Threads of Deceit (Vineyard Quilt Mysteries Book 1) (6 page)

Finally, she reached the top of the chute. The crowded space didn’t allow her to use her flashlight app easily. She reached out to feel for the window, but where her fingers should have touched glass, she felt something much rougher. She wiggled and squirmed until she could reach her phone in her pocket, then pulled it out and turned it on. That’s when she discovered the original window was broken. Shards of glass still hung in the frame. “Great,” she muttered. “I could have slit a wrist.”

Beyond the broken glass, the window was bricked over. Julie groaned, then began the painful crawl back down the chute. As she was wiggling out the end, she felt Daniel’s hands on her waist. He lifted her out of the chute and set her on the floor.

“Can we make the call now?” he asked.

“No. I’ll find my own way out of here if I have to tear the door off.” Then an idea struck her.

Apparently it struck Daniel at the same moment, because she could see him grin by the light of the cellphone. “We can take the door off.”

Julie nodded. “We just need something to pry the pins out of the hinges. Something with a blade.”

She turned to look around the cellar. Daniel tapped her
on the shoulder and held up a heavy bladed knife.

“Gah!” she exclaimed and jumped back, causing the light to dance across the deadly blade. It was a knee-jerk reaction, a carryover from her previous line of work. “You walk around armed with that thing?”

He laughed. “Only when I’m having adventures. It folds up.”

Daniel strode across the room like a man on a mission, and Julie hurried after him, willing her heartbeat to slow to normal. The space at the top of the stairs was tight, so Julie had to lean against his back to hold the cellphone light while he worked with the hinge pins.

“You know,” he said, “this adventure is becoming more fun by the moment. I think we make a great team.”

“Just get us out of here.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

Though encrusted grime had to be scraped away to pull the pins, at least they didn’t have to deal with paint. Daniel managed to get all three hinge pins out with minimal muttering under his breath. By the time the second pin was out, Julie had to hold the door upright so that the last pin would slide out. When it did, Daniel wedged his knife into the crack between door and frame on the hinged side and began to lever it toward them.

The hasp groaned as they forced its small hinge to bend. Julie winced, wondering what damage she might be inflicting on the door. She would have to pay for any repairs since it was her pride that led to the damage.

Finally, Daniel was able to pull the door open a crack. “You’re smaller than me; see if you can squeeze through. If you can, I’ll rehang the door, and you can let me out the more traditional way.”

“Don’t sound so sure of yourself.”

He merely chuckled.

Julie made it out. She briefly considered leaving Daniel in the cellar for the remainder of the night as punishment for all of the trouble he’d caused, but ultimately decided against it. Daniel worked quickly to replace the door pins, and he finished up about the same time Julie got the lock off and opened the door. She was relieved to see that the door wasn’t damaged, though the latch was definitely bent.

“Well,” Daniel said as he rubbed his hands on his well-worn jeans. “That was fun. Still OK if I take a peek in the kitchen?”

“I suppose.” Julie walked the rest of the way down the hall, then used the cleanest spot she could find on her hands to push open the swinging kitchen door. Once in, she flipped on the lights.

Daniel glanced around, frowning. “They may well have covered it up in all this remodeling.” He walked over to the tiny breakfast area where Millie sometimes held staff meetings when she was in town. Next to it was a small fireplace. It was considerably more rustic than the rest of the fireplaces and looked old. “This mantle is old, but there are no marks on it.”

“Nope.”

He continued to stare at the single thick piece of wood that made up the mantle. “What if Stark had the beam installed with the carving facing the wall? This
could
be it. We’d know for certain if we could dig it out of the wall and examine the other side.”

“I’m afraid that’s permission I can’t give. And I’m almost one hundred percent certain Millie wouldn’t go for it either. She’s very fond of how this kitchen looks.”

“Even if I promised to put it back exactly how I found it?”

The expression on his face was so hopeful that Julie felt bad for shaking her head. “No. Sorry.”

“Then I guess we should call it a night,” he said. “And what an interesting night it was. I appreciate your help. It was very gallant of you to try and climb out the coal chute to save us.”

Julie studied his face, his teasing tone causing her eyes to narrow slightly. “And it was very brave of you to risk life and limb taking the pins out of the door.
Partner
.”

“Touché.” He grinned and strode toward the main staircase, leaving her to watch his retreating form.

Julie gave herself a mental shake and reached up to turn off the lights. She caught sight of the kitchen clock as she did so and almost moaned. Morning was going to come far too soon.

She was right. The alarm clock in her room seemed to ring moments after she’d finally wound down enough to close her eyes. Her head felt mushy, and her eyes hurt. She wobbled to the small bathroom, hoping for some rejuvenation from the shower. It helped, but not a lot.

As soon as she reached the first floor, Julie headed for the kitchen. She definitely needed the cup of coffee she’d been fantasizing about since the scream of the alarm had woken her.

Hannah glanced up from the dough she was rolling out. “Wow. You look terrible. Insomnia?”

“Something like that.” Julie shrugged. “I was treasure hunting in the cellar.”

“The cellar … here? The one with all kinds of nothing in it?”

“That very one.” Julie picked out the strongest coffee pod in the basket and popped it into the machine. Then she tapped her foot as her mug filled. “We found all the treasure you’d expect.”

“Why were you looking for treasure in the cellar?”

“Daniel Franklin felt certain it was there.”

Hannah rubbed soft butter over the dough. “I knew he had to have a flaw. He’s too handsome. Figures he’d be crazy too.”

Julie sipped the hot coffee, then rubbed her forehead. “He said he read something about a rough wooden beam with a coded message carved into it. It supposedly ended up at the inn, but there’s nothing like that in the cellar.”

“Oh. Well, I’m not surprised it wasn’t in the cellar since I know exactly where it is.”

Julie blinked, her tired brain trying to follow the meaning of what she’d just heard. “You do?”

“It’s the fireplace mantel in my bedroom,” Hannah said, sprinkling the dough with cinnamon. “Servant quarters aren’t as fancy as the rest of the house. Luckily, I kind of like the rustic look. I’ve puzzled over the carving a couple of times since we got here. I even looked online, but I haven’t seen a design exactly like it.”

The kitchen door swung open, and Inga Mehl walked in, looking as dour as always. Hannah began to roll up the dough and said, “You can start on the bacon, Inga.”

Inga nodded, then turned to Julie. “I found something when I was sweeping the porch this morning.”

Julie felt slightly chagrined. She wasn’t aware Inga swept the porch in the mornings. The housekeeper’s job was a lot like that. She moved through the house, quiet as a baleful ghost, and left cleanliness in her wake. “What did you find?”

Inga held out a scrap of cloth. “It was shoved into the crack between bricks on the base of one of the posts. There’s a small gap where some of the mortar has come out.”

Another thing that needs fixing
, Julie thought as she took the scrap of fabric from Inga. The fabric was surprisingly clean for having been left outside. Someone had stitched a message
on it in ornate red letters: “Treasure hunting can be a deadly endeavor … for the hunter.”

A chill crept up Julie’s back, and she fought the urge to fling the ominous scrap of cloth onto the floor. Why would someone spend so much time stitching a message like that? Was it related to Daniel’s treasure hunting? That seemed unlikely. Daniel had only arrived the day before.

Julie’s stomach clenched as she had another thought. Her work in antiquities recovery was a lot like treasure hunting. What if her past had already caught up with her, and this was the art theft ring’s way of playing games before moving in for the kill?

Inga turned away, leaving Julie to stare at the cloth. Seemingly oblivious to Julie’s turmoil, the housekeeper pulled a thick butcher-paper-wrapped package from the fridge and set about unwrapping it.

Julie cleared her throat nervously. “Inga, did you happen to see anyone out on the porch yesterday?”

Inga looked at her, expressionless. “No. But I wasn’t outside often.”

Julie nodded. “Thank you.”

Julie felt Hannah’s gaze on her. She looked at her friend, who raised an eyebrow.

“Do you still want to see the beam in my room?” Hannah asked.

Julie shook off her worry and crammed the cloth into her pocket.
One mystery at a time
. She forced a smile. “I do, but I don’t want to interrupt your breakfast preparation.”

“Just let me finish rolling these and pop them in the oven.”

A short while later, they entered Hannah’s quarters. The second they closed the door to the small sitting room, Hannah whirled and said, “Spill it. What did Inga give you?”

Julie showed her the scrap of fabric, and Hannah looked it over curiously. “Nice work. I couldn’t do anything this nice. Maybe in cross stitch, but this looks like split stitch.” She held the fabric close to her nose. “And I don’t see any sign of marking on the fabric. I think this was done freehand. Wow, whoever did this really has talent.”

“How lovely for them,” Julie said dryly.

“Do you think this warning has something to do with the arrival of our new treasure hunter?” Hannah paused. “Or your old activities?”

Julie shrugged. “I don’t know. And since I can’t know for certain, I don’t intend to worry about it.” She held out her hand for a fabric. “So, where’s the carving on the beam?” She looked around the neat room and headed for the fireplace.

Hannah pointed at the small strip of carving. The symbols were squares with odd marks making some of the squares different from the others. Julie ran her finger gently over the carving. Then she looked up and smiled. “Bingo!”

T
he wooden beam was dark with age, but the carefully carved squares were darker still. Julie leaned in to look closely at them, and she saw that they seemed to have been cut with a chisel rather than a knife. The edges were precise, and each gouge was a neat valley in the wood. “Someone went to a lot of trouble with this message too. Daniel’s theory might be correct after all.”

“If you don’t mind,” Hannah said, “I’d just as soon you didn’t bring your new adventure partner in for a tour of my private rooms.”

“No, of course not. Still, I’d like to make a rubbing of this. Maybe I can figure out what the symbols mean.”

Hannah moved to the side table beside her brass bed. She pulled open a drawer and rummaged around until she found a package of tissue paper. “Do you think you can do a rubbing with this?” Hannah brought it over along with a red crayon.

“Crayons?” Julie asked.

“I have a bunch of them. I bought them to give to fussy kids in the breakfast room, but we don’t really get kids in the breakfast room.”

“Not a lot of quilting preschoolers,” Julie said.

“I was trying to be thoroughly prepared for any possible emergency.”

Julie peeled the wrapper off the crayon and laid the tissue paper over the carving on the beam. Then she rubbed the crayon gently against the paper. The lines of the carving appeared on the paper. Julie continued to rub the crayon until the carving was dark enough to easily read. “Got it.”

“Great. It’s time I got back to fixing breakfast.”

“And time I got back to work.” Julie folded the rubbing and slipped it into her pocket alongside the embroidered note. It had certainly been the morning for cryptic messages.

As soon as she reached the lobby, she found Daniel leaning back against the polished oak front desk, studying the quilts on the walls. He straightened when he saw Julie approach.

“There you are,” he said with a warm smile. “I wanted to thank you for humoring me in my hunt for the elusive wood beam last night.”

Julie couldn’t suppress her own grin. “I have to admit it was a nice change from my usual adventures here.” She fingered the rubbing in her pocket. She’d already decided against sharing it with him until she could spend a little time with it. She rather liked the idea of handing it over decoded.

“I’d imagine.” He shoved his hands into the pockets of his jeans and looked uncomfortable for a moment.

“Is something wrong?”

“No, everything’s fine.”

“Did you want to ask me something?”

He looked up at her, and she admired the lovely pale blue-gray of his eyes. “Ah, no. I just wanted to say thanks. I’m heading over to the Winkler farm.”