Quilt By Association

began pushing her across the grass to the driveway where they had parked their emergency response truck.

Harriet asked the blond for the phone from her sweatshirt pocket-she was covered with a blanket and strapped down and hadn't put it back on after her field exam.

Aiden came striding up before the paramedic could comply.

'What happened here?” he demanded.

'This wo-lady…called us, and we found her by the bushes over there,” the paramedic stammered and stopped pushing the gurney.

'How bad,'

'Sprained ankle and a bruise over her kidney. She needs x-rays and probably an MRI.” The blond man's cheeks turned pink.

'Did you get the prescription cat food I told you about?” It became clear why patient confidentiality had just sailed out the window.

'Not yet, but I will as soon as I get paid,” the paramedic said in a rush.

'Good man,” Aiden said. “I think you'll find she'll stop pulling her hair out after she's been on the new food for a couple of weeks.'

'I am here, you know,” Harriet said.

'I'm too mad at you right now to risk speaking to you,” Aiden informed her.

'It makes one wonder why you bothered to come.'

'I heard the call on our police scanner, and I recognized the address,” he said before she could ask the obvious. “Or at least, I was pretty sure. I called your house, and you didn't answer, and I called DeAnn, and she said you'd left almost thirty minutes ago. I decided I'd retrace your route, which we both know goes right past here. I was hoping I'd find you waiting for Triple A to come fix a flat tire or something equally lacking in danger, but I saw your car at the curb and the fire engines and here we are.'

'Rodney's dead,” Harriet said before he could launch into a lecture.

'What?'

'Rodney's dead,” she repeated, and pointed with her chin toward the spot where he still lay on the ground.

'How? What happened? Why Joseph's house?'

'I don't know what happened,” she said. “I saw someone move past the window, but no one answered the doorbell. I was going to look in the window, but just as I was about to, someone hit me from behind. A moment later, Rodney's body fell on top of me.'

'He fell on you?'

Harriet sighed. “He was already cool when I tried to do CPR on him, so I think he was dead before I got here.'

'Why were you out in the bushes? Wouldn't it have been easier to look in one of the windows on the porch?'

'That wasn't where I saw motion. The window just above the rhododendrons is where I saw something move.'

Aiden looked back at the house. “The window is dark. How did you see something moving?'

She tried to twist around, but he stilled her with a hand on her arm.

'That window was lit when I drove by. I noticed it on my way to DeAnn's, so I was driving slowly when I went back by on my way home. Someone crossed in front of the window.'

Aiden looked at the dark house again.

'I didn't make it up,” Harriet insisted. “There was light in the window, and someone was in the room. We need to get some answers from Joseph, and I thought he was home.'

'I believe you,” Aiden said. “Someone else had to have been here, or Rodney wouldn't have gone airborne after he was already dead.'

'Unless she made the whole thing up,” Detective Sanders said, joining them.

'I suppose you think she clubbed herself in the kidney and sprained her own ankle, too?'

'She could have fallen down the stairs when she was carrying the body out of the house. And by the way, who are you?'

'Dr. Aiden Jalbert,” Aiden said in his professional voice, extending his hand, forcing Sanders to either shake it or appear rude. He cleverly left out the DVM part of his title, Harriet noticed, correctly guessing Sanders would defer to someone he thought was a people doctor.

'We need to get Ms. Truman here to the hospital for an MRI, if you'll excuse us,” he continued. “You can question her after we've run our tests.'

His bluff worked. Sanders stepped back, and the blond paramedic pushed Harriet to the waiting emergency vehicle.

'You can meet us at the hospital, Dr. Jalbert,” he said with a smirk.

'Could you call my aunt?” Harriet called as she disappeared into the ambulance.

Chapter 29

A part of Harriet was impressed by the speed with which the paramedics and then the emergency room staff transferred her into a cubicle in the hospital's trauma unit. The other part wondered how many more years it was going to take to get pain relief of any sort. The ER doctor explained they would not be giving her major painkillers until they finished assessing her injuries.

Aunt Beth and Mavis were waiting in her hospital room when the nurse's aide finally brought her in, after every possible test that could be done had been.

'Oh, honey, are you okay?” Aunt Beth asked. “They wouldn't tell us anything.'

'Aiden got called back to the clinic. Apparently, one of his patients took a turn for the worse,” Mavis told her. “He said to tell you he'll be back as quick as he can.'

'Are the detectives here?” Harriet asked, her voice weak from exhaustion and pain.

'No, we haven't seen any police, detectives or otherwise.” Beth said. “All we know is Aiden called and said you'd been hurt and to meet him here.'

'He said you were at Joseph's house and that someone had died,” Mavis added.

'Rodney,” Harriet said.

'Oh, thank heaven,” Aunt Beth said. She picked up the plastic cup of water from the bedside table and guided the straw to Harriet's mouth, urging her to drink. “Well, not that Rodney's dead, of course. I thought when Aiden said you'd found a dead man and you were at Joseph's house…well, I assumed it was Joseph.'

'Aiden went back to wherever they had you before he told us who it was you found,” Mavis explained.

'And they wouldn't let us in the emergency area. They said you were off getting scanned or x-rayed or something,” Aunt Beth said.

'It's okay, you're here now.” She started to cough but checked it when sharp pain radiated through her back. Her face must have turned the color of her sheet.

'So, what happened?” Aunt Beth asked, having waited until the color returned to Harriet's face. “Why were you at Joseph's house?'

'A light was on, so I stopped. I saw a shadow cross the window. Someone was in the house.'

'Why did you go alone? You could have been killed.” Tears filled Aunt Beth's eyes.

'Somehow going up and knocking on the door of someone I know in Foggy Point didn't seem like a big risk. This is Washington State, not Washington, DC. “

'If I'm not mistaken, you weren't found on the front porch,” Mavis pointed out.

'I started out on the front porch. When no one came to the door, I went over to the lighted window to see if I could get Joseph's attention. When I got to the window, I discovered it was just above a basement window well. I thought I saw something moving through that window, so I bent to look and then I was hit from behind.'

'So, why are you worrying about a detective being here? If you were just looking in a window and then