“I haven’t got the faintest idea.”

“You’re about to go up, so go down here.”

“See what I mean?” she demanded. “I’m going up, so I go down.”

“Yes, that’s right. Here,” he said, pointing, and Betsy obediently stuck the needle through from the back.

Jill said, “You’d think anyone who could figure out the clues that pointed to Hud Earlie could figure out a simple thing like basketweave.”

“Yeah, you would, wouldn’t you?” Betsy said crossly. She stuck the needle back in again on the diagonal. “Now where?”

“Here.”

“Ah, this part I get.” Betsy finished the angled row and said, “Now where?”

“Now we’re starting down again, so go across, here.”

“Ahhh!” Betsy growled, tossing the canvas down. “To go up you go down, to go down you go across. It gives me a headache!”

“But it isn’t hard,” said Godwin, picking it up and putting it back in her hands. “You’re saying it right, that means you know it. Just do it.”

Jill said, “How’s business?”

“Crazy,” said Godwin. “Everyone wants to meet the person who figured out a murder. And thank God they’re ashamed to admit it, so we’re selling every starter kit in the place.”

Betsy said, “That knitting class Margot had on the schedule is overbooked; I may have to hire Irene to teach.”

“Don’t do that, you’ll lose all those potential customers,” said Jill. “You teach it.”

“Me? I can’t do anything more than knit and purl. Those crossovers and knots and all are a mystery to me.”

“But you’re so good at mysteries,” said Godwin with his famous limpid look.

“And the students will be more interested in how you solved a murder that baffled the police than they will be in how to do crossovers,” said Jill.

“Are you upset that I solved it?” asked Betsy. “Is Detective Malloy?”

“I’m not upset. And I think Mike has decided you’re a special kind of informant. After all, you came to him at the end.”

“Of course I did! I’m not V. I. Warshawski.”

“Some people think you are,” said Jill. “They’ll be really disappointed not to meet you at knitting class.”

Betsy laughed. “You teach it, Godwin,” she said. “I’ll sign myself up as a student. That way we won’t disappoint our clients in any way.”

“Well—”

“Thanks. I’ll make up the poster tonight. Say, do either of the rest of you subscribe to that newsgroup rctn?”

“No,” said Jill.

Godwin said, “Aren’t they fun?”

Betsy nodded. “And long-winded. It takes forever to download their messages, but they had this thread about coffee stains on a needlepoint—”

The door went bing and talk stopped. A young woman wearing a maternity top she barely needed came in with an older woman who looked enough like her to be her mother. Betsy stood and asked, “May I help you?”