'I got decaf or fully leaded here,” Connie said and held up a coffee carafe in each hand. “Anyone?'
Jenny held up her cup and pointed to the decaf. Sarah held her mug out for the caffeinated coffee when her turn came. Connie filled her own cup with a blend and returned the pots to the shop kitchen. The rest of the Loose Threads seated around the table in the large classroom at Pins and Needles were drinking tea of one sort or another.
'No Carla today?” Harriet asked, a brief vision of Carla and Aiden dead on the floor of his house, killed by Terry, flashing past her consciousness. She pushed it from her mind. It had to be the pain medication talking, if you considered the two ibuprofens she'd taken that morning pain medication.
'She's in the back room pricing fabric,” Robin said. “She said Marjory got in a big shipment from Kona Bay she had to check in.'
'So, Ilsa agreed to meet us here?” Jenny asked.
'Yeah,” DeAnn said. “I asked her if she quilted, and it turns out she does, so it was easy. She had to go by the police station this morning, and then she should be joining us.'
'Harriet?” a little-girl voice called from the shop. “Are you here?” Bebe Brewster leaned into the room. “Oh, there you are,” she said when she spotted Harriet sitting between her Aunt Beth and Mavis. “ Carlton asked me to come by and have you fix this report.'
She tottered to Harriet's side on the impossibly high heels of her gladiator sandals, a process made more difficult by the tight strip of pink fabric that surrounded her hips. The girl was wearing fishnet tights, and Harriet wasn't sure if the pink piece above them was supposed to be a skirt or an artfully placed shawl. Bebe flipped the papers in her hand back and forth, not quite fanning herself.
Harriet turned toward her. Bebe continued flipping the papers without handing them over. Aunt Beth finally reached out and grabbed the girl's left hand.
'Wow,” she said. “That's, ah…” She paused a moment, trying to find the right word to describe the obscenely large bauble adorning the younger woman's finger. “That's some ring you have there. What's the occasion?'
Bebe grinned and batted her eyelashes. “This ole thing?” She held her hand out, tilting it from side to side, catching the light with the stone and sprinkling the resulting twinkles around the room. “It's me and Carlton 's one- year anniversary. I know it's supposed to be paper or clocks, but I didn't want a watch, so Carlton decided to super-size my wedding ring.” Her smile widened as the Loose Threads ooh-ed and ahh-ed over the ring with a lack of sincerity that went right over her head.
Harriet cleared her throat and waited. When Bebe ignored her and kept talking, she grabbed her arm.
'The papers,” she said. “There's a problem?'
'Oh, yeah,” Bebe said, and laid the papers on the table. “ Carlton said there was a mistake in the security costs.” She pointed to a line that had been highlighted in yellow. “He said the cost went up the second and third day for the same amount of hours.'
'See the little star beside the figure here?” Harriet pointed to a number on the page. “That star refers to a note at the bottom of the page.” She moved her finger to the bottom of the page. “See, it says here the on-duty Foggy Point policemen had to be paid at their overtime rate per hour. They get paid time and a half for overtime, so that's what we paid. Most of the security force was made up of private security people, but your husband made a deal with the mayor to use policemen, too. This is the price we paid for that deal.'
'That wasn't very clever, was it?” Bebe asked.
'I'm sure he had his reasons,” Harriet said, hoping that would end the conversation. She wanted to talk to the other Threads before Ilsa arrived.
'Would you like some coffee or tea?” Connie asked Bebe.
'Oh, that would be real nice-coffee please.'
Connie pulled out a chair on the other side of Aunt Beth, and Bebe carefully sat on the edge, folding her long legs to the side. When she was settled, Connie retrieved the coffee pot and filled a cup, which she set on the table in front of her.
'Are you doing anything special for your anniversary?” Jenny asked politely. Harriet thought the ten-carat rock should be special enough for ten anniversaries, but she didn't say anything.
'I wanted to go to Cabo, but Carlton can't get away from work.” Bebe made an exaggerated pout with her pink-painted lips. “He's going to charter a plane and take me to San Francisco for dinner and the opera, you know, like in that movie.'
Only you're no Julia Roberts and Carlton is definitely not Richard Gere, Harriet thought, and wondered if Bebe even realized she'd cast herself in the role of a hooker.
Bebe took several nervous sips of her coffee then set the mug on the table.
'Thanks for the coffee, but I better get these back to Carlton.'
She stood up but then didn't leave. Harriet followed her gaze toward the door to the classroom. She could see Ilsa coming down the short hallway.
'Who's that?” Bebe asked, the curiosity clear in her voice.
Ilsa's sharply creased linen pants and her violet silk tank top were a notch above the usual garb worn by locals in Foggy Point. The single strand of pearls around her slender neck perfectly coordinated with her neat shoulder- length bob and was pure classic. Bebe could only aspire to the easy grace the woman exuded.
Ilsa held a cream-colored soft leather tote bag over her left arm. She looked at DeAnn.
'Am I too late?” she asked when no one said anything.
'Of course not, come on in,” DeAnn said.
'Where are my manners?” Connie exclaimed. “Here, you can sit by Beth.” She gave Bebe a pointed glare. “Bebe was just leaving.'
Bebe held her hand with the diamond out to Ilsa in an awkward, reverse handshake.
'I'm Bebe Brewster,” she said in her little-girl voice. “My husband Carlton is president of the business association. I was here on business, but I have to go.” She said it in a way that implied she had more important things to do.
Ilsa took Bebe's hand in both of hers. “How very nice to meet you. I'm sure I'll see you again around town.'
Ilsa was smooth-Harriet had to give her that. She sat in Bebe's chair and accepted the coffee offered by Connie.
'Thank you for inviting me to quilt with you,” she said when she was settled, breaking the silence that had once again descended on the group. “No matter how stressful life gets, I always find peace in my quilting.'
She pulled a partially completed block out of her bag, followed by a handful of fabric pieces that looked to be similar in size to the fat quarters the Loose Threads were familiar with.
'Your fabric is beautiful,” Aunt Beth said. “What are you making?'
'These are eighteenth-century Dutch reproduction fabrics,” Ilsa said. “I'm doing a simple geometric pattern with squares and triangles. I don't know the English name for it.'
'What's the fabric made of?” Robin asked. Ilsa's fabrics were dark-colored prints with a shiny surface.
'These fabrics are all Dutch chintz,” Ilsa explained. “Cotton, basically. The Dutch East India Company brought fabric to the Netherlands in the sixteen hundreds, and then they brought instructions on how to construct fabric mills and create the fabric. By the seventeen hundreds, the Netherlands produced their own fabric, but as you can see, it was still heavily influenced by the patterns produced in India.'
She pointed to a modified tree-of-life pattern on a red background. She picked up her stack of fabric and handed it around the table.
'This is beautiful,” DeAnn said, starting a round of marveling over the fabric that led into a discussion of chintz and then quilt block patterns, and before the group knew it, it was lunch time.
'I'm glad we can make our own quilts again,” Sarah Ness said when the conversation lagged. “I mean, charity is all fine, but I want to work on my own designs.'
Mavis rolled her eyes when Sarah looked away. “Anyone want to go get a salad at the Sandwich Board?'
'I've got to get back to work,” Aunt Beth said. “Someone's business is awaiting my return.” She smiled at Harriet.
'Hey, you volunteered,” Harriet said.
'We'll make sure Harriet gets home to keep you company after lunch,” Connie said.
Sarah and DeAnn both had to return to work, but Jenny, Lauren and Robin were able to join Mavis, Harriet,
