A Quilt in Time (A Harriet Turman/Loose Threads Mystery) (15 page)

“Do you need to be back?” he asked her.

“I have to work at the senior center tonight. I suppose I could call if we need to stay,” she added with obvious reluctance. “I’m sure they can find someone to cover for me if they have to.”

“Thanks, but that won’t be necessary. I’m sure my car’s drivable. I can tape plastic over the window.” James looked at Harriet. “Do you want to go with them?”

She glanced at Aiden, who waggled his eyebrows up and down, then turned back to James.

“I’ll stay and keep you company while you call the police and the insurance company.”

“Do you want me to walk Scooter when I get back?” Aiden offered.

“Thanks, but I already have Aunt Beth on Scoot-duty. I’ll just give her a call and let her know I’ve been delayed.”

“Okay, if we can’t do anything for you, we’re going to get Hannah back so she can go to work.” Aiden put his hand on Hannah’s back and guided her to his car.

Harriet watched until they were in the car and driving out of the lot. By the time she looked back at James, he had Cyrano in his travel crate in the back seat and was talking on his cell phone. He smiled when he noticed her.

“The adventure continues,” he said. “Lucky for you I never go any-where without food.” He opened the cargo door and brought out a cooler. “I have sandwich stuff and some drinks.”

The food turned out to be a lifesaver; the police took their time investigating the crime scene. It turned out that seven cars had been broken into. If it had only been James’s car, they could have filled out a report and been done with it, but because of the scope of the damage, the local police were out in force.

“I’m going to call my aunt again.” Harriet said two hours later and pulled out her phone.

“We’re finally done and headed home. The police helped James tape plastic over his window; we should get there in about an hour and a half.”

“Don’t worry, honey, I went to your house when you called before, and I’ll go again on my way to meet Mavis for dinner. Tell James to drive carefully.”

Harriet assured her James was an excellent driver and promised to call when she got home.

“I guess I better make the most of the trip home,” James said when the car was ready to drive and they’d been cleared to leave. “You’re never going to want to go anywhere with me again.” A wry smile crossed his lips before he became serious again. “I had really hoped this was going to be a fun day for you.”

She reached out and put her hand on his arm. “Hey, this was fun. I’ve never been to a wiener dog race before, much less gotten to hold the star athlete in his starting gate. You had no control over someone breaking into your car.”

“If you say so.”

The drive back was a quiet one, and it was full dark by the time James dropped her outside her studio door.

“Don’t worry,” she said one last time before getting out of the car.

James rolled down the passenger window.

“I’ll make this up to you,” he said.

Harriet waved at him, and he closed the window and drove away .

“Where have you been?” Lauren asked when Harriet opened her studio door. “I’ve been calling you all afternoon. I finally called your aunt, and she told me you went to Bainbridge Island with that cook.”

“Did she tell you what we were doing?”

“Ewwweee, too much information.”

“Don’t be silly. I was holding his wiener…”

Lauren covered her ears with her hands.

“La la la la—don’t tell me anymore, I can’t take it.”

“Oh, stop it. I was helping him race his dog. There was a wiener dog national qualifying race on Bainbridge Island, and his sister was supposed to help, and her kid got sick, and so he asked me to stand in.”

“Your aunt didn’t say anything about dogs, except Scooter. She mostly said she thought you needed to settle your business with the two men you already have before you added another.”

“She’s imagining things. Besides, Aiden was at the races, too.”

“Did you know he was going to be there?”

“No, and he wasn’t alone. Sarah’s stepsister is interning with him, and she was there helping him.”

“Did you ask her where Sarah is?”

“Of course. She made it a point that Sarah isn’t her blood sister and said she had no idea where she is.”

“Connie checked at the senior center, and she still hasn’t shown up there.”

“Aiden said he would help us get into the shelter if our curtain ruse doesn’t work.”

Lauren took her fleece jacket off and threw it onto one of the chairs in the reception area.

“Are you going to ask me to stay for tea?”

“Where are my manners?” Harriet led the way into the kitchen and started getting out mugs and tea. “Did you come over for a reason? I mean, I’m happy to have the company, but you don’t usually drop by unannounced for tea at seven-thirty on a Sunday night.”

“Really? I need an invitation? Or now that you’re juggling three men, I need to call first. Is that it?”

Harriet put her hands on her hips and stared at her.

“It’s only two, and I’m not even juggling them at the moment.”

Lauren laughed. “Okay, you got me. I do have an ulterior motive.” She paused.

“Hmmm, I’m getting the feeling I’m not going to like this plan, whatever it is.”

“Give it a chance.” Lauren paced across the kitchen and back.

“Spit it out. The tension is killing me.”

“Okay, I say after we have our tea and whatever treat you’re going to dig out of that cabinet, we go to Sarah’s cabin.”

“I knew I wasn’t going to like it.”

Lauren took the mug Harriet handed her and dipped the tea bag up and down.

“Do you still have the key from the other night?”

“No, I gave it back to her while she was at the senior center.”

“We could go have a look anyway. If she’s there, she’ll let us in. If not, we could poke around a little.”

“I’m not going to break into Sarah’s house. She’s just the sort that would press charges against us, even though we were trying to help her.”

“You think?”

“I know. Besides, what if Seth is there with her? He’s not dumb enough to fall for our lame excuses. He already knows we don’t like him. What if he takes it out on her? We could be making things worse.”

“I guess.” She took a sip of her tea. “Don’t you have anything tasty in your snack cupboard?”

“I haven’t had time to snack shop.” Harriet pulled out her nearly empty box of ginger snaps. “This is as good as it gets.” She rattled the box.

Lauren reached out for it.

“Better than nothing.”

She took the box and her cup of tea to the kitchen table and sat down. Harriet joined her.

“I wish I could think of something we could do for Sarah that didn’t involve kidnapping or breaking-and-entering, but with her family so firmly in place, it’s going to be hard.”

“I got nothing, if we can’t bend the law a little.”

“Are you making any progress on your Pratt family background checks?”

“Howard seems to have had several ex-wives who are curiously dead before their time. I’m still digging on Seth, but I think he’s running an internet discount prescription drug business. Based on Connie’s suspicions, he may be getting his drugs from illicit sources, but I can’t make a direct connection on that yet. I’ll keep digging until I can prove it one way or the other.”

Fred came into the kitchen and meowed loudly.

“Don’t even try it. Aunt Beth told me she fed you at five o’clock. And she gave you some bites of sliced chicken as a treat, since you had to spend the day alone.”

Fred poked his nose in the air, swished his tail forcefully and left the room.

“He’s got an attitude prob—” Lauren was cut off by the kitchen phone ringing.

“Hello?” Harriet said. “Hello” She flicked the speaker phone button so Lauren could hear the conversation and looked at the caller ID. “Sarah? What’s wrong?”

“Help me,” said a rasping voice. “Help me.”

The phone went dead.

“Come on.”

Harriet grabbed her fleece, purse and keys from the kitchen closet. Lauren jumped up and pulled her jacket on, slinging her messenger bag over her shoulder.

“Did she say where she is?”

“According to caller ID, she’s at the cabin.

Lauren veered toward her car. “I’ll drive.”

Harriet got in the passenger seat, and Lauren tore out of the driveway like her hair was on fire.

“It won’t help Sarah if we end up in the river,” Harriet protested.

“Oh, hush. I took the adult race-driving course at the speedway in Monroe. I’m certified.”

“If you say so,” Harriet said, grabbing onto the edges of her seat.

“Do you think we should call nine-one-one?”

“Let’s wait until we get there and see what’s going on. If Sarah’s been attacked but was able to call me, she’d be able to call the police or an ambulance.”

“Do you think she would, though? She seems weirdly protective of that creep.”

Cloud cover meant the night was dark, and as they sped away from neighborhoods with porch and street lights, it got even darker. Lauren slowed to a crawl as she approached the road that led up to the cabin.

“I’m going to pull off at the bottom of the drive,” she whispered.

“I don’t think they can hear us in the car,” Harriet whispered back.

“I’m getting ready. We don’t know what we’re going to face.”

“Sarah sounded really desperate. I hope Seth took off.”

“People like him are usually cowards. They never pick on someone their own size.”

Harriet opened her door as Lauren stopped the car. She pulled a penlight from her purse and flicked it on. Its weak light did little to illuminate the night.

Lauren came around to stand by her.

“Do you think we should we go around the back and look in the windows first?”

“No, she called us asking for help. We’re going in the front door.”

With that, she led the way up the drive and onto the cabin’s porch. A dark-colored cat jumped from the bench and slithered away into the night.

“I hope that was a cat and not a skunk or possum,” Lauren whispered.

Harriet tapped on the door; when no one answered, she knocked again, harder.

“Sarah?” she called then listened. “Did you hear that?”

Lauren leaned past her and pounded on the door. They listened.

“Help,” cried a weak voice.

Harriet opened the unlocked door and went in.