The 12 Quilts of Christmas

by Arlene Sachitano

  Luke and Emily came back.

  “She didn’t answer, and we looked in the garage window and her car isn’t there.”

  Harriet pressed her lips together.

  “You might as well take Major out for some exercise while we’re here.”

  Luke went to Major’s stall; he led the big horse out into the aisle and fastened him with the cross ties. Emily watched as he got the grooming kit and started brushing him.

  “Will you be okay if I go get Fable?”

  “We’ll be fine,” Luke said, blushing. “Harriet knows about horses if I get stuck, but I think I’ve got this.” Major nudged him as if to affirm his statement.

  Harriet watched, but Luke was clearly a quick study. He groomed and saddled the horse without missing a beat. He got a bridle from the tack room and stopped in front of her.

  “Could you help me get the bit in his mouth? Emily sticks her finger in his mouth, but I’m not sure exactly how.”

  Harriet went with him.

  “There’s a space between his front teeth and his molars where you can tickle his gums to let him know he needs to open his mouth,” she explained.

  It turned out Luke didn’t need much technique. Major opened his mouth as soon as he saw the bridle nearing his head. She waited until Luke headed to the arena.

  “There are bleachers in the arena so we can watch him ride,” she told James.

  “Before we do, don’t you think we should call your buddy Morse?”

  Harriet slid her arm around his waist as they started after Luke.

  “Yeah, I was thinking about that. She needs to know Jade is still in town, and I’m hoping she can check Marcia’s license number and see if it matches what Julio got from our stalker.” She tapped Morse’s number into her phone and listened to the voice message. “Call me when you get a chance,” she said after the beep.

  She slid her phone into her pocket and put her glove back on. “I’ll try again when we’re done.”

  James gestured toward Luke and Emily as they rode in a big circle around the arena.

  “Is it just me, or is Luke’s horse a giant.”

  Harriet laughed. “He’s a giant.”

  They continued watching as Emily instructed Luke, having him guide Major through a series of spirals, first turning to the right, then the left. He had been riding for about thirty minutes when James’s dad called asking for help setting up the new table saw Santa had brought him.

  “Do you mind if Luke and I go help him?” he asked Harriet. “I know I said we were going to spend the day together, but Mom’s not home, so it might be boring for you to come with.”

  “You and Luke should go help him. Lauren texted me earlier and wanted to get coffee if I had any time.”

  “It shouldn’t take us more than an hour or two.”

  “That’s fine. I think Lauren wants to decompress after Christmas with her family. It may take at least that long for her to work through it all.”

  “I’ll call Dad back and let him we’ll be there in an hour or so. That’ll give us time to go back to the house and take the dogs out. Luke and I can take the restaurant van to Dad’s so you can have your car.”

  “Perfect.”

  She pulled her phone from her pocket and sent Lauren a text, explaining the plan.

  CHAPTER 34

  An icy drizzle was falling as Harriet hurried from her car into The Steaming Cup. It had taken less than an hour to deal with the dogs and switch cars, but Lauren had beaten her there. Her Christmas must have been a doozie.

  She ordered a London Fog latte and, when it was prepared, carried it to the table where Lauren sat, nursing a large black coffee.

  “Yesterday must have been bad if you’re drinking the hard stuff.”

  “It was the usual fun event at the Sawyer household. My parents picking Les apart and me trying to make peace among everyone, all set to the background of my aunt spouting the latest pop psychology on the topic at hand. How was your first Christmas with your baby boy?”

  “Christmas Eve at James’s parents was great. Christmas Day dinner was bizarre.” She described Aiden’s girlfriend, the surprise proposal, and the aftermath. “Hopefully, Julio’s second attempt this morning at the restaurant went better.”

  Lauren sipped her coffee.

  “That definitely tops Christmas combat at the Sawyer’s.”

  “I felt sorry for Julio.”

  “Great minds think alike,” Aunt Beth said as she came up to their table. “Is this private, or can we join you?”

  “We?” Harriet said and looked behind her aunt.

  “Connie and Mavis will be along in a minute.”

  Harriet got up and dragged a couple of additional chairs to the table.

  “We got a partial license plate number for the gray sedan that’s been hanging around my house,” she said when everyone was seated with their drinks.

  Mavis set her mug down with a thunk.

  “And?”

  “And…nothing yet. This just happened last night. I left Morse a message, but I haven’t heard back. We may not need her help, though. We took Luke to the stable this morning, and he got Emily to confess that Jade did not, in fact, leave the country but instead has been hiding out at the stable.

  “Before we could track her down, she disappeared, and then the stable manager drove off in her gray sedan. We’re making the assumption Jade was hidden in the car.”

  “Could you tell if it was the same car?” Lauren asked her.

  Harriet smiled.

  “It looked like it to me, but you know I’m not good with cars. We’re lucky I knew they were both gray sedans.”

  Connie tapped her spoon on the table.

  “So, we’re back to thinking Jade is our killer?”

  Harriet sipped her latte.

  “I wouldn’t go that far. She could be hiding from the killer. And I guess I can understand why she would lie to me about her whereabouts.”

  “But we can’t rule her out,” Lauren finished for her.

  Mavis pulled a piece of wool felt from her bag and began attaching a flower petal to the black background with a blanket stitch.

  “So, does that mean we’re back to square one?”

  Harriet leaned back in her chair.

  “You know what I’ve been wondering? We know, or suspect we know, that a number of the shopkeepers in the downtown area are being blackmailed. Then, that whoever is doing this escalated to killing people—or attempting to kill them, in Jade’s case.”

  “Okay,” Lauren said.

  “Who is the one merchant among them who didn’t make much of a secret about being blackmailed and yet has not had a hint of an attack on her person?”

  “Sunny,” Mavis and Beth said at the same time.

  “And,” Harriet continued, “while Jade has had her store burned, and an apparent attempt made to steal her horse, nothing has happened to her personally. What if Sunny has been helping Jade?”

  “Diós mio, why would Sunny and Jade want to harm the rest of the downtown merchants?”

  Lauren made a face as she took another sip of her black coffee.

  “Were they both friends of Valery’s daughter? Maybe they blamed him for her death.”

  Harriet stood up. “That doesn’t explain all the deaths.” She walked to the service counter and came back with a thermos of half-and-half and several packets of organic sugar. She handed both to Lauren.

  “I can’t stand watching you torture yourself any longer.”

  Lauren took the seasonings and began stirring them into her coffee.

  “What if its plain old greed? Maybe Sunny and Jade are having money problems and decided to prey on their more prosperous competitors?”

  “Why did they select the particular shops they did?” Beth asked.

  Harriet sipped her latte thoughtfully.

  “Their victims have skeletons in their closets they wouldn’t want exposed, otherwise, it wouldn’t be blackmail. Vern was implicated in Val’s
daughter’s death. He was exonerated eventually, but I’m sure he wouldn’t want to be dragged through the mud for a second time. Daniel had AIDS, and Millie had a convicted killer working for her.”

  Lauren sipped her doctored coffee and smiled. “That’s better. Now, what about Valery?”

  “We don’t know, but judging by the two thugs who were pretending to be family at Val’s funeral there could be something there,” Harriet said.

  Beth dunked the leg of her gingerbread man in her tea and bit it off, chewing slowly as she considered the idea.

  “Not that this should be a reason in this day and age, but Val’s son also had AIDS. He said he met Daniel at a support group. Maybe Val was Old World enough to pay to keep that quiet.”

  Harriet sat back in her chair.

  “Still, it doesn’t seem like multiple people would stop paying the blackmail all at the same time, resulting in them being killed. You’d think after the first murder they’d be scrambling to scrape up the cash to pay the blackmailer.”

  Lauren took another sip of her coffee. “Or leaving town,” she said.

  Mavis tied off the thread on the back of her piece and cut it with her little scissors.

  “I still think it’s Valery’s wife, seeking revenge for her daughter being killed and her son getting AIDS.”

  Lauren pulled her tablet from her bag and typed in a reminder.

  “Sorry, I was supposed to follow up on her, but I got distracted with all the Christmas festivities. I’ll see what I can find.”

  Mavis patted her hand.

  “It’s okay, honey, it’s probably nothing anyway. And we shouldn’t take your computer skills for granted. You do have a real job, after all.”

  Lauren blushed. “It’s not exactly a burden. I just got distracted.”

  “What’s not a burden?” Jane Morse asked as she sat down with her cup of coffee. “I got your message,” she continued to Harriet, “and was on my way back to the office when I saw your car in the parking lot.”

  Harriet stood up again. “Let me run to the ladies’ room, and then I’ll tell you all about it.”

  Jane was catching up with everyone when she returned.

  “I’m not sure how significant this is, but we were at the stable this morning so Luke could ride, and he was talking to his friend Emily, and it came out that Jade did not leave the country to join her parents but has been staying in an attic dormitory in the barn there.”

  Morse pulled out her notebook and made a note. “Did you talk to her?”

  Harriet shook her head. “No, we didn’t see her. I did attempt to find the barn manager, but she drove off as we were reviewing surveillance video trying to locate Jade.”

  “Tell her about the car,” Lauren prompted.

  “I’m getting to that. There’s been a gray sedan hanging around my street, and I’ve seen it several other places I’ve been. While we were looking at the video, the barn manager drove off in a gray sedan. And before you ask, I’m not good enough with car types to tell what make and model it was. It looked like the generic cars they give you at rental places.”

  “She did get a partial plate off the one in her neighborhood last night,” Lauren added.

  Morse wrote another note and looked up.

  “I’ll go out to the stable and see what I can find out. With the enhanced security they put in after the attempt to steal Jade’s horse, there should be plenty of video footage to look at.”

  Harriet twirled her stir-stick in her fingers.

  “It looked to us like someone has edited it. We caught a glimpse of Jade, but she winked out while she was walking down the aisle.”

  “Define ‘winked out’,” Morse asked.

  “Like someone erased a segment. She was in one frame and gone in the next.”

  Morse closed her notebook.

  “It’s never easy, is it?”

  She started to get up. Beth reached out and held her arm.

  “Sit down and have your coffee. You won’t do anyone any good if you get sick from not taking care of yourself. Have you eaten anything?”

  Morse sat back down.

  “I was going to get a bagel to take back to the station.”

  Beth stood up.

  “You sit. Crime can wait a few minutes. Do you want your bagel toasted?”

  Morse nodded, and Beth went to the counter to order her snack.

  Harriet drained the last bit of latte from her cup and set it on the table.

  “It still bothers me that Sunny was being blackmailed but, as far as we know, had not had any sort of threat to her wellbeing.”

  Lauren tore a fringe on the edge of her paper napkin.

  “Maybe Sunny is the only one who didn’t run out of money to pay the blackmailer.”

  “That’s hard to believe,” Connie said. “It doesn’t seem like a cupcake bakery would be that much more lucrative than an outdoor store or a print shop or any of the other businesses.”

  Harriet balled up her napkin and put it in her cup.

  “How about we go to Sunshine Bakery and have a chat with her? We can see if there’s a gray car there, for one thing; and maybe, if we’re lucky, we’ll find Jade. If nothing else, we can flat-out ask Sunny what’s going on with the blackmail business.”

  Lauren picked up her used dishes.

  “I’m in.”

  Connie slid her arms into her coat and looked at Beth and Mavis. “What do you two think?”

  “I could use some cupcakes. My granddaughter is coming over tomorrow,” Mavis said.

  Beth picked up her purse and her dirty dishes.

  “If you guys are going, count me in.”

  Lauren and Harriet stood by the door while the other three put on coats and bussed their table. Lauren leaned toward Harriet and whispered, “I love their decision-making process. Mavis drove them, so once she said she was going, the others didn’t have a choice unless they were going to walk home.”

  “That’s how they’ve stayed friends so long. They’re considerate.”

  Lauren laughed. “I guess you and I are doomed, then.”

  Harriet shook her head and joined in laughing.

  “What’s so funny?” Beth asked.

  They just continued chuckling as they went out the door.

  CHAPTER 35

  There were two customers ahead of Mavis in line at the bakery. Connie and Beth sat down at a table while Harriet and Lauren examined the offerings in the display case.

  “How can I help you?” Sunny asked Harriet when she’d boxed up Mavis’s choices.

  “I’ll have one of the double lemon and a peppermint patty.”

  “I’ll have the same thing,” Lauren said and handed Harriet a five-dollar bill.

  Sunny began picking cupcakes from the case and putting them on two plates.

  “What we’d really like is to talk to you for a few minutes,” Harriet said as she handed her the money for their purchases.

  Sunny took a step back. “What about?”

  “Could you just come over to the table and talk to us?”

  Sunny pulled the disposable glove from her right hand and tossed it in her wastebasket before following them to the table where Beth, Mavis and Connie sat. Harriet pulled two chairs from another table so they could all sit.

  “Is Jade Meyers staying with you?” she asked without preamble.

  Sunny pulled her head back and looked confused.

  “I heard she left town to go work with her parents.”

  “I know that rumor is circulating around town,” Harriet pressed, “but what I’m not hearing is you saying no.”

  “I’m saying it now—no. Why would she be?”

  “Weren’t you two friends?” Lauren asked.

  Sunny blew out a breath and shook her head.

  “We ran around together in high school. It wasn’t a healthy relationship…for me, anyway.”

  “Because she sold drugs?” Harriet asked.

  “That was a long time ago. It was a phase fo
r her. She’s not into that anymore.”

  “I thought you weren’t friends.” Lauren said.

  “We’re not friends, but this is a small town. We run into each other once in a while.”

  Harriet cut her cupcakes into fourths and slid the plate toward her aunt.

  “Have you seen Jade in the last few days?” she asked.

  “No, I haven’t. What’s this about?”

  Harriet got to the point. “Are you being blackmailed?”.

  Sunny adjusted her hairnet.

  “Why would you think that?”

  Beth cleared her throat.

  “Our friend saw you holding a letter made up of letters cut from magazines and pasted on a page.”

  “That was just—”

  “Sunny, stop,” Harriet said. “Whatever lie you were going to tell us, don’t bother. Several business owners in downtown have been blackmailed, and now most of them are dead or have had attempts made on their lives. In Jade’s case, her business was burned and an attempt made to steal her horse.

  “Our friend saw you holding a blackmail letter in your hands. I have to ask myself, Why is everyone else who got letters being attacked while you remain untouched? Could it be because you were a holding a blackmail letter before sending it to yet another business?”

  Sunny’s eyes widened, a shocked look on her face.

  “No…no! You have it all wrong. I was being blackmailed. When I couldn’t afford it anymore and was going to lose my business, I called my brother. I didn’t want to, but the blackmailer said if we called the police we’d regret it.”

  Lauren pulled her tablet from her bag. “What’s your brother’s name?”

  Sunny sighed, and her shoulders slumped. “You don’t have to look him up. He’s Wah Ching.”

  Lauren tapped.

  “The Asian gang Wah Ching?”

  “He’s an enforcer,” Sunny said. “I’m not proud of that. It broke my mother’s heart when she found out. After people started being killed here, I didn’t know what else to do. He came immediately.”

  “So, where is he?” Beth asked.