Quilt As You Go

acceptable when they got here. As for him-he was dead when I came over to help the ladies. He appears to have a large, blunt-force trauma wound in the middle of his chest. I have no idea how he received the blow.'

The coroner bent down on one knee next to Gerald's body. The blond paramedic returned and stood a few paces away.

Washington State uses a medical examiner/coroner system for death investigation. In smaller counties like Clallam, where Foggy Point was located, the prosecuting attorney is also the coroner, with deputy prosecuting attorneys also being deputy coroners. The larger counties have medical examiners or forensic pathologists who are medical doctors with specialties in forensics and death investigation.

It would be the coroner's job to decide whether Gerald's death was explainable or suspicious.

'Can you cut open his shirt for me?” he asked without looking up.

The blond paramedic pulled disposable gloves from his shirt pocket and put them on. He then plucked a pair of bandage scissors from a loop on the right leg of his pants. He bent down on the opposite side of Gerald and gently cut through the blood-soaked fabric.

'I don't see a bullet hole,” the coroner said, “do you?'

The blond tilted his head a little and looked from several angles, then gently probed Gerald's chest with his gloved fingers.

'There's no hole.” He was quiet for a minute. “There were a lot of horses on the field at the end. Do you think someone riding out of the woods could have knocked him aside without realizing it? Maybe drove him onto one of the big tree stumps?'

'Anything's possible, I guess,” the coroner said and stood up. “In the absence of a bullet wound or sword wound, it doesn't seem likely he was a victim of foul play. Did I hear correctly that you could see him from the bleachers?” he asked, looking at Harriet.

She nodded. “He was in our view, but with all the action, I can't say I was looking at him the whole time. I mainly noticed him because he didn't get up when the other dead soldiers did. I didn't see what happened to him.'

'I'm going to talk to the local police as a precaution. They can investigate and see if they can find anyone who saw what happened. I'm declaring him dead and for now writing it up as unknown cause or causes. I'm afraid he's going to need a ride to the ME's office in King County when the forensic people are done taking their pictures.'

The paramedic signaled his team members. One was in the back of their truck rustling supplies around, and the other leaned against the back of the vehicle, chewing on a piece of grass. He explained the situation and asked each one to stand guard on either side of Gerald's location until the police arrived.

* * * *

'What happened?” Carlton asked when Harriet passed the stage on her way to the quilt booth. He and Bebe had hovered there while the police arrived and then the paramedics left.

She quickly explained about finding Gerald's body.

'Oh, my gosh,” Bebe said, covering her mouth with her hand. “How awful for Mavis.'

'It's been quite a shock for her,” Harriet agreed.

'I'm glad I wasn't there,” Bebe said. “I've never seen a dead body before, and I'd like to keep it that way.'

'Let's hope this is the closest you ever come,” Harriet said.

'What shall we do?” Carlton asked.

'For Mavis?'

Carlton nervously shuffled his feet. “I was thinking about our guests,” he said and nodded toward the tent encampments.

'I don't think we need to do anything with regard to them. As far as activities go, we only have the barbecue tonight and then the goodbye brunch tomorrow, and while it's a sad occasion for us locally, the death of Gerald Willis, even if it turns out it was the result of incidental contact with a participant's mount, really doesn't have anything to do with the re-enactment. We need to quietly help the police talk to the mounted re-enactors who were on the far edge of the field. Other than that, we kiss them goodbye and invite them back next year.'

Carlton looked relieved. “Well, if you think that's best, we'll go with it. Since you have police experience, I think it would be best if you let the involved people know who needs to talk to them.'

'Sure,” Harriet said, her shoulders sagging slightly. He hadn't done anything useful yet. Why did she expect it to be different now?

' Carlton, baby,” Bebe said. “My feet are just killing me. Can we go home now?'

He looked at Harriet.

'Sure, you kids run on home-you must be beat,” she said.

'See you at the brunch tomorrow,” Carlton said. Harriet's sarcasm was lost on him.

Chapter 9

Harriet waited until after the barbecue was well under way and the caterer had assured her they wouldn't run out of food before she joined the small group at Aunt Beth's house.

'Hey,” Aunt Beth said as Harriet came in the front door. “We saved you some pizza.'

She and Mavis were sitting on one side of the oak-topped kitchen table. Robin and DeAnn sat on the other side with Lauren at the end. Connie was in a wooden rocker by the window, her black-rimmed reading glasses on the end of her nose, her applique project lying idle in her lap.

'I don't know about you guys, but I'm sure glad that's over with,” Harriet said and collapsed into the chair opposite Lauren, neatly avoiding the topic on everyone's mind.

'They made us wait until you got here,” Lauren said, and she wasn't talking about food.

'We didn't want Mavis to have to tell her story more than once,” Robin said.

'I've tried to tell you all-there's no story to tell. Gerald died almost twenty years ago in Malaysia. I received his ashes, and they're sitting on a shelf in my bedroom. How he came back to life only to die again during a Civil War re-enactment is beyond me.'

'You don't need to talk about this right now,” Connie said. “Take some time to catch up with everything that's happened.'

'I don't need time, I need answers,” Mavis said, some of her old fire showing at last. “I need to know what happened today, and I need to know what happened twenty years ago. And,” she said and paused, “I need to know who or what is in that urn in my bedroom. I don't want to talk about it-I have to talk about it.'

'Okay,” Robin said. She pulled a yellow legal pad from the quilting bag hanging by the handles from the back of her chair. Aunt Beth got up and rustled the pens and pencils in the cup on her phone table by the back door. She selected two and tossed them onto the table in front of her.

Robin drew a vertical line down the middle of the page. Now she wrote on one side and Then she wrote on the other half.

'What do we know for sure?” she asked.

'Gerald's dead under now,” Harriet started.

'And Gerald's not dead under then,” Lauren added.

'Good point,” Harriet conceded.

'His disappearance was planned,” DeAnn offered. “We don't know if he planned it or someone else did, but the fact he ‘died’ the first time while he was in a foreign country can't be a coincidence.'

Robin noted DeAnn's comments on the Then side of the page.

'Gerald didn't come forward when he returned to town,” Aunt Beth said from the working area of the kitchen. She pulled a pitcher of iced tea from the refrigerator. “Anyone want tea?'

Several raised their hands, and she began filling glasses.