A Crafter Quilts a Crime

by Holly Quinn

  Sammy wasn’t surprised; knowing her sister, the thing probably weighed twenty pounds and could feed the U.S. Army. She licked her lips, knowing she’d be lucky enough to snag a piece of the other one waiting back at Ellie’s house later for supper.

  Jackson encouraged them to wipe their feet on the thick mat but leave on their winter boots, and Sammy was thankful. She thought a frozen toe might break off if she even attempted to remove them. He welcomed them into his clean, practical kitchen, which featured aged oak cabinets and dark vinyl flooring that was scratched in spots or had been ripped by a dog’s long nails. This was a hardworking farm and the house had been well lived in, and Sammy was impressed by how neatly everything was set in its place. The toaster was tucked in the corner, and not a crumb lay on the aged Formica countertop. Loaves of quick breads and cookie plates lined the counters. Clearly the three women hadn’t been the first to stop in and pay their respects.

  “Are you hungry now? Or would you rather Ellie put this in the refrigerator for later?” Sammy asked, hoping to put the tantalizing meal as far away from her as humanly possible.

  “It’s so kind of you folks, really, so very kind. I do appreciate your kindness, but honestly, I haven’t had much of an appetite lately,” Jackson admitted. “I have to say, though, this meal might bring back my appetite, as it smells incredibly delicious.” This comment caused Ellie to smile wide.

  Jackson opened the refrigerator door, and Sammy noted that not only were the kitchen countertops filled with goodies, but the interior shelves of the refrigerator were lined with casserole dishes as well. He moved a few aside to make room, and Ellie slipped the large metal disposable pan inside.

  “I’m sure the kids will want something when they come in from sledding, and they love lasagna, so thank you again … very much,” he said. “We have a makeshift hill that I created on the back lot with the tractor before the snow hit, and the kids are loving playing in the white stuff. My wife’s out there with them now. I just came in to drop the mail, as it was collecting in the box the last few days, and then I went and met the mail truck out on the road so he wouldn’t have to trudge over here. How did you gals make it through? Impressive,” he added with a slight smile, then wiped his weary eyes with his fingers.

  “Jeep.” Heidi smiled and then asked, “How many children do you have now, Jackson? I have to admit, I think I’ve lost count!” She pointed to the refrigerator, where there was a snapshot of the family standing in front of large, foggy mountains.

  Jackson chuckled. “That was taken down south at the Smoky Mountains last summer when we went on a family road trip. Actually, Wanda took that picture, as she and Marty went along too.” He regarded the photo with a nod of his head. “We’re up to five now. Three girls and two boys. My wife’s expecting again, and I’m hoping for more boys for farmhands,” he added sheepishly.

  “Come on now,” Heidi teased. “Us girls can pull our weight around the farm too.” She winked. “You remember all the work I did for 4-H. I think I even have a ribbon or two under my belt.” She smiled wide, showing her dimples.

  “Yes, that’s very true, indeed. You were quite the winner back in the day.” He paused a moment before admitting, “I think you may have beat me in a few contests.” He placed his hand on his chin and rubbed hard. “Although, if I recall, much of your winnings came from your mother’s cherry-pie recipes and not from the animals. Man, I miss those pies!” Jackson returned the wink. “How are your folks? Loving Arizona, I imagine? Especially this time of year.”

  “Yes, retirement is treating them well. They don’t make it back to the frozen tundra much past Christmas anymore. They asked me to share their condolences as well. Unfortunately, they won’t make it back when Wanda is laid to rest.” Heidi’s smile faded.

  “Thank you, no worries,” he said sincerely. “Good to hear they’re well. Can’t say I blame ’em. I wouldn’t want to travel back either, especially this time of year when so many planes get stranded on the tarmac due to the bad weather. Please give them my regards the next time you talk with them. Your parents are great people. Great people indeed.” He nodded his head.

  Sammy was about to hand Jackson the letter he had dropped on the floor earlier when she glanced at the front of the envelope. It didn’t have a stamp and was merely addressed to Wanda’s brother. Sammy wondered who would make the drive out to the country only to deliver a sympathy note in the mailbox. She handed the letter to Jackson, still thinking how odd it was.

  “What’s this?” he asked, eyeing the envelope as he ripped the orange hat from his head, revealing sweaty, disheveled, dirty-blond hair.

  “You dropped it by the door,” Sammy answered, gesturing with her thumb behind her toward the foyer.

  “No, I mean, there’s no stamp. The mail carrier delivered it without a stamp?” Jackson’s eyes narrowed. “Oh. This must be from the mail I collected in the box left over from the other day. Things have been building up around here. You know how grief goes … you forget to do the everyday things … our minds have been so distracted …” He blew out a breath, holding back his sorrow as he tore the envelope open. He pulled out a sheet of paper, and his eyes darted to the page before he gasped audibly and turned a deathly shade of white.

  “What is it? Are you okay?” Heidi asked first. The nurse in her couldn’t help it.

  His hands were visibly trembling, and absently he handed the sheet of paper to Heidi as Sammy peeked over her cousin’s shoulder. A printed sheet with cut-and-pasted letters in multiple fonts and of different sizes said the following: $100,000. Or Marty DIES. Get the money. Wait for further instruction. Do NOT involve police. If you do—consider him dead.

  Chapter Ten

  The three S.H.E.s gathered around Jackson’s kitchen table while the tall farmer paced nervously around the room. They’d long since removed their winter coats and draped them behind themselves on the kitchen chairs. Evidently they were no longer here for a short visit, as the four of them, completely paralyzed by shock, remained assembled to analyze the situation.

  “What are you going to do, Jackson?” Heidi asked finally.

  “I don’t want my wife and kids to come back inside this house before I figure out how to best handle this situation. My wife, Teyla, thought I was just coming back inside to drop off the mail. We didn’t even know you all were here,” Jackson stated, then began chewing the tough skin around his thumb. “Can one of you go outside and stall her? I need more time to think.”

  Ellie stood from the aged wooden chair. “I’ll go,” she said. Then she tucked the chair beneath the kitchen table, pulled on her hand-knit winter hat, and put on her coat. “Are you sure you don’t want me to mention anything if I happen to get a quiet moment with her away from your children? I’m just here to drop a meal and pay respects? Mum’s the word, right?” She zipped her mouth with her fingers.

  “Right.” Jackson nodded his head in agreement. “Please don’t mention the ransom. I just need a few more minutes to think. Teyla is going to go absolutely ballistic. My wife and sister were very close. Teyla not only lost a sister-in-law, she lost her best friend. And now this? I know my wife enough to know she’ll want to immediately alert authorities. I’m just not so sure that’s the right call. I need a few more minutes to think.” He took a deep breath and let it out slowly, wringing his cracked, hardworking hands together.

  “Okay, I won’t say a word, I’ll just stall,” Ellie said, then headed toward the front door.

  Sammy heard the front door close softly behind her sister, and then she rose from her own chair and strode across the room to Jackson. “Can I get you a glass of water or something?”

  The farmer gazed at her absently.

  Sammy reached into a nearby cabinet above the large stainless farm sink and was lucky to find the glasses on her first attempt. She removed one and turned on the faucet. “Do you know anyone who would do this? Who would send you a ransom note? Obviously, it has to be someone who knows Marty is your brother-in-
law.”

  “I have no idea. All I’m questioning right now is whether I should take the chance and involve the police.” He scratched his head. “If I do, I could be putting Marty in even more danger. Is the note serious? Will whoever’s behind all this follow through?”

  Sammy handed Jackson the glass of water, and he immediately took a long drink. His hand was trembling as he set the glass onto the countertop.

  Heidi rose from her chair and stood next to Jackson. She reached for his arm and patted it lightly as a sign of comfort. “I’m not sure if you’re aware, but I’m dating an officer from the Heartsford Police Department. It’s going to be kinda tough for me to keep this a secret,” she admitted.

  “Well, you might have to.” Jackson gestured a hand toward the note, which lay open on the kitchen table. “Otherwise they’ll kill him.” He clenched his hands in fists at his sides and blew out a frustrated breath.

  Heidi bit her lower lip. “I hate to even ask this question, but do you even have that kind of money laying around to pay a large ransom? I personally wouldn’t.”

  “No, take a look around this place.” He threw his hands to the air. “It’s not like I’m rolling in dough here. Not to mention, I lost half my crop last year for reasons I can’t yet explain. I’m broke!” He opened his palms and thrust them forward as if to prove the point. “Not to mention the baby on the way.”

  “Well, how would you come up with the money, then? You may have no other choice than to reach out to the authorities. I’m sure they have ways of handling these types of situations,” Sammy interjected. Although Sammy couldn’t think of anyone in Heartsford who’d ever been in this type of situation. She’d keep her mouth quiet on that one. It was definitely something Jackson didn’t need to hear at this very moment.

  Jackson’s eyes darted around the room, as if his mind was working overtime and he would come up with a solution. He steepled his fingers and set them to his lips.

  “What are you thinking?” Sammy asked.

  “I’m thinking I’d rather this ransom note stay between us for now. Let me decide how I want to handle it with the authorities. Wanda gave me the combination to their gun safe at home for safekeeping. She mentioned that if anything ever happened to either one of them, a large amount of cash was tucked inside that safe. I just need to get inside my sister’s house so I can see how much money they have stashed in there,” Jackson said, pacing around the room once more. “Maybe they’ll have enough.”

  “Heidi, may I have a moment?” Sammy beckoned her cousin to follow, then moved away from the kitchen toward the entryway. When the two were out of earshot, Sammy whispered, “You know, we have a way to get inside Wanda’s house. We can steal the lockbox combination from Randy.”

  Heidi was aghast. “You’re sounding a little crazy there, girlie. You might wanna rein that back in!” She shoved a pointed finger toward Sammy’s chest.

  “Heidi, I’m serious.”

  “I’m serious too,” Heidi hissed. “That idea is ludicrous and borderline insane! What we need to do is encourage Jackson to call the police. This isn’t a game, Sammy. Marty’s life is at stake. This is a bit outside the S.H.E. wheelhouse!” Heidi’s eyes were intense.

  “Yeah, you’re absolutely right, and whoever is behind this is gonna kill the guy. You read the note.” Sammy bobbed her head in the direction of the kitchen. “You want Marty’s blood on your hands if something bad goes down because we were the ones to encourage him to call the authorities? Then what? You seriously want that on your head?” Sammy circled an imaginary lasso over her head, mimicking Tim’s earlier behavior, hoping to remind her cousin what they’d encountered on the drive over. “I certainly don’t.”

  “Sammy. We can’t …” Heidi’s eyes were pleading now.

  Sammy crossed her arms across her chest and paused, resting her chin on her fist. After a few seconds of pondering, she said, “How about this: what if we give Jackson our own deadline? What if we tell him we’ll keep his secret for a few days, but after that we’ve got to share what we know with the police? Otherwise our own lives are at risk, as we’re hampering an ongoing investigation, and we’ll be slapped with obstruction of justice.”

  “Now I know you’ve officially lost your mind. What about Randy? You know full well he’s not going to share the lockbox information with us, especially now, with a hold on real-estate showings. What about Ellie? Now you’re putting her husband’s new job on the line? She’ll never go for it, not in a million years. Nope. Not going to happen.” Heidi shook her head firmly and folded her arms across her chest.

  “That’s why we’re not going to tell her.”

  Heidi threw up her hands in frustration, and her eyes popped to twice their usual size. “Come on now, you’ve got to be kidding me! You want to leave out E?” Her voice left the whisper stage and was now audible to anyone within a five-mile radius. This caused Jackson to cast a look in their direction and approach them from the next room.

  Before he arrived, Sammy said, “We don’t have much of a choice, Heidi. There’s got to be a way we can figure out the code on the lockbox on that old Victorian. Maybe we’ll get lucky and Randy left the manufacturer’s combination on there and didn’t change it. I’ve heard that realtors sometimes make that mistake and the house is pretty easy to break into.” Sammy chewed nervously on her nail.

  “What’s going on with you two?” Jackson asked when he finally appeared in front of them.

  Sammy headed Jackson off at the pass and suggested they all return to the small kitchen. Her eyes couldn’t help but fall on the ransom note. “What are you thinking, Jackson?” she asked finally as she took her seat at the table. “What are you going to do?”

  “I’m thinking of doing exactly what the ransom note says. I just wish I had a key to my sister’s house to see if I can even gather that kind of funds. Unfortunately for me, that’s not something she left behind. The keys, I mean …” He looked down in defeat.

  Sammy’s eyes left the ransom note to meet her cousin’s to plead with her on Jackson’s behalf. Heidi sank into the kitchen chair, rejoining her at the table.

  “What makes you think Wanda and Marty had that much money in their gun safe, anyway?” Heidi turned her gaze on Jackson, who stopped pacing for a second to look in their direction.

  “I shouldn’t really be sharing this, but since my sister is gone now, I suppose keeping her family secrets doesn’t really matter at this point.” He breathed deep and looked to the ceiling for a moment. “Wanda confided in me before she passed that my brother-in-law has a bit of a problem hanging out and playing too much poker with his friends. Except instead of losing money, Marty’s been on a serious winning streak, according to Wanda. My sister didn’t like that much money showing up in her bank account, and she made a deal with Marty that as long as he kept the card money separate and didn’t dip into their personal savings or checking accounts at Heartsford Credit Union, then she wouldn’t have anything to say about what he was up to with his buddies. The minute the funds were gone, though, if he lost it all, she said she refused to let him have any extra to spend. That was their deal. Personally, I don’t think that much money came from just playing cards. I think he’s into something else—he has to be,” Jackson said. “It’s not like it’s the World Series of Poker out here in the Midwest. I think my sister is just oblivious to his lies. Or chose to look at the world through rose-colored glasses.”

  “So … you’re saying everything in their gun safe was ‘play money’ won from poker?” Sammy drew air quotes with her fingers.

  “Exactly.” Jackson threw up his hands at the absurd notion the money had come from playing cards.

  “And you think he’d had a big win recently?” Heidi asked. “Enough to cover a hundred grand? That’s quite a payout!”

  “Hey, I’m just reiterating what my sister shared with me. That’s what Wanda mentioned to me a few days before she died, and she seemed to believe her husband—she trusted him. According to her, he
’d gone up north with some buddies on a weekend ice-fishing trip and they hit some big game up there. Apparently, Marty hit a jackpot.”

  “Which game?” Heidi asked. “At a casino? I mean, could you verify the win?”

  “No, nothing like that. I know it wasn’t a win from a casino. He’s not into slots or anything like that. More like some midwestern underground group of card players, I think,” he answered with a dismissive wave of his hand.

  “Do you think it’s a possibility that one of Marty’s buddies that went on his ice-fishing trip might be up to all this? Maybe since one of them knew he had a lot of money tucked away at home? Is it possible one of them thought he could score big?” Sammy asked thoughtfully. “Who else would’ve known Marty had won that much money?”

  “Yeah, I don’t know.” Jackson breathed deep, causing his nostrils to widen. “Do you remember Adam Boyd?” He directed his question to Heidi.

  She quickly replied, “Yeah, from 4-H, right? The swine kid.” She chucked. “I remember him. Why?”

  “Yeah, I guess he’s part of that group of guys that hangs out with Marty. I just can’t believe the nonsense my brother-in-law has dragged my sister through over the years, and now it looks as if he was the very one to put Wanda in danger. Or even worse, possibly the one to put her in her grave.” His hands picked at the suspenders on his Carhartt heavyweight bibs nervously.

  Sammy looked at Heidi for confirmation. She wondered if Jackson had been notified that his sister had been poisoned. Or were they the only ones privy to this insider information? She remained quiet.

  Heidi looked at Jackson and asked, “Was it common knowledge that the Wadsworths kept large amounts of cash in a safe inside their home?”

  “Or do you think very few people knew? Like … only his fishing buddies?” Sammy interjected, and then looked at Jackson to gauge his answer.

  “I’m not sure how many people they shared their private information with, but now that their house is on the market, anyone who looked at the property is sure to have seen the gun safe. They didn’t put it away in storage before they put the house up for sale like I suggested. They couldn’t move the darn thing. It’s a huge piece of furniture—it takes up half the wall. The realtor has access to the home; he probably knows there’s money in there too. It’s pretty common for hunters to hide stuff in their gun safe—everyone knows that.”