Death by Committee

by Alexis Morgan

  He studied her for a few seconds. “Are you going to check now?”

  She hesitated, but then finally nodded. “I will, but I’m not sure how much good it will do. I have no idea how many quilts she made or what she did with them all. It could take time to match any pictures she may have kept to the quilts still in the house. Any that are unaccounted for could be ones she did for gifts or donated to various charities over the years.”

  “Well, at least we have this much.” He pulled out a folder and carefully placed the pictures inside. “I’ll keep you posted if I learn anything, good or bad.”

  “I appreciate it, and now I should let you get back to work.”

  “One more thing before you go.”

  A sick feeling settled in her stomach. What had she done this time? “What’s that?”

  “I just wanted to make sure you haven’t had any more problems at home. No sign of anyone sneaking around the place or anything.”

  “Not that I know of. No more broken windows or threatening notes.”

  “You’ll tell me if anything happens, won’t you?”

  “Sure thing.”

  Did he think she was a complete idiot? Well, maybe he did have some grounds for thinking she might not be fully forthcoming if something minor happened. She finished the last of her own drink and tossed it in the trash. “I only saw Tripp for a second last night, but he didn’t mention any problems. I’m thinking the whole thing with the window might have been some teenage prank after all.”

  Gage wasn’t buying it. “I might have accepted that some idiot kids went on a brick-throwing spree, but no one else has reported anything like that happening. To me, that means you were specifically targeted. Then there’s the note. I know you don’t want to hear it because it’s big-time scary, Abby, but that note was clearly a threat.”

  She sank back in her chair, his words hitting her hard. “I just can’t figure out what I did that would stir up that kind of anger in someone. Yes, I asked a few questions, but I backed off doing that when you told me to. I haven’t crossed paths with Dolly’s friends again, and I haven’t talked to her niece since the other day. I’ve also stayed away from Frank Jeffries.”

  Was that everyone who might hate her? No, there was one more. “And finally, I have no desire at all to tell Troy Tolbert that Julie did take the quilts. She must have hidden them from him until she was ready to leave.”

  “Yeah, talking to him about anything to do with his wife probably wouldn’t go over well. I can’t imagine coming home from a long business trip to find my wife had taken off with another man.”

  Speaking of Troy’s business trips. “Gage, about Troy. Didn’t you say that you personally saw him leaving town on a run?”

  “I did. From what he said, he makes that same trip a couple of times a month. Why?”

  She grimaced. “I saw someone who reminded me of him as we were driving out of Frannie’s diner the night after the window got broken. Obviously, I was mistaken.”

  And now she wished she hadn’t brought it up. She might not have appreciated Troy complaining to Gage about her, but she did understand the pain he must have gone through over his wife’s decision to end their marriage with no warning. Chad hadn’t run off with no warning, but the end results of his actions were the same.

  She hadn’t realized that she’d said that last part out loud until she noticed the sympathy in Gage’s expression. She found it harder to take than anger would have been.

  “That must have been hard for you.”

  Luckily, he returned to the topic at hand. “Back to the window and note. My guess is that you stepped on someone’s toes without realizing it. Maybe he or she thinks you know more than you’re letting on. We also can’t assume that whoever killed Mrs. Cayhill thinks like a normal person would. Even if it turns out that killing her was done on impulse, that doesn’t change the fact that the disposal of her body showed a lot of careful thinking. Look how long it went undiscovered. You would have thought waiting around for months for the body to be found would’ve taken its toll on the killer. Instead, provided the guilty party is still in the area, he or she is going about their daily life as if nothing happened at all.”

  That had occurred to her. “Do you have any leads at all?”

  He hesitated, making her think he wasn’t going to tell her anything. Finally, he said, “We know she had an airline ticket she never used. That narrows down the date she died to somewhere between December twenty-third, the day she argued with your aunt, and December twenty-eighth, which was when she was supposed to fly to Florida. There are a couple of other things we’re still looking at, but nothing definitive yet.”

  That’s what she was afraid of. Well, this was a conversation she didn’t want to continue. It was definitely time to leave. She picked up her purse. “Like I said, I’d better let you get back to work. I’m going home to hole up in Aunt Sybil’s quilting room for the afternoon. If I figure out which quilt is missing, I’ll let you know.”

  “Sounds good.” Then he surprised her with a smile. “I heard through the grapevine you got roped into helping with the city-wide cleanup day that the mayor’s office organized.”

  She sighed. “Yes, somehow they realized I hadn’t signed up to help. Connie called me personally to see if I’d mind working the dessert table during the lunch break. When I couldn’t figure out a way to get out of it, she then pointed out that since I was going to be there anyway, they could use some help replanting some of those huge flower pots along Main Street.”

  Gage laughed. “The woman is crafty that way. If it’s any consolation, she’s got me, Seth, and a couple of other guys spreading bark in the flower beds at the park.”

  As they talked, he ended up escorting her all the way out to the parking lot. Maybe he just wanted a breath of fresh air, but she suspected he considered it his duty to make sure she made it to her car safely. She blamed it on the fact that he was in law enforcement, but she’d noticed Tripp had also taken to doing the same thing. He would casually ask where she was going and when she’d be back. At first, she didn’t think anything of it, figuring he was simply making neighborly conversation. But lately, whenever she was heading for her car or returning from an errand, he would just happen to be working in the yard.

  Any other time in her life, she might have resented their hovering, but the threatening note combined with the broken window had given her a serious case of the heebie-jeebies. Having Tripp around helped calm the waters for her. And sure enough, when she turned into her driveway, he stepped out onto his porch. Did he have that pistol stuck in his waistband? Not that she was going to ask him.

  She still hadn’t given him the toy truck she’d bought for him. It was tempting to leave it by his front door when he was gone to class, but that seemed cowardly. Well, no time like the present. After grabbing the bag out of the backseat, she got out of the car and headed straight for him. “Do you have a minute?”

  There was a brief hesitation before he finally moved closer to the front step. “Yeah, but that’s all. I’m working on a paper and needed a break before I start in again.”

  She stopped just short of the porch. “You know Glenda and I went to that swap meet yesterday to buy back any of the quilts.”

  He slowly nodded, his eyebrows riding low over his dark eyes, clearly wondering what that had to do with him.

  Abby tried to explain. “Well, there was a man there who went out of his way to help us, and I wanted to buy something from him. You know, as a way to thank him.”

  Another nod, this one slower still. “Okay.”

  “Well, he mostly sold car parts. Even if I recognized what they were, I wouldn’t know what to do with them if I had them. Long story short, I bought this from him.”

  She stepped close enough to shove the bag into his hands before retreating to a more comfortable distance. “It’s for you.”

  As if that hadn’t been obvious.

  He peeked inside the bag, his look of confusion morph
ing into one that was much harder to read. A second later, he pulled the small vehicle out and held it up to inspect it in detail. Was he angry?

  “Thanks, I think?”

  At least he didn’t immediately try to give it back. “I thought it would go with the action figures. The guy who sold it to me said it wasn’t the same brand, but it was the right size.”

  “It is.” He put the truck back in the bag. “I’ll add it to the collection.”

  She couldn’t help but tease him a little. “Up in your closet out of sight?”

  Not that she’d ever seen him entertaining any guests of either gender since she’d moved into Sybil’s house. He’d been looking straight at her, but now he was staring at some point past her right shoulder. Before she could turn to see what he was finding so fascinating, he answered her question.

  “Actually, a couple of them are sitting out on the desk. I like to have something to fiddle with when I’m thinking.”

  She would’ve bet her last dollar he wouldn’t have admitted to that. Rather than jerk his chain about playing with toy soldiers, she changed the subject. “I promised Gage we’d let him know immediately if there were any more incidents. You know, like the window and the note.”

  His gaze did a slow sweep across the yard before coming back to her. “I haven’t seen anything new, but I have been keeping an eye out.”

  “Me, too.” Well, that had pretty much exhausted the last topic of conversation she could come up with. “Well, I’d better go let Zeke out for a while.”

  “I took him for a walk about an hour ago.”

  That was a relief to hear. She enjoyed their strolls, but she wasn’t in the mood at the moment, and had been dreading it. Maybe it was all the talk about the potential threat still lurking out there somewhere.

  “Enjoy yourself studying.”

  He rolled his eyes. “Yeah, there’s just nothing more fun than writing an essay for an English lit class.”

  “I remember those days.” She forced herself to back away, making her intentions to leave clear. “I’ll be gone a good part of tomorrow. I got volunteered to help out at the mayor’s cleanup party.”

  The big jerk snickered. “I repeat—you’re really going to have to get better at saying no, or you’re going to be sucked into helping out on every project or serving on every committee in town.”

  He wasn’t wrong about that, not that she’d admit it. “I can say no when I want to.”

  Tripp arched an eyebrow, his smile all superior and irritating. “So you’re saying you really do want to be on the senior affairs committee and heading up the quilting guild, although, as far as I can tell, you haven’t even threaded a needle since I met you?”

  Rather than continue an argument she couldn’t win, she walked away. “Thanks again for walking Zeke.”

  He was still laughing when he walked inside and closed the door.

  * * *

  The next morning, Abby woke up to a bright sunny day, the perfect weather for the town’s cleanup event. After a quick breakfast, she headed off to help get everything set up to feed lunch to the volunteers. Just before noon, Connie Pohler cruised by the food tent to make sure everything was set for lunch. “Thanks again, Abby, for volunteering to help with serving lunch and then with the flower pots.”

  Shanghaied was more like it, but Abby kept the snide remark to herself. For one thing, she actually liked the mayor’s assistant a lot and didn’t want to offend her when the woman was only doing her job.

  “Not a problem. I’m enjoying myself.”

  Surprisingly, that was true. She’d been assigned to the crew serving lunch to the volunteers. Although she hadn’t met all of her coworkers before, a couple of the women belonged to the quilting guild. Better yet, Bridey was manning the dessert table with her.

  Connie looked up and down the serving line and nodded in approval. “Everything looks great. I need to check on a few other things, but you have my number if something comes up that you need my help with.” She flashed another smile and then she was off and running again.

  Bridey turned back to cutting the large pans of brownies she’d brought from her shop into individual servings. “That woman makes me tired just watching her. She and the mayor accomplish more in a day than I do in a week.”

  Abby laughed. “I’m not sure I believe that. You run your own business with all that entails and still have time to make desserts to feed the entire town.”

  Bridey looked pleased with Abby’s assessment. “I didn’t make all of this stuff. Frannie donated several of the pies, and one of the local churches baked the cookies. The other churches combined efforts to provide the salads and side dishes. The town had the sandwiches catered.”

  “I’m impressed how everyone pulls together to do things like this. I’ve never lived in a place where things like this happen.”

  But maybe she was wrong about that. Looking back, she and Chad had been so incredibly focused on their business to the detriment of everything else, including their marriage. “I don’t know if it comes from living in a small town, or if I simply never took the time to get to know my old neighborhood.”

  Bridey handed her a small spatula. “Let’s get a bunch of these plated up before the crowd hits this end of the table.” Once they had fallen into an easy rhythm, she picked up the conversation where Abby had left off. “When I was married to my first husband, we both worked at his family’s restaurant. It definitely ate up every minute in our day and all of my energy. It wasn’t until I walked away from the job and my marriage to move back here that I remembered how much I enjoyed days like this. He would’ve never understood the appeal.”

  Bridey nodded toward a group of men making their way toward the food line. Her husband waved as he walked by, deep in conversation with two men Abby didn’t know. “Seth gets it, though. He’s made good friends here in town, but he also moves in the high-end art world just as easily. It’s one of the things I love about him.”

  Abby set down several brownies in a row and was about to turn back to get the next load when she realized all of the men in the group, including Seth, were wearing black baseball caps with a bright pink stiletto heel on them. That had to be the same logo Rowena had described, the one the man who’d sold the quilts to her had been wearing. Her best guess was that one of the sponsors for the day’s activities must have donated the caps for the volunteers. But which one?

  Unfortunately, with the huge crowd of people working their way down the buffet in her direction, now wasn’t the time to abandon Bridey. After lunch, though, she’d go on the hunt. Once she figured out the source of the distinctive caps, she’d tell Gage what she’d learned. With luck, they would be one step closer to learning who had sold the stolen quilts. If they succeeded, at least she would have solved one of the two big mysteries in her life. She’d rather clear her aunt’s name, but right now she’d take any progress she could.

  Chapter Twenty

  The crowd plowed through the food line, consuming everything in sight. Good thing the woman in charge of the whole meal had advised all the helpers to fix themselves a plate, including desserts, before they started serving everyone else.

  Abby carried her plate as well as Bridey’s over to a table where two seats had just opened up. Her friend followed with their drinks. “Whew, it feels good to sit down.”

  Bridey agreed. “I’m on my feet a lot during the day at the shop, but I move around a lot. I’m definitely feeling the burn from standing in one place for so long.”

  “At least you know your brownies were a major hit. If I hadn’t grabbed a couple early on, I would’ve had to go without.”

  “I’m glad you like them. Personally, I scored a piece of Frannie’s blueberry pie.”

  They’d just started eating when a deep voice spoke from right behind her, making her jump. “Hey, how come you rate two brownies?”

  She twisted around in her chair to glare up at Tripp. “First of all, I’ve asked you not to sneak up on me like that.
And second, I got two because I volunteered to help serve the desserts. Besides, Bridey likes me better than she likes you.”

  Bridey almost choked on the bite she’d just taken. After swallowing, she held up her hands. “Hey, you two leave me out of it. I just baked the brownies. I didn’t set the rules on who got how many.”

  Tripp walked around to the other side of the table and sat down across from them. “Sorry, Bridey. I didn’t mean to put you on the spot. I’m just pointing out that Abby here took advantage of her position to sneak extras.”

  As he spoke, he tossed a cap down on the table, the exact kind Abby was looking for. “Hey, where did you get that?”

  He picked it back up and twirled it on his finger. “This? What’s the answer worth to you?”

  Abby rolled her eyes. “Okay, let me guess. The price of an answer is a brownie.”

  He nodded, his grin somewhere between wicked and hopeful. “Or two.”

  She tugged the small plate holding the brownies closer to her side of the table. “One, and that’s my best offer.”

  He tossed her the cap and snagged a brownie. “It’s a deal.”

  She tried to hand the cap back. “I don’t need this. I just want to know where you got it.”

  “Keep it anyway. It’s not exactly my style.”

  Bridey gave him an appraising look. “I’m guessing the high heel image isn’t manly enough for you.”

  Tripp winked at her. “Not at all. I could totally rock the stilettos. It’s the wrong shade of pink for my coloring.”

  After finishing off the last of his brownie, he finally answered Abby’s real question. “Some of the sponsors of today’s festivities were giving away freebies. The hats were donated by a local trucking company.”

  She pushed the other brownie across the table. He eyed it and then gave her a suspicious look. “Why are you being so generous all of a sudden?”

  “No reason, but if you don’t want it . . .”

  “I never said that.” He grabbed the brownie and took a big bite before she could change her mind. While he finished it off, she ate the last few bites of her own lunch.