by Judith Post
“You know I’m a weaver.”
Mike nodded.
“Well someone got into my studio and pulled three people’s bookmarks--Gabe’s, Sheila Grayson’s, and Les Smith’s.”
Mike frowned. “You mean that those people were murdered. They didn’t die.”
“The thing is,” Thea said, “no mortal can enter my studio unless I’ve invited them. So it wasn’t a person. It was a ghost.”
“A ghost is the murderer,” Mike said.
“Except that she’d been murdered first,” Thea said, “by Randall Raker. Melissa Smith helped him bury Lacey’s body here.”
“Your sister Lacey?” Mike asked, looking at Lindsay.
Lindsay nodded.
“Randall didn’t mean to kill her,” Thea went on. “He got mad at her and hit her at the top of his steps. She fell and died.”
“Can you prove any of this?” Mike said.
“I helped Lacey find her body. I was hoping you’d find some material kind of proof that way. But when we came to see if we had the right spot, Randall and Melissa came. They pulled a gun and wanted to kill Lindsay.”
“Will you verify that?” Mike asked.
“Gladly,” Lindsay said.
Mike turned his attention back to Thea. “So what happened?”
“I stepped in front of her, and Randall didn’t want to shoot a weaver and die the way Olive’s husband did.”
Mike shivered. “I don’t blame him.”
“Randall and Melissa just left. You need to find them and arrest them.”
Mike nodded and went to his squad car. He called in the order to find and arrest Raker and gave the make of Randall’s car.
“Not too many people drive Hummers,” Mike said. “He should be easy to spot.”
“Unless they take Melissa’s car,” Lindsay said.
Mike added a black Jaguar to his other information. Then he stepped closer and looked at the area his deputies had marked off with yellow tape. “And you think Lacey’s body is here?”
One of the deputies pulled on the collar of the dog he’d trained. “Looks like he found something.”
Thea glanced at the bottom of the hole. A gauzy, flowered material was visible.
“Lacey’s shirt.” Lindsay’s voice cracked and she looked away.
“Why don’t you two go on home now?” Mike suggested. “This is going to take a while. You’ve taken care of the kind of things that you handle. Let me take care of the things I’m good at.”
“My sister?” Lindsay asked.
“Won’t look too pretty anymore. After we’ve cleaned her up a little, I’ll call you.”
Thea wrapped an arm around Lindsay’s shoulders. “What if I drive you to your place?”
“Do I get to go home now?” she asked.
Mike raised an eyebrow.
Lindsay looked at him and shook her head. “Don’t ask.”
“Whatever you tell me won’t hold up in court,” he said, “but I’d love to hear the whole story someday.”
Thea smiled. “Stop in for lunch sometime.”
When Thea pulled into the winery, Lindsay said, “Drop me off at the visitors’ shop. I’m not ready to go into the house by myself.”
“Do you want me to stay with you?”
Lindsay got out of the Jeep and leaned down to look in the car window. “No offense, Thea, because you’ve been wonderful to me and my sister. You helped us when no one else could. But. . . “
“If you don’t see me for a while, you’ll feel better?”Lindsay nodded, and Thea drove away.
When she reached her own house, she found her family waiting in the studio for her.
“Gabe came back and told us what happened,” Aggie said. “It’s finally over.”
“I’m tired,” Thea admitted, “but I have lots of things to celebrate.”
A blush crept up Rachel’s cheeks. “You can’t tell, can you?”
“What?”
“You have one more thing to be happy about,” Rachel said.
The light bulb clicked on, and Thea cheered. “A baby?”
“You’re all invited to our house this weekend. Isak and I are getting married in the garden, and then we’ll have food and drinks in the dining room.”
Our house. Thea liked the sound of that. Annabel had left the big, old place to them. A new generation of Pateks was settling down in Emerald Hills. Thea looked at Hannah. Only ten. Thea would be recording bookmarks a while longer, and that was good.
Chapter 78
Thea uncorked the bottle of white wine and poured a healthy splash of it into the shrimp scampi. Then she pulled the oven rack forward and checked on the corn casserole. Broccoli salad and deviled eggs were readied in the refrigerator, and rum sat on the counter for the bananas foster. A little more festive than usual, but nine months had passed and this would probably be the last quilting session Thea and her friends would have until school started again in the fall.
She was setting the table when she saw Nancy’s SUV whiz past the picture windows at the front of the cabin and heard Nancy’s tread as she came up the steps.
“I love April!” Nancy said. “It’s gorgeous outside.”
“How are things going for the wedding?” Thea asked.
Nancy went to the pine table and poured herself a glass of wine. “Everything’s under control. Amy and Gaston said to keep it simple, so we have.”
Shari walked through the door and joined Nancy at the table. “Where are they going for their honeymoon?”
Nancy snorted. “San Francisco. They’re going to go to all the top restaurants to get ideas.”
“For your place?” Shari asked. “Gourmet?”
“They’re hoping to start their own restaurant someday, something upscale. Who knows? Emerald Hills might be ready for it.”
Cynthia came in next. “Mmmm, it smells good in here.” She went to the table and reached for a cucumber slice on the vegetable tray. “There’s no MSG on these, is there, to keep them fresh?”
“Only on yours,” Thea said.
“How’s Toby with your new guy?” Nancy asked.
Cynthia shook her head. “It’s too soon to tell, but Michael really likes Toby.” Thea was surprised when Cynthia’s new man turned out to be the high school baseball coach instead of some kind of artist. “Toby goes to practice with him every night anymore. He’s the bat boy. Michael says that Toby’s picking up a lot of the basics of the game.”
“Just what that kid needs,” Nancy said. “Some manly stuff.”
“Does Toby ever talk about Randall?” Shari asked.
“He writes and sends him a letter every Saturday. Randall says it’s one of the highlights of his week.”
“There can’t be too many other highlights in jail,” Shari cracked, “unless someone smuggles him in some cigarettes.” She turned to Thea in the kitchen. “I have some good news. Guess who’s pregnant?”
They all waited, lending the proper importance to Shari’s announcement.
“Tillie.”
“I bet Bill’s happy,” Nancy said.
“The boy’s beside himself. He told Tillie that they can buy everything ahead since she’s seen her bookmark and they know this baby will be safe.”
Thea carried the food to the table, and they sat down to eat.
“How’s Gabe doing?” Cynthia asked. “I bet he’s excited about Rachel’s baby.”
“He’s getting nervous,” Thea said. “She’s due any day now.”
“And how are you doing, having a ghost around the house?” Shari asked.
Thea smiled. “Things couldn’t be better.”
Shari, nosey as ever, persisted. “How does it work?”
“Well, when Gabe’s in the house, he’s just energy.”
“A ghost,” Cynthia said.
“Exactly.”
Nancy’s eyes sparkled. “What about the studio?” she asked. “It sounds like spook central.”
Thea blushed. “Not anymore. It’s just Ga
be, and when he’s in the studio, since that’s not strictly mortal, he can materialize.”
“Materialize?” Shari’s eyes went wide. “You mean..?”
“He can become solid.” Nancy laughed. “Sorry. Bad choice of words.”
“That kind of solid?” Cynthia asked.
Thea nodded.
“And it’s good? I mean, it’s like other people’s?” Cynthia asked.
“Probably better.” Thea gave a wicked grin. “Gabe never has a headache, and he’s never too tired.”
The women burst out laughing.
They finished their meal and were climbing the stairs to the quilting studio when Thea tilted her head to one side and got a faraway look on her face.
“We’ll start without you,” Nancy said.
Thea gave a huge smile. “It’s Rachel’s. Gotta go,” and she hurried to the barn. A little while later, a car pulled up to the door and Josh and Hannah raced up the steps.
Hannah came to stand beside Thea at the loom. “It’s Rachel, isn’t it?”
“Yes.” Thea poised her fingers over the threads.
“Hannah’s teacher doesn’t even blink anymore when I take her out of the class,” Josh said.
“That’s because she’s three months pregnant,” Hannah said, “and she knows Thea will weave her baby’s bookmark when it’s born.”
The conversation stopped when the new soul stepped on the scale.
“It’s a girl,” Thea said, her fingers spinning a soft pattern of pale pink.
“Pink?” Hannah asked. “She’s going to be really spiritual.”
The threads formed a gentle, lacey pattern with only small knots here and there. A small life hurdle at age six, another one at twelve. A tight nubbly pattern during her teen years. . .
“Uh-oh, she and Rachel are going to argue a lot for a while,” Hannah said.
“That’s what parents and teens do,” Thea said.
And in her early twenties, a more aggressive pattern. “I thinks she’s going to be a career woman,” Thea said.
And finally, in her mid-thirties, a new thread, a sage green one. “A sensible, easygoing husband,” Thea told Josh. The weave showed two babies, both healthy, and a nice old age.
When the bookmark was finished, all three of them sighed. Thea tied the final knots and released it to its place in the rafters.
“Rachel got lucky,” Hannah said.
“Luck is just getting a break after you’ve done a lot of hard work,” Thea and Josh said together. They looked at each other and smiled.
“I’m going to the hospital,” Josh said. “Want to come?”
“I’ll be there in a little bit. The girls are at the house,” Thea said. “I want to tell them the news. But Hannah can go.”
She stood at the barn window, overlooking the yard and the house, and watched Josh and Hannah drive away. Gabe came to her and wrapped an arm around her waist. “How’s it going to feel to be a grandma?”
She snuggled against him. “So far, things have been pretty good.” Life had its ups and downs, its bumps and hardships, but it had its good times, too. And right now, things just couldn’t get any better.