A few minutes later, Sally the pastor’s wife came out to hang sheets on the clothesline. David ran over to her. “Hi Mom, who was that?”
“That who?” asked his mother as she tossed a sheet over the line and straightened it.
“That woman who went in the side door.”
“Nobody came in, David. Hi, Emory.”
“Hi, Mrs. A. I saw her go in too. She seemed to knock first.”
Sally frowned. “Really? I didn’t hear anyone.”
She led the way back to the side door. It was open just a crack and they pushed it in.
“Hello?” called Mrs. Atherton. “Is someone here?” Emory ran to the front room just as they heard the front door shut. She jerked it open and looked into the startled face of an older lady who turned quickly and marched to her vehicle and got in stiffly. Emory noticed there were two car seats in the back and the lady backed up and drove off fast. David tried to catch up with her but she left too quickly and he stopped running after her and came back to his mother. Emory turned to find Mrs. Atherton right behind her. Turning around and retracing their steps, Emory and Sally stopped in the living room.
A push pin held a drop spindle hung by a hangman’s noose to the wall. Someone had written, “If you look for us, they die,” in what looked like marker on the white board by the corner.
“Oh, my Lord,” she breathed. “The kidnappers were here!”
“I’ve got to get Brad,” declared David, tearing out the front door.
“Stop, David! Get back here!” called his mom. She had the phone up to her ear. “Emory, don’t touch anything! Officer Millie? This is Sally Atherton. I need help right now at the parsonage…”
Chapter Twenty-Two
“That caps it,” declared Sophia. “This has taken long enough. We need to get this done. Where shall we meet?”
“Can we all go out to Dana’s farm? She has a white board. The fiber shop is still an active crime scene and we can’t meet there,” replied Melody. She had just been elected as Sophia’s new assistant for the Fiver Mavens and was taking notes.
“Get on the Sister’s chain and tell everyone to meet me at Dana’s at noon with whatever they know,” declared Sophia. “I’ll call Dana and let her know we’re coming.”
“What if she’s busy?”
“She’s a sister now. She wants this to be done, too. Get the word out. I’m gathering drinks and treats now.”
In an hour, cars started to show up at the small farm of Dana and Ethel McCallister. Shortly, twenty-three ladies were in the living room where a big white board had been set up at one end, plates of cookies and pitchers of tea set up here and there, and the ladies carrying in their own folding chairs.
“Ladies,” began Sophia, “Thank you for coming to the emergency meeting of the Sisters. There is a crisis that we all know about and it has to be solved. Those big city fellows keep wandering around like lost souls and Annie is still in the hospital in a medical coma and Casey and Brad can’t leave her. We have got to get the babies back. Now what do we know? Let’s put it together. I’m sure we can figure out something. There has to be a pattern to this nonsense.”
Jane raised her hand. “We know that 8 spindles were reported stolen and that several of them have been left here and there around town at the scenes of crimes, like someone was trying to copy that patchwork crazy we had a few years ago.”
Sophia nodded. She picked up a dry erase marker. She divided the board in two with a line.
“Where were the spindles left? Anyone know?” she asked.
“Are we making another chart?” asked Rosemary.
“Absolutely. Allyssa, you do the honors while I try to remember.” Allyssa came up, modified the chart to to be titled event and pattern, and started to write as the ladies gave the information they had:
1 – David chasing kids around playground with spindle he found.
2 – Hershberger barn fire – a spindle in porch screen door
“Don’t forget the one hanging on my truck door,” said Dana.
Allyssa wrote: 3 – Dana’s truck – Spindle with hangman’s noose
She waited. Andy spoke up, “Annie told me someone had left a spindle in her mom’s car when she was on a call, and she gave it to Brad. Nothing had been harmed other than a goat in the back seat, so we aren’t sure it had anything to do with it.”
“I should imagine a goat in the back seat was enough damage,” remarked one of the ladies as they all tittered among themselves. “Casey does get herself in fixes trying to be helpful.”
“Focus ladies,” said Sophia.
4 – Spindle in Casey’s car with no prank except goat
“Angelina Carmichael’s health food store, you know, the Heavenly Herb shop, was broken into and baby things taken,” said Melody. “I’ve known her a long time and she was pretty shook up. There was a spindle stuck through a doll like one of those voodoo things and then it was hung from the ceiling like it had been executed. She hasn’t got the shop reopened yet. Said her husband was rethinking her working downtown. It’s not like she has to work. He was just humoring her.”
Allyssa wrote, 5 – Herb shop, baby things taken/doll killed, spindle/hangman’s noose.
“Our pharmacy was broken into,” said Marti. “They took formula, bottles, diapers and wipes, baby Tylenol, all things to do with babies and left a drop spindle hung from the locked office door. Baby things again and a hangman’s noose!”
Allyssa wrote, 6 - pharmacy, baby thing stolen, spindle left in hangman’s noose and added baby things taken to the patterns list.
Betsy spoke up, “And a lot of us were there when the dear babies were taken, and Annie hurt and there was a drop spindle hanging from the stroller that was left and there was blood on it.”
Taking a deep breath, Allyssa wrote, 7 – Fiber shop and sisters, babies kidnapped, bloody spindle on stroller.
“That leaves only one spindle at large,” declared Ethel. “You said 8 were stolen originally?”
“No, six we know of, but Rosemary lost hers and David found it, so that’s seven, and Annie was hit by the Scottish spindle that I had brought with me as an example to the last class.” Dana replied. “So, there could be one more out there.”
“Maybe, depends on how you do the math,” said Allyssa. “I haven’t been in the shop to take inventory. If they can take babies right under our noses, and I know it wasn’t any of us, then they can take a couple more spindles to wreak havoc on us all. But let’s look for patterns.” She looked at the list. “Is there anything else?
Ethel answered, “They all seemed to be leading to something worse each time, at least the ones after the first one. From simple stealing of things to kidnapping and assault. Has anyone heard from Casey or Brad?”
“Matthew told me that Annie is in a medical coma but that they were going to try and wake her up Wednesday, tomorrow. We didn’t put dates on any of these, did we?”
“Think back, when was the earliest thing? How far back?”
The ladies agreed all the incidents had happened in the last month. “Ok, so very emergent, 8 things in one month. Does anyone know anyone who might want to do the Malcom’s harm?”
There was silence.
“Has anyone got an idea of why someone would take the babies?”
Again, no response.
“The pattern shows they would have been planning this for at least a month – see how they took baby things, baby needs; it must mean they don’t mean to harm the infants. However, they might be planning on selling the twins or adopting them out or almost anything, but they have the supplies to keep them for at least a week from what they took. We’re on day two of the missing children,” said Sophia in frustration. “Is there anything that could help us here?” There was a long pause.
The door opened in the back. “I’m so sorry I’m late,” said Sally Atherton. She looked up at the chart. “You need to add an eighth spindle.”
“Where?” demanded Allyssa jumping up and t
aking the marker.
“My house. The kidnapper was at my house this morning. I just finished with the police and they’re going all over the parsonage.” The room erupted into excited ladies jumping up to hug Sally, ask questions, and the beehive like buzzing got alarmingly out of control.
Sophia finally got their attention. “All right, sit down, calm down. Sally, give the data up here, everyone, we have the last spindle, now what does it mean? Sally, what did they take?”
“I’ll start with this morning. The kids were playing in the creek in the back; they’re grounded so they can’t leave the yard. I was doing laundry and trying to arrange the committees for the Thanksgiving dinner in my head…” She quickly told the story. “And now the entire house is being fingerprinted and examined and John is beside himself and I can’t stay long.”
There was a pause. Sophia, shaking her head, stood back up. “Allyssa, can you get into your shop yet to do an inventory? If more spindles are taken, we know this person isn’t finished. Everyone, is there anyone new in town besides Dana and Ethel? And we can all see there are no babies here, so even if those out-of-town guys are thinking suspicious of us all, we know they wouldn’t hurt those children.”
“Well, Emory is new, she’s a foster child. She didn’t have a motive or a means to do any of this stuff, nor has she ever been in this sort of trouble, or really, any trouble to speak of,” said Sally, the pastor’s wife, her voice soft and a little shaky. “David’s ornery, but he’d not capable of this sort of abject evil.”
After some talking among themselves, Aurora said, “So no one new, no tourist has been here a month at any of the B&B’s, and we all know each other and none of us would get into this. Of course, we never thought that the Clamons would go berserk either, did we? I’ve heard a bit about that from Matthew. His family was impacted by that pretty badly. And it looks as if someone has singled them out again. The Armstrong’s and Malcom’s have lived here pretty much their entire lives and I think what happened before was a total a shock to the town. So, it could be someone living here carrying a grudge for some past event.”
Heads nodding, the ladies rumbling amongst each other got a little louder.
Sophia took the dry erase marker as Allyssa sat down. “We know it has to be someone who would know how to make a hangman’s noose. They had to have some motive. They had to have access. The store was not broken into, so they had to have come in during store hours and hidden in back somehow, and escaped with two babies in a twin carrier, past sixteen ladies and a young man without anyone noticing it, so had to be out the back door which doesn’t appear to have been opened. And they are brazen enough to go into a house while people are at home and leave messages. Have I about got it all?”
“No wonder it’s taking the out-of-town guys so much time. This is just really difficult.” Melody spoke with finality. “Keep your doors locked.”
“Wait, I just thought of something,” interjected Alyssa. “There is another way into the store. If you go up the fire escape steps, pick the lock, into the upper hallway and down through the back stairs the way my son comes into the warehouse to talk to me in the office, you could get in without being seen. I need to let the sheriff know.” There were some murmurs.
“I think we’ve done what we can,” replied Sophia. “Everyone, take a picture of the chart. As you go about town, keep your eyes open and let us know in a group message anything you see. Let’s agree to meet back at the store next time. Allyssa, will the shop be open by Friday night?”
“They said I could reopen Thursday.”
“Good. We meet there at 6 Friday. As I was saying, keep your eyes open, ladies. We have a kidnapper loose.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
Brad sat next to Casey, holding her hand. Casey leaned against the bed, looking for anything, any sign her daughter could hear her.
Brad quietly talked to Sheriff Black.
“That’s all we’ve got so far,” Erik said quietly. “Your little girl going to be ok?”
Brad nodded. “They’re weaning her off the stuff keeping her under right now and we hope she will wake up on her own by tomorrow., The swelling at the base of her skull has gone down. The tests seem to be coming back good. Her skull was fractured but not badly, and it’s already knitting, according to the neurosurgeon. The worst danger is the trauma; she’s hopefully going to remember what happened and the shock may throw her back into a coma.”
“Doesn’t sound good.”
“No, it doesn’t.”
Casey spoke up from her side of the bed. “Don’t they say that kidnappings that aren’t solved in the first 48 hours don’t usually end well?” Her voice trembled and she turned eyes that hadn’t been slept in towards him, dark rimmed, red, red veins showing in the white. “There isn’t much chance of my babies being alive still, is there?”
“There is an excellent chance. The kidnappers got baby things first, like they were preparing to care for them. Our profiler makes us think that means they had an image of raising these kids on their own, taking care of them, being their parent. They even stole stuff in case the babies might be teething. They got three kinds of formula, and baby food, organic at that, and clothing. We got a report from the ladies at the house church auxiliary that someone had gone in last month and asked for some baby clothes in the correct sizes for twins – and they needed both boy and girl clothing. We’re following up on that but they don’t keep very good records. The woman donated yarn to the auxiliary in return, a box of it. The ladies said the woman was an older middle-aged woman who said she wanted them for her grandchildren. That’s all they remembered.”
“Could be our person. No drop spindles?” asked Brad.
“Occurred before they were stolen, so someone was still leaving a hint with the yarn. We have the box but it’s pretty unremarkable, too many prints to make any of them predominant. There was one interesting thing though, bottom of the box were some patterns. One of those patterns was for a skulls-on-spiderweb pattern, not unlike a couple afghans from another case, complete with glittering eyes.”
“It must be the same person! There aren’t any Clamons out we can’t account for, the bad ones are in jail or treatment, the ok ones are citizens and none of them match the age of the woman.”
“Could have been heavy makeup, maybe?”
“You meet those ladies at the home church auxiliary? Sharp ones, they’d have remembered heavy make-up, Brad paused as Erik continued his information.
“The address she gave as hers is a deserted old shack which we’ve gone over with a fine-tooth comb. No evidence anyone was there.” He stood up. “I need to get back to it. You’ll be in my prayers.”
Brad looked at his wife. “Honey, I want you to go over there and sit on that side, on the recliner. I’m going to pull the shades shut, and I want you to hold Annie’s hand and try to close your eyes a little bit to rest.”
“Where are you going?”
“I have a couple ideas I want to try out. Things Erik may not have known. I charged your phone and it’s in your purse. I’ll call if there are any developments, but I have got to get out there.”
Casey stood up to move and he enveloped her in a hug.
“I will get them back, Casey. I swear to God I will.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
Brad entered the sheriff’s office and saw David sitting in a corner, dejected.
“Hi, David,” he said sitting down. “This isn’t exactly the principal’s office.”
“No sir.”
“What’s going on?”
“I saw the kidnapper and now everyone is over at my house and the sheriff told me to just sit here.”
“What?” exclaimed Brad. “You saw the kidnapper?”
David nodded solemnly. “I ran here, and they got mad at me for interrupting and then Sheriff Black came and Mom called and they all took off and here I am and no one has even interviewed me and I might have vital information.”
“Do you?”
“Have information. You need to report.”
“Emory saw it too but she’s afraid of cops.”
“She was with you?”
“We was by the creek playing. And I looked up and saw this older lady, maybe old like a schoolteacher is old, and she was by the side door. She looked like she knocked but I didn’t hear the knock. She opened the door and went in so I thought Mom had called her. But Mom came out just a minute later with a basket of sheets to hang and the lady wasn’t with her so I went up to ask Mom who she was and Mom didn’t know anything about her. We went inside and there was the spindle hanging on the wall and writing on the wall and the door slammed and then we ran out front and the car backed out of the driveway. The car was a sort of gold brown smaller SUV and the license first three numbers were 43J, and it was an Ohio plate, and there were two car seats in the back but I couldn’t get past Mom to take a closer look. The lady looked upset. I couldn’t see if the babies were in the seats, but the seats stuck up tall. They were dark colored, maybe blue?”
“Anything else?”
“She was wearing an old lady type dress, kind of red with little flowers all over it. Her hair was that crazy blue white old ladies get and short and curly. She had on glasses.” He paused. “I didn’t notice her shoes. She had on dress gloves, you know what women wear to fancy parties, short white ones.” David screwed up his face in concentration. “The car was sort of beat up but she backed out real fast and took off. And I took off for here to find you and Mom yelled after me and I’m in trouble but I had to tell someone. I didn't think of calling, I just lit out to try and get everyone to chase her down. Mom called the sheriff on cell. I should have thought of that. You know, I think I’ve seen her at church. I don’t remember. I don’t pay much attention to the grown-ups there.”
“You did really good, David. You’ve given me some clues. Let’s try to find the car. You can go on home now. Your mom is going to be upset enough as it is. Just wait on me, all right? And help your mom.”
Criminally Spun Out: Book 5 of the Fiber Maven's Mysteries Page 9