The Quilt Before The Storm

“Let me finish before you react,” she repeated quietly. “I asked my aunt and Mavis what had happened in your mother’s past that your sister could be using to try to manipulate you. They told me that she had killed a girl in France.”

Aiden’s face reddened, but he kept quiet.

“She killed a girl in an accident-a tragic, unavoidable accident. The young woman was trying to escape an abusive boyfriend and ran into the street in front of her. There was nothing she could have done. The visibility was poor, and the girl darted out.

“There were witnesses who supported your mother’s innocence, but that didn’t stop the family from dragging your mom through the French equivalent of a civil trial. It was officially declared a terrible, tragic accident.

“Your mother was devastated. Your parents decided to move to America to start over. They had you, and life went on. Your mom never forgot what had happened. That’s why she spent so much money and effort working with women’s charities.”

Harriet paused for a moment to let him absorb what she’d said.

“Carla told me your sister was working on some sort of cut-and-paste craft project in the nursery a few days ago. I’m wondering if she faked some kind of proof to convince you your mother was a murderer-but she wasn’t. Your uncle Bertie is a murderer-there’s no denying that fact-but your mother was not a killer. She was the victim of a tragic accident, just as surely as the girl who died was.”

Aiden sat in silence for a few minutes then left the room.

“I thought that went well,” Harriet said to the little dog in her lap. “He didn’t yell or grab my arm or cry, even. Well, okay, I didn’t really expect that last, but you never know. He’s going to go think about things, and when he’s calmed down, he’ll realize his sister is crazy and he shouldn’t listen to a word she says.”

She held Scooter for the rest of her allotted time, which was up when a vet tech she didn’t know came to tell her the generator was about to go off again. She handed him the little dog after assuring Scooter he’d be coming home soon.

A familiar semi was parked in her driveway when she pulled into her garage, and she watched Kate and Owen approach in her rearview mirror.

“I hope you don’t mind us coming to visit,” Kate said.

“We won’t be long,” Owen added.

“Come on in,” Harriet said.

“I’d rather talk out here,” Kate said. “It looked like there were other people home, and what I have to say is for your ears only.”

“We don’t want to run into Richard Reigert’s wife or daughter. If I’m not mistaken, that’s their car in your driveway,” Owen explained.

“I have to say I noticed some animosity between you and Richard the other day.”

“That’s putting it mildly.”

The door to the kitchen opened, and Lauren leaned out.

“Anyone want to come in for coffee?” she asked.

Harriet, Owen and Kate all glared at her.

“Sorry I asked,” she said and shut the door again.

“Look, we have enough problems to last a lifetime,” Owen said. “We don’t need any more, and it seems like Foggy Point has more than its share right now. We heard the electricity is about to be turned back on.”

“And they expect to get one lane of the highway open within the week,” Kate said.

“We’re going to leave as soon as we can get out,” Owen continued.

“That makes sense,” Harriet said.

“Look,” Kate told her, “when we talked at the church, I didn’t tell you the whole story, and I feel like I need to come clean before we leave town.”

“If you know something that relates to either of the murders, shouldn’t you be telling Detective Morse?”

“You have to promise you won’t tell anyone until we’re out of town,” Kate pleaded.

“Neither of us killed Duane or Richard,” Owen asserted. “But we do know Richard.”

“Richard Reigert was the man who convinced us to invest our money in the Ponzi scheme.” Kate said.

“You definitely need to tell the detective.”

“If we do that, she’ll take us in for questioning. She may even hold us for a few days, insuring that we’ll miss our next load, and then we’ll have to get our lawyer involved, which will cost us even more of the money we no longer have,” Kate argued. “Please.”

“We just want someone to know that Richard has a lot of enemies besides us and to point the police in the right direction,” Owen said.

“I’m really not comfortable with this,” Harriet admitted.

“But you won’t tell anyone until we’re out of town, will you?” Kate’s tone was pleading.

“I can’t make any promises.”

“I guess we’ll just have to trust you to do the right thing.” Owen took his wife’s hand and led her back to the truck.

Harriet reached into her car to get her purse and noticed Ronald had left his coat when they’d dropped him at the church shelter. She picked it up and brought it into the house, laying it over the back of a kitchen chair.

“So, what was that all about?” Lauren asked.

“You wouldn’t believe it if I told you.”

“Try me.”

Harriet was trying to decide how much, if any, of what Kate and Owen had told her to share when the kitchen lights blazed to life and the clocks on the stove, microwave, and electric coffeemaker all began blinking.

“Oh, Thank you God,” Lauren said.

Harriet could hear the television blaring upstairs and the clock radio in her room beeping rhythmically.

“Help me reset stuff,” she said to Lauren.

“I’ll start at the top.” Lauren headed for the stairs.

Harriet flipped light switches and set the clocks in the kitchen before moving to the dining and living rooms. The dishwasher started filling with water. She reached over and twisted the dial to the off position.

“I gave an open invitation to everyone who helped clean things up at the quilt store to come for dinner two hours after the power came back on,” she called.

“Have fun with that,” Lauren called back.

“Oh, come on, roomie. You’re not going to bail on me now, are you?”

“I’ve got to go check out my place. I think I turned everything off, but I want to make sure the heat comes back on.”

“What if I go with you, and we stop by Jorge’s to talk to Aunt Beth and Mavis about dinner then go to the store if we need to.”

Lauren rolled her eyes as she came back downstairs.

“Okay, fine, but you owe me.” She picked up Carter and tucked him into her sweatshirt.

Mavis, Aunt Beth and Jorge were sitting at one of the tables in Tico’s Tacos when Lauren and Harriet came arrived.

“How did your clean-up project go?” Harriet asked.

“Jorge’s fresh produce was pretty ugly, but otherwise, his refrigerators weren’t too bad,” Aunt Beth reported. “We’re fortunate, I guess, that our storms come during the coldest part of the year.”

“It was about forty-five degrees in here until the power came on,” Mavis said. “The refrigerators have to be about the same.”

“So, how do we all feel about a party?” Harriet asked.

“Oh, honey,” Aunt Beth said. “I’m ready to take Curly and go back to my little house.”

“Too late,” Lauren said.

“What do you mean?”