Crazy as a Quilt (A Harriet Turman/Loose Threads Mystery Book 8) (18 page)

Lauren slowly turned the wire display rack full of embellishments.

“Incoming,” she said in a quiet voice.

Harriet looked up in time to see Michelle come down the aisle.

“I’m so glad I found you here. The kids are still staying with my brother, and I guess Cookie has a sewing machine she’s willing to let Lainie use. She’s not a quilter, so Lainie gave me a list of things she needs. I have no idea what this stuff is.” She shoved the list at Harriet.

“Cutting mat and cutter, big ruler, square ruler, ruler handle,” Harriet read out loud. “I can see how this might be a little confusing. Lauren, you want to do cutter and mat or rulers?”

“I’ll get the rulers.” Lauren turned and headed toward the back of the store where notions were kept.

“Do you know how much space she’ll have to work in?” Harriet looked at Michelle.

“Not a clue.”

“Hmmm. I hesitate to get her one of the smaller ones while she’s still learning.”

“Don’t look at me,” Michelle said.

Harriet ignored her and walked over to a rack of cutting mats of various sizes and colors. She leafed through them, finally selecting a green twenty-four by thirty-six inch model.

“I think this will work. Tell Cookie if it’s too big to fit her space, she can cut it down, but not to make it too small.” She held it out, and when Michelle didn’t immediately take it, Harriet shoved it into her hand.

Lauren set the rulers up front by the cash register before returning with Harriet to the embellishment rack. Michelle followed them and stood watching.

“Was there something else?” Harriet asked her without turning around.

“Lainie has been whining about wanting to come over to your house to have another lesson.”

Harriet turned around.

“Of course—”

Jesssica burst through the front door.

“I found him,” she said, pausing to catch her breath. “I mean, I saw him. I’m so glad I saw Lauren’s car out front.”

“Slow down,” Harriet said. “You saw or found who? The homeless guy?”

Jessica nodded.

“So, was that a yes to Lainie coming over?” Michelle looked at Jessica. “Sorry to interrupt, but I have to get back to legal aid.”

“Yes, I need to figure out what we’re doing, and then I’ll call and make the arrangements. It might be tomorrow, but I’ll call today.”

Michelle carried her cutting mat to the register, paid for her purchases and left.

“Does that woman ever say thank you?” Lauren asked.

Harriet ignored her and nodded to Jessica.

“Continue.”

“When the guy saw me coming toward him, he took off into the woods,” Jessica explained. “I followed him a little way, but…” She gestured at her outfit. “…in this getup I couldn’t catch him. He went off the trail into the brush, and it was hopeless. I thought we could change clothes and go back.”

“Slow down, Nancy Drew,” Lauren cautioned her.

“Lauren’s right. We have to be careful where the police are concerned. I’ll call Detective Morse, and she can tell whoever the right person is. My first inclination is to go look, too, but we can’t do anything that will jeopardize Aiden’s defense,” Harriet told her. “I’ll call Robin and see if she knows Aiden’s attorney. Maybe she can call him, and if they have a private investigator maybe
they
can go look.”

Lauren picked a couple of owls from the embellishments rack.

“Do you want a couple of these?” She held up a package. The owls were stitched from brown and gold thread.

Harriet took the package and looked.

“These do look a lot more natural.”

In the end, all three women bought several of the owls and a couple of spiders.

“Thanks for spending your lunch looking,” Harriet said to Jessica. “I’ll call everyone while we’re driving back to the church.”

“No problem. It was nice getting some exercise. I didn’t find anyone who had seen Aiden’s car, but I did collect a few donations for the local women’s shelter.” She smiled. “When you look like a nun and knock on their door, people tend to think you’re asking for a donation. Who am I to deny them the opportunity to salve their guilt by giving me their dollars?”

She went out the door and to her rental car.

Harriet paid for their purchases then followed Lauren to her car.

“I’m beginning to see why being a full-fledged nun wasn’t working out for Jessica.”

Lauren laughed.

‘You think? She does seem to like to color outside the lines a little more than the church probably likes.” She reached for her wallet.

“The embellishments are on me. You did drive, after all.”

“Speaking of which, we’re going to be late if we don’t hurry.”

It was Harriet’s turn to laugh.

“What are they going to do, send us to the principal’s office?”

Chapter 19

Harriet hung up her last call but kept her phone in her hand.

“I left messages with Robin and Detective Morse. Hopefully, someone will respond before the homeless guy is in the next county.”

“I can’t call the nerd squad. They’re great on technical things, but I can’t picture them tramping through the woods.”

“I’m having a thought, and you can tell me if I’m being crazy.”

“I’m afraid, but lay it on me.”

“I was thinking about calling Tom.”

“Really? Are things not complicated enough for you already? Your boyfriend is in jail, so you’re going to involve your back-up boyfriend in trying to free him?”

“I was just thinking. Tom is a frequent visitor to the homeless camp. If he were to find the guy and talk to him,
he
could report it to the police, and we’d be above suspicion.”

Lauren glanced at her.

“All kidding aside, I think you do need to call Tom—and anyone else you can think of.”

Harriet didn’t say anything.

“I’m serious. People get falsely accused and falsely convicted every day. The longer they have Aiden in their sights, the more committed they’re going to be to their case against him, even though it’s false.”

“That’s not very comforting.”

“Harriet, this is as serious as it gets. For what it’s worth, I think Tom’s the kind of guy who will be mad if you
don’t
call him.”

Harriet sighed and tapped the face of her phone.

“Okay,” Harriet said as Lauren parked in the church lot. “It turns out Tom was on his way to Foggy Point on other business. He said he’ll get here in thirty minutes or so, and he’ll go straight to the homeless camp and start looking.

“We need to have Jessica call him back and tell him exactly where she was when she saw the guy. She could tell him what he looked like, too, on the off chance there’s more than one of them in the woods today.”

“I wish we didn’t have the group dinner tonight,” Lauren mused.

“Geez, I forgot about that. We can’t miss the big banquet. When do we have to be back here? Six-thirty?”

“Yeah, they figured it gave us just enough time to go home, comb our hair, and come back.”

“I better call about Lainie’s quilting lesson before we go in.” She tapped on her phone one more time and spoke to Cookie Jalbert. They agreed Lainie could come the following evening.

“I know you’re all anxious to get home so you can freshen up before the banquet tonight. Our keynote speaker is wonderful, and I’m sure we’ll all learn a lot about crazy quilts.”

Glynnis Miller from the Small Stitches was standing in front the workshop attendees in the basement meeting room.

“I’ll make this brief. As you all know, one of our attendees died earlier this week, someone from our own community—Marine Moreau. Beth Carlson and Mavis Willis contacted her family this afternoon but found they have neither the means nor the inclination to put on any sort of service. As you all have generously donated money toward her memorial, we’ve decided to go ahead with it. Beth, would you like to tell us the details?”

Aunt Beth went to the front of the room, straightening her lavender cardigan with one hand and squeezing a wrinkled piece of paper in the other. She cleared her throat and began speaking in a louder than normal voice.

“Pastor Hafer has agreed to preside over a small service, to be held here at the Methodist Church on Saturday at one o’clock. I know many of you were already planning on staying through the weekend, and I hope you’ll be able to attend. Jorge Perez, the owner of Tico’s Tacos will be providing light snacks for a reception to follow in the private room at his restaurant. Thank you all for your generous donations.”

She hesitated a few moments to see if anyone might have questions, but everyone was busy gathering purses, bags and coats so they could go get ready for the banquet.

When Harriet walked into the basement fellowship hall, it bore no resemblance to the room they’d been in a few hours ago. Quilt racks had been set up along the walls and were draped with a stunning display of crazy quilts. All of the teachers had provided samples of their own work, and the after-dinner speaker had brought examples from his extensive collection—everything from the early dark wool models through brocade silks from Asia and heavily embellished Victorian-influenced designs. The room was buzzing with talk about the quilts.

Aunt Beth moved her purse from the chair beside her so Harriet could sit down.

“Jorge is going to go by your house and take Scooter out when he’s on his way to my house and Brownie.”

“I’m kind of surprised they didn’t ask Jorge to cater this dinner,” Harriet said.

Connie leaned across Beth to answer.

“The Small Stitches wanted to share the business around. They have their meetings at Jimmy’s Barbecue, so it was natural they would give him the big dinner. And they were generous with Jorge. He got to do the opening reception and that lunch we went to.”

Jessica and Lauren arrived, and Lauren set her shoulder bag on the chair next to her roommate before coming over to Harriet.

“Have you heard from Tom yet?”

“No. He said he’d call as soon as he knew anything. I also haven’t heard anything from Detective Morse. I’ll ask Robin what the attorney said when she gets here.”

“She’s here,” Robin said as she sat down on the other side of Connie. “I told Aiden’s attorney about the homeless man. He said he would get a private investigator here and out looking for the guy as quickly as he could. He didn’t have anyone with him or know anyone in town, so it was going to be an hour or two.”

Harriet clutched the stem of her water glass.

“I wish someone would find the guy.”

Aunt Beth pried Harriet’s hand off the glass.

“Let go, you’re going to break that. You need to prepare yourself. Even if they find this fellow, he’s likely to be a drunk. The police might not place much stock in what he says.”

“If he has the dog, or can show them the dog’s corpse, it would support what Aiden said. Besides, it would at least create reasonable doubt.” Tears filled Harriet’s eyes.

Beth handed her a tissue.

“Oh, honey, I didn’t mean to upset you. Aiden will be set free soon enough. I’m just not sure that homeless man is the one who’s going be the key.”

“Have any of you seen this?” Sharon held up the program that had been lying on her plate. “Bill Volkening is the keynote speaker. It says here he has an extensive collection of crazy quilts. Has anyone heard him before?”