The Foggy Point Police arrived in under two minutes. Officer Nguyen came into the bakery with none of his usual comments about Harriet; and for once, Harriet was glad to see him. He went immediately to Valery Melnyk, who was still on the floor. He clamped handcuffs on him; but when he tried to make him stand up, Valery wasn’t able to get his feet under him.
“He’s wearing some sort shoe lifts,” Marjorie told him.
The officer lifted Valery’s pant leg, exposing a cut-down version of the sort of stilts worn by construction workers when they’re putting drywall on a ceiling. Nguyen started untangling the straps that tied the stilts to his leg. Harriet could see a nasty bruise above the edge of his sock where she’d kicked him.
Detective Morse arrived as Officer Nguyen was walking Valery out the door, hands cuffed behind his back. She looked around the bakery. Sunny had gotten a wet towel and was wiping the blood from her brother’s face at one table while Marjory and Harriet sat at a table on the opposite side of the room.
Morse joined her two friends first. She pulled her notebook out and looked around the room.
“How did you know it was Valery?” Harriet asked Marjorie before Morse could say anything.
Marjorie took a small bottle of hand sanitizer from her bag, squirted a generous dollop onto her hand, and then scrubbed her hands together.
“His pants. His wife sends him those black pants he wears from Ukraine. He brings them to me to be hemmed. They’re a coarser weave than you can get here, and I guess they’re warmer for winter wear. I’d recognize them anywhere. And he’d torn the hems out to cover those lifts he was wearing to disguise his height.”
“I should have recognized his head shape,” Harriet said. “DeAnn pointed out how the Russian nesting doll images on his quilt looked like him. His head is round like they are.”
“He was supposed to be dead, so why would you even think about him? If it weren’t for the pants, I wouldn’t have.”
Morse cleared her throat.
“Would either of you like to tell me what happened here?”
“I came in at the end,” Marjorie said.
Harriet started with the call from Sunny and explained the sequence of events.
“What I don’t understand, besides why he killed everyone,” she said with a wry smile, “is why he’s so obsessed with Jade’s horse. As far as we know, he killed everyone else more or less methodically, but he toyed with Jade, burning her shop and trying to steal her horse.”
Morse finished writing in her notebook.
“Do you have anything to add?” she asked Marjorie.
Marjorie smiled.
“Harriet summed it up pretty well. When I saw the blinds were closed, I peeked through the door glass where one of the slats was bent. I dropped the bag of fabric I was bringing Harriet outside and came in like I didn’t know what was going on.”
“It worked,” Harriet said.
Morse shook her head.
“This could have gone wrong so many different ways. I’ll admit, this time it seems like neither of you had a choice. Except maybe calling nine-one-one before either of you came into the bake shop.”
“I could—” Harriet started.
“Save it,” Morse said, holding her hand up. “I’m going to interview Sunny and her brother and go back to the station to see what Mr. Melnyk has to say for himself. I may need to talk to you both again.”
“I’m going home.” Harriet said. “Would you like to join me, Marjorie?”
“I wish I could, but I’ve got to close the shop and go check on my new kitten.”
Harriet called James to see where he and Luke were. Luke was still riding, which meant another hour before they’d leave the stable.
“Is everything okay?” James asked.
“Yeah, fine.”
Harriet had decided there was no need to worry James or cause Luke to have to stop riding early, since everything had come out okay.
Harriet was sipping a cup of Earl Grey tea when Lauren arrived.
“How was your new customer?” Lauren asked and sat down with her own cup of tea.
“She’s a good quilter. Her appliqué is incredible.”
Lauren started to ask another question about the customer, but Harriet held up her hand to stop her.
“Something happened.”
“I thought you looked a little rough.”
“I know who killed everyone, and Morse has him in custody.”
Lauren leaned back in her chair.
“Why didn’t you say so right away?”
“I’m saying so now. I was at Marjorie’s getting thread, and Sunny called saying I had to go to her shop immediately. When I got there, she and her brother were being held hostage by our man in black. He’d just zip-tied my hands behind my back when Marjorie came in. She recognized him and brazened her way into disarming him.”
“Who is it, already?”
“You’ll never believe it, but it’s Valery Melnyk.”
“You’re talking crazy. He’s dead. You went to his funeral. Don’t you remember?”
“Of course I remember going to his funeral, but I’m telling you, he’s not dead. He’s the killer. He held me at gunpoint and asked me where Jade was and where her horse was. If Marjorie hadn’t come to give me the fabric I was in the process of purchasing when Sunny called, I’d probably be dead.”
“So, if he’s not dead, whose funeral did we go to?”
“I’ve been thinking about that,” Harriet said and sipped her tea. “I can’t be sure, but I’m thinking it’s the homeless man, Smokey Joe, who Joyce Elias at the homeless camp has been asking me to help locate.”
“Seems like an elaborate set-up.”
“He almost got away with it. If he hadn’t decided to become obsessed with Jade’s horse, he could have killed her and laid low until Vern came out of hiding then killed him, and he’d have his perfect revenge, if that’s what he was after.”
“Hopefully, under Morse’s relentless grilling, Valery will crack and tell her everything, including why the horse.”
Harriet smiled.
“You should have seen Marjorie. She was amazing. She threw a pair of big dressmaker shears at Valery’s face. Cut him, too!”
“How did she know it was Valery?”
Harriet explained about the pants.
“That was lucky.”
“Yes, it was.”
James and Luke were in the kitchen when Harriet got home.
“What’s wrong?” James asked when she taken off her coat, put her purse in closet and collapsed onto a kitchen chair. Scooter jumped into her lap and licked her face.
She explained what had happened, ending with Morse taking Valery Melnyk to jail.
James crouched next to her chair and pulled her into his arms.
“You could have been killed,” he said, squeezing her.
“I’m fine,” Harriet choked out, and he released her.
“Sorry, I just don’t know what I’d…” He glanced at Luke. “What we’d do if anything happened to you.”
The dogs, sensing James’s upset, began circling them, barking.
“Nothing happened to me, I’m right here, all in one piece.” She nudged him and looked pointedly at Luke.
James took a deep breath, and Harriet was glad he’d gotten the message. The color had drained from Luke’s face when she’d recounted her story.
“Marjorie was fantastic,” she said in a lighter tone. “It was amazing how she recognized Valery from his pants.”
“Tell me what we can do for you,” James said.
“I don’t want to spoil our trip to Victoria.”
“I don’t mind,” Luke said quickly. “We can just stay home and be together.”
James took her hand.
“You’ve been through quite an ordeal today. Luke is off all week; we can wait until tomorrow or even the next day. I don’t really have to be back at work until the thirtieth.”
“We could stay home and watch those British myst
ery shows you like,” Luke offered.
She reached out to him, and he came over to her side so she could take his hand, too.
“You guys are the best. I think I would like to stay home for the rest of the day. And as much as I’d like to watch mysteries with you two, I know neither of you really likes them.”
James started to protest but Harriet stopped him.
“I love you both for offering, but Aunt Beth would kill me if I didn’t fill her in, and rather than retell the story a dozen times, I probably need to see the rest of the Loose Threads, too.”
“How about this,” he said. “You go upstairs and rest for an hour or so, maybe take a bath, a nap or whatever else you need. I’ll make some pizza dough while Luke calls Beth, and then we’ll both cut up vegetables, shred cheese and assemble pizza.”
“Are you sure. It’s a lot of trouble. We could order out.”
“Bite your tongue,” James said in mock horror.
Luke laughed.
Harriet gave James a kiss.
“You’re the best.”
CHAPTER 40
Aunt Beth and Jorge arrived, she with an armload of paper plates and cups, he with a large bowl of salad.
“Mavis and Connie will both bring things to drink.”
Harriet had come downstairs when she heard them.
“Thank you for bringing this,” she said, taking the paper goods. Luke, who had answered the door, took the bowl of salad and carried it to the dining room.
Beth hung her coat in the kitchen closet before pulling Harriet into a fierce hug. Her eyes glistened with unshed tears.
“I just don’t know what I’d do if something happened to you.”
Harriet patted her aunt’s back and leaned back to look her in the eye.
“Nothing’s going to happen to me. I’m right here, and I’m fine.”
Beth moved far enough to take Harriet’s hands in hers.
“How many times can you get into these terrible situations and then escape by a gnat’s eyelash. I’m just afraid the next time things won’t work out, and the bad person is going to…”
Harriet knew her aunt couldn’t bring herself to say kill you.
“You of all people know I don’t go looking for trouble. And I have been able to get out of it so far. I have no plan to find any future trouble, but if I do, I have no reason to believe I won’t get out of whatever it is as well.”
“Oh, honey,” Beth said, and hugged her again. “If only the world were that simple. I’m so glad you moved back to Foggy Point, but I can’t help but think you were safer before you did.”
“Don’t even say that. I’ve never been happier than I am right now, here in Foggy Point with you and James and Luke and the Loose Threads and—”
Beth hugged her tighter. Then James came in and wrapped his arms around both of them.
“Can anyone join this love fest?”
Aunt Beth pulled a tissue from her cardigan pocket, dabbed at her eyes, and cleared her throat.
“What can we help you with?”
James opened a drawer and took out two pizza cutters.
“You can take these to Jorge in the dining room, and then we just need to wait for the pizzas to come out of the ovens.” He waited until Beth was out of the room to continue. “Are you okay? I heard part of what she said. I’m sure she doesn’t really think you should leave Foggy Point.”
Harriet smiled and put her arm around his waist.
“Don’t worry, I’m not going anywhere.”
Jenny, Robin, and DeAnn had been unable to come for pizza, but the rest of the Threads sat around the table, the remains of their dinner on their plates in front of them. James had insisted they all eat the pizzas while they were hot, so Harriet had only just finished her story of what had transpired at the cupcake bakery.
“Diós mio,” Connie said. “Valery fooled everyone.”
Mavis shook her head.
“It’s hard to imagine the amount of pain he must have been in after the death of his daughter to cause him to snap like that.”
Lauren sipped her glass of water and set it back on the table.
“Maybe it was the accumulation of loss that did him in. I mean, his wife left, then his son was diagnosed with AIDS—or maybe those events were reversed—then his beloved daughter died, and when he sued Vern, the court determined her death was an accident.
“From what I’ve been able to find on the internet, his daughter didn’t just drown, she was underwater, fished out, and then lingered in the hospital for months before they finally declared her brain-dead and he had to make the terrible decision to pull the plug. Her care, and his insistence on seeking multiple additional opinions, nearly bankrupted him.”
“He probably did feel like he’d lost everything,” Harriet agreed.
“That’s still no excuse to go around killing people,” James said.
Jorge wiped his large hands on his napkin.
“There is nothing more dangerous than a man who feels like he’s got nothing left to lose.”
“It must be a real relief for Jade and Sunny and Vern and Millie and whoever else he might have been blackmailing,” Connie said. “Now they can pull their businesses back together.”
A knock sounded on the studio door. James got up to answer it.
“I hope you don’t mind,” Beth said, “but I invited Detective Morse to join us if she could when Luke called me. I thought she might be able to explain a few things after talking to Melnyk. Besides, she eats too much junk from that machine at the station. She needs some real food.”
Lauren looked at Harriet, and they both laughed.
“I guess James’s homemade pizza rises above the junk-food designation,” Harriet said.
Jorge made a space at the table and set a plate with several pieces of pizza on it down as the detective arrived.
“Water, soda, or beer?” he asked her when she’d settled.
“Cola would be fine.” She’d combed her hair and reapplied her lipstick, so she didn’t look as haggard as she sometimes did after several hours spent questioning a suspect. Maybe it was the holidays, Harriet mused.
The group let her finish her first piece of pizza in peace; she sipped her cola and set her cup down.
“I know you have a lot of questions, and I also know you all know there is a limit to what I can tell you about an active case. However, I think you’ve guessed most of what I’ve learned.
“Mr. Melnyk appears to have perpetrated the recent crimes. We believe his motive was revenge for the death of his daughter. His targets are all people he believed contributed to her death, and to the illness of his son. It’s not obvious any of what he believes is true. His daughter had dabbled in drugs supplied by Jade, and in the occult with Sunny; but at the time of her death, she was clean and sober, and there’s nothing to suggest her death was anything but what it appeared to be. She rolled her kayak and became tangled in the underwater roots close to shore, hitting her head in the process. It was nothing but a tragic accident, pure and simple.”
Harriet processed that information.
“What about Will Crowe, Millie’s employee?”
“That was really unfortunate.” Morse paused for a moment. “Of course, it’s all unfortunate, but Crowe is what might be called collateral damage. He had the misfortune of going to pick up a print order for Millie while Valery was stringing Daniel up.
“He apparently called out and poked around, finally finding his printing and leaving. He looked through the small window in the door to the press room but didn’t see anything. At least, he never told Millie he saw anything. But Valery saw him and decided to eliminate the possibility of a witness.”
“That is sad,” Mavis said.
Harriet sliced a skinny piece of pepperoni pizza for herself. She chewed thoughtfully while Mavis and Connie asked additional questions about Mark.
“What I want to know,” she said when she’d finished, “is why was he so obsessed with Jade’s horse.”
Morse smiled.
“Now, that’s interesting. It made no sense to me, either, until my partner Jason Martinez did some digging. It turns out Jade’s horse used to belong to Valery’s daughter. By all accounts, she was never very interested, but nonetheless, he was very invested in the idea of her learning to ride. Then, after her accident, when he needed cash to bring in international medical specialists, he sold the horse to Jade.
“It appears his attempt to buy the horse back, and Jade’s refusal to sell, is what caused him to hatch the blackmail plan. I guess once he got it going, and Jade still refused to sell, he decided to exact revenge on everyone he felt contributed to the situation.”
“So, was he the one who had people following me?” Harriet asked.
Morse picked up another piece of pizza.
“This is really good,” she said with a nod to James. “Yes, that was Valery’s people. They were following you to get to Jade and the horse.”
Mavis blew out a breath.
“Grief does terrible things to people.”
“I have a question,” Lauren said as she picked little bits of leftover crust from the remains of her third piece of pizza. “Why were the hard drives stolen from the murder victims, and why burn Jade’s shop?”
“That’s two questions,” Morse said with a smile. “You can thank Martinez for that one, too. That little jerk Chris Baker at the computer store had been installing spyware on the hard drives of all the computers he was repairing so he could steal customer information. We haven’t figured out if he was selling customer lists or if he was actually stealing identities. That will remain to be seen. He was afraid, with the murders, someone would take a deep dive into the computers looking for clues and discover his handiwork.”
“Wow, that little jerk,” Harriet said.
“Uh-oh,” Mavis said. “He just did some work on my computer.”
Lauren, who was sitting beside her, patted her back.
“Not to worry. I can fix it for you. I’ve got time while most of my clients are on holiday breaks.”
Mavis started to protest.
“Don’t argue. You can bake Carter some of those dog bones you make.”
The 12 Quilts of Christmas Page 26