Quilt As You Go

'It's our dad,” Gerry said. He'd gotten up and was pacing the length of the kitchen, his back to his younger brothers.

'You seem awfully sure,” Ben said. “Did you see his body?'

'I didn't need to.'

Harry stood and grabbed his brother by the arm, turning him.

'You knew.” he stated. “All this time, you knew.'

'Gerry,” Ben said, “is that true? Have you known all these years that our father wasn't dead?'

A muscle in Gerry's jaw twitched. “It's not that simple.'

Before anyone could react, Harry reared his arm back and threw a solid punch at his brother's jaw. The blow landed with enough force to stagger Gerry, who grabbed at the edge of the counter before sinking onto his rear end.

Ben pinned Harry's arms behind his back. “Stop.” he said. “Just stop.'

Harriet helped Gerry to his feet.

'Are you okay?” she asked in a quiet voice. “Do you want me to call anyone?'

He brushed her concern aside. “I'm fine,” he said. “And I deserved that.'

'Let me at least get you some ice.” She dug in a drawer for a sandwich bag then opened the freezer and filled the bag with ice cubes. She wrapped the bag in a dish towel and handed it to him.

'I'm calling James,” Ben said. “He should be in on this.'

James, Mavis's second son, was an attorney in Port Townsend.

'We don't need to drag James over here this late,” Gerry said around his ice bag.

'You don't get a vote,” Ben said. “You didn't think we needed to know about Dad, either.'

Harriet thought about calling Mavis but decided it wasn't her place to tell the boys’ mother. She also didn't want to draw attention to the fact she was still there listening.

'Dad is dead. Just because he wasn't dead for the last twenty years doesn't change the fact that he's dead now,” Gerry said.

'Things are going to get crazy when everyone finds out. We need to understand the implications,” Ben said. “We need to prepare.'

'Prepare for what?” Gerry shouted.

'If Dad wasn't dead, Mom's been falsely collecting his insurance.” Ben ticked his points off on his fingers. “And maybe getting Social Security payments. And we still don't know why he left.” He looked at Gerry. “Do we?'

Gerry shook his head indicating they didn't.

'We don't know if Dad was involved in something shady-I mean, he left suddenly. People don't leave like that unless they screwed something up.'

'Ben, everyone already knows this stuff,” Harry said, rubbing the knuckles on his right hand.

Harriet noticed for the first time how red and swollen it was. She prepared another bag of ice and handed it to him.

'The police have Dad's body,” Harry continued, “all the old timers in town know Dad died twenty years ago. What's new?'

'If Gerry knew Dad was alive, other people probably did, too. This changes everything,” Ben said.

'Ben,” Harry said, “I agree we need to tell James-and Pete, too,” mentioning Mavis's middle son for the first time. “But not tonight. Gerry's ‘secret’ changes things for us, but only for us. Not for Mom, not for the police. Two and Three are coming tomorrow anyway.” He used the number nicknames he had invented when he was a toddler, trying to master his four brothers’ names.

'Have you been in touch with Dad all this time?” Ben asked, putting his cell phone back in his pocket and finally asking the question Harriet wanted answered.

'No, I haven't.” Gerry got up from the floor and started pacing again. “It's not like Dad and I made some plan together. He called me to his office one day. He gave me a piece of paper with the address of a post office box and a polymer formula. He said he was leaving on a business trip the following day. He said no matter what I heard after that, I shouldn't believe it. He told me not to tell anyone else what he'd said. Then he told me that if I ever started seeing orders for that polymer come across my desk, I should send a postcard to the address. A blank postcard. That's it.'

'And you didn't hear anything else all this time?” Harry asked.

'I heard nothing for almost twenty years. When Dad left, I was a clerk in the purchasing department. When I became manager of the department, I made a habit of reviewing all chemical purchases, just in case. For nineteen years, nothing out of the ordinary happened. I caught a few counting errors by my own employees, but no sign of the polymer.

'Then, about two and a half months ago, someone ordered a small quantity of the stuff. I didn't do anything right away, because the product development people order small quantities of all sorts of chemicals, and besides, I wasn't sure Dad was still out there.” He picked up his ice bag and held it to his jaw again.

'Sorry,” Harry said, and hung his head momentarily.

Gerry put the bag down and took the two ibuprofens Harriet handed him.

'I decided to check out who was using the chemical and what they were using it for,” Gerry continued. “I went down to the production area, and I got the run-around on who had placed the order. The best I could get was that a new project was coming up, and they were preparing for it. Brett, one of the production managers, said he'd heard Carlton had purchased a new product from a company that was closing. He said they were relocating their own managers and technical people. He said they had probably ordered the stuff under Carlton 's account number because they aren't set up here yet.'

'So, you sent the postcard.” Ben said.

'I did. And to tell you the truth, I didn't think anything would come of it. The first couple of years, I thought Dad would show up with some explanation so all this would make sense. Then, for a few more years after that, I told myself he probably did have an accident, or a heart attack or something. If he'd really left us behind, no one would know to notify us.'

'Did you ever try to find him?” Ben asked

'How was I supposed to do that?” Gerry protested. “Don't forget, it was twenty years ago. Everything wasn't a computer keystroke away. He was supposed to have died in Malaysia, but other than that, he could have been anywhere. I couldn't leave my job and go searching the world. Besides, I couldn't afford to go anywhere.'

'So the first thing we need to do is hire an investigator and figure out where he's been,” Ben suggested.

The brothers bickered for a minute about how to go about hiring and paying for an investigator. It was clear Mavis hadn't told them about Ilsa yet. Harriet didn't want to be the one to break the news, but it couldn't be helped.

'Guys,” she said, and held up her good hand to silence them. “I can save you some time and money.'

'Do you know something?” Harry asked.

'Of course, she knows something,” Ben said, “Why do you think she said that?'

'Does anyone need more coffee?” Harriet stalled.

'Let me do that,” Ben said, and took the coffeepot and refilled their mugs.

When everyone was settled again, Harriet took a deep breath and began.

'There's no easy way to tell you all this, so if you could, let me get it all out before you ask any questions.” She proceeded to tell them about Ilsa and the Netherlands, and then Lauren's discovery about their dad's sale of his invention and the resulting money.

'Dad remarried?” Harry said.

'Dad's a millionaire?” Ben said at the same time.

'What do we know about this woman?” Gerry asked.

'I don't think we know anything about Ilsa, except for what she told us,” Harriet said. “She claims to have followed your dad here. I'm not sure how else she would have ended up here unless she got the information from him in some way, or followed him. I know it doesn't mean anything, but I've spent a few hours with her and she seems sincere. From listening to her talk to your mom, she either knew your dad for some amount of time or did really thorough research.'

'We should be able to call Dad's cousins in Holland. At least we could verify that much,” Gerry said.

'Lauren did find the information about the fiber formula under Gerard Van Auken, which is the name Ilsa knew