A Drunkard's Path (33 page)

Even if I was right, even if Oliver was a killer, it crushed me to see the look in my grandmother’s eyes.

“I’m sorry,” I muttered.

She dismissed me with a wave of her hand and walked toward the office, with Barney close behind. I sat in the shop, hoping that no other customers would come in for the rest of the day. As upset as Eleanor was, I knew she would never close the shop early for anything as mundane as a broken romance, but I couldn’t stand to wait on anyone, and I couldn’t bring myself to leave.

Within minutes the door opened.

“Where were you today?” I asked.

“I wanted to finish this.” Kennette pulled her drunkard’s path quilt out of a bright pink backpack. “I wanted to finish the binding.”

She held up her large, colorful quilt with a meandering path of blues and purples.

“It’s really beautiful,” I said.

“I can’t believe it’s mine. It’s like what you said about Carrie’s quilt. It’s a little piece of my imagination turned into reality. And now I want to give it to someone special.”

For a second I thought she was going to hand it to me, but instead she stuffed the quilt into her backpack.

“That’s new,” I said.

She held up the bag. “Yeah. I used to have one just like it but it got lost. Now that I have a paycheck, I figured I’d get a new one. Good for traveling. Of course now I need traveling money.”

“Are you going somewhere?”

She smiled. “I think so.”

“But we have one more class with Oliver.”

“That’s okay. It’s not like I was going to be an artist or anything.”

“But you’re so talented.”

Kennette wasn’t listening anymore. She was watching Barney circle by the office door. “Is Barney still upset?”

“No. He’s fine. He’s just worried about Eleanor. She and Oliver broke up. Well I sort of broke them up. Long story,” I blurted out.

Kennette dropped her bag and rushed back to the office. I could hear her talking to Eleanor but I didn’t want to listen. Instead I walked out into the street and watched as people gathered in Jitters, drinking coffee without a care in the world.

I decided it was time for one final meeting of my group of detectives before we handed the investigation, or what was left of it, over to Jesse and Powell and went back to being quilters.

 

 

 

 

“T
his was not how it was supposed to turn out,” Susanne said quietly.

“But he didn’t admit it,” Natalie protested. “Maybe he’s innocent.”

“He has exactly the motive we thought he would,” I pointed out. “Just because he didn’t confess doesn’t mean he didn’t do it. It just means he’s smart enough to try and keep himself out of jail.”

“Well, I thought being a detective would be more fun,” Bernie sighed.

Meeting at Carrie’s coffee shop had gotten more complicated since it opened. Lucky for her, the café was already a popular hangout, but it made it hard for us to speak openly. We were stuck whispering in the corner near the front, waiting for the velvet couch to open up.

“What now?” Maggie turned to me.

“We let it go,” Carrie answered. “We’ve done enough damage. I mean, it would have been bad enough if Jesse or Chief Powell found this out, but for Eleanor’s friends to have done this to her . . .”

“And she knew we were up to something.” Natalie smiled. “You have to give her props for that.”

I nodded but I wasn’t really listening. I had gotten into the bad habit of keeping an eye on the entrance to Someday Quilts, but at the moment it was paying off.

“I have to go,” I said suddenly. I handed Carrie my coffee and ran out the back door.

I went down the alley to the end of the block and peered around the corner so I could see Someday Quilts. I had just seen Kennette walk out of the shop, look around, and then stuff an envelope in her coat. Or, really, Eleanor’s coat. She had been acting weird lately, all the disappearances and then not showing up at Oliver’s class. And she was leaving town. Now, after all we had done for her, was she stealing money from my grandmother?

As I watched from the corner, she walked toward me, looking around nervously. She got within inches of me and I pushed up against the wall. If she turned the corner, we would have run into each other and I would have to explain why I was there. But Kennette didn’t see me. She just kept walking up the street and toward, of all places, the police station.

I let her get several yards ahead, and then I followed. She seemed about to go up the stairs and into the station when she paused. I hoped she’d turn around and go somewhere else so I could stay on her trail. I knew that there was no way I could follow her into that building without encountering Jesse, and I wasn’t brave enough for that.

Just as it seemed I might be out of luck, she turned toward the parking lot. She walked over to one of the five squad cars that belonged to the Archers Rest Police Department. After looking around one more time, she opened the driver’s side door, slipped behind the wheel, and disappeared from view.

“What are you doing?” I muttered. I wanted to run over and stop her from apparently stealing a police car, but I was too confused and too riveted by the scene to do anything.

My eyes kept darting back between the police station and the cars, waiting to see if anyone would come out and find her before she inexplicably committed a serious crime. Then, just as suddenly, Kennette’s head popped up. She slid out of the car, looked around once more, and closed the door.

I ducked into the pizza place and watched her walk from the police station back toward the quilt shop. When she was far enough ahead of me, I left the pizza place and followed her as she went back toward the shop. I stopped in front of Carrie’s coffee shop and watched as she ducked back into Someday Quilts.

I was tempted to go into the shop and confront Kennette then and there, but I came up with what I hoped was a better plan. I dialed my phone, and on the third ring I heard Bernie pick up.

“Go over to Someday and watch Kennette. Watch everything she does. Don’t let her leave the shop. I’ll explain later.”

Before she had a chance to respond, I hung up. I darted back up the street toward the police station. It seemed quiet outside. I glanced at the window to make sure there wasn’t anyone about to walk out the door, but there didn’t seem to be much activity. When I felt sure it was safe, I headed toward the parking lot and to the police car Kennette had broken into. I slowly opened the door and slid behind the driver’s seat. Just as Kennette had done, I leaned down in the seat. But then I ran out of ideas.

“What were you doing?” I asked no one.

I felt around under the seats. I found two candy wrappers and the cap of a pen. I moved my hand further back. At the tip of my fingers I felt a thick piece of paper. Maybe it was the envelope that Kennette had stuck in her pocket when she walked out of the shop. I stretched my hand and reached as far as I could, grabbing the paper between my fingers. I slowly pulled it out from under the seat.

“What are you doing?”

I froze. I didn’t need to look to know who was talking to me. There didn’t seem to be much chance of escape so I straightened up in the seat and, before I dealt with the man outside the car, I quickly looked at the paper in my hand. It was a crumpled parking ticket.

I rolled down the window.

“Hi,” I said, a forced smile on my face.

“Hi?” Jesse snapped. “Tell me what you’re doing.”

“I found this,” I held up the ticket as if it were a prize.

Jesse yanked me out of the car and slammed the door behind me. He grabbed the envelope out of my hand.

“You lost a parking ticket?” he barked.

“I didn’t say I lost it. I said I found it.”

“Oh, you’re on the case, aren’t you?” His voice dripped with sarcasm. “My favorite detective is busy following the clues. I thought we were past this.”

“I’m being a concerned citizen.”

“So, what kind of clue is this ticket?”

“It’s not a clue, but . . .” Suddenly I decided not to tell him anything. Either way I was in trouble, so why help him? I stood there looking defiant and feeling stupid.

“Nell, I could put you in jail for this.”

Suddenly I noticed something scribbled in pen on the ticket that made me feel my adventure hadn’t been for nothing. “There’s some writing on it,” I said.

Jesse turned the ticket around and looked at it. “March 1,” he read. “Mean anything to you?”

I shook my head. Maybe it had all been for nothing.

“I’m going to guess that some cop ripped a parking ticket out of his book to use as a notepad,” Jesse said. “They really shouldn’t do that. It screws up the numbering system.”

“Well then you should probably go inside and talk to them about that.”

He smiled, but he didn’t look happy. He took a deep breath. “Nell, I’m going to assume that you weren’t planning to steal the car, but this is unacceptable. If you want to work out your Nancy Drew fantasies, then go over to the high school and find out what’s in the mystery stew. But stay out of my way.”

“So you’re not going to charge me; you’re just going to lecture me.”

Jesse slammed his fist on the hood of the car. “Why are you doing these crazy things? Why can’t you just work in the shop and go to school?”

“And be a good girl?” I countered. “Because I’m a grown woman, and grown women have minds of their own.”

“You know my wife was a grown woman but she wasn’t meddlesome and dangerously unpredictable.”

I paused, took a breath, then looked him in the eye. “I’m not your wife. I’m me. I’m sorry that’s not good enough for you.”

I turned to walk away with my words hanging dramatically in the air. But I had taken only one step when Jesse grabbed my arm.

“You’re under arrest,” he said quietly.

“This is ridiculous,” I said for the thirtieth time as Jesse walked me into the only cell in the jail. “You can’t possibly arrest me.”

“I can do whatever I want. I’m the law around here,” he said. He twirled the keys in his hands, smiled a little, and walked away.

“Hey, Nell, I figured you’d end up here.” I turned around in the cell to see Rich sitting on a bench.

I couldn’t help but laugh.

“Honestly, I think you spend more time here than you do at home,” I said to him. “What was it this time?”

“The library.”

“What were you trying to steal at the library?”

“I don’t steal anything. I do it just to prove I can. And because the guys bet me. It’s my walking-around money.”

“More like your bail money.”

He shook his head. “I know. And the worst part is that I have a date tonight.”

I sat next to him on the small bench.

“Is she cute?” I asked.

He blushed. “I’ve been working on this for months,” he said, “and Blimper has his eye on her. If I don’t get out of here, I’m toast.”

“That’s too bad. But relationships are hard, even without jail coming between you, so maybe you’re better off.”

“You know Chief Dewalt’s just trying to protect you,” Rich offered. “I think he’s a tool, but he cares about you, and I think he’s worried about you getting yourself killed. I would be if, you know, I dated someone like you.”

I smiled. “Well, thanks. I think.”

Since it was pretty clear there wasn’t any point in trying to figure out how to get back on Jesse’s good side, I focused on the question I still had left: What was Kennette doing in that car?

I got up and walked to the cell door and rattled it, just in case, but it was locked. I tapped my fingers on bars. I’d been in jail for less than ten minutes and I was already trying to figure my way out.

“I have an idea how we can both get out of here,” I said. “But you have to rat me out.”

 

 

 

 

I
lay back on the bench and stared at the ceiling. Maybe I was dangerously unpredictable, and if I was, then I should be able to use that to my advantage.

“Do you want some coffee or something to eat?” I looked up to see Greg standing outside the cell.

“Why? Am I going to be here awhile?”

Greg opened the cell and walked inside. “I hate to tell you this, but Rich is out there making a deal with Jesse. If Jesse lets him off the hook for breaking into the library, then he’ll give Jesse a story about you.”

I sat up and pretended to be surprised.

“Like what?” I asked.

“Seems like you broke into somebody’s house.”

“Did Rich say whose house?”

“I don’t think he knew. Did you find anything?”

I shifted a bit on the bench. I didn’t want to confess to Greg. I had a bigger fish in mind. “I didn’t say I broke into anyone’s house. Rich could be pulling Jesse’s leg.”