Free A Crafty Christmas by Mollie Cox Bryan

becoming her parents, who could talk for hours about the weather.
    She folded a pair of jeans and then another. The talking head on the Weather Channel said that Virginia was in for some snow. The boys would be thrilled.
    â€œIn other news, we are watching a tropical storm in the western Caribbean as it makes its way to the east coast of Mexico,” said the talking head.
    â€œMexico?” Annie said out loud. “Isn’t that where the Jezebel ’s heading?”
    Suddenly, instead of the news being a backdrop in her domestic scene, her attention honed in on the TV. Her friends were headed for a storm. A freaky, huge storm. Surely the ship’s crew watched the weather, right? The same crew who had misinformed the FBI about who had died on the ship. Annie’s stomach flipped a bit.
    The weatherman droned on: “This storm appeared out of nowhere and we are really not certain if it will hit the coast or if it will turn toward the islands. If it hits the Mexican coast at full force, it will be devastating. If it runs in the other direction, the storm may lose momentum as it heads toward the islands. We are keeping a close eye on this system. Several ships in the area have turned around or have adjusted their routes. At this time, we have no further information on individual ships.”
    Annie folded the last pair of jeans as her heart began to race. She wished she had more confidence in this ship’s crew. Of course they knew what they were doing when it came to weather and the sea and so on. Of course they did—or else they wouldn’t be sailors.
    When a murder happened, fear took over and mistakes sometimes would be made, especially by people who’d never dealt with that type of death before. She could see the errors in dealing with the murder case.
    She placed the folded clothes back in the basket. Her hands felt warm from the clothes, but they were a bit sweaty, too. She didn’t want to think about Sheila, Paige, Vera, Randy, and Eric on the high seas during this storm. She couldn’t think too hard about it. It would make her panic.
    Instead, she decided to call Vera. She knew it would be expensive, but she needed to hear her friend’s voice.
    Of course, she couldn’t get through.
    Annie called Sheila next. Then Paige.
    All of the cell phones gave no message, no signal, nothing.
    Annie headed for her computer.
    Mike was already asleep. He was snoring softly in the background when she turned her computer on. He wouldn’t wake up. He was used to the soft blue light of the screen and the clicking of her keyboard.
    She clicked on the Skype icon and the wheel kept spinning. Nobody was available on Skype either.
    She searched online to see if there was any news. Nothing recent. Just the news of Allie Monroe’s death.
    Annie drew in a breath. What was going on?

Chapter 16
    By the time Beatrice finished reading How the Grinch Stole Christmas! for the fifteenth time, Elizabeth was out. Before she crept out of the child’s room, Beatrice turned to look at her lying peacefully in the bed with the quilt pulled up around her and her stuffed elephant in one hand snuggled up to her chin. The child loved elephants. At three years old, she could tell you all about them, their habitats, what they liked to eat, and so on. She showed no inclination toward dance, which her mother loved so much. Beatrice smiled—the child resembled Vera, but she thought she might be more like her with her love of science. She shrugged. It didn’t really matter. But it always fascinated Beatrice to see the stew of genetics and what eventually ended up foaming at the top.
    Beatrice left the room as quietly and gracefully as her old body could muster. That was a challenge.
    Lawd, if anything happened to Vera, what would she and Elizabeth do? She clutched her chest as she made her way into her room, where Jon was tucked into bed with a book, but was almost asleep. The book was tilted down,