Arlene Sachitano - Quilter's Knot

"Why is he being so nice all of a sudden?” Harriet whispered to Robin as the detective went back upstairs.

"He thinks something bad happened to Lauren, which means she's not the bad guy."

Harriet covered her face with her hands. “I've done my share of complaining about Lauren, but I never wanted anything like this to happen to her.” She rubbed her eyes.

Robin called Mavis and Connie again and asked them to come back to the restaurant parking lot to pick them up.

"We might as well go back to the Tree House and try to do our blocks. I'm fresh out of ideas for places to look."

"Tom and Aiden are going to come this afternoon so we can look in the outbuildings at the school."

"I guess it can't hurt. We probably wouldn't be able to concentrate on our blocks anyway. I'll be surprised, though, if it turns out someone who would snatch Lauren would hide her at the school where we might stumble on her."

"I'm learning there are a lot of storage and utility spaces on the grounds, and several of them are hard to find unless you know they're there."

"I guess we can try,” Robin said, and led the way back across the alley.

Mavis drove the minivan into the parking lot and opened the door. “You want to drive?” she asked.

"No, you go ahead,” Robin told her, and collapsed into a middle row seat. Harriet climbed into the back row and put on her seatbelt.

"You two don't look so good,” Connie said. “What happened?"

Harriet explained the details of their attempt to look for Lauren in Les's apartment.

"Tom and Aiden are going to help us search the grounds in a little while. Other than that, we wait and see what the police find out,” she finished.

The group drove back to the Tree House, each lost in her own thoughts. The men were waiting on the porch when they trooped single file from the parking lot.

"Put a little oil on her dry food each morning, and it should help that,” Aiden was saying to Tom when the women joined them.

"Thanks."

You would never have known Aiden had clubbed Tom in the jaw and Tom had knocked Aiden off this same porch not that long ago. They were smiling and talking like old pals.

"We're here for the big search,” Aiden said. “On time, I might add.” He checked his watch and then studied Harriet. “What happened?"

Harriet looked at Mavis. “Could you tell him? I need a few minutes.” She went on into the house.

Mavis explained the latest news and assured him that nothing had happened to Harriet.

"Maybe I should send everyone home,” Tom said.

"That might help,” Mavis agreed. “But I doubt you'd get people to leave before the memorial for your mother. And we can't leave here without Lauren."

"I suppose."

"Aiden and I talked this over while we were waiting,” Tom said when Harriet came back down from her room. She'd washed her face, brushed her teeth and refreshed her deodorant. It didn't help solve the Lauren problem, but she did feel a tiny bit better.

"I brought a couple of maps of the property, and we've divided up the keys,” Tom continued.

"Yeah, Harriet and I will be one team, and Robin, Tom and Carla will be the other,” Aiden jumped in. He looked at Mavis. “We thought Connie and Mavis could man the phones so if one of us finds something, we can let them know and they'll contact the others."

"The cell phone reception is spotty up here, as I'm sure you've all noticed, but most of the buildings have phones in them, so call on the house phones if you need to,” Tom finished.

He handed out the maps. He and Aiden had already divided the keys, obviously assuming the women would agree with their plan.

"As you can see from your maps, the property is roughly a rectangle. I thought we could start in opposite corners and work our way toward each other. The northeast corner is undeveloped, so there's nothing to search. The southwest area is where we are now. We don't really need to search here, and in any case we can do this area last. Aiden has the keys to the buildings on the west half of the property, and I kept the east-side keys. Any questions?"

They had all figured out. Mavis got bottles of water out of the refrigerator and handed one to each of the searchers.

"Good luck,” she said. “And call if you find anything."

With a salute to Mavis and Connie, Aiden turned and grabbed Harriet's hand and led her out the door. Harriet shook the map open with her free hand.

"Seems like only yesterday I was in the northwest corner of the property-oh, wait, I was in the northwest corner… trapped in a basement!” she said.

"It will be different this time,” Aiden said with a smile. “You'll have me. Maybe we can make a new memory to replace the bad ones."

Harriet rolled her eyes.

He stopped as soon as they were out of sight of the Tree House, pulled her to him and wrapped his arms around her.

"Hey, we're supposed to be looking for Lauren."

"We are,” he said, but didn't loosen his hug. “There's no reason we can't do both.” He kissed her, but she didn't respond.

"I can't do this right now. Not until we find Lauren. I was worried before, but at Les's apartment, when that detective said he was worried, too, that was more frightening than anything that's happened so far."

"Okay, okay,” He let her go and started down the path again. “We will be totally serious.” He looked back at her with his best attempt at a serious face, but it was so obviously false, Harriet burst out laughing. “I'm glad you find my efforts to be serious so funny."

"This week hasn't turned out like I expected,” Harriet said, catching up with Aiden and walking beside him.

"You mean you didn't expect the head lady to be murdered and one of the Loose Threads to be accused and then to disappear."

"That, and a few other things. And I never even wanted to come here in the first place. I really am more of a homebody. I know my aunt thinks I withdrew from society when Steve died, but she doesn't realize how much I liked spending time in my own home, even when he was alive.

"My parents dragged me all over the world. When I was with them, life happened at an accelerated pace. There were dinners and openings and museums, and if I never see another university science department it will be too soon. I know I was lucky, but I've seen enough. I want to spend time in my studio, with my fabric and my quilting machine. Is that so terrible?"

"Hey, whatever you want to do is fine with me. I'd be happy if you stayed in Foggy Point making quilts all day and sleeping in my arms all night."

"But first we have to find Lauren, and prove she didn't kill Selestina."

"Is that all? No problem."

The two landscapers Harriet had seen in the school office were in the meadow, each carrying a large green plastic bucket. They wore thick gloves and were picking plants that had clusters of purple flowers on thin stems. They carefully put the plants into their buckets, tucking the stems carefully below the rims.

"Those are the guys Tom hired to get rid of the poisonous plants,” Harriet said. “It's kind of scary, thinking there were poisonous plants all over the place and any one of us could have accidentally come in contact with them."

"That's the same poison that was used to kill the Pakistani cricket coach at the World Cup a few years ago. At least, an anonymous caller said it was. I thought it grew in the mountains, though."

"I think it does, unless people get plants and put them in their wildflower gardens."

"Tom was telling me about his idea to build a couple of adult foster care homes in this meadow,” Aiden said, changing the subject. “He's put a lot of thought into it. His mom could have lived her life out surrounded by art as her memory slipped away. I don't know if she had dementia or not, but he really does believe she did."