Scandal (15 page)

My mind reeled with the possibilities of which stupid woman she could mean. "Who?
What?" I took off my coat and laid it over the back of a dining room chair.

Sam came down the hallway from his room. "I'd guess you are talking about the Quilt Show
snafu?"

"How's that?"

Magda said, "The new girlfriend--okay, maybe she's his wife--who took over scheduling the
wrestling meets doesn't even know we exist. I guess. Maybe she hates women who sew." She must
have seen my eyebrows lowering, because she came to the point. "She's got us sharing the same
space, at the same time."

"Oh. Well, just get her to change it."

"Can't. It's printed up on posters already. Gotta give it to those wrestlers, they do promo
good."

"So, she gave 'em a date and didn't check the calendar?"

"Yes. Can't blame her. Wasn't on there. It's always been the same, second weekend in
November. She's new so didn't know it. She's not a quilter." This last was said with a dismissive
shake of her shoulders.

"A real outsider, huh?" I felt protective of this woman I didn't even know.

Magda looked at me with that lowered head.

Sam, standing just behind her, grinned and made a face at me that said,
let it go
. He
was right. This little venting of my resistance was getting me nowhere. "Are we going to get some
quilting done today? I'm ready to work."

That got her attention. "I'm ready. We have about an hour before I have to go to the police
station. Sammy's gonna go with me." She put her hand on his shoulder and sighed deeply. "You
don't know how grateful I am that I don't have to do this alone."

I followed her to the sewing room, and Sam said he was going to be outside playing at the
roses.

"Can you believe it, Annie, he's going to trim that dang arbor up, make it safe to walk
through again. Here." She led me into her quilt room. On the long table were Aunt Sophie's pieces,
plus the length we'd bought yesterday.

"You're ready to go with Aunt Sophie's quilt, I see."

"No, Annie. If you're gonna work with this you have to make it yours. You need to decide
how you want it to go. You can keep to her plan or come up with your own design. With the pieces
mostly already cut out, you do have restrictions on what you're gonna have. Unless you want to
take all these pieces and cut them into smaller shapes and re-configure them." She was at them,
now. Stroking the nap of the purple velvet appeared to calm her.

I suddenly felt proprietary, walked over and finished the job of laying them out. "Lord, no.
I'm just going to get this done, and that's it. I'm not into coming up with my own design."

Magda laughed. "Well, then let's get this done." She sat down at the sewing machine. "You
want to do this or you want me to help you?"

"If you do any of the sewing, I'll not be able to say that this is my quilt, will I? For the
show?" I swear, until I said that I didn't know I was going to enter the quilt.

"No, you can have help, but, you're right, to make it your own, you need to do the work
yourself. But, I can help."

"I need the pins. And that magnet thing I bought." I pulled up a chair beside her. She led me
through the process of threading her machine, and filling bobbins.

"Here." She handed me my packet of yellow flat-headed pins and the other of round heads.
"Try it with both kinds of pins. I'm going to go make us some tea and check on Sammy. I'll be just
outside if you need me."

I hardly knew she was gone. For the next half-hour I played with the pins, joining the pieces
together, following Sophie's paper plan. The pins were sharp and I poked my fingers, laughing to
myself as I sucked on the little drops of blood.

Magda came in after a while with a cup of tea that she set down near me. I took a sip then
moved it to a side table where I couldn't spill it on the quilt.

"How's it coming?"

"Good. No problems. Other than I remember now that I hate working with velvet. The way
it slips around, out from under my fingers, like it has a mind of its own. Good thing I have lots of
pins. Have to secure it well before I join the stuff to the 'cord."

"Yeah. Not something I would have chosen." She stood back and looked down at Sophie's
pattern. "But then, I wouldn't be making up my own design, either."

I was back at it, holding the fabrics firm as I led the needle through them. "It really will be
my quilt. Sophie's and mine."

"You can get part of the front piece done this morning. I've got a couple calls to make, and
then Sammy and I are going over to the Hall. Sammy swears we can do both, the wrestling and the
quilt show in the same place."

"At the same time?"

"No, silly. But we need to take a tape measure over there, and meet with the manager of the
Hall. Then we're going to the police station. You can stay here and work on your quilt. Or if you
want to come with us we can pick you up on our way back."

The last place I wanted to go to was the police station. "I'll be good and keep the home fires
burning, safely, and work on the quilt. Want me to make lunch?"

"We'll pick something up. You just relax. Only thing I'm going to need when I get home is
hot tea. If I get home. If they don't throw me in the hoosegow for not knowing what happened to
Tommy." Her face started to twist up like she was gonna cry. I was happy to have Sam appear right
then.

He must have seen what was about to happen. "Hey! We've got things to do. No time to
worry right now. Save it for later. If they throw you in the clink I'll organize a rescue party and we'll
break you out." He patted her shoulder.

She laughed a little through the tears that she reined in with a swallow and a deep breath.
"Okay."

They left and I fell into the stitching. My fingers moved along the ribs of corduroy. I was
glad that I'd done all that pinning as I held my tongue tight against my top lip to help my fingers
keep the velvet and corduroy on track under the steady click-click of the machine needle.

The flathead pins were easier to pull out as I went along, but the round heads were easier
to grab. I kept the yellow dish close by my right hand, it was a tiny pleasure dropping the pin to the
holder and having the magnet grab it.
Oh
,
I am easily amused
.

Pleasure was growing within me as the pieces began to form a shape. Curiosity tickled my
mind in a new place it had not been touched before. I seldom thought about Len. The fire chief,
however, did come into my mind. As did the events that Magda and Sam were working through.
With relief, I returned to the stitching.

God only knows what is going on in the minds of these women, I'm glad to be able to be
here to help straighten them out.

We were to meet Lena at the VFW hall, where they show their quilts. The representative of
the lodge and the representative of the Wrestling Meet were both to meet us there. Magda knew the
lodge guy "from way back," a man by the name of Russ Thompson. The wrestler fella was Big Juan. I
kid you not.

Lena is the co-coordinator of the show this year. According to Magda, she'd lobbied hard to
get the job. She had presented a list of the quilts she'd entered over the years, and the number of
times she had won Best Quilt Over All--three--not to mention the number of times--eight--that she
had taken the Blue Ribbon for Best Hand-Quilted Quilt.

Magda parked us by the back door. As we went in we heard shouting. In the middle of the
room was our feisty Lena up in the face of a man dressed in skin tight leopard pants. She was
yelling, "You can't have your smelly bodies anywhere around our quilts!"

Leopard Pants shouted back, "Then, get your quilts outa here."

By the time we made it across the room, another man, his arms in the air, looked to be
trying to defuse the altercation, had lost his cool and shouted, "Come on, now. No need to be
screaming at each other."

Magda stepped around him to take Lena by the arm. She gave a good jerk and Lena had to
step back or fall on her butt.

While Magda took Lena aside for a heart-to-heart. I introduced myself to the
peacemaker--Russ, he said he was--and said to Leopard Pants, "Big Juan?"

"Sure am. Just call me 'Big'." His sleeveless t-shirt allowed his muscles to flex, which they
did now. Close up to this full glory I restrained an urge to put my hands over my eyes. Instead, I
focused on his feet, shod in shiny gold brogues. Where did this man buy his clothes?

We all shook hands as I said, "I'm Sam Smithers, here with Mrs. Buler to help iron out this
problem."

"She's the problem to fix," Big said.

Magda kept one restraining hand on Lena's arm. Her other hand went to her mouth to
cover her smile as she took in the full splendor of Big.

Lena shook off Magda's hand. Her jaw was set, her posture rigid.

Her gaze flicked to the leopards, and her eyebrows went up. She looked at us, her
expression changing to
why
are you here?

"Lena, to get this all straightened out, we must work together. Sammy has an idea. Let's
give him a listen, okay?" Magda knew how to work this girl. Lena bounces between being flirty and
being angry with every man she meets, looks like to me. With three of us here she chose to be
agreeable.

Big Juan had to have his say, of course. "This is your problem. We will be having our match
as we've advertised. Period." He crossed his arms.

"And that's where we can work it out," I said. "The conflicting match is on Friday night. The
Quilt Show is Friday and Saturday, during the days. Right? We just need some help from you and it
will work to everyone's satisfaction."

Russ was nodding agreement with me, but Big Juan had his own cranky going.

"How's that?"

"It's simple. On Friday the show will close long before the matches start. Plenty of time for
Russ here, with some lodge guys, and you with your wrestlers--plenty of muscle there." I couldn't
help myself, but he just nodded." Together, you can get the quilt frames moved to the wall,
lickety-split. Heck, Lena, You might even get some customers to come back the next day and buy
one of your super-dooper hand-done jobs."

Juan took another look at her.

She colored up. The pink cheeks made her attractive. Maybe this would all work out, get
her off my case, and onto his.

Russ stepped up. "Let's step into the office and coordinate time schedules. We'll have to get
together early enough to get the space cleared to turn it from Show to Arena, and back again."

We all followed Russ to the office at the side of the hall.

All except Magda. "Great. I'll leave you now. I've got another appointment."

"You're going to stay, right?" said Big to Lena. To Russ he said, "You can show us where we
should move the quilts to."

While he was talking Magda walked out, after calling back to me, "I'll be back to pick you
up. Or come on over. The station is just a few blocks. Somebody can tell you where."

Wait a minute, I was supposed to go with her to the police station. She seemed awfully
eager to be rid of me.

So Russ, Big, and I worked it out with Lena's aid.

"At no time is anyone ever to lay bare hands on a quilt. No matter large or small. I will raid
the Guild kitty to buy several cotton gloves of a size large enough for your man hands, to make
sure."

"Miss Lena, will you be here to guide us?" Big said.

"Why, of course. Especially if you want me to help you, that is."

"It would be a pleasure, Miss Lena."

"Oh, just call me Lena." She did that dang simper thing. "I'll be here with gloves on."

"Okay, Lena. And after the match perhaps you could show me the highlights of nightlife in
Willamina?"

She simpered again, and then laughed, something I seldom saw her do. "That won't take
long. Our bars aren't that exciting."

"Oh, Miss, I mean Lena, I won't be wanting to see your bars. You don't think I'd endanger a
body like mine with alcohol, do you?"

"Well, Big, honestly, I hadn't really thought much about it. It's something to ponder, for
sure. But we don't have juice bars or any fancy stuff like in the city. You mean yogurt, stuff like
that?"

"Oh, I think for one night I could let down my guard enough to have pie and a good herbal
tea."

Working around their flirting, Russ directed us. We set the times to make the changes,
complete with a list of who was to do what, and when. We all got a copy. I took one for Magda. I left
Miss Lena in the pure hands of Big and walked the few blocks to the City Hall where the Sheriff had
an office.

A truck rolled past me, carrying a full load of logs with bark on them. Seeing as my son
owns and drives a log truck, I was happy to see the business doing well here in Willamina. What
says
Northwest
better than a load of logs on the way to the mill? With one part of my mind I
saluted the log truck driver, with another I wondered why Magda had gone alone. Was there
something she didn't want me to know?

My knees were knocking as I walked into the Sheriff's office. Wish had called earlier, said
the autopsy results were in and they'd appreciate me coming down this morning if I could. "If you
can't," he'd said, "I could send someone to get you."

That was not going to happen.

Up until I was at the VFW, I'd not known I wanted to be alone when I heard the results. I
didn't even want Sammy, though I was glad he'd be here, later on.

Wish and I were old friends. He'd been my Prom date when I was a sophomore and him a
senior. It was never a romance, but a close friendship that we've kept for years. I was still proud to
be his friend, but this way of relating was new, and uncomfortable.

Tommy had been my husband. A bad one in the long run, but we'd had some excellent
times, day and nights, in the early years. Watching Lena and Big Juan spar over the space, I'd
realized what a waste of time arguing is, how inconsequential most of my fights with Tommy had
been. I wasn't thinking right then of the awful ending of our last time together and the ugly things
he'd said to me, and the ugly things I'd said to him.