'What's that on the floor?” A line of dark red drops dotted the linoleum just inside the door.
Robin crouched down and took a closer look. She groaned.
'What?'
'It's blood.'
As was required for an officer of the court, Robin called Detective Ruiz immediately. She might have been wearing a pastel-and-black yoga outfit, but she commanded Harriet stay out of the apartment with the kind of authority Harriet associated with uniforms.
'Lauren might be in the bedroom,” Harriet protested. “Someone is obviously hurt, it could be her.'
'The blood trail is leading from the living room to the door.” Robin studied the floor at her feet. “This carpet is so dirty it's hard to tell, but I think the blood continues out here. Look.” She pointed to a larger dark stain on the landing.
Harriet stiffened as she heard the downstairs door open.
'Why am I not surprised to find you here?” Detective Ruiz said to her as he ascended the stairs. “It's like I was saying the last time we met at a crime scene-you keep inserting your self into my investigation, and I have to keep asking myself why that would be.'
'We came here looking for Lauren,” she told him. “She came to Angel Harbor with us. Surely, you can understand why we might be worried about the fact that she's missing.'
'We didn't go inside,” Robin said in a business-like tone. “Her brother Les works at the Fiber Arts School; this is his apartment.'
'Lauren told me she spent the first night she was missing here, but she claimed she was leaving for parts unknown. Knowing Lauren as we do, we figured she might be back here,” Harriet added, trying to imitate Robin's tone.
'There's something that looks like blood here in the entry.” Robin pointed.
'You two go downstairs and wait outside.” Detective Ruiz motioned Officer Weber, who seemed to be his constant companion, inside the apartment. Weber drew his weapon and entered.
Harriet and Robin did as requested and went outside. Robin called Mavis and reported their situation.
'Someone is clearly looking for something more than your friend,” Detective Ruiz said when he joined them in the alley. “What do you think that might be?'
'I have no idea,” Harriet said immediately. “Lauren's quilt went missing. While we were helping her look for it, we discovered that someone's been making copies of student quilts and selling them. But since she doesn't have her quilt, we've been assuming the copycat was the one who stole it. I don't know why anyone else would be looking for it. Besides, the places that have been torn up aren't the kind of places I'd look for a quilt. We know Lauren doesn't have it, so why would someone look at her brother's place? And Tom's office makes no sense, either.'
'We came here to find Lauren and tell her to turn herself in so we can get this cleared up. She didn't do anything to Selestina, even though someone went to some amount of trouble to make it look like she did,” Robin said. “I'm getting worried for her safety.'
'I'm starting to get worried about your client myself,” Ruiz said. “Someone searched that apartment, but it also looks like there was a fight of some kind.” He looked away.
'What?” Robin asked.
'Someone lost a lot of blood in the bedroom,” he said somberly. “I've called for the forensic folks, and I also asked our crime scene reconstruction guy to come have a look. He'll be able to give us a better idea of what went on here. I'd like to talk to you again when we're done here.” He looked at his watch. “It's going to take a couple of hours for my guy to do his thing, so shall we say four o'clock? I'll come by the school.'
'Why is he being so nice all of a sudden?” Harriet whispered to Robin as the detective went back upstairs.
'He thinks something bad happened to Lauren, which means she's not the bad guy.'
Harriet covered her face with her hands. “I've done my share of complaining about Lauren, but I never wanted anything like this to happen to her.” She rubbed her eyes.
Robin called Mavis and Connie again and asked them to come back to the restaurant parking lot to pick them up.
'We might as well go back to the Tree House and try to do our blocks. I'm fresh out of ideas for places to look.'
'Tom and Aiden are going to come this afternoon so we can look in the outbuildings at the school.'
'I guess it can't hurt. We probably wouldn't be able to concentrate on our blocks anyway. I'll be surprised, though, if it turns out someone who would snatch Lauren would hide her at the school where we might stumble on her.'
'I'm learning there are a lot of storage and utility spaces on the grounds, and several of them are hard to find unless you know they're there.'
'I guess we can try,” Robin said, and led the way back across the alley.
Mavis drove the minivan into the parking lot and opened the door. “You want to drive?” she asked.
'No, you go ahead,” Robin told her, and collapsed into a middle row seat. Harriet climbed into the back row and put on her seatbelt.
'You two don't look so good,” Connie said. “What happened?'
Harriet explained the details of their attempt to look for Lauren in Les's apartment.
'Tom and Aiden are going to help us search the grounds in a little while. Other than that, we wait and see what the police find out,” she finished.
The group drove back to the Tree House, each lost in her own thoughts. The men were waiting on the porch when they trooped single file from the parking lot.
'Put a little oil on her dry food each morning, and it should help that,” Aiden was saying to Tom when the women joined them.
'Thanks.'
You would never have known Aiden had clubbed Tom in the jaw and Tom had knocked Aiden off this same porch not that long ago. They were smiling and talking like old pals.
'We're here for the big search,” Aiden said. “On time, I might add.” He checked his watch and then studied Harriet. “What happened?'
Harriet looked at Mavis. “Could you tell him? I need a few minutes.” She went on into the house.
Mavis explained the latest news and assured him that nothing had happened to Harriet.
'Maybe I should send everyone home,” Tom said.
'That might help,” Mavis agreed. “But I doubt you'd get people to leave before the memorial for your mother. And we can't leave here without Lauren.'
'I suppose.'
'Aiden and I talked this over while we were waiting,” Tom said when Harriet came back down from her room. She'd washed her face, brushed her teeth and refreshed her deodorant. It didn't help solve the Lauren problem, but she did feel a tiny bit better.
'I brought a couple of maps of the property, and we've divided up the keys,” Tom continued.
'Yeah, Harriet and I will be one team, and Robin, Tom and Carla will be the other,” Aiden jumped in. He looked at Mavis. “We thought Connie and Mavis could man the phones so if one of us finds something, we can let them know and they'll contact the others.'
'The cell phone reception is spotty up here, as I'm sure you've all noticed, but most of the buildings have phones in them, so call on the house phones if you need to,” Tom finished.
He handed out the maps. He and Aiden had already divided the keys, obviously assuming the women would agree with their plan.
'As you can see from your maps, the property is roughly a rectangle. I thought we could start in opposite
