Disappearing Nine Patch (A Harriet Truman/Loose Threads Mystery Book 9) (30 page)

Joyce smiled at her.

“And that’s why we need Max.”

Lauren picked up the detector.

“You mean Max found her the first time, too?”

“Indeed, he did,” Joyce said, and headed for her camp.

Joyce roused Max from his afternoon nap, and they all waited while he went to the restroom then ate a granola bar from a plastic storage box that was chained to a tree in his sleeping area.

“Sure, I remember where I found that little girl,” he told them. “I hope you’re ready for a hike.” He brushed past the women and headed deeper into the forest.

The trail led them diagonally across the park. Harriet was glad they weren’t doing this in the winter as they jumped over a trickle of water that was probably knee-deep when the rains came. After the stream, they climbed steadily. She and Lauren passed the detector back and forth as their arms tired.

“Now that I see how much of a slope there is in this corner of the park, our vent scenario seems a little more plausible,” she said to Lauren’s back.

Lauren turned her head slightly but kept walking.

“Unfortunately, it also makes our detector less useful. If the vent is sticking out of the hillside, we may find the opening, but the depth of the dirt on the slope will prevent us from being able to tell which direction it goes in.”

Harriet laughed.

“Makes me glad we lugged it all this way.”

“Not much longer,” Max called back to them.

Harriet blew out her breath and noticed he wasn’t out of breath at all; she vowed to up her weekly running mileage.

“Okay,” he said a few minutes later. They had reached the end of the trail and stood in a clearing facing a steep rocky bluff. To the left, the slope wasn’t as steep or as rocky. It was, however, overgrown with blackberry bushes.

“She was in this clearing. I had just moved into the park—it wasn’t as nice back then. None of the trails were developed like they are now. I figured I should know where the boundaries were and where people were able to enter the park. We didn’t have lock-boxes back in those days, so security was always an issue, and anyway, I wanted to be sure I was in the most secure location before I set up a permanent camp.”

Harriet and Lauren looked around.

“The alleged vent wouldn’t have come out of rock, probably,” Lauren said and turned to the left. Harriet had already begun poking into the blackberries with a stick she’d picked up along the trail.

Max waded into the blackberry thicket.

“If someone was digging a vent line, they wouldn’t go very deep in this rocky soil. It’ll probably be up near the top of the slope.”

Harriet followed the path Max had tramped into the berry bushes and came up beside him, stomping berry canes down the way he was. Together, they worked their way slowly up to the top.

Max stopped as they neared the summit.

“You two can come up and help now,” he called to Joyce and Lauren. “Pick up a stick if you can find one.”

With four of them working, it only took another ten minutes before Joyce’s stick clanged against metal.

“I think I’ve found something.”

They stomped over to where she stood and watched as she probed with her stick then reached to pull stubborn vines from what she’d found. Harriet bent down to look into the small, smooth opening.

“If Molly was in that pipe, I can see why having her shoulders squeezed was what she remembered.”

Lauren looked over Harriet’s shoulder.

“We should ask DeAnn if Molly had dislocated shoulders when they found her.”

Joyce bent over and looked.

“Children are quite small at that age, and they tend to be very flexible. I can imagine a small child fitting in there, especially if she were motivated by fear.”

Harriet stepped back.

“Unfortunately, this could come from anywhere.”

“Not really,” Lauren said. “We know it didn’t come from the park. And we know it didn’t come in from that rocky bluff. At least, it’s not likely.”

“That still leaves a lot of possibilities,” Harriet countered.

Lauren started back down the slope.

“We need to look at a map.”

“We need to get back to the church and see if Aunt Beth and the others need help with the quilt.” Harriet started for the trail.

Joyce sighed.

“You know, there is another possibility.”

Harriet and Lauren stopped mid-step.

“Something besides Molly crawled out of this pipe?”

“Yes…well, no, not the crawling out part. What if someone thought they’d killed Molly and stuffed her in the end of this pipe? When she woke up, she crawled back out, and Max found her.”

“Huh,” Lauren said thoughtfully.”Did the psychic say she crawled a long distance?”

Harriet shook her head.

“I don’t think so. I’d have to listen to the tape again to be sure, but I think she only said Molly felt pressure on her shoulders. Nothing about crawling.”

Joyce turned back to the path.

“It’s something to think about, anyway.”

Joyce led the way into the common area where the homeless camp residents took their meals together. She reached into a cooler that was tucked under one of the benches and pulled out four bottles of water.

“Will you let me know if you learn anything?” she asked.

Harriet took a long drink of water and recapped her bottle.

“Sure. If we learn anything. This seems like it’s yet another dead end.

“I thought about what you said while we were walking back, and it does make more sense that someone could have stuffed Molly into that pipe. If the serial killer took Molly
and
Amber, he may have drugged them, and then, when he got them in his car, he may have thought Molly was already dead, so he ‘buried’ her in the pipe because it was relatively quick and easy compared to digging a hole. He then did whatever he wanted to do to Amber and later killed her and disposed of her somewhere else.”

Joyce crossed her arms and rocked back on her heels.

“I’m trying to convince myself that Molly’s killer doesn’t care about a group of homeless people, but it is a worry.”

“Can we do anything?” Harriet asked.

“No, it’s not the first time a body has been found in these woods and likely won’t be the last. It comes with the territory.”

Lauren stepped closer to Joyce.

“I’m sure Pastor Mike could open the church gym the way he does when the weather is bad if you all wanted to sleep inside where it’s safe. I could ask, if you want.”

“Thank you, but I think we’ll stay put. You know Lottie won’t go inside for any reason, and if she won’t go, Max won’t go, and others will follow. We have our own precautions we take when things like this happen.”

“Hopefully, things like this don’t happen too often,” Harriet said.

“More often than you think,” Joyce said and looked from her to Lauren. “Not crazy murderers, but people who don’t like homeless people in the park bother us sometimes, and people looking for their lost loved ones don’t tend to respect our privacy.”

“That’s awful,” Harriet said.

“Well, it’s part of the lifestyle. If you can’t handle it, you can always go to a shelter.” Joyce said. She smiled again. “You should worry about yourselves more. We’ve been here a long time, and we’ll be here longer still.”

“I could bring you a battery-operated wireless security system for your space,” Lauren offered.

“We have our own system. It’s not fancy, but our tin cans and fishing line work fine. And we’ll not let anyone sleep by themselves. Don’t worry, we’ll be quite safe.”

“If you say so,” Harriet said.

Joyce patted her on the back.

“I do say so. You worry about finishing your quilt and let the good detective catch the murderer.”

“Now you sound like my aunt.”

“I’ll take that as a compliment,” Joyce said with a chuckle.

“Thanks for helping us look,” Lauren said and started toward the parking lot.

Harriet clicked the unlock button on her key fob. She glanced at the clock on the dash as she got in.

“Yikes, that took longer than I thought it would.”

Lauren slid into the passenger seat.

“It always does. You aren’t thinking of skipping our rice bowls, are you?”

“Not a chance.”

“You sure took your time,” Aunt Beth scolded as they came down the stairs into the church basement. The quilters were gathered around one of the large cafeteria tables, putting the final stitches into the quilt binding.

“I hope you learned something while you were shirking your quilting duties,” Mavis said.

Harriet sat down at the table.

“As a matter of fact, we learned two interesting things.”

“Interesting, if irrelevant,” Lauren interjected.

Harriet glared at her before continuing.

“First, we observed an interesting interaction between Sandra Price and the ladies at the Carey Bates Missing and Exploited Children Center. Apparently, they were going to name a building after Amber, and Sandra is not pleased.”

“As I said, not really relevant,” Lauren repeated.

“It does raise the question of, if Molly was running roughshod over Sandra Price, who else might she have been offending.”

“The girl did seem obsessed,” Mavis said. “And we only saw her obsession about Amber. Maybe she had other obsessions.”

Harriet looked at her gratefully.

“My point exactly. The main thing we were doing is seeing if we could find the vent the psychic told us about.”

“And,” Aunt Beth asked, “did you?”

The two women explained their hike in the woods and the result.

“Sounds like Joyce brought up a good point,” Connie said. “It makes sense that someone who knew about the vent could use it as a hiding place for a small girl.”

“It’s yet another scenario we can’t prove or disprove,” Lauren said.

Carla buried her thread under the binding and clipped her needle free, smoothing the fabric with her fingers.

“I’ve got to go take over with Wendy. Grandpa Rod has bowling.”

Connie stood up.

“I promised Wendy mackie-cheese for her dinner.” She put her needle back in a wooden needle tube and slipped it into her canvas quilt bag.

Aunt Beth sat back in her chair, which was pulled up to the end of the cafeteria table.

“I can’t believe we finished with time to spare.”

“You and me both,” Mavis agreed. “I figured we’d be stitching the morning of the presentation.”

Harriet’s phone chimed the presence of a new text. She glanced at the message as she said, “I never doubted us for a minute.”

Lauren read Harriet’s phone screen over her shoulder.

“And here I thought you and I were going to watch movies tonight.”

Harriet felt her face turned hot, and she clicked her screen off before Lauren could read the complete message.

“No, you didn’t. You said you were working on a new computer program tonight.”

Lauren laughed. “You’re so easy I almost feel guilty yanking your chain.”

“I take it that’s your chef,” Mavis commented.

“
We
didn’t have plans, did we?” Harriet asked her.

“No, honey, we didn’t, and if that young man wants to take you out, I think that would be real nice.”

“He wants to watch movies at his house, which sounds pretty appealing right now.”