Quilt By Association

'That was Detective Morse. She was checking to be sure we arrived without incident. She'll have hourly patrols come by here. She talked to Aiden, and they agreed that when he finishes with his dogs, he'll go to your house,” she said after hanging up. “Jane wants him to stay an hour or so, and if all is quiet, he can sneak out the back and into the woods and on down the hill. Carla will give him a ride over here, and I'll take him home after dinner.'

'Seems like you guys have thought of everything.'

'It's not us guys, it's Jane and her team,” Aunt Beth protested. “I hope it's not all for nothing.'

'Me, too. I want to go home. I appreciate your hospitality, and so does Fred, but we'd rather be in our own home.'

'I know, honey, but Jane is sure Joseph will show up, and sooner rather than later.'

'Do you care if I use your computer?'

'You know I don't mind,” Beth said. “I have to go back to your house. Jane needs me to spend time there if we're going to pull this off, but I need to get Phyl's quilt on the machine anyway. Don't worry, Mavis is coming to sit with you.'

Harriet rolled her eyes but kept her mouth shut.

'You sit down, and I'll go get my laptop.'

'Since when do you have a laptop?'

'Those little netbooks went on sale at the Walmart in Port Angeles week before last, and I got one, and don't you be making fun of me.'

'I'm not making fun. I just didn't realize you were so tech-savvy.'

'I decided to make an inventory of my stash, and I thought it would be easier if I had a little computer to take to the fabric instead of writing it all down and entering it later.'

'Sounds smart.'

'It was made for searching the internet, so it should be able to do whatever you want.'

'Thanks, and you don't have to wait for Mavis to arrive. I'll be fine.'

'You'll be a sitting duck is what you'll be,” Aunt Beth said. “Mavis will be here any minute. Until then, I'll make you some tea. I got a new herbal. It's called rooibos. It's from Africa.'

'Bring it on.'

Aunt Beth brought the computer to Harriet along with a cup of the rich red tea.

'You behave yourself while I'm gone,” she said. “Don't let her talk you into anything,” she told Mavis, who had just arrived and was settling on the opposite end of the sofa.

'You be careful,” Mavis said. “We'll be just fine.'

She dug in her quilting bag and pulled out a needle and a pink silk thread that matched the backing on the snowball quilt. She threaded the needle then pulled out the label she'd made at home and began appliqueing it to the bottom right corner of the back.

'What are you doing?” she asked.

Harriet sat with her aunt's netbook balanced on a pillow across her lap.

'I thought I'd approach Iloai's situation from a different angle. I'm looking around the missing and exploited children bulletin boards to see if anyone has reported a child around her age missing.'

'You think she's a kidnap victim?” Mavis sounded shocked.

'We know she's not from Africa like she was supposed to be, and from what the translator is saying, I think there's a good chance she's not the abandoned orphan DeAnn thought they were getting. Joseph is on the run, which tells me he's been doing something he needs to hide from the police. So, I figure we now know the child is Samoan, or at least speaks that language, and she may have a family. It seems logical that, if that's the case, her family might be looking for her.'

'How's it going?'

'I just barely started, and I'm not nearly as proficient as Lauren is at this. I'm learning my way around the search terms, but then hopefully, I can do some real digging.'

She jumped an hour later when her phone rang. She didn't recognize the phone number, but she knew the area code. The caller was in Oakland, California.

'Hello,” she said. She listened to the response then quickly put the call on speaker phone.

Jasmine, she mouthed to Mavis.

'Yes, I did leave you a message asking you to call me back. I was wondering if you could answer a few questions about Neelie Obote.'

'You seen Neelie?” the disembodied voice said.

'When did you last see her?” Harriet countered.

'Maybe three weeks, maybe a little longer,” Jasmine said. “I went to Vegas. I thought she was stayin’ here, but when I got back she was gone. Then Rodney went lookin’ for her, and now I can't get hold of him, neither. You know where Neelie is?'

Harriet looked at Mavis, and the older woman nodded.

'I don't know how to tell you this, but Neelie is dead-Rodney, too. I'm so sorry.'

An animal-like moan came from the speaker. They heard a loud thump like something had fallen on the floor.

'What happened,” she wailed. “Did they crash the car? I tol’ Rodney that car was a death trap.'

'Jasmine. Can you hear me? I need you to pull it together. I need to know about Neelie's baby.'

'Neelie don't have no baby,” she gasped between sobs.

'She did when she came here.'

'She…don't…have…no…baby.” Jasmine repeated emphatically.

'Was Rodney her husband?” Harriet asked.

Jasmine made a noise Harriet thought was supposed to be a laugh.

'Honey, he wasn't nobody's husband. Their daddy, is more like it, and I'm not talking parenthood here.'

'Rodney was her pimp?'

'Don't you go talkin’ ill of the dead. If it wasn't no crash, did someone kill them? It wasn't one of them murder-suicides, was it? He was sort of sweet on her. More than the other girls, and that girl always did have trouble followin’ the rules.'

'The rules?'

'Yeah, you know, the house rules.'

Mavis and Beth raised their eyebrows as they looked at each other, but neither woman said anything.

'Did Neelie go to Africa recently?'

'Why would she go and do that?'

'Why wouldn't she? Wasn't she trying to trace her family?” Harriet guessed.

'She didn't have to trace nobody. She know where she come from. Her momma sold her in Africa when she was a little thing. She found her cousins a long time ago.'

'How long are we talking?'

'How am I supposed to know?'

'You must have some idea.'

They could hear a sigh

'Must of been a year, year and a half. Something like that. Rodney was real mad. She got her a wad of cash, and then she just took off and went to Africa. Then, when she come back, she told her story to anybody who would listen, tryin’ to get sympathy, like. Rodney said she was scarin’ the customers off with all her talk of buyin’ and sellin’ babies.'

'So exactly what was her story?'

'Who are you? And what's it to you what her story is?'

'Let's just say I'm someone Neelie came to see in Washington.'

'Why would she come see somebody in Washington? An’ how do I know you're tellin’ me the truth? She don't know no one in Washington. No one she wants to see, anyhow.'

'What do you mean?” Harriet pressed. “Did she know someone else here? Besides me?” she added, in an attempt to keep her deception going.

'If you know her, than you know who else she knows there. Like I said, she told her story to anybody who'd listen. Who are you, and why are you disrespectin’ the dead?'