Quilt As Desired (33 page)

"It makes no sense for me to have to go around the block while you sit outside in the cold, just so I can pull the car up to that other doorway."

"So,” Harriet said after she was settled in the front seat. “Exactly why is it that we don't need to pick up some food?"

"Well, it's entirely possible that the Loose Threads have taken care of that."

"How could they possibly know I'd be coming home today?” Her shoulder twinged as she turned toward Mavis.

"I called Jenny to ask her to call people and tell them their quilt delivery would be delayed. She offered to go to my house and pick them up and make the deliveries herself. Well, as you can imagine, I had to tell her something. I couldn't let her go to my house and find the police."

"Keep talking."

"Jenny figured you could use some comfort food. She said she could make some macaroni and cheese. She offered to call Robin and see if she had a pie she could bring by. Robin is our group pie maker,” Mavis said this last as an aside, as if it explained why Robin would have a pie baked and waiting to be delivered on a moment's notice. “I'm sure Robin called DeAnn, because they do everything together.” She shrugged her shoulders. “Things just sort of took off from there."

Harriet unlocked the studio door and was immediately greeted by Fred.

"How did you get here?” she asked.

Aiden came in from the kitchen.

"I brought him here after I finished giving the police my statement,” he said. “I hope it's okay—I brought Randy, too."

"Don't make her stand out here,” Mavis told him. “Let the girl sit down."

She ushered Harriet into the kitchen. Jenny, Robin and DeAnn sat around the kitchen table. Sarah stood by the sink, taking the lid off a casserole dish. Mavis pulled out a chair and guided Harriet into it. Robin got up, filled a bowl with macaroni and cheese and sat it in front of her.

"Eat,” she said. “Then we want to hear everything."

"Don't start yet,” Marjory said as she came through the door from the studio. “Have all of you met Carla?” she asked and indicated the young woman who had followed her into the room. “She works for me at the shop."

Carla's face turned a shade of red that bordered on purple.

"I'm not sure I know any more than most of you have already heard,” Harriet protested.

"Well, I don't know anything, so why don't you start at the beginning?” Marjory said.

"You all know about the break-in here,” she started.

"Did she mention the part where she clubbed me in the head?” Aiden asked.

Six pairs of eyes glared at him.

"Sorry,” he said.

"It turns out that someone was looking for Avanell's quilt. And by the way, the attack on Lauren's was a case of mistaken identity. Avanell had sewn her binding on in her office. She had bound and backed her quilt in the same red fabric Lauren used.

"What the thief didn't know is that Avanell's quilt had a slight misadventure when Aiden was delivering it to me. He had to take it to the dry cleaners. When the break-in happened, it was gone. It was at the show when the thief tried again, but the organizers had taken it off display because of Avanell's death. Lauren's quilt was in the spot where Avanell's had been. The show organizers hadn't switched the name cards yet, and the thief thought he knew what the quilt looked like.

"His third attempt was when I came home to repair Lauren's quilt. Again the thief had the two confused. Since I now know he was looking for diamonds Avanell had hidden in one of the sections of her quilt, the shredding of Lauren's makes more sense.” She stopped to take a bite of macaroni.

"Avanell hid diamonds in her quilt?” Jenny asked.

"Where did Avanell get diamonds?” DeAnn wondered.

"Why on earth would she think a quilt was a good place to hide diamonds?"

"Give the girl a chance to speak,” Mavis scolded.

"I only discovered the diamonds this morning. I was looking at the show quilts, and when I picked hers up I felt a bumpy spot. I thought it was gravel from the misadventure it had been through. I opened the seam and found a small handful of diamonds.

"I have no idea why Avanell hid the diamonds there, but Bertrand showed up and demanded I hand them over."

"I think I can help out with that,” Aiden put in. “Once the police took my uncle into custody, he started talking. They suggested he call a lawyer, but he insisted on telling them everything.

"Apparently, the reason money has been so tight at the Vitamin Factory these last couple of years is that Uncle Bertie had developed a bit of a gambling problem. He borrowed from some shady characters who saw an opportunity to use the Vitamin Factory to launder money. When they found out the factory imported a lot of herbs and supplements from China and Vietnam, they saw an opportunity to smuggle gems into the country as well.

"Unfortunately, Mom intercepted one of the bottles of gems. She must have hidden them to give herself time to deal with Uncle Bertie.

"According to him, she broke a mirror and put glass in the bottle. He confronted her and demanded the gems. She handed him the bottle but told him she would not keep quiet.

"Mom never could see Uncle Bertie's flaws. I guess she didn't believe he would resort to violence."

Carla cleared her throat. “My friend Misty got fired that day. She left her medicine in her toolbox and went back to get it that night. She was going to see if she could sneak in and get it without anyone seeing her.

"She knew the back warehouse door had a broken lock. She jiggled the door open, but discovered Miz Jalbert was back there packing vitamins. She hid between the stacks of boxes. Mister Bertrand showed up and he and Miz Jalbert had a big fight. Misty said he demanded the diamonds, and Miz Jalbert handed over a vitamin bottle. Mister Betrand pulled a gun out of his pocket and shot her in the head. Misty said Miz Jalbert fell to the floor, and he stood over her and told her it was her fault.” Carla looked down.

"I can't believe there have been organized criminals operating out of Foggy Point,” Robin said. “Have they caught the other people involved?"

"Uncle Bertie is a mess, but hopefully when he gets a lawyer and understands how much trouble he's in, he'll give up some names. He was still blubbering about how ‘they’ were going to kill him. He doesn't yet understand that he could get the death penalty. The police detective said it would be up to the DA to decide whether Mom's murder qualified as happening during the commission of another crime, in which case it would be death-eligible."

"This certainly hasn't been the welcome back to our community we'd intended to give you,” Marjory told Harriet.

"This has taught me something important,” Harriet said. “I had pretty mixed feelings about staying here when I first read Aunt Beth's letter. Having someone try to take the choice away from me has brought my feelings into focus. I want to stay here and make Aunt Beth's business my own."

She paused and took a sip of the tea Mavis had set on the table in front of her.

"I've learned something else out of all this.” She paused a moment. “I lived in my last apartment in Oakland for five years. I had a nodding acquaintance with two neighbors, but I realized while I was at Mavis's that no one I knew in Oakland would have taken me in on a moment's notice like she did, or welcome me into an established group like the Loose Threads did. Look at this,” she said, and spread her good arm wide to indicate the feast in front of her. “I don't even know anyone in Oakland who can boil water. You guys made macaroni and cheese and pie from scratch. I know you did it because of Aunt Beth, because I'm her niece, but that's part of it, too. I have a root here, and I need to quit running away from it. I just hope I can repay the love and support you've already given me so freely."

"Oh, honey,” Mavis said, “you already have."

The food hadn't even been dented by the time the Loose Threads left. Mavis cleaned the kitchen while Aiden carried her bag upstairs to Aunt Beth's room.

Mavis hung her damp dishtowel on the oven door handle.

"If you're doing okay, honey, I think I'll go upstairs and put my feet up."

She crossed the kitchen to the staircase and waited as Aiden came down. She patted him on the back as he passed her then ascended the stairs.

Aiden joined Harriet at the table.

"So, you're going to stick around, huh?” A grin creased his tanned face. “Does this mean we can go on a real date?"

Attempted murder, theft, drug rings, battered women, death threats, and more sordid affairs than she could count were the more exciting experiences from Arlene Sachitano's nearly thirty years in the high tech industry.

Prior to writing her first novel,
Chip and Die
, Zumaya Publications Oct 2003, Arlene wrote the story half of the popular Block of the Month quilting patterns “Seams Like Murder” and “Seams Like Halloween” for Storyquilts.com, Inc. She also has written a scintillating proprietary tome on the subject of the electronics assembly.

April Martinez was born in the Philippines and raised in San Diego, California, daughter to a US Navy chef and a US postal worker, sibling to one younger sister. From as far back as she can remember, she has always doodled and loved art, but her parents never encouraged her to consider it as a career path, suggesting instead that she work for the county. So, she attended the University of California in San Diego, earned a cum laude bachelor's degree in literature/writing and entered the workplace as a regular office worker.

For years, she went from job to job, dissatisfied that she couldn't make use of her creative tendencies, until she started working as an imaging specialist for a big book and magazine publishing house in Irvine and began learning the trade of graphic design. From that point on, she worked as a graphic designer and webmaster at subsequent day jobs while doing freelance art and illustration at night.

In 2003, April discovered the e-publishing industry. She responded to an ad looking for e-book cover artists and was soon in the business of cover art and art direction. Since then, she has created hundreds of book covers, both electronic and print, for several publishing houses, earning awards and recognition in the process. Two years into it, she was able to give up the day job and work from home. April Martinez now lives with her cat in Orange County, California, as a full-time freelance artist/illustrator and graphic designer.