Aunt Beth stuck her head out from behind a rack of coats. She started to say something, took one look at Harriet and Mavis and retreated around the rack.
“I’ll be back here if you need anything,” she said.
“Do you want to talk about it?” Mavis asked.
“No,” Harriet said. “Yes. I don’t know.”
“Take a deep breath,” Mavis said in a soothing voice.
“I can’t figure out what sort of game Aiden is playing. At the clinic, he told me we are through and offered no explanation. Of course, I couldn’t confront him with what we’ve learned from Carla, so I just had to let it go at that.”
Mavis handed her a bottle of water from her tote bag on the floor. Harriet opened it and took a long drink.
“A few minutes ago, he came storming in here and grabbed me by the arm. He dragged me out in the hall and started yelling about my being involved in the two murders. He said just because we can’t be together doesn’t mean he doesn’t care. What am I supposed to do with that? He cares, but we can’t be together?”
“Sounds like the boy’s confused,” offered Aunt Beth from behind her rack of coats.
“Oh, for Pete’s sake, if you’re going to horn in on our conversation, you might as well come out in the open and quit hiding.” Mavis told her.
“I was trying to give you two some privacy, but I can’t believe Aiden is pulling that old saw on you. ‘I love you, but I’m not good enough, so I’m setting you free.’ If I didn’t know the boy better, I’d say he was having an affair. But since I do know him, I have to believe he’s incredibly misguided. We have got to confront him about that nonsense his sister is feeding him.”
“Hold on a minute,” Harriet said.
“Yeah,” Mavis added. “Hold your horses. It’s not our job to interfere with Harriet’s relationship with Aiden.”
“Not that I have one,” Harriet pointed out. “But I agree. Aiden has to figure this out on his own. Otherwise, we’ll be doing this again and again with Michelle.”
“I think it would help Aiden see the light if we could prove to him that Michelle’s evidence has been fabricated,” Beth said.
“Maybe,” Mavis agreed. “But we can’t put Carla’s job in jeopardy.”
“I’m getting a little tired of all the drama,” Harriet muttered.
“Does that tired have anything to do with a certain out-of-town visitor?” Aunt Beth asked.
Harriet was quiet for a moment.
“Would it be terrible if it did?” she said finally.
“I suppose that would be up to you,” Beth said.
“Let’s take these bundles of clothes out to the gym. Julie Swendsen is setting up a table for us to put them on,” Mavis said. She handed Harriet a paper shopping bag filled with packages of underwear. “Let’s deliver this stuff and get out of here.”
They almost made a clean getaway.
Harriet left her aunt and Mavis under the covered walkway in front of the gym while she dashed across the parking lot through the rain to get her car. Detective Morse was talking to them when she pulled up.
“Hey,” she said through the open car window.
Detective Morse pulled the car door open and climbed into the front seat, out of the rain.
“I talked to Darcy at the fire station. She said several of the folks from the homeless camp have moved to the shelter. Is that true?”
“Yeah, one older man who has some sort of heart condition and that couple who live in a semi with the broken heater. They got stuck on this side of the slide.”
“Anything I need to know about them?”
“What I just told you is pretty much all I know. One is sick, and the other two are stuck here.”
“Thanks,” Morse said. “I guess I’ll see you at the house later.”
“Do you need a ride home?”
“No, I picked up a set of wheels at the temporary fire station.” She pointed to a red Jeep in the parking lot.
“Lucky you,” Harriet said with a smile.
Morse got out and trotted to the door as Aunt Beth and Mavis got in.
“Anyone want to go anywhere else while we’re out?” Harriet asked her passengers.
“Are any of the stores open?” Mavis asked. “We could use another bag of flour if they are.”
“Let’s go find out.”
She drove a circuitous route that bypassed the flooded downtown area, eventually pulling into the lot at Vince’s Supermarket.
The lights were dim, but a handwritten sign proclaimed they were open and a single door was propped open with a wooden box. They could hear the hum of a generator in the background, but the dim lights meant it probably wasn’t big enough to power the whole store.
“Welcome,” Vince called from the lone open cash register. “Can I make you a deal on some soon to be thawed hamburgers? I’ll throw in some fries,” he added and wiggled his thick dark eyebrows up and down.
“We’re hoping to get some flour,” Mavis said with a smile.
“We’ve got that, too, but I’d be happy to give you some pre-made burger patties. My generator can’t power both rows of freezers. I moved all the fresh meat into the one unit, and I had to prioritize stuff. I’ve got some bags of frozen burgers that are going to go to waste. You can have them if you want some for dinner. My son just took off with a carload to take to the church. You’d be doing me a favor.”
“If they’re going to go to waste, sure, we’ll take some.” Aunt Beth said.
Vince gave Harriet a bag and told her where the meat was in the back of the store and to go help herself. Mavis and Beth went to get the flour.
“Help yourself to a package of buns to go with them,” Vince called as Harriet headed to the back. “Aisle five on the right, halfway down.”
Harriet’s route took her past the powered freezer with its thick yellow cord leading outside to the gas generator. The head of the extension cord could receive three plugs, but only the single freezer line was plugged into it.
She fingered the charger cord in her pocket. Before she had time to worry about whether the addition of the charger would blow the circuit, she’d plugged Duane’s phone into the outlet. She left it lying on the floor charging while she went into the back room, located the tubes of thawing hamburgers and loaded several into the shopping bag Vince had given her.
She went back up aisle five and picked up enough buns to sheath the meat she’d taken before she went back and unplugged Duane’s phone, pocketing it and its charger before going to the front of the store.
“We appreciate the meat, Vince,” Aunt Beth said. “We’d like to pay for it, though.”
“No, I’ll write it off as a loss. It will be fine. I’m just glad it won’t go to waste.”
Tom’s pickup was in the driveway beside Jorge’s when Harriet drove into the garage.
“Where have you been?” Lauren asked when she came into the kitchen.
“At the church and the grocery store,” Harriet replied. “What difference does it make?”
“If you had been here, maybe you could have stopped them.”
“Stopped who?” Aunt Beth asked as she joined them.
“Jorge and Tom are unclogging the rain gutter…on the attic roof.”
“What?” Aunt Beth and Harriet said at the same time.
“I tried to talk them out of it,” Lauren said. She pulled Carter out of her sweatshirt and set him on the kitchen floor in front of his water dish. “A burst of rain hit while they were having a cup of coffee, and they saw the overflow gushing past the window where the downspout is plugged. When the rain slowed again, they went into the garage and dug around for a while. They came out with an armload of ropes and boards and a broken fireplace poker and headed upstairs to the attic.”
“Please tell me they didn’t go out the attic window,” Harriet said.
