Crazy as a Quilt (A Harriet Turman/Loose Threads Mystery Book 8) (11 page)

Sharon and Bobbi were standing in the hall laughing when Harriet and Lauren came out of their classroom.

“I take it things went better this afternoon,” Harriet said.

The two women laughed harder. Lauren and Harriet exchanged a look.

“Maybe their teacher put drugs in the water pitcher.”

Sharon finally dug in her bag and handed Harriet a square of muslin that was covered in a mountain of fabric scraps.

“My fabric glue bottle malfunctioned. My teacher said to cover the excess glue with fabric.” She giggled.

Bobbi took up the story.

“She never came back to see how much glue had blobbed out. It soaked right through the first piece of fabric, so Sharon kept adding fabric pieces until the glue was soaked up.”

“I’m guessing your teacher wasn’t thrilled when she saw it,” Lauren said.

“She was very cool about it,” Sharon told her. “She kept trying to figure out how to make it work. She was trying hard not to hurt my feelings. She told me how original my work was.”

“It was sweet, really,” Bobbi added.

Sharon put the fabric mess back into her bag.

“I assured her I’d get another glue bottle and would remake my square tonight so I’d be ready to start embellishing tomorrow.”

“I wish you could have seen the teacher’s face,” Bobbi said. “It was priceless.”

Jessica came up from the direction of the office.

“Have any of you heard from Michelle or Marine? I just called the detox center, and they said Marine never arrived.”

“I saw Michelle on the way back from lunch. She was looking for Marine,” Harriet said. “She said they were on the way back to Aiden’s to wait for an hour or two until the center had discharged people and had a space for her. Marine jumped out of the car at a stop sign and took off. As of when I talked to her, Marine was still MIA.”

Jessica pulled at her lower lip.

“This is not good,” she said. “That girl needs help in a big way.” She looked at Harriet and Lauren. “Does either of you know where people can access drugs in this town?”

Harriet frowned. “Not from firsthand experience, of course, but I’ve heard there’s a problem with people dealing drugs down by the industrial docks.”

“I think I’d better go look for her.”

“You shouldn’t go alone,” Harriet cautioned.

“The youth pastor was in the office when I went to get the detox number from them. Maybe he can go with me.”

“Be careful,” Lauren warned.

“We better get going,” Harriet said. “We’ve got some stitching to do before dinner.”

Chapter 12

Harriet pressed the two four-patch squares Sharon and Lainie had just stitched.

“These are both great. See, what did I tell you? Practice makes perfect.”

The corners of the two blue and two white squares met exactly in the middle of Sharon’s block. Lainie’s pink and green squares were equally precise.

Lauren held up a large square of muslin.

“I cut a new base square for Sharon to remake her class project.”

“Can I make another four-patch?” Lainie asked.

“I think that’s a good idea,” Harriet told her. She made sure the girl had her next fabric strips laid out and then turned to her roommate. “I have some crazy quilt fabric on the left side of the third shelf over there.” She pointed to a bookcase with six shelves of neatly folded fabrics. “Choose a couple of pieces that resemble the ones that got ruined today, and we’ll see if we can recreate your block, minus the glue.”

A knock sounded on the studio door, and Jessica came in before anyone could answer it. Her hair was standing on end, and a sheen of sweat covered her forehead.

“I don’t suppose Marine showed up here, did she?”

Harriet slid a wheeled chair toward her.

“Here sit. Can I get you some water or tea?”

“Water would be good,” Jessica replied. “I had Pastor Andy drop me at the bottom of your hill. It’s steeper than it looks.”

Harriet went to the under-counter refrigerator next to her desk as Lauren slid her chair closer to Jessica.

“To answer your question, no. But then, we came straight here and haven’t left. I take it you didn’t find her at the docks.”

Jessica took the bottle of water Harriet handed her, opened it and took a drink.

“No, I didn’t. There are some really creepy people down there, but none of them seemed to know Marine. Or if they did, they didn’t admit it.”

“Michelle will be here soon to pick Lainie up. Maybe she’ll know something. Hopefully, Marine went back to Aiden’s.”

Jessica set her water on the cutting table.

“Aiden’s the vet, right?”

Harriet slid her chair away from Lainie and toward Lauren and Jessica.

“Why do you ask?”

“I went by an animal clinic between the docks and here and its parking lot was full of police cars and an ambulance and fire truck.”

Lauren and Harriet looked at each other.

“Maybe it was one of their elderly clients,” Harriet said. “Aiden told me Mrs. Novack had a seizure in the waiting room last week. It turned out she ran out of money so she was buying prescribed medicine for her dog, instead of buying her own.”

“That must be it,” Jessica said. “If this is like most small towns, I’m sure you’ll know the whole story by class time tomorrow.”

Sharon brought her fabric selections to the cutting table. She looked at Jessica.

“I had a little mishap with a glue bottle so I have to restart my class project.”

Jessica brightened. “Do you have enough spare fabric that I could make one, too? I can use the practice. I’ll pay you for it.”

Harriet laughed. “I bought enough fabric to make ten crazy quilts. We got a great deal from our local fabric shop. Help yourself.”

“You better pack your bag,” Harriet told Lainie an hour later. “I hear someone coming up the drive.”

Lauren pushed the curtain aside and looked out the window.

“Uh, that’s not Michelle.”

Harriet looked over her friend’s shoulder and saw a dark-haired man getting out of a gray Volvo sedan. He had the same silky black hair as his brother Aiden, but he wasn’t as tall or fine-boned as his younger sibling. He, too, had blue eyes but his were more robin’s-egg, not the ice blue that made Aiden’s so distinctive.

“Lainie, is your uncle Marcel picking you up?”

Lainie looked confused.

“When I got out of the car, my mom said she’d see me in two hours.”

“She must have gotten called in to work or something,” Harriet assured her.

Lauren looked at Harriet and rolled her eyes. They both knew court-appointed community service work would be the last reason Michelle wasn’t there. She could be getting a mani-pedi or taking a nap or any of a dozen other egocentric activities. The surprising thing was that
Marcel
was picking Lainie up. He usually kept his sister at arm’s length and, unlike Aiden, did not enable her inconsiderate behaviors.

Marcel tapped on the door and entered. He held out his arms to Lainie.

“
Avez-vous une étreinte pour votre oncle?
”

Lainie smiled and rushed into his arms for the requested hug.

“Are you picking me up?” she asked with a smile when he released her.

“Indeed, I am. We’re going to go to Santa’s workshop and get your brother, and then the both of you are coming to spend the night with your aunt Cookie and me. And don’t worry, I have the bag your nanny packed in the car.”

Harriet looked at him with a raised eyebrow. He patted Lainie on the back.

“Can you go get in the car? I need to talk to Harriet for a moment, and I don’t want to leave our new puppy Adele alone that long.”

A smile lit Lainie’s face.

“You have a new dog? Can I go see now?”

Marcel laughed. “Yes and yes. And she has a leash on the front seat. You can take her out on the grass, if you want.”

He watched until Lainie had safely gotten the puppy under control and out in Harriet’s yard. When he turned back, his face had lost all humor.

“Can we talk privately?”

Lauren, Sharon and Jessica stood up.

“We’ll go get some tea or something.” They went into the kitchen and pulled the connecting door shut.

The smile left Marcel’s face. Harriet felt the blood drain from hers.

“What’s wrong?”

“Aiden’s fine. A little shaken, but physically, he’s fine. Marine Moreau was not so lucky.”

“What do you mean?”

“I can only tell you what Michelle told me. Marine was found dead in Aiden’s apartment over the vet clinic. Michelle stopped by the clinic to pick up some flea medicine for the kids’ cat. She said the parking lot was full of police cars when she got there.

“Aiden was sitting in the back of one of them. He told her he’d been out running, and he went to the apartment to clean up before going back to work and found Marine sprawled on his sofa—dead. He called the police, and they took him down to the station to make a statement. The apartment is a crime scene, so they couldn’t do it there.

“Michelle is guessing he’ll go back to the house. She figured he might not want to deal with her and her kids, so she asked if Cookie and I could take the kids for a few days. She’s sending the tutor and nanny off, too. I don’t know where she’s going, and I didn’t ask. I also didn’t invite her to come to our house.”

“What a shock. I just saw Marine this morning.”

“I hadn’t seen her lately. I didn’t even know she was back in town. I do know she gave Aiden a lot of grief when he was in school. Her whole family is a train wreck.”

“Is there anything I can do?”

“I’m sure Aiden would take comfort from seeing you when the police are through with him. I’m not sure when that will be. I suspect he has to wait for the detectives to finish at the crime scene before they come talk to him.”

“They can’t possibly think he had anything to do with it, can they?”

“No, I’m sure it’s just routine stuff, since he’s been staying in the apartment. They probably want to know how she could have gotten in. Stuff like that.”

Harriet sank into a wingback chair.

“I’m shocked.”

“Sorry to dump it on you, but Michelle called us a few minutes before I came to get Lainie. Speaking of which, I better scoop her up and go find her brother.”

“Could you let me know if you hear anything else?”

“Of course. I’m guessing you’ll see Aiden this evening some time, though?”

The kitchen door flew open before the outside door had closed.

“Did he say Marine was
dead
?” Lauren asked as she burst into the room, closely followed by Jessica and Sharon. “We couldn’t hear very well.”

Harriet brushed past them and headed for the kitchen.

“I need a cup of tea.”

Once everyone was there, Lauren took the teakettle from her at the sink when water began spilling out the spout.

“Give me that. You go sit down. Jessica, can you get the mugs from that cupboard.” She pointed as she set the kettle on the stove. “Where do you hide the ginger snaps?” she asked Harriet.

Fifteen minutes later, all four were seated at the kitchen table, tea and cookies in front of them.

“Marine
is
dead,” Harriet said without preamble. “Michelle stopped at the clinic to get flea medicine, and I guess Aiden was in the back of a squad car being questioned after he found Marine’s body in his apartment.”

Lauren sucked in a breath.

“Did she commit suicide because he’s with you?”

“Oh, please,” Jessica protested. “She must have found drugs and OD’d.”

“Why would she do that at Aiden’s apartment?” Lauren asked.

Sharon reached across the table and patted Harriet’s arm.

“Can I do anything? Do you need me to drive you to wherever Aiden is?”

Harriet picked up a cookie.

“Thank you, but, no. I’m not sure he’s going to want to see me tonight. I don’t even know where he is right now. All Marcel knows is that Marine is dead, and the last he knew Aiden was at the police station having his statement taken.”

Jessica stirred honey into her tea.

“I can’t say I’m surprised. Don’t know what to say about her choice of location, unless she knew he kept animal meds there, and she broke in to find them. Addicts do crazy things when they need a fix.”