lemon-ginger cookie crisps on a blue pottery plate. She was always the first person in line for treats, but somehow the last to show the effects of eating them. It had to be all the yoga, Harriet decided.
'He's pretty banged up, but he's going to be fine. The tech that was with him didn't fare quite as well.'
'Did you get the pictures from Beth?” asked Connie from her perch on the sofa in the living room. She was cutting dark-green leaf shapes from a piece of floral fabric and setting them in a pile on the table in front of her.
Mavis was sewing sea-foam green batik triangles to brown squares with the quilting thread she favored for her hand stitching. She had explained to Harriet that quilting thread didn't tangle or fray as quickly as plain cotton sewing thread.
'I did, but I haven't even looked at them yet.” She joined them and handed the folded pages to Connie. “I've got to go change into something more comfortable. You guys check them out; I'll be back in a second.” With that she turned around and headed up the stairs.
She returned almost immediately, still dressed in her jeans.
'Have you been here all evening?” she asked Mavis and Connie, her voice harder than she intended.
'Yes, why?” asked Mavis.
Connie stood up and came over to her. “Mija, what's wrong? Here, sit down.” She tried to lead Harriet to the sofa, but Harriet pulled free of her grasp.
'Someone's trashed my room. My bags were all emptied onto the floor, and the beds are torn apart.'
'Can you tell if anything's missing?” Mavis asked.
'It didn't look like it. I mean, my jeans and shirts are there. My sewing things are all over the floor, but I can't imagine anyone would bother to steal that kind of stuff.'
Mavis stood up. “Come on, we'll help you set it to rights. If you want, you can move down to our floor. Carla is in the alcove at the end of the hall and the bunk above her is empty. I know she won't mind.'
'As long as you don't get between her and that clawfoot tub, she won't care at all,” Connie added.
'I'm not leaving my room. I lived in Oakland, for crying out loud. We have one of the highest urban crime rates in the country. I'm not going to be scared off by some backwoods vandal.” She paced across the room, running her fingers through her hair. “I have to say, in all my years in Oakland I never had my house robbed, my car prowled and certainly never was assaulted. I've been back in Foggy Point for what-two months? I've been whacked in the head, drugged and now this is the second time my stuff has been tossed.” Tears welled up in her eyes, and she swept them angrily away with the back of her hand.
'This isn't Foggy Point,” Mavis said gruffly. “Maybe there's a simple explanation.” She led the way up the stairs to Harriet's room.
'So, do you want us to move you down to Carla's room?” Connie asked when they had picked up Harriet's clothes and sewing equipment. “If you're moving, we don't have to remake the beds up here.'
'I'm not moving,” Harriet answered emphatically. “Someone was looking for something. If they come back, they can go to Carla's room just as easy as this one.'
Connie unfurled the fitted sheet and stretched it onto the mattress. Harriet picked up the flat top sheet and helped her finish making the bed.
'They must have done this while we were in the dining cabin,” Mavis decided.
'Wait-I thought you said you'd been here all night,” Harriet said.
'I thought you meant here at the Folk Art Center. We went to dinner at six-thirty and got back around seven- thirty.'
'Unfortunately, who ever it was had plenty of time to search,” Connie said. “You know, now that I recall, when we came in the magazines from the coffee table were on the floor. I didn't think anything of it. It was a little bit windy when we came back from dinner, and I assumed a gust of wind blew in when I opened the front door and blew them off.'
'So, someone is looking for something, but what is it?” Mavis wondered.
'I don't know. Where are the others? I wouldn't put it past Lauren to leave my room like that if she was looking for something.'
'Oh, honey, Lauren wouldn't do that, and you know it,” Mavis scolded.
'I wouldn't put it past her,” Harriet repeated. “She's pretty insistent about me owing her.'
'Robin and Carla were going to go look at the photography exhibit, and then they were going to see if they could help Lauren. She has to pull together another piece of her work to fill the space her missing quilt occupied. She had done samples of the various techniques she used in her final piece, so they were going to try to mount several of them on a piece of poster board. She said she doesn't have another piece as big as the one that's missing that fits the theme. Sarah met someone at the pottery exhibit the other night, and she went to dinner in town with them.” Connie left the room as she continued, “I'll go put the kettle on, and we can have a cup of tea and see if we can make sense out of this.'
'Come on, honey,” Mavis said, and put her arm abound Harriet's shoulders and gave her a little squeeze. “You've had a rough day. Have you had anything to eat yet? Let me fix you a snack, and then we can put our heads together and figure this thing out.'
They followed Connie down the stairs.
'Go ahead,” Harriet told Mavis and went to get the phone. “I'm calling the office to report the vandalism in my room.'
'They didn't seem overly interested,” Harriet reported when she'd finished her call. Connie had brought out a tray with a steaming pot of tea and a plate with saltines and small slabs of cheddar cheese on it. She sat the tray on the table then handed Harriet the snack plate.
'I agree with Beth.” Mavis picked up her copy of the quilt picture. “It looks a lot like Lauren's.'
'What we need is a picture of Lauren's,” Harriet said and set her now-empty plate back on the table. She was about to pull her copy of the picture from her pocket when she heard a soft tap followed by the Tree House door opening.
'Hello?” called Patience.
'In here,” Connie replied, and got up to meet the new arrival.
'I heard Nancy leaving a message for Tom. She said someone's room in the Tree House was ransacked. I wanted to stop by and make sure everything was okay.'
Connie poured her a cup of peppermint tea. “Here,” she said, “sit down and we'll fill you in.'
Mavis looked at Harriet, and when the younger woman remained silent, she gave Patience a quick account of the event.
Patience was silent for a moment.
'And nothing was missing?” she finally asked.
'I don't have that much here,” Harriet said. “I haven't combed through my sewing bag, but my hoop and scissors and ruler and all the big stuff is there. My clothes, my purse and ID are all here. I really don't have anything here worth taking. My cell phone was in my pocket. It makes no sense.” She looked at Patience. It was clear the woman was trying to decide whether to say something.
'What? If you know something, say it.'
'I don't know if this means anything. I mean, you ladies would know better than I.'
'Patience,” Mavis said in a firm voice. “Take a deep breath, and then just tell us what you know, or suspect, or whatever.'
Patience did as instructed. “Everyone here has heard Lauren say that Harriet owes her. The teachers have been speculating what Harriet could have done to get in debt to Lauren.” She pulled her ever-present crumpled tissue from her pocket and dabbed at her nose.
Harriet looked at Mavis with an “I told you so,” expression on her face.
'That's not Lauren's style,” Mavis protested. “Think about it. When have you ever known Lauren to be sneaky?
