by Holly Quinn
“I’m on my way to meet Nash. I’ve been summoned.” Sammy shrugged.
Heidi and Ellie exchanged an amused look.
“What?” Sammy asked innocently.
* * *
For the life of her, Sammy couldn’t understand why Nash had asked her to meet him at the south end of the Ice Age Trail. The trail had been named after the landform dated some ten thousand years ago during the Ice Age when a series of ridges had formed from glaciers in southeastern Wisconsin. These mile-long ridges spanning over a hundred miles featured craterlike depressions created from melting ice, and the trail connected across the entire midwestern state. Hikers had the opportunity to enjoy the vastness of nature, from tall pines and prairie grasses to rivers, lakes, and wildflowers. But during the winter, it was a frozen sea of white where hikers kept on with their fitness plans despite the bone-chilling weather.
Dress warm, he’d told her. I have a mystery I need help solving. His cryptic message had left her guessing. Had he found a body out on the trail? A clue to an unsolved mystery from a cold case? An abandoned wallet or key left behind, for which he couldn’t determine the owner? What case was he working on that he needed her help with? The fact that he had asked for her assistance was mind-blowing. She was surprised he was willing to give her that kind of opportunity again. Maybe she’d impressed him and he appreciated her help in solving Wanda’s murder after all.
Sammy noted the familiar brown sign at the edge of the road with the golden words painted deep within their lettered crevices: Ice Age Recreational Scenic Trail. She turned her car in the direction of the plowed lot and parked next to Detective Nash’s familiar silver Honda Civic. She looked to her left through the driver’s side window to greet him and found his car was empty. Sammy frowned and then looked around in confusion. She’d assumed he’d be waiting for her in a warm car. She was wrong. Sammy adjusted her hand-knit hat tighter to her head and tucked her scarf around her neck before giving her coat a final button to the top and exiting her vehicle.
She closed the car door, and the silence was deafening. Only two cars, hers and Nash’s, were parked in the lot; the remainder was empty. Tall pines towered above her head, framing a magenta sunset painted across the western sky. The temperatures had warmed to a balmy twenty-five degrees, but she still couldn’t fathom why the detective would ask to meet her here, especially when it’d soon be dark. Could it not wait until morning? She looked over both shoulders to locate him and turned around on her heel. Nothing.
Where was he?
She was just about to return to her car and retrieve her cell phone out of the glove compartment to text him when she looked down and saw something red standing out from the white of the snow at her feet. Her eyes sought to identify the foreign object, and as she leaned closer to retrieve it, she realized it was a rose petal. That’s odd. How did a rose petal survive out here in the cold? And how did it get here among this sea of white? She tucked the petal into her coat pocket and moved toward the foot of the trail, where the trees opened to a wide clearing.
That’s when she saw it.
The pines were lined with luminaries on each side, lighting the trail as if she were in a glowing dream. She blinked her eyes to confirm what she was seeing. Scattered along the center of the trail, rose petals were dropped like bread crumbs leading directly through the center, where Liam Nash stood with a lopsided smile.
“You found me.”
Sammy smiled wide. “What’s this, Detective? I thought you said you needed help with a mystery.” Sammy looked beyond him and noted the luminaries far surpassed where he was standing. It seemed as if the entire trail was lit, all the way to the bend in the path.
“Yes, I do.” He nodded slowly and didn’t move. Instead he waited for her to come closer to where he stood among a scattering of rose petals grouped around his feet.
“What’s the mystery, then?” she asked when she was nearly a foot away from where he stood. She tucked her glove-covered hands into her coat pockets and smiled.
“For someone who’s so astute, I’m surprised you haven’t figured it out,” Liam teased.
“Well, I guess you have me stumped!” Sammy admitted with a laugh.
“The mystery is why you and I can’t seem to communicate, even though we both know we feel something for each other. Someone had to take the first step, and I thought this might help.” He gestured to the lighted path. “I think it’s time we blaze a new trail, Samantha. Leave our past behind and find the light in our world as it is—here and now.” His tone grew serious, but his eyes were wells of liquid chocolate. “I want us to be able to share who we really are, and this is me.” He held his arms out wide before dropping them to rest at his sides. “I’ve shown more of myself to you than anyone. This is me.” His voice grew hoarse.
Sammy smiled. “You’ve witnessed my true self and didn’t seem to appreciate my finer qualities,” she teased, her smile widening. “You know, my tenacity seems to get on your nerves a little.”
“Well, when it comes to my work, some of your finer qualities, as you call them, could use a little fine-tuning.” He smiled, showing the tooth that jutted out just a little on his lower jaw.
“I suppose …” she agreed. “I tend to get in the way of your job sometimes, and I do apologize for that. I’ll work on it.”
He held up a gloved hand to stop her. “But when it comes to my personal life, you’re exactly what I need.” He spoke with a shyness Sammy had not yet experienced from him.
“Okay then, since we’re being completely transparent and honest with each other, I have something that’s been bothering me. Just a tad.” Sammy pinched her fingers together to show him how little as her eyes crinkled into half-moons.
“What’s that? I can take it. Bring it on. Tell me.” He stood proudly with his hands on his hips, smiling expectantly down at her.
Sammy chewed her lip. She wanted the words to come out honestly and vulnerably, not accusingly, but this was who she was, someone who didn’t hold back. This would be a true test. Would he appreciate her honesty? She decided to go for it.
“The other day, when you introduced me to Ginger from the FBI, it sort of hurt my feelings to know you had been speaking ill of me behind my back. If I’m being honest, as we are right now …” She paused. “I don’t like it when people talk about me behind my back. I’d rather you just say it to me. Right to my face.” Sammy waved a hand between them and then waited. “Be who you are … with me and without me. Be the same, all the time,” she reiterated. “That’s really important to me in relationship.”
The detective cocked his head in surprise. “I’m not sure I understand what you mean. Talking badly about you? I’d never utter an unkind word about you.”
Sammy cleared her throat. “When Ginger said, ‘You’re the one …’” Sammy closed her eyes and breathed in to center herself, but when she opened her eyes to continue, she noted a wide smile across the detective’s face. “What’s so funny? I’m being serious right now!”
“Sammy, Sammy,” he said, shaking his head.
“What?” She threw her hands up innocently, and he grabbed them and pulled her in close, so close that his warm breath was on her. He leaned over, cupped her face in his gloved hands, and kissed her.
When their eyes finally met, he whispered, “Don’t you know yet, Samantha? You are the one.”
Patched Flight
Original Quilt Block Pattern by Carol Jensen
For questions on this pattern, email: [email protected]
Or visit her on Facebook: Caradora Design
Lap quilt is twelve blocks with a finished top size of 42 inches wide × 57 inches long
Materials
2¼ yards light-colored fabric
2¼ yards dark-colored fabric
¾ yard medium-colored fabric for sashing
Block assembly
Each block will need four light and four dark 3½-inch squares and eight pieced triangle squares. Finished block size
is 12 inches.
First Row
Cut light and dark fabric into 3½-inch strips and 4-inch strips.
Cut each strip into 3½-inch squares and 4-inch squares.
Take the 4-inch squares and cut on the diagonal to make two equal triangles.
Sew together one light triangle to one dark triangle on long diagonal edge.
Sew a light square to the pieced square along the leg of the dark triangle, with the dark triangle on the top.
Piece together another square from one light and one dark triangle. Sew the pieced square along the leg of its light triangle to a dark square, with the light triangle on the bottom.
Sew together the two sets with the solid squares on the outside, creating one strip of four squares.
Second Row
Sew a pieced square along the leg of the light triangle to a dark square, with the light triangle on the bottom.
The second set will be a light square sewn to the leg of a pieced square, with the dark triangle on the bottom.
Sew together the two sets with solid squares in the middle. Now you will have the second strip in the block.
Third and Fourth Rows
To form the third row, repeat the second strip, but turn so that solid squares are alternated in the middle.
The last strip requires the same assembly as the first strip, but turn so that the dark square is on the bottom left.
Now sew together the four strips to create your block.
Sashing
Cut three 3½-inch strips of medium-colored fabric. Cut the strips into eight 12-inch pieces that will be sewn between each block in each row. Now cut three more 3½-inch strips of medium sashing fabric and sew a strip between each row. This should complete your quilt top.
Recipes
Sammy’s Crustless Spinach Quiche (for a cold, snowy morning)
Ingredients
1 tablespoon olive oil or butter
½ sweet Vidalia onion, finely chopped
½ small package fresh cremini mushrooms, sliced
1 clove fresh garlic, minced
Few handfuls fresh spinach, washed and dried with a paper towel
5 organic eggs from a local farmer
Salt and pepper
3 cups Wisconsin cheese: 1 cup shredded cheddar and 2 cups pepper jack (if this is too spicy, adjust cheeses to taste; for example, flip amounts to 2 cups cheddar and 1 cup pepper jack, or use all cheddar)
4 to 6 slices crisp cooked bacon, crumbled
Assembly
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Lightly grease a 9-inch pie pan.
Heat oil or butter in a skillet.
Sauté onion and mushrooms in the skillet. Add garlic and wilt spinach.
In a large bowl, scramble the eggs with a fork and then add salt and pepper.
Fold the cheese into the eggs.
Add the spinach mixture and crumbled bacon into the bowl of eggs.
Pour into the greased pie pan.
Bake 30 minutes or until set (check every 15 minutes). When there is no liquid in the middle, the quiche is ready!
Ellie’s Meatball Soup (best for days when temps dip below zero)
Ingredients for meatballs (purchase frozen meatballs to skip this step)
1 pound ground chuck
1 pound tube Jimmy Dean sage sausage
1 egg
½ Vidalia onion, finely chopped
¼ cup premade apple sauce
¼ cup bread crumbs
½ tsp basil
½ tsp oregano
Lawry seasoned salt to taste
Assembly
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Mix ingredients in a small bowl. Form into walnut-size meatballs.
Bake until no longer pink. Freeze meatballs in freezer bags until ready to prepare soup.
Ingredients for soup
1 46-ounce bottle V-8 juice (or 1 quart Ellie’s Aunt B’s gardened canned tomato juice)
32-ounce container beef broth
1 sweet onion, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic minced
1 or 2 stalks celery, chopped
1 or 2 carrots, chopped
2 or 3 golden-yellow potatoes, peeled and chopped
15-ounce can petite diced or diced chopped tomatoes
⅓ green pepper, finely diced
bay leaf
½ teaspoon oregano
½ teaspoon basil
Assembly
Place all ingredients except potatoes on high in slow cooker until it comes to a simmer.
Add potatoes after the mixture is bubbly so they don’t become too mushy. Cook until potatoes are fork tender.
Note: Can replace potatoes with white minute rice if desired. And if Aunt B’s canned green beans are still available, add a mason jar’s worth to taste. Cook on low until veggies are tender. Enjoy!
Also available by Holly Quinn
Handcrafted Mysteries
A Crafter Hooks a Killer
A Crafter Knits a Clue
Author Biography
Holly Quinn has published two stand-alone fiction novels in another persona. She graduated from Carroll University in Wisconsin with a Bachelor of Science in business and a minor in marketing. This is her third Handcrafted mystery.
This is a work of fiction. All of the names, characters, organizations, places and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to real or actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
PUBLISHER’S NOTE: The recipes contained in this book are to be followed exactly as written. The publisher is not responsible for your specific health or allergy needs that may require medical supervision. The publisher is not responsible for any adverse reaction to the recipes contained in this book.
Copyright © 2020 by Sherry Rummler
All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by Crooked Lane Books, an imprint of The Quick Brown Fox & Company LLC.
Crooked Lane Books and its logo are trademarks of The Quick Brown Fox & Company LLC.
Library of Congress Catalog-in-Publication data available upon request.
ISBN (hardcover): 978-1-64385-290-4
ISBN (ebook): 978-1-64385-311-6
Cover illustration by Ben Perini
Book design by Jennifer Canzone
Printed in the United States.
www.crookedlanebooks.com
Crooked Lane Books
34 West 27th St., 10th Floor
New York, NY 10001
First Edition: February 2020
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