The Wilkins Witch Quilt was eventually restored to the wall of the Town Hall. It had been found exactly where Bern Bjorn said, folded in a stack of horse blankets.
Bjorn was found innocent of negligent homicide, the jury buying his story about hitting Charlie Aitkens during a struggle over the rock. Nobody in Caruthers Corners believed that yarn, but juries in Indy don’t get very indignant about small-town fisticuffs that end with tragic results.
Nonetheless, Bjorn and his girlfriend Becky Marsch left the area. Some said they went to live with her cousin Maury in Chicago. Becky and her cousin had received suspended sentences as accessories after the fact.
Rumor had it that Boyd Aitkens had hired a hitman to avenge his son’s death, but that was never proven. Nor was there any reports of Bjorn’s demise.
Aggie did get the extra sprinkles until the Dairy Queen closed down. Bjorn’s ex-wife took over the franchise, but she let her boyfriend Ted Yost run it. He was not a very good businessman, as it turned out.
Maddy’s son Bill and his wife made a full recovery. Kathy still walks with a slight limp. N’yen was excited to see them when they drove down from Chicago to take him home.
“It was a great visit,” he exclaimed. “I got to join the Quilters Club and we solved a big murder case.”
Kathy patted him on the head, convinced his imagination had gone wild. “That’s nice, dearie,” she said as he climbed into the car, a new Subaru courtesy of the trucker’s insurance company.
Bill eyed his mother, suspecting there was more truth to the story than not. During their recovery they had not watched the news on TV, so they’d missed the frenzied coverage of the murder trial. The TV networks had had a field day with the witching angle. Nancy Grace did a segment from the Indianapolis courthouse steps. Piers Morgan had interviewed Christine O’Donnell about witchcraft, with her walking off his show for a second time. Anderson Cooper got an exclusive with Becky Marsch, talking about her great-great grandmother Mad Matilda Wilkins.
The story about the Viking silver never came out. The prosecutor had thought it too diverting a topic to introduce into the trial. Professor Ezra Pudhomme was disappointed, for he’d hoped to be interviewed about runology and how he’d helped crack the case.
Cookie Bentley did some more research on Rev. Billingsley Royce, leader of the Avenging Angels. He seemed to have disappeared from history after the 1899 murder of Matilda Wilkins. However, she did find a reference to the formation of a brewery in St. Paul at the turn of the century called Royce’s Beverages. Its motto was “Beer Fit for the Angels.” She wondered if it had been financed with Viking hack silver.
Royce’s Beverages went bust in the 1920s, and records were lost in a fire. Particulars about its ownership were sketchy.
Freddie’s daughter Donna was cast as Snow White in a kindergarten play. The Haney Bros. Zoo where Freddie worked part-time as a clown got a new elephant, this one named Rosie. She made a good mate for Happy, the circus’s original pachyderm. An aging lion named Growly was also added to the menagerie. Bombay Martinez was happy with his new charges.
Tilly announced she was pregnant again. Mark the Shark was already handing out cigars. Aggie rolled her eyes at the thought of another sibling.
Boyd Aitkens was good as his word, offering to put up the campaign money for Beauregard Hollingsworth Madison IV’s next mayoral campaign, but Beau surprised everybody by deciding not to run. Mark Tidemore announced his candidacy, and with Beau’s endorsement was a shoo-in.
Lt. Neil Wannamaker nominated Aggie for an Honorary Lawman of the Year award. She was all giggly at the idea. She viewed it as validation of the Quilters Club as real detectives.
The Nail also had offered to nominate the other Quilters Club members, but they didn’t have time for such nonsense. Maddy, Cookie, Bootsie, and Lizzie were much too busy, already planning the quilting exhibit for the next Watermelon Day festival.
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About the Author
Marjory Sorrell Rockwell says needlecraft arts – quilting, crocheting, knitting – are pastimes every woman can appreciate. And she particularly loves quiltmaking. “It’s like painting with cloth,” she says. But when not quilting she writes mysteries about a midwestern sleuth not unlike herself, a middle-aged lady with an unpredictable family and loyal friends. And she’s a big fan of watermelon pie.
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