Running Stitches

by Carol Dean Jones

  Once home, she decided to call Charles and ask him if he would like to go for a walk with her and Barney. Of course, he was delighted to do it and said he would be right over. When he arrived, he, as usual, was greeted by Barney with numerous kisses. Before they had a chance to talk about taking a walk, Barney ran to the hook and grabbed his leash. Charles laughed and said, “Okay, boy. We won’t make you wait.”

  “But wait just one minute,” Sarah called from the hall. “I want to get his new toy. It’s a ball with a rope attached and I think the two of you’ll have great fun with it.” She hurried to the toy box where she had last seen it, but it wasn’t there. She checked his corner in the kitchen, and several other places where he kept toys. It was nowhere to be found. “He must have taken it into the back yard.”

  “Just get his old tennis ball. He loves that too,” Charles called to her as she searched the yard.

  “I don’t understand where it went,” she muttered as she went back into the house.

  Charles grabbed the tennis ball and they headed out the front door and over to the park. On the far side of the park, the town had installed a dog park where dogs could run and play off leash. “Do you feel like walking to his park?” Charles asked.

  “Yes! That would be perfect. He’ll love it and I’ll love it if he can run off some of this energy of his. He has been getting up much too early for me.” Sarah was not a late sleeper but described herself as being a slow starter. “I need my morning coffee and time to get acclimated to the day,” she added. “When Barney is full of energy in the morning, we aren’t a compatible couple at all.” Charles pictured her sitting at her kitchen table in her gown and robe, sipping coffee, her hair mussed from sleeping and without lipstick. He smiled at her.

  “What’s that smile about?” Sarah asked curiously. He didn’t answer but gently put his arm over her shoulder.

  The tennis ball worked just fine. The guys had fun tossing and catching. Barney could actually toss the ball into the air and then catch it himself, but he loved having Charles and Sarah throw it for him. At one point, Charles and Sarah tossed it back and forth between themselves while Barney leaped into the air attempting to catch it. Occasionally, they threw it low enough for him to succeed.

  When they returned home a few hours later, Sarah had completely lost the doldrums she had experienced earlier in the day. They fixed a late lunch of a hearty beef soup Sarah had made the previous day and a salad. After lunch they sat on the couch, cuddled up together and watched Sleepless in Seattle.

  “Not many men would be willing to spend an afternoon watching a chick flick like this,” Sarah said.

  “I’d sit here and watch leaves falling if I could sit here with you,” he replied.

  They were silent for a moment, and then both laughed. “Such drivel,” Sarah said, “but don’t stop. I love it.”

  As he was leaving, they exchanged a friendly kiss.

  “I could learn to love that guy,” Sarah told Barney as Charles backed out of the driveway.

  You already do, Barney was probably thinking as he looked into Sarah’s eyes and wagged his tail. You already do.

  Chapter 23

  Barney jumped around the kitchen excitedly. “What’s wrong with you, fellow?” Sarah asked. He ran to the front door and back to the kitchen. Seconds later the doorbell rang. “How can you hear things before they happen?” Sarah asked him. “Are you psychic?”

  Sarah dried her hands and went to the door. “Amanda,” Sarah announced happily. “I’m so glad you stopped by. I just put a pot of coffee on and I’d love to have you join me for a mid-morning pick-me-up.” Barney wiggled and squirmed at Amanda’s feet pleading for attention. Sarah chattered happily as Amanda came into the house, but Amanda didn’t head toward the kitchen and she didn’t smile.

  “What is it, Amanda. You look like you lost your best friend.”

  “Let’s hold off on the coffee, Sarah. We need to talk. Please sit down here on the couch with me.” Amanda’s face was tense and her eyes were swollen.

  Sarah sat and Amanda took both of Sarah’s hands in hers. “Sarah, I have something to tell you…”

  “You’re scaring me, Amanda. Please just say it…”

  Amanda took a deep breath. “They found a body in an abandoned warehouse in Hamilton. It’s a young girl.” She hesitated, gauging Sarah’s reaction.

  “Is…Is it Caitlyn?” Sarah asked with a shaking voice. “Oh my. Is it?”

  “We don’t know, Sarah. But it matches her description. They think it might be her,” she said with tears in her eyes. “They sent an officer over to pick up Buckley and take him in to identify the body.”

  “Oh, Amanda,” Sarah cried. “Has anyone told Andy?”

  “No. They won’t be talking to Andy since Buckley is the father of record. If it’s Caitlyn, you and I will be the ones to tell Andy.”

  Sarah began to sob, clinging to Amanda’s hands. A few minutes later, she wiped her eyes with a napkin she pulled out of her pocket and asked, “What happened to her?”

  “We don’t know, Sarah. The coroner’s office will let us know.”

  “She’s so young, Amanda. And I don’t think she has ever had anyone to love her. She didn’t stand a chance out there on the streets,” Sarah sobbed. She thought about the plans she had made if Caitlyn came to live with her. I was going to give her the sewing room and make her a quilt. I was…

  Amanda interrupted her thoughts by wrapping her arms around her and saying softly, “It will be okay.” Amanda often said this in order to comfort victim’s families. But it very likely would never be okay. She thought about Andy and how his friends had assured him they would take care of Caitlyn. He was a good man and would not blame them. Still, she felt such sadness for all these good people.

  “Can you stay with me for a while?” Sarah asked timidly. “Or do you need to go to Hamilton?”

  “Of course I can stay. Let’s have that coffee you were talking about. Barney looks very worried about you so we need to happy him up a bit. Where’s his rope-ball?” Amanda tried to lighten the mood by tossing a toy across the floor, but Barney wasn’t interested in playing. He parked himself at Sarah’s knee and laid his head on her lap. When she stood up, he followed closely behind her into the kitchen and sat at her foot as she poured the coffee. Her hands were shaking. His tail was drooping.

  * * *

  “I don’t know why you had to come after me,” Buckley slurred. “Plenty of people can identify the little bitch. Why didn’t you call those nosey ladies from the school? That kid isn’t my problem.” Buckley sat in the back of the squad car mumbling to himself when he wasn’t verbally attacking the officers in the front. His anger was clearly escalating.

  “Would you just shut up back there,” the officer in the passenger seat ordered. “This will take a couple of hours. Deal with it.”

  Buckley muttered to himself. If he was apprehensive about seeing Caitlyn’s body, nothing in his words or demeanor revealed it.

  It took forty-five minutes to reach the station because of the traffic. “Why don’t you turn the siren on and let’s get this thing over with,” Buckley complained.

  “Shut up,” the officer responded. They pulled around to the back of the station so they could go directly into the coroner’s office. They’d called ahead to say they were arriving.

  “I hope they aren’t going to keep us hanging around here all day,” Buckley grumbled.

  “Shut up,” the officer responded without looking back.

  There was, in fact, a very long wait. By the time the technician opened the curtain to the viewing room, Buckley had been pacing and muttering for over an hour. Officer Hawkins whispered to his partner, “This is hazard pay, right?”

  “This guy better hope he has hazard insurance if he doesn’t shut up. I’m about to bop him one.”

  Hawkins answered a call on his cell phone and responded, ‘Got it.” He turned to Buckley and said, “Ok, buddy, come over to the glass. They’re ready
.”

  “I ain’t your buddy,” Buckley grumbled.

  The technician wheeled the stretcher over to the window. The young girl was covered to her chest with a white sheet. Her skin was pale; her eye lids had been closed. Her long blond hair flowed back from her face and onto the sheet. A towel had been placed against her skull on the left side, probably concealing an injury.

  Buckley stood and looked at the girl. He pulled out his cigarettes and took one from the pack. Officer Hawkins opened his mouth to object, but the other officer touched his arm and shook his head. “Let it go,” he said softly.

  Buckley continued to stare at the girl. She looked so young and helpless. He lit the cigarette and took a long drag. He stood motionless and said nothing. He couldn’t seem to pull his eyes away from her face.

  After a while, he dropped the cigarette on the tile floor and smashed it with his boot. He turned to the officers and finally spoke. “Let’s get out of here. It ain’t her.”

  On their way back, Buckley sat quietly. When they pulled up to his house and opened the car door, he didn’t move. Officer Hawkins leaned down and said, “You can get out.”

  Buckley moved to the edge of the seat and put his feet on the ground but hadn’t yet stood. He looked up at the officer and quietly asked, “What do you suppose has happened to Caitlyn?” He didn’t wait for an answer. He got out of the car and, with drooping shoulders, walked slowly up the walk to his door.

  * * *

  It took another three hours for the word to get back to the department and on to Amanda Holmes that the body was not Caitlyn Buckley.

  Amanda had stayed with Sarah awaiting the report. They fell into each other’s arms and cried but, this time, they were tears of relief. Finally they pulled themselves together and Sarah said softly, “But she’s still out there.”

  Chapter 24

  “It’s gone? What do you mean, gone?” Charles asked. “How could it be gone?” Not waiting for an answer, he headed for the sewing room and opened the cabinet door. He pulled the blankets off the bottom shelf and moved the fabric aside on the upper shelves. “It’s not here!” he exclaimed.

  “Did you actually think I might have missed it when I looked in the cabinet?” Sarah asked, sounding irritated. “It’s gone, as I said.”

  “How long have you known about this?” Charles asked with mounting concern as he followed her into the kitchen.

  “I’ve known for about a month. I didn’t report it to the police until a few days ago because I thought it might show up. My house hasn’t been broken into, Charles.”

  “What do you mean?” he asked, trying unsuccessfully to conceal his mounting concern. “Someone took the quilt. That means someone has been in your house."

  “Charles, sit down. You’re going to have another stroke if you don’t calm down. Your face is getting flushed. This isn’t worth it. It’s just a quilt.”

  “No!” he said firmly. “It’s not just a quilt! It’s an invasion of your home and it’s a danger. You could have been sleeping. You could have been killed!” His hands were shaking and his face was flushed.

  “Charles, please,” Sarah said as calmly as she could. “The police know about it. They checked my house, and there was no evidence of a break-in. There’s an explanation for this. It probably has something to do with the key I keep outside. Someone I know must have used it and borrowed the quilt.”

  “That’s no explanation, Sarah. Who’d do that?” Charles responded frowning. “And is that key still out there?”

  “Yes, but I’ll bring it in. Charles, it bothers me that you’re getting so upset. You’re acting like you’re angry with me about this.”

  “I’m sorry, Sarah. I truly am. It’s just that I worry about you being here alone, and when I realize someone has been in the house, it just makes me crazy.”

  “Charles, I’ve been alone for many years, and I don’t want to be taken care of. I think I’ve made that clear to you over this past year. And it’s the one thing I fear can come between us. I still think you’re looking for a shrinking violet and I’ll never be that.”

  “I know,” he said more gently. “I don’t think that’s what I want. I love your independent nature and your ability to do anything you set your mind to. But that doesn’t keep me from worrying when I think you might be in danger.” After a short pause, Charles added more softly, “And I don’t understand why you didn’t tell me about this.”

  “Because of just this, Charles. I didn’t want you telling me how to handle it, and I didn’t want you taking over. I wanted to handle it myself. I would have told you if I thought you would have left the next steps up to me, but we can both see that you wouldn’t have done that. You’d have insisted that the police be involved right away.”

  “And that would be a bad thing, why?” Charles asked.

  “Because I wanted to wait,” she responded. “Simply that. I wanted to wait.”

  Charles sighed deeply and shook his head. “I think I should leave now, Sarah, before we say things we might be sorry for. I’ll call you later.” He stood and walked out the door.

  “What was that all about?” Sophie asked as she walked up to Sarah’s open door. “He looked all red in the face. Is there trouble in paradise?” Sarah was still standing at the door looking up the street even though Charles’ car had long since disappeared from view.

  “I don’t know, Sophie.”

  “You don’t know?” Sophie responded incredulously. “You must know! You were here.”

  “Okay, Sophie. I know, but I’m not sure what’s going on. I told him about the missing quilt, and he got very upset. It seemed like he was angry with me, probably because I didn’t tell him sooner.”

  “Well sure. He wanted to be included.”

  “Also, I guess he thought I should have reported it to the police right away.”

  “Well, Sarah, you have to admit it is troublesome. You know that someone has been in your house, and you don’t know when or how. Or who, for that matter. Yet you haven’t seemed terribly concerned.”

  “Sophie, I’m concerned. At least, I’m concerned now. At first, I actually thought Andy took it. I didn’t want to get him into any more trouble.”

  “But Andy asked you to check the quilt for a key, didn’t he? He wouldn’t have asked that if he had been the one who took it, would he?” Sophie responded.

  “One would assume that. But what if he took it and that was just his way of letting me know it was gone?”

  “That’s silly, Sarah. Why would you come up with that?”

  “I don’t know, Sophie. I don’t know. I’ve just always had this feeling there’s more to this than meets the eye. I don’t believe anyone was in my house, even though the quilt is clearly gone.”

  “Now, Sarah…” Sophie began.

  “Don’t say it,” Sarah interrupted, holding her hand up to stop Sophie’s words. “I know that doesn’t make a lick of sense. It’s just the way I was feeling. But it’s reported now. Charles knows about it now. And I doubt that anyone is seriously looking for it. That officer that was here treated me like I didn’t have good sense.”

  “I sometimes wonder…”

  “Stop, Sophie!”

  “Okay.”

  The two women walked into the kitchen. While Sarah took the lemonade pitcher out of the refrigerator, Sophie moved the cookie jar to the table. Barney put his head in Sophie’s lap as soon as she sat down. All three remained quiet for a while. Finally Barney spoke up saying, “Woof?”

  The two women laughed and Sophie patted his head and told him everything would be fine. Sarah walked behind Sophie and patted her on the head as well. “It sure will,” she said with a smile.

  Later that day, Sarah still hadn’t heard from Charles. She called his house, but there was no answer. She didn’t leave a message.

  * * *

  “Charlie Parker! What the heck are you doing here?” Matthew Stokely was Charles’ old lieutenant. The two men had been good friends before Sto
kely made Lieutenant and the friendship had continued, despite Charles ultimately being assigned to Stokely’s department. Since Charles’ retirement, they’d continued their friendship and played cards with a few other guys a couple times a month. They were the only ones left who called him Charlie. He was glad.

  The two friends sat down and talked for a while. Many of the officers Charles had worked with were gone now. As he sat with Stokely, Charles felt his heart rate returning to normal. When Sarah called him that morning and asked him to come over, he had been so pleased that he neglected to take his medications. He remembered them when she accused him of being on the edge of a stroke. She was probably right. Before going to the police department, Charles had swung by his house and took his meds.

  He wondered why he had become so agitated. As he sat waiting for Stokely to return with their coffee, his mind wandered back to the night his brother was shot. Jeffrey’s wife, Angelina, had called and told him Jeff was in the hospital. There’d been a break-in during the night. Jeffrey always had to be the hero. He took his shotgun from the top shelf of the closet and loaded it. “I pleaded with him not to go downstairs,” Angie had said, “but you know your brother.” The intruder had grabbed the gun and it went off, shooting Jeffrey in the leg. The intruder ran out the back door, leaving Jeff on the floor moaning.

  His brother wasn’t seriously hurt, but Charles saw this kind of thing all the time on the job. Break-ins could go bad in an instant. Some homeowners simply lost belongings, some were injured, and some were dead. He couldn’t separate his past experiences from what had happened to Sarah.

  “Okay, old friend,” Stokely said as he handed Charles the mug. “I heard you were working with Hamilton Missing Persons. What’s going on there?”

  “Not much, Matt. I’m mostly working the streets, talking to people, looking for leads. You know how it is. Kids can disappear on the streets and no one seems to have seen them until they turn up dead or damaged for life.” Charles sounded discouraged.