Quilt As You Go

Connie and Ilsa for lunch.

'Do you do a lot of quilting at home?” Harriet asked Ilsa when everyone was settled around three tables the group had pushed together at the Sandwich Board.

'I do more in the off season,” she said. “I have a flower shop, and we stay pretty busy in the spring and summer. In the winter, the shop closes earlier and I am not so tired when I go home. That is how I met Gerard,” she said tentatively. “He came into the flower shop.'

She paused, and Connie smiled in encouragement. The Threads were all listening intently-finally, they were getting to the good stuff.

'He wasn't a customer. He works for a tulip farm,” She looked down, realizing her mistake. “He worked for a tulip farm. It was a family business. He delivered flowers, sorted bulbs-he even helped Joris set up a computer program to track the bulb plantings.'

'And you had no idea he had another wife and family?” Lauren asked. Connie coughed to cover the small gasp that escaped her lips.

'It's okay,” Ilsa said, looking at Connie as she said it. “We need to get this out. It's like I said at the church, Gerard told me he'd been married for ten years and had a son he'd been estranged from ever since.” She looked at Mavis. “He had a cousin in Amsterdam. We went to dinner at their house on Sundays.'

She said the last part in a rush, as if the cousin made the wife and son more real.

'He does have a cousin in Amsterdam,” Mavis said slowly. “Theobald.'

'That's right.” Ilsa became more animated. “Theobald and Uda. They have two daughters, Elsbeth and Karyssa.'

'Well,” Mavis said after a moment, “at least he told the truth about that.'

'Okay,” Lauren said. “So, why has he been hiding all these years?'

'Lauren,” Connie scolded.

'Well, it's what everyone wants to know,” she said.

'I wish I knew,” Ilsa said.

'You and me both,” Mavis muttered.

'What about Ger-” Harriet paused. “I'm going to call him Gerald, no offense.” She directed her attention to Ilsa. “His quilt.'

'I understand,” Ilsa said. “What quilt are you referring to?'

'Gerald returned a quilt to Mavis when he came back.” Mavis started to interrupt, but Harriet held her hand up. “Mavis found a quilt she'd made for Gerald before he left. It's been missing, and it suddenly showed up in her cottage. It's made from plaid shirting flannel. It has narrow sashing and was made with the quilt-as-you-go technique.'

'I know that quilt. He said his sister in the States had made it for him before he left for the Netherlands. He told me it reminded him of home.'

A tear spilled down Mavis's cheek. She dabbed at it with her crumpled napkin.

'I'm sorry,” Ilsa said as she reached out and patted Mavis's age-spotted hand.

'No,” Mavis said. “You have nothing to be sorry for. I need to hear this. We need to hear it. It's the only way we're going to figure out what happened. We need to know why a reasonably happy, successful family man would abandon his family and start a new life half a world away.'

'And having done that,” Ilsa said, “why would he come back after all this time?'

'Okay,” Harriet said. “Let's be a little more methodical about this, construct a time line, maybe.'

Robin pulled a tablet from her purse. “I'll take notes,” she said.

'Start at the beginning. Mavis, what can you tell us about the time right before Gerald left.'

Mavis recounted what the rest of the group already knew about Gerald's last weeks before he disappeared. He'd been working a lot. He'd just perfected the fire protection fabric. He was working a lot of hours but seemed upbeat about the new product. Gerry had started working at the factory, and he and his dad were spending more time one-on-one talking about the job.

'He worked in a factory?” Ilsa said in disbelief.

'He was a fiber chemist,” Mavis said. “He invented the fire protective fabric that is still made in Carlton Brewster's factory.'

Ilsa sat back in her chair. “I can't believe it,” she said. “I mean, I believe you. I just can't believe he worked anywhere that was inside. He told me he loved living things and had always worked out-of-doors.'

'He did have a green thumb,” Mavis offered. “He had quite the garden at home.'

'A garden,” Ilsa said. “Not a small farm in a green valley in northern California?'

''Fraid not.'

'When I met him, his skin was tanned and his hands callused.'

'Don't forget there were some numbers of years unaccounted for,” Harriet said. “He disappeared from here almost twenty years ago. You told Mavis you'd been married fifteen years ago. How long before that did you meet him?'

Ilsa thought for a moment. “I think we dated for almost a year. And he'd been working for Joris for the year before that. So there must have been three mystery years.'

'And you have no idea where he was during that time?” Harriet asked.

'Apparently not. He told me he came to the Netherlands to visit his cousin and decided to stay. He said he lived with them and worked on a farm near Amsterdam until he could save a little money to relocate with. He came to Aalsmeer, where I live, and went to work for Joris.'

'Wait,” Lauren interrupted. “You work at a flower shop and Gerald was a farm hand and you can afford to dress like that?'

'I own the flower shop, and flowers are big business in Aalsmeer. Over seven billion cut flowers and one hundred fifty million plants are sold there annually. The flower auctions in Aalsmeer pretty much set the price for the flower trade internationally.'

'I stand corrected,” Lauren said. “Who would have ever thought flowers were such big business.” She got up and went to the counter to get her drink refilled.

'Please excuse Lauren's lack of tact,” Mavis said.

'She obviously can't help herself,” Ilsa said with a small smile.

'So nothing out of the ordinary happened for fifteen years?” Robin said, bringing the group back to the time line.

'Not that I can think of,” Ilsa said. “I mean I could second-guess every pensive moment he had, but really, looking back I can't point to anything out of the ordinary until he got the phone call and said he was going on a trip.'

'Did he go on solo trips often?” Connie asked.

'No, that's why it was so strange, why I followed him here. Neither one of us had ever taken a trip alone. I figured it was because it was his son-that is, the reason he lied about it. He didn't want to upset me.'

Robin looked at her tablet. “Well, kids, we're going to have to come up with more than this.'

'Isn't investigating Gerard's death a job for the police?” Ilsa asked.

'Of course,” Harriet said. “I'm sure they will figure out a cause of death and even eventually who killed him, but for Mavis's sake, we need to know why he left here, why he stayed gone and, most of all, why he came back. I'm not sure the police care about that, or they won't, if they catch the killer first.'

'Are you about ready to go, mija?” Connie asked. “I have to take care of my granddaughter tonight, and I need to get a few things done before then.'

'Sure,” Harriet said and picked up her bag. “Could you drop me off at Carlton 's office?” she asked when they were in Connie's car. “I want to see if they have an employee badge book.'

'You mean like our yearbook at school? They give us a new badge every year with an updated picture.'

'Yeah, something like that.'

'Who are you looking for? If it's someone at the factory, can't you just ask Carlton?'

'I tried that-he didn't recognize the name I was looking for. I just want to be sure.” She quickly told Connie who she was looking for and why.

'I'll come in with you. Two people can work faster than one, especially a one-handed one.” She smiled and patted Harriet's good hand.