Disappearing Nine Patch (A Harriet Truman/Loose Threads Mystery Book 9) (29 page)

“I’m thinking it might be grown over by now. Plus, it might cover some amount of distance. Whatever the vent is connected to, it isn’t likely that space is in Fogg Park. I’m thinking it’s somewhere nearby, but the vent pipe is still going to be pretty long.”

“You’ve had some wild ideas in the past, but this one takes the cake. On the other hand, I’ve got nothing else to do for the next couple of hours.”

“I don’t think I like this plan,” Aunt Beth said.

Lauren looked at her.

“Believe me, this is likely a wild goose chase. We’ll go, we’ll run the metal detector until our arms get tired of holding it up, we won’t find anything, and we’ll grab lunch and be back in time to help bind.”

Aunt Beth shook her head and turned back to the quilt.

Harriet grabbed her purse and headed up the stairs, followed by Lauren.

“Hey, glad I caught you,” Detective Morse said as she came in through the main entrance doors. “I just got the report from the criminalists about the cave.”

Harriet stopped at the top of the stairs.

“Did they find something?”

Morse’s lips pressed into a thin line.

“No…and yes. That is, it was so clean it’s suspicious because of what wasn’t there.”

Lauren pushed past Harriet and stood facing Detective Morse.

“Explain.”

“That cave is so clean you could almost do surgery in it. There isn’t dust anywhere but the dirt floor, there are no spiders and, unlike the other cave, there are no empty cans or bottles, no candy wrappers, nothing.”

Harriet came up the final stair step and stood beside Lauren.

“What was in the trunk?”

“Tarps, flashlights, and freeze-dried meals, all without a single fingerprint or any other biological fluid we could test.”

Harriet looked at Lauren, but for once her friend had no comment.

“Well, that’s weird, isn’t it?”

“Clearly, someone’s been doing something in there they don’t want anyone to know about. Could be drugs, could be a temporary stash for stolen goods, could be anything. We’ll have patrol keep an eye out and see if they can catch anyone coming or going. I’ve put in a requisition to get video surveillance set up, too, but I don’t know if that will happen.”

Harriet hesitated. “So, I can imagine Molly coming across someone doing something in the cave, and someone killing her and tossing her in the park to keep their secret. But the psychic said
Amber
was underground, not Molly. She said Molly was in a narrow metal space.”

Morse shook her head.

“I can’t speak to what a psychic did or didn’t say or see. All I can tell you is that cave is suspicious. Something’s happening there, but whether it has anything to do with Molly’s death, it’s too soon to tell.”

Harriet made a move toward the door.

“You ladies look like you’re on a mission,” Morse called after her. “Anything I should know about?”

Lauren followed Harriet.

“Probably not,” she answered over her shoulder and went out the door.

Harriet pulled into the parking lot of the Carey Bates Missing and Exploited Children offices and parked in front of the door in one of the visitor spaces.

“Looks like there’s someone in the waiting room,” Lauren commented. “What do you think they’re doing?”

“Given the center looks for missing kids and uses volunteers, I’d guess it’s either someone who lost someone or someone who’s helping find someone. Or, if they’re lucky, it’s someone donating money.”

Lauren strained to see through the sheer curtain that obscured her view into the building.

“Please let it be a donor, I’m not sure I’m up for any more drama than we already have.”

“I haven’t heard of anyone going missing lately, not that that means anything. I’m with you, though. Let’s hear it for another donor.”

“Only if they don’t want a quilt prize.”

“I’m betting they don’t get too many ten-thousand-dollar donations, and with three already this year, a fourth isn’t too likely.” Harriet unbuckled her seatbelt. “Enough stalling. Let’s go get the metal detector and get out of here.”

Lauren stopped a few steps from the door.

“Listen.” She paused.

Harriet stopped and listened.

“I can’t make out what they’re saying, but someone sounds mad.”

“You still want to go in?”

“We need the metal detector—it’s the only way we can confirm or dispel the idea that there’s a vent big enough to hold a five-year-old.”

Lauren stepped aside.

“Lead the way.”

Harriet opened the door to the reception area of the Center.

“I don’t care how many people donated money, I don’t care how many buildings were built, I don’t care that it was Molly’s last wish,” Sandra Price shouted. “That woman has tormented my family for twenty years, and it seems like she’s not going to stop just because she died.

“I don’t know how else to tell you no. I don’t want to come to your party, I don’t want Amber’s name on your building.” She spoke slowly like she was talking to a child or someone who didn’t have English as their first language. “I don’t want anything else to do with you people. Is that clear enough for you?”

Sandra stood in the middle of the room, her fists balled at her sides, her face red. Patrice looked even paler than usual, and Carla’s friend Sadie was backing her way toward the hall.

“Does this mean you aren’t coming to the donor celebration?” Patrice stammered. She looked like she was about to cry.

Sandra threw her arms up in exasperation and then caught sight of Harriet and Lauren. She spun to face them and made as though to speak. Then, she shook her head, let her arms fall to her sides, and, with one more glare at Patrice, stormed out the door, slamming it behind her.

Tears that had barely been held in check began to flow down Patrice’s thin cheeks. Harriet looked at Lauren and, finding no help, picked up a box of tissues from the lamp table and crossed to hand them to the crying woman. Sadie hurried out from the hall and launched herself at Patrice, hugging her before stepping back.

“What are we going to do?” Patrice snuffled. “We were going to dedicate the new building in the name of Amber Price.” She moaned. “Molly would have known what to do.”

Harriet cleared her throat.

“Aren’t you presenting your major donors with their quilts? Do you have anything for any of your other donors? Maybe you can make the ceremony be about the donors and the building they helped you build and just leave out the naming part.”

“Not every building is named after somebody,” Lauren added.

Patrice looked hopeful.

“Can we do that? Can we thank them without calling the building by its name?”

Sadie put her arm around Patrice’s shoulders.

“Of course we can. We can worry about a name when the board gets to town. Let me make you a nice cup of tea, and then we can work on a new celebration plan.” She looked over at Lauren and Harriet. “Would you like some tea?”

“No, thanks. We just came by to see if we can borrow the metal detector we saw here the other day,” Harriet said.

“Sure,” Sadie said and disappeared into the hallway.

“Well, that was weird,” Lauren said when they were back in Harriet’s car, the detector stowed in the back. Sadie had given them a quick tutorial on the unit before they left.

“Yeah, there’s no winner in that little scenario. I mean, we only knew Molly for a couple of weeks, and she was driving
us
crazy with wanting us to solve her crime. You can just imagine what it’s been like for Sandra Price, trying to get over the loss of a child with a survivor who won’t let it go, hounding her for years.”

Lauren gazed out her window.

“This just keeps getting better. And by the way, Molly never mentioned a new building to us.”

“Molly never mentioned a lot of things. In fact, if it didn’t have to do with Amber and her disappearance, she didn’t tell us anything.”

Harriet laughed.

“You’re right. She could have had a whole secret life we didn’t know about.”

“Unfortunately, with her obsession, I don’t think she had time for a secret life.”

Lauren wrestled the metal detector out of Harriet’s car. They were parked near the restrooms in the lot at Fogg Park. It landed on the ground with a thunk.

“Do you want to carry it, or shall I?”

“I’ll carry it, but I think we should swing by the homeless camp and see if we can get a better idea of where Molly was found the first time.”

“Lead the way.”

Harriet headed down the path behind the restroom building and into the woods. Joyce Elias met them a short distance into the trees, a reusable grocery tote in each hand.

“What brings you two into our fine forest today? And what is that contraption?” The faint English lilt to her voice seemed more pronounced than usual.

Harriet set the detector down.

“We’re trying to help bring some closure to our friend DeAnn. Her sister Molly was obsessed with finding out what happened to her when she was five, and now, as you know, she’s dead.”

“We’re well acquainted with that poor girl. Besides Max and me finding her body, she came out here many times since I’ve been here and probably before that, too.”

“Lauren and I are on a bit of a wild goose chase. Just before she died, Molly told me she’d spoken to a psychic, and it had caused her to remember everything. Carla and I visited the psychic, but unfortunately, Molly didn’t have her breakthrough until after she’d left.

“We asked the woman what she’d told Molly, but it was a bit vague. She said that Molly felt cold metal around her shoulders. She told us she couldn’t tell what Molly was actually remembering and how much was fantasy based on
Alice in Wonderland
.”

Lauren crossed her arms.

“Can we get to the point?” she finally said.

Harriet glared at her before continuing.

“Okay, okay. We got the idea maybe Molly was held somewhere that was connected by some kind of vent to the woods she was originally found in. We thought she might have crawled into the vent to hide and ended up coming out in the woods.”

Joyce pointed at the metal detector.

“I suppose you were going to use that thing to find it?” she asked with a smirk.

Harriet put her hands in her jeans’ back pockets.

“Well, we saw this at the Missing and Exploited Children Center and thought any vent pipe Molly crawled out of in the forest twenty years ago would be grown over with brush by now.”

“Maybe yes, maybe no,” Joyce said thoughtfully. “If it’s been abandoned, yes, but if it’s still being used to vent something, it might be obvious. Do you know where to start looking?”

Harriet smiled.

“Sort of.”

“Tell you what. Let’s go back to camp so I can put my groceries away, and while we’re there, we can see if Max is around. If he is, we can ask him to show us where he found Molly. You can look around, and with any luck, you can find your vent without firing that thing up.”

Lauren just looked at Harriet, who shrugged.

“Sounds good to us. If we don’t find it that way, we can always use the metal detector.” Harriet stopped. “Wait a minute. Max found Molly when she was killed. We’re looking for the spot where she was found when she was five.”