Free While My Pretty One Knits by Anne Canadeo Page A

walls.
    In the back of the store, a large oddly-shaped object took up most of the space. She realized it must be a spinning wheel.
    The shop looked empty and silent. She watched for another minute, then decided her imagination had indeed been working overtime and her eyes had been playing tricks on her. She was also getting a cramp in her calf muscle from being up on tiptoes so long.
    She was just about to give up when a hooded figure came into view. The form moved across her field of vision in an instant, then quickly merged into the shadows.
    Lucy jumped back and smothered a scream. There was somebody in there. Now she really did need to call the police. If only she could get one more look, maybe see their face? Or what they were doing? She couldn’t even say if it was a man or a woman.
    Maybe there was another window in the back and she could get a better look. Then I’ll call the police, she promised herself.
    Lucy took a breath. She looked back toward the street and saw her friends, still waiting on the sidewalk. They motioned for her to come back, but she shook her head. She just wanted one good look at whoever was in there. That shouldn’t be too hard.
    She tiptoed farther down the alley, her footsteps crunching on patches of old frosty snow. Could someone inside hear her, she wondered? She tried to walk even more softly as she came to the end of the building, but it was almost impossible. Her sneakers kept slipping and sliding on the frosty surface.
    At the end of the building, she took a deep breath, readied herself, then peered around the corner, taking hold of a drainpipe for balance. She didn’t realize until it was too late that she’d leaned too far. The drainpipe bent under her weight and her feet flew out from under her.
    She shrieked, landing facedown in a snowy patch in the backyard.
    Seconds later, she heard the back door fly open. She lifted her snow-covered face just in time to see a figure run out of the building. Head lowered and hands stuffed in the front pocket of a black sweatshirt, the culprit dashed through the small snowy yard and disappeared into a clump of bushes, crossing into the property of a house behind the shop.
    “Lucy…are you all right?” Suzanne called.
    Before she could answer, her friends were beside her. Lucy looked up and spit out some dirty snow. “I’m…okay. What an idiot I am.”
    “Here, let me help.” Dana took her arm and hoisted her up.
    “What happened? Did you see anything?” Suzanne asked.
    Lucy nodded. “Someone was in there. I saw them for just a second, so I came back here to get a better look. They must have heard me and they ran out of the house.” She pointed to the opening in the bushes where the intruder had escaped. “They ran right through the bushes. I didn’t even get to see their face.”
    “Wow…that’s creepy,” Suzanne said.
    Dana leaned closer. “What did they look like? Was it a man or woman?”
    “I’m not sure,” Lucy said honestly. “It all happened so fast.”
    “We need to tell the police.” Dana’s tone was firm. “It probably has nothing to do with Amanda’s murder, but they need to know. Everyone in town knows the shop is deserted, so this guy broke in and was looking for something left to steal.”
    “Probably,” Lucy agreed, though something in her gut told her otherwise.
    “You didn’t do anything that awful,” Dana pointed out. “You just looked through the window. But the police need to know the building isn’t secure. It’s still a crime scene.”
    “Detective Reyes seemed nice. You ought to call her,” Suzanne suggested.
    Detective Reyes had seemed approachable, Lucy thought. But maybe that was just because she was a woman, and compared to Detective Walsh, it wouldn’t take much to make a good impression.
    “I hate to get involved,” Lucy admitted. “And if I call up Walsh and tell him we’ve been snooping in windows at the crime scene, it draws his attention back to Maggie. And she’s