Make Quilts Not War - By Arlene Sachitano Page 0,21

the middle of her forehead and an expanding halo of blood.

Jenny had neatly sidestepped Pamela’s body when she went up the stairs to the platform. She hadn’t looked at the body since; her eyes had remained fixed on her quilt.

“You ladies need to leave.” Officer Hue Nguyen approached the stage where Harriet and Lauren waited for Jenny to finish her inspection, if that’s what she was doing.

“We were just checking on Jenny’s quilt,” Harriet explained. It sounded strange to her, so she could just imagine how weird it seemed to Officer Nguyen. A woman had been murdered, and they were checking on a quilt.

“We’ll leave now,” Lauren said. “Come on, Jenny, we have to leave so the officer can do his job.”

Jenny didn’t appear to have heard.

“Jenny!” Harriet said in a firm tone. “We have to go now.”

Jenny shivered then turned and came down the steps, rejoining her friends. The trio started to leave, but Nguyen stopped them.

“Are you three involved in this?” he asked without a hint of friendliness in his tone. He had been the responding officer several times in the past when Harriet was involved in misadventures. It was amazing to her that he treated them as if they were the criminals every time, even though it hadn’t once been true.

“No,” Lauren said and turned toward the door they’d come in through.

A part of Harriet wanted to follow her without saying anything else, but she couldn’t.

“This quilt is Jenny’s. Until a few minutes ago, she was standing on this stage and answering questions about it,” she said. “Lauren and I went outside, and Jenny was in the restroom when this…” She gestured toward Pamela. “…happened.”

Lauren poked her in the arm.

“Don’t volunteer anything,” she whispered.

“I’ve got your names,” Nguyen said, tapping his notebook against his palm. “The detectives will contact you for your statements.”

“We don’t have statements,” Lauren said. “We weren’t here, and we didn’t see anything.”

Nguyen glared at her.

“I know, don’t leave town,” she said with a smirk. “I watch TV.”

It was Harriet’s turn to take Lauren by the arm and pull her to the door. Jenny followed silently, her face blank.

“We better find Aunt Beth and Mavis and tell them what happened,” Harriet said as they circled around the building and on to the courtyard. The crowd was buzzing with talk of the shooting.

“What on earth happened in there?” Aunt Beth asked when they made their way through the line at Jorge’s food cart. “People’ve been talking about someone being shot in the exhibit hall. I didn’t recognize the name they said, and I’m embarrassed to say I was relieved that I didn’t.”

“It was one of Jenny’s substitutes,” Harriet told her.

“I’m so sorry,” Beth said to Jenny, who had still not said anything.

“It’s very sad, I’m sure,” Jenny said in a flat voice. “I didn’t really know her. We only met a few days ago.”

“Well, it’s a shame. I hope it doesn’t scare people off our event.” Aunt Beth made up three snack sampler plates, including the choc-olate-coated Twinkies. “You all probably need a little chocolate after this,” she said and handed them each a plate. “It’s on the house,” she added when Jenny started to dig in her purse. “Go find Mavis and tell her what happened before you go back,” she said as they turned to go.

“Will do,” Harriet said and followed Lauren to a table under one of the open tents that had been set up just beyond the food carts.

“Did Pamela have problems?” Lauren asked Jenny as she popped a slice of Twinkie into her mouth.

Jenny stared into space.

“Jenny?” Harriet asked when she still hadn’t answered after a long moment. “Are you okay?”

“No, I’m not okay. That could have been me…or Sharon. We all three had the same outfit, hair and glasses. Whoever shot Pamela wasn’t close by. Someone would have seen them if they were. How do we know they were after Pamela?”

“How do we know they weren’t” Lauren challenged.

Jenny glared at her but remained silent.

“Jenny,” Harriet said gently, “are you in some kind of trouble?”

“I don’t want to talk about this anymore,” Jenny said and stood up. “They aren’t going to let us near my quilt anymore tonight. I think I need to go home.”

“Do you want me to drive you?” Harriet asked.

“No, I’ll be fine. I’ll talk to you tomorrow.” She turned and left the food court.

“Well, that was weird, even for the Loose Threads,” Lauren said.

“We better find the rest of the Threads and let them know what’s