blame it on my closest pals – Maggie, Dana, Suzanne and Phoebe — the Black Sheep knitters. But the truth is, while they are a bad influence, I’m a totally willing participant.

Take this latest situation with Ellie and Ben Krueger, a really nice couple who moved to Plum Harbor a few months ago. All they want is a peaceful life in the country, on a little farm where they’re starting a hand-made yarn business. All they’ve found so far is trouble. We got involved the day of their Grand Opening and fiber festival. Our fearless leader, Maggie took a booth to promote her shop, so of course we all went to cheer her on.

Maggie had just gotten rolling…spinning rather…with a demonstration, when the party was suddenly so over – some awful person attacked the llamas with a paint gun. The poor defenseless creatures. We all ran to help. The Kruegers even called Matt. (He’s a vet, by the way. A totally cute one. Back, off ladies. I saw him first.)

Once the animals were settled down, the truth came out. This wasn’t the first time the farm had been vandalized. The entire idea gave me the creeps. Ellie and Ben have their suspicions. But no real evidence or proof.

“Anyone who hurts an animal will hurt a person, so just stay out of it,” Matt reminded me. You were right, honey. Right now Plum Harbor is buzzing with the news about a body that was found on the Kruegers’ property, stabbed with a wooden, hand spindle. The same kind Ellie gave out at the fair as a souvenir. Well, that narrows it down. Everybody in town has one of those…

Ellie was practically hysterical when she called Maggie’s shop this morning. She and Ben are in a jam. The police are asking way too many questions. We wish there was some way we could help. We’re just not sure how. But in such a small town, you hear things and if you’re like us, you ask the right questions, too.

We’re meeting tomorrow night at Maggie’s shop. I’m sure that while we’re working our needles…and eating some good food…we’ll be untangling the threads of this nasty business, too. Putting the clues together, stitch by stitch.

Way better than the local police department. Sorry Detective Walsh, but we’re not surprised you’ve been demoted from crimes against humans to those involving livestock.

And sorry, Matt…I don’t mean to get mixed up in these things. But as Maggie always says, “A knitter’s got to do what a knitter’s got to do…”

You can read more about Lucy in The Silence of the Llamas, the 5th book in the “Black Sheep Knitting” mystery series. The first book in the series is While My Pretty One Knits.

Meet the author
Anne Canadeo is the author of many works of fiction, including the Black Sheep Knitting Mysteries and the Cape Light and Angel Island series, which she writes under the pseudonym, Katherine Spencer. When Anne isn’t at her computer, she can mostly likely be found out in the neighborhood, involved in community service activities. She finds that writing and knitting have a lot in common, because good things happen by accident. She lives in Northport, NY, a small village on the Long Island Sound, with her family and two big, lazy dogs.

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