Crazy as a Quilt (A Harriet Turman/Loose Threads Mystery Book 8) (21 page)

Jessica leaned forward from the middle seat of Harriet’s car.

“Hey, is this the wrong side of the tracks Foggy Point style? I didn’t think this town had a bad part.”

Lauren looked back at her.

“Every town has a bad part. And Harriet’s quite familiar with this one.”

“Thanks for reminding me of an unfortunate chapter in my life in Foggy Point,” Harriet said with a laugh.

“You can’t leave me hanging like that,” Jessica said. “Come on, spill.”

Harriet sighed. “I was looking for a young woman who might have some information I needed. She was in hiding, and I came down here to the apartment she’d been living in. She wasn’t home, but someone else was there and was unhappy to see me. I took a little side trip to the hospital, but as you can see, I’m fine, so it all worked out in the end.”

“It’s hard to imagine a young person, especially a girl, living down here and surviving for very long.” Jessica mused, looking out the window at the peeling paint and broken windows on the rundown apartments they were driving past.

“Aunt Beth told me the Foggy Point Redevelopment Committee has been trying to clean up this area for years. The trouble is, a number of the larger buildings are owned by absentee landlords in Seattle. They’re not very invested in cleaning up Foggy Point. They get tax concessions for offering low-rent apartments. No one in the city cares that they’re slums.”

“That’s sad. Can’t you do anything about it?” Jessica asked.

“The committee is working on them one at a time,” Lauren said with a smug smile and looked at Harriet.

Jessica looked from one to the other.

“What?”

“Let’s just say a certain computer expert we know is making sure the landlords are following the letter of the law.”

“Something they’re not used to doing, I might add,” Lauren said.

Harriet abruptly slowed the car and turned left down a side street.

“What?” Lauren said but then looked where Harriet was pointing as she made a U-turn and pulled to the curb facing the main through road.

“It’s Sharon’s rental car. She’s supposed to be picking up a prescription downtown. What’s she doing here?”

Jessica leaned through the two front seats from the back again.

“We’re going to wait and see, right?”

“Of course,” Lauren told her. “We’re with Harriet. We never pass up an opportunity like this.”

Harriet settled back in her seat.

“Hopefully, whatever she’s doing will be quick. She’ll be needing to get back as much as we do.”

They didn’t have long to wait. A door that was almost hidden between an exterior staircase and a boarded-up storefront window opened, and two women came out.

“That’s definitely Sharon in the front,” Harriet said. “But who’s the other one?”

The other women was older and had obviously lived more. She was thin, wearing tight, faded jeans and canvas tennis shoes. Her hair was pulled back in a stiff, strawlike ponytail.

“I don’t recognize the woman,” Lauren said. “But you can tell by the body language there’s no love lost between them.”

Harriet hit her palm against the steering wheel as she watched Sharon look up and down the block before getting in her car and driving away.

“After last night, I thought she’d come clean about her agenda in Foggy Point. Clearly there was more.”

“Maybe this doesn’t have anything to do with you.” Lauren offered. “As I’ve reminded you so often in the past, the world doesn’t revolve solely around you.”

“I’m with Harriet,” Jessica said from the back. “How many agendas can one big city woman have in a small place like Foggy Point.”

“I know,” Lauren said. “I was just hoping this wasn’t going to get more complicated than it already is. I should know better.”

“Chances are this has something to do with finding her child.” Harriet said. “We didn’t talk about what she’s done already in her search. I can just imagine how many people there are out there ready to take advantage of people like Sharon.” She started the car again and pulled back out onto the main road. “With everything going on with Aiden, I really didn’t need this. A small part of me wants to ignore what we just saw.”

“But…” Lauren said.

“Now that I know Sharon and, more important, my dead husband have a child out there somewhere, I can’t ignore it. And okay, I can’t in good conscience have her possibly being taken advantage of by who knows who and not do something to help her.”

Lauren sighed again and looked toward the heavens.

“I was afraid you were going to say that.”

“Come on, tough girl,” Jessica said from the back. “You wouldn’t be at Harriet’s side for all this stuff if you didn’t want to be.”

“My life was pretty ordinary before Harriet moved back to town.”

“Don’t even try to sell me on that one,” Jessica said with a laugh. “I’d be willing to bet nothing in your life has ever been ordinary. Don’t forget, I’ve seen some of the names on your speed-dial list.”

The rest of their trip was blessedly uneventful, and Sharon’s rental car was in the church parking lot when they parked.

“I can’t thank you enough for picking these up,” Glynnis told Harriet when she’d opened the first box and inspected the replacement bags for herself.

“We were happy to do it.”

“I told your teachers you were doing an errand for me. All the groups are having work time so everyone can get as far as possible before the final show-and-tell.”

Harriet handed Glynnis the receipt from the printer.

“We’d better get going so we can get to work.”

“Thank you again, ladies.”

Most of the students made considerable progress on their crazy quilt blocks. Harriet’s stitching looked so bad she ended pulling half of it out. She couldn’t stop thinking about Aiden, locked up in a cell. She was thankful he wasn’t in the general population, but that would only be true as long as they had space. It was a nightmare without end, and it wasn’t even happening to her.

Aiden had been through a lot in recent years. He’d told her stories about his time in Uganda, how hard it was just to survive daily life. And then his mother died right after he returned to Foggy Point. She could feel tears burning her eyes.

A wrinkled hand pressed a tissue into her hand. She glanced to her side and saw Mavis, busily clipping a thread on her block.

“Thank you,” she whispered.

“Let me see your block. You’ve got a bit of a snarl going on there.” Mavis took her block and finished removing a piece of lace Harriet had misapplied. She repositioned it and deftly sewed it into place. “There, that’s better.” She handed the work back to Harriet.

“Fretting about that boy sitting in jail isn’t going to help anyone. He’s tougher than you think, and we’re going to get this thing figured out and get him home before you know it.”

Glynnis and the Small Stitches went all out for the final lunch—they had gotten The Smuggler’s Cove restaurant to cater the event. Harriet had met the owner-chef when she’d first moved to Foggy Point, and she and James had gone on to become friends when she’d filled in for his sister at the wiener dog races earlier in the year.

Aunt Beth was saving places for the Loose Threads at a long table near the front of the dining room when Harriet joined her and Mavis.

“I’m going to go see if James is here,” Harriet said. She set her purse and quilting bag on her chair and headed for the kitchen. She found him in his white apron standing at the big industrial stove. He was cooking burgers, and his assistant was plating them on homemade buns along with baked sweet potato fries, lettuce and tomatoes.

“Hey, how’s our favorite race dog?” she asked.

“He’s still in the game. I think he’s going to make it all the way to the big show.”

“Tell Cyrano that Scooter and I are pulling for him.”

“I’m sorry about Aiden. As you can imagine, everyone who’s been in the restaurant in the last few days has been talking about it. No one believes for a minute he killed that woman.”

“Unfortunately, there are a few people who don’t believe he’s innocent. Most importantly—the district attorney. We all know innocent people are wrongly prosecuted. Maybe not every day, but it happens.”

“If there’s anything I can do, just say the word. Otherwise, you need to go sit down and prepare to have the best burger you’ve ever tasted.” He bowed at the waist and pointed toward the door.

“Thanks, you’re the best.”

“I bet you say that to all the guys who ply you with chocolate.”

Harriet smiled as she turned and went back to the dining room.

“James is making us burgers and baked sweet potato fries. They smell wonderful.” she said.

Lauren leaned toward Jessica.

“James could make cardboard taste delicious.”

“Not to change the subject from our wonderful lunch, but does anyone know when we finish up today?” Jessica asked.

“Lunch is followed by a show-and-tell, and then I think Glynnis will make some closing remarks,” Connie told them. “Mainly she’s going to ask people to fill out a questionnaire. I heard them talking in the bathroom. They’re trying to figure out whether they should repeat crazy quilting again or if they should do a different type of quilting next time.”

“Are we going to have an after party?” Mavis asked. “My guest is going home as soon as we’re done.”

Connie put her napkin in her lap.

“Mine scheduled themselves for a spa afternoon, so I’m free.”

“I’ve got Lainie coming over to sew quilt blocks,” Harriet told them.

Servers began setting plates of food in front of the quilters, interrupting the flow of conversation.

“Why don’t we meet at Harriet’s?” Beth suggested when the food had been delivered.

“Fine with me,” Harriet said around her first bite of burger. “Mmmm,” she moaned as she chewed.

No more conversation was possible until everyone was finished eating.

“So I hope you’ll all fill out your questionnaires about what you’re interested in, and I hope everyone will mark the yes box to say you’ll be back again next year.” Glynnis told everyone when the show-and-tell was over.

Three women, including Beth’s roommate, made their way to the front of the room and presented a large floral bouquet to Glynnis and smaller bouquets to each member of her executive committee. They thanked the committee on behalf of the attendees, and with a final round of applause, the workshop was over.

Harriet stood up and put her coat on.

“Will four o’clock work for everyone? That’ll give me some time to work with Lainie alone before you come. Carla’s going to bring a movie Lainie and Wendy can watch upstairs while we’re talking.”

Sharon came up to Harriet and Lauren.

“I’ll see you back at your house,” she said and turned to go.

“Hold on,” Lauren said. “Harriet told me you might need a little help with a research project. Can I get some information from you when I come over? I can get my guys going, and we should know quickly if it’s going to be something we’ll be able to help with.”

Sharon pressed her hand to her heart, hope plain on her face.

“That would be great.”

Chapter 22

Cookie got out of her car and followed her niece to the studio door.

“Lainie said she was staying until six o’clock, is that right?” she asked as they came into the studio.