The next two days passed in a blur of stitching, movies and sleeping. Aunt Beth and Mavis let the Loose Threads know Harriet wouldn't be receiving visitors until the weekend, and everyone respected that, which was strange given Sarah could almost always be counted on to do the exact opposite of whatever the rest of the group decided on.
"Good morning, Merry Sunshine,” Aunt Beth said on Saturday morning when Harriet crutched downstairs.
"What's got you in such a chipper mood this morning?"
"I'm just being my normal cheerful self."
Harriet laughed. “Since when?"
"Okay, maybe I'm a little hysterical with relief that I finished quilting the last quilt this morning."
"You finished our applique quilt?"
Beth made a face. “Oh, please. It's not like it was a California king or anything. Get yourself situated in your chair, and I'll bring you some breakfast."
"You don't have to fix me breakfast on top of all the quilting you've been doing."
"Don't worry, Aiden stopped by with some breakfast burritos Jorge made us. He was on his way to work and said to tell you he'll be back in a couple of hours. He said all the clinic vets were going to have a meeting to decide if any of the hoarding victims could be adopted out in conjunction with the auction. I guess the fundraising committee is really pressuring the clinic. They think the hoarding story will bring in big-dollar donations and having a few survivors at the dinner and auction might help."
"I'd like to be a fly on the wall for that meeting. Aiden told me he feels it would be like abusing the dogs twice, making them go out in public so soon,” Harriet said. “I'm just glad we're going to have quilts finished to auction."
A knock sounded on the studio door, ending the discussion. Aunt Beth headed to answer, talking as she went.
"I volunteered to host the Loose Threads meeting here today, since you can't go anywhere yet.” She opened the door, letting Jenny, Connie and Carla in along with a crisp gust of wind.
"Oh, honey,” Connie said and came to stand by Harriet's chair. “We've been so worried about you."
"As you can see, I'm fine."
"You don't look fine."
"The doctor put me in an over-sized cast to force me to stay off my ankle, but it really is just an ordinary sprain. And my kidney is much better."
"I'm glad to hear that, but you just take it slow for a while anyway."
Carla brought Connie a cup of tea then pushed one of the wheeled chairs from the desk area to the space beside the gray chair and sat down.
Mavis and Lauren arrived together, each carrying a pillowcase that appeared to be holding a quilt.They set their bags on the large cutting table and continued on into the kitchen to prepare their drinks.
Everyone was surprised when DeAnn arrived with Robin. They, too, were carrying bags with quilts in them.
"I take it things are going better with Iloai,” Harriet said when DeAnn had pulled a chair into the circle and sat down.
"Quite a bit has happened since…” She nodded at Harriet's foot.
"Since my accident?” Harriet suggested.
"I didn't want to say attack, but it sounds like that's what actually happened."
"True, but it sounds so dramatic, don't you think? So, enough about me, tell us what's happened."
"I think you know that Joseph has gone missing,” she started, but was immediately interrupted by Sarah, who had come in while DeAnn was getting her chair and getting situated.
"Joseph's not missing,” she said. “I just saw him. I was at the pet store getting some of those green treats for my Rachel, and I saw him there buying insect larvae for his dragon."
"Excuse me?” Harriet said. “He has a dragon?"
"Well, not exactly.” Sarah sat down in one of the wingback chairs. “I think it's some kind of lizard. The geeks that keep them call them dragons."
"You seem to know a lot about it,” Lauren said.
Sarah pinched her lips together in an apparently successful attempt to stop whatever rude remark she was about to make.
"Ever since my parents decided to let anyone in the community use the all-purpose room at the senior center for meetings if they were willing to let residents sit in on the gatherings, any time more than three weirdoes want to get together, they come there, including the dragon people."
"And Joseph's one of them?” Harriet asked.
"Isn't that what I just said?"
"How long ago did you see him?” DeAnn asked. “We've been trying to reach him for days. He doesn't answer his phone, and Phyllis doesn't know where he is. And she said he took our file home."
"I'm telling you, I stopped at the pet store on my way here."
"Are you sure it was Joseph?” Harriet asked.
"Now you're getting insulting,” Sarah said with an affected pout.
"So, what kind of game is he playing?” asked Harriet.
"That's what I'd like to know,” DeAnn said.
"He did look a little stressed, but I thought it was because he was grossed out about the larvae. You know how some people don't think ahead when they get exotic pets. He probably just decided how cool it would be to have a frilled lizard, and didn't even think about-"
"Sarah,” Aunt Beth said in a firm voice, “exactly how was he acting stressed? Tell us what you saw."
"Well, first of all, he completely ignored me when he came in the store, and I was standing right by the checkout register, looking through the sale bin and-"
"Joseph, Sarah-what was Joseph doing?” Mavis asked.
"He waited until there was no one in the bug aisle, and then he went to the larvae tray and started picking larvae into a carton. But he kept looking from side to side, like he was watching for someone. And he dropped the carton once and had to start over, and he didn't even pick up the ones he dropped. And-"
"Thank you, Sarah,” Aunt Beth said.
"So, he's hiding somewhere,” Harriet said.
"He's not hiding,” Sarah protested. “I'm telling you, he's at the pet store."
"Okay, we get it, he's at the pet store,” Harriet said. “Do you think he's still there?"
"Well, no. I waited until he left, just to see if he'd talk to me after he got his baby bugs."
"Did he?"
"No, he went right by me like I wasn't there-and after I've been so nice to him and his geeky friends. I even touched his lizard."
"I'm not sure I'd mention that in polite company,” Harriet said.
Carla chuckled then blushed. Aunt Beth glared but didn't say anything.
"So, DeAnn,” Harriet said. “What were you about to say you're doing in the absence of Joseph?"
"We went to Phyllis, of course, but as I said, she told us he had taken our file home and apparently everything else associated with Iloai."
"I wonder if that's usual,” Mavis said. “We'll have to check with Phyl."
Aunt Beth excused herself and went into the kitchen. Harriet watched her leave and wondered what she was up to. Everyone had fresh drinks, and Connie had brought a plate of layered bar cookies.
"Go on,” Harriet said, giving DeAnn what she hoped was an encouraging look.
"My husband decided we needed to investigate more, so he called a friend of his at the University of Washington, and that guy checked with the campus foreign studies center and found us a translator. The guy is great. He speaks several island dialects, and he has small children himself. He agreed to come to our house yesterday and talk with Iloai."
"And?” Harriet was anxious to hear the punch line.
"She was quite chatty with him, once she got comfortable. Unfortunately, she was chatty at a three-year-old level. The perplexing thing is that she talked about Mama, Dada, Sister and Aunt-in Samoan, of course. She talked about a dog and about fish, and she said her dad fished. She has a whole fantasy world peopled with family members who work a lot and fish a lot."
"That's weird for a child who was raised in an orphanage,” Harriet said.
"Maybe it was in a fishing village, and they took the children to the beach,” Jenny suggested.
"Children are able to do imaginary play when they're that age,” Connie said. “But usually it's simple-they pretend they're their dolls’ mother, or other basic games. I'll look in my child-development book when I get home and see what it says, but I think that kind of detail isn't usual. I don't know how being in an orphanage might affect a child's fantasies at that age."
"Lauren's list of words has been a big help, and the professor helped us with proper pronunciation, but it's clear, even though she's not crying all the time, Iloai wants to be somewhere else."
"Oh, honey, I'm sorry this has been so hard on you and your family,” Mavis said.
"I just feel for Iloai,” DeAnn said. “She's been miserable, and until Lauren brought us the Samoan word list we weren't getting anywhere. Now at least we have somewhere to start trying to figure this thing out.
"And I'm here. Things were calm enough this morning that David and the boys should be able to handle it. I put the binding on one of the quilts last night. I needed to do something that wasn't related to small children for a few hours and to feel like I'd done something toward the auction."
"We're glad you're here,” Aunt Beth said as she came back into the studio.
"Speaking of the quilts,” Mavis said. “Let's get them out and see what we've got."
Connie and Lauren got up and pulled a quilt out of its pillowcase, then held it up for the group to see. Connie had provided a slate-gray landscape fabric for the doghouse roofs, and Lauren had hand-dyed a pale-blue fabric so it had random streaks of white that looked like clouds. These two features provided a unifying effect among the blocks made by the various Loose Threads members. Mavis had found a print with small doghouses for the outer border, and they had used a dark-brown Moda Marble for the inner one.
"That came out nice,” Jenny said.
"It's okay,” Lauren said, “but let's be honest-if this is the best we've got, we're in trouble."
Mavis and Beth got up next but kept their quilt folded in half, obscuring the front.
"As you know, we've been working on the snowball blocks. We tried fussy-cutting images for the center, but once we saw the star blocks, we felt ours were too similar,” Mavis said.
Aunt Beth took up the story. “Next, we tried using small-scale coordinating prints-bones, paw prints, that sort of thing. They would have made a serviceable quilt, but when we put a couple of rows together, it was too boring."
"We decided it was time to get creative,” Mavis said.
"So, when you guys go off the rails it's creativity, but if I do it, I'm not being a team player,” Lauren said. “How's that work?"
Mavis ignored the interruption.
"We were doing a computer search for dog pattern fabric when this one came up.” On cue, Beth stepped to the side, opening their quilt. “It's dogwood and daffodils."
The main fabric used for the quilt had a mauve background with pink dogwood flowers and cheddar daffodils with brick-red trumpets. They had alternated the snowball blocks with green and dark-salmon-colored nine-patch blocks.
"Who makes that fabric?” Jenny asked.
"It's a Phillip Jacobs print for Rowan,” Mavis replied.
"Well, it's cheating, but I have to admit, we might have a chance with that in our arsenal,” Lauren grumbled.
Robin stood up and removed the quilt that was folded up in her bag, Carla took one corner and stepped aside, opening it to the group's view.
The quilt was composed of multiple-sized star blocks with a fussy-cut realistic dog for the center and a taupe background. The points of the stars were made from prints that coordinated with the center images.
"That came out real cute,” Mavis said.
"How did you find images that were spaced far enough apart to fussy-cut like that?” DeAnn asked, referring to the technique of cutting a quilt piece at any angle or direction that resulted in a particular image being centered in the piece.
"We didn't,” Carla said. “If you look close, you can see where we added solid-colored fabric to the edges of the dog fabric."
DeAnn stood and picked up the corner of the quilt, looking closely at one of the blocks.
"Very clever,” she said and went back to her seat.
"What about Harriet's quilt?” Sarah asked. “Do you need me to finish it?"
Harriet blanched at the thought of Sarah touching her quilt. Even knowing Aunt Beth and Mavis had already finished it, the idea of Sarah, who never met an instruction she couldn't disregard, even coming close to her design was frightening.
"Thank you, honey,” Mavis said, “Beth and I finished the quilt for Harriet when she got hurt."
Beth stood up and went to Harriet's work table to pick up the folded quilt. She handed two corners to Mavis and stepped to the side with the other two, allowing the quilt to unfurl.
"Whoa,” DeAnn said when the image was revealed.
Blocks appeared to cascade from the center of the quilt. The three dimensional cubes each appeared to have a dog inside it, due to Harriet's clever instruction to everyone to fussy-cut a diamond-shaped dog image to form one side of each block.
Harriet had chosen deep reds and brown tones that ranged from a light caramel to a brown so dark it was almost black. The overall effect was striking. The pile of blocks were appliquéd onto a black background.
"Wow,” said Robin. “You sure couldn't tell how dramatic that was going to come out just from doing a single block."
"I think we have a contender for raffle quilt,” Jenny announced then looked around the group, silently daring Lauren or Sarah to challenge her assessment, but they remained silent.
"Let's see the dog-bone quilt,” Harriet said.
"We made a change after the last meeting,” Jenny said and got up to take the quilt from Aunt Beth's work table. “The original plan was to have a different breed of dog in each bone wreath, but when I drew up the diagrams, it looked too disjointed, so I changed the plan and made each dog face different colors and expressions, but all based on a Yorkshire terrier.” She unfolded the result and held it up for the group to see. “Beth just finished it, so of course, it isn't bound yet, but here it is."
The dog faces were appliquéd in tan, white and black with touches of gray. Pink had been used for the dogs’ tongues and some of the bows in their topknots. They were set in two rows of three on a medium rose-pink background. Dark-green vines and dark-pink and white flowers twined around the outside of the dog blocks, framing them, and the final border was cut in deep scallops. The scallop area had been quilted in a closely set crosshatch pattern. Jenny explained that the binding would be the same dark green as the flower vines.
"We may be competing against ourselves for the raffle quilt,” Robin said. “This one is definitely a contender, too."
Jenny blushed a becoming shade of pink. “I don't know about that, but at least they should be able to sell it at auction."
She picked up Connie's plate of butterscotch chocolate bars and handed them around the group again before sitting back down.
Connie was explaining that grated carrots were the secret ingredient in her bars, but she stopped when someone knocked on the door. Harriet looked around. Most of the people she knew were already in the room, and Aiden was at the vet clinic-and he wouldn't have knocked, in any case. She mentally reviewed her quilting schedule, trying to think of any customer she might have a forgotten.
Aunt Beth went to the door to let Detective Morse in.
"What's she doing here?” Harriet blurted.
"Mind your manners, child,” Aunt Beth said. “I called Detective Morse and told her about Sarah's story of seeing Joseph. She wants to question her, and I told her to come on over.” She ushered Detective Morse into the center of the circle of chairs.
"Ladies,” she said. “I'd like you all to meet Jane Morse. She's a detective, and she's investigating the murders."
She didn't need to say which murders-they all knew. No one moved or said anything.
"She's also a quilter,” Beth added.
"What kind of quilts do you make?” Lauren asked.
"Mostly machine piecing,” Jane replied. “I'm learning to appliqué, but I'm not very good on inside curves yet."
Carla smiled at the last comment.
"I'd love to look at the quilts you have here, but first I need to ask…” She glanced at a small notebook in her hand. “…Sarah Ness a few questions."
Everyone turned to look at Sarah.
"I'm Sarah. But if you think I'm going to rat out Joseph, you're mistaken. I'm no one's snitch."
"Sarah!” Aunt Beth and Mavis said at the same time.
"This isn't some B-grade gangster movie, Sarah,” Harriet said. “People are dead. You could be endangering Joseph by not telling the detective what you know."
"She's right,” Lauren seconded. “We're just assuming Joseph killed those two people and attacked Harriet, but it could be his only crime is running."
"Why would he run if he didn't do anything?” Sarah asked.
"Geez, Sarah,” Lauren said. “Make up your mind whose side you're on."
"Is there somewhere I can talk to Ms. Ness alone?” Detective Morse asked.
"Sure,” Aunt Beth said. “Come on, Sarah,” she prompted and led the two women into the kitchen.
The Loose Threads used the half-hour while Detective Morse was questioning Sarah to discuss the details of the pre-auction meeting where the raffle quilt would be selected. The contenders would be judged by a committee made up of local city council members as well as representatives from several animal-related businesses and nonprofit employers. Each guild would present their quilts along with the all-important narrative about the design and construction of each entry.
"Have any of the rest of you seen or talked to Joseph Marston in the last week?” Detective Morse asked when she and Sarah returned to the studio.
"Aiden and I saw him at the Steaming Cup last weekend,” Harriet offered.
"Did you talk to him?"
"We did-or at least, we tried to."
"What do you mean?"
"He was acting kind of jittery, and when I asked him a couple of questions, he was sharp with me-he raised his voice. Said things like ‘What difference does it make?’ Normally, he's kind of quiet and patient, but that night he wasn't."
"Has anyone else heard from him?” Morse looked at DeAnn.
"Not in the last week,” DeAnn told her. “We've tried to get hold of him, but he hasn't returned any of our calls."
"Well, thank you, ladies,” Morse said. “Beth told me you're making quilts for the pet adoption benefit. Do you mind if I look?"
"You don't belong to the Small Stitches, do you?” Connie asked.
"No, I haven't found a quilt group since I moved to Foggy Point."
Connie glanced at Mavis then Beth and Jenny. Each in turn gave an almost imperceptible affirmative nod.
"Let's start with the doghouses,” Mavis said, and Carla and Lauren held that quilt up for the detective. They displayed each of the others then refolded them and piled them on the work table.
"Those are really beautiful,” Morse said. “They should bring a lot of money in."
If Detective Morse didn't already have her invitation to join the Loose Threads in the bag, her compliments would get her one for sure, Harriet thought. Seemed like the good detective would be thinking it was a conflict of interest-unless she had another reason to try to plant herself in their midst.