The thin, snippy, perpetually irritated waitress marched to the pie case, pulled out the mixed berry pie, slid her spatula under the smallest slice, placed one tiny scoop of ice cream on the top and slammed it down in front of Mr. Caldwell.
Who said, “Thank you,” picked up his fork and burrowed right in.
Linda sneered and stormed away.
Mr. Caldwell told Kateri, “I’m digging blackberry seeds out from my dentures all night. But that was worth it. Thank you, Sheriff Kwinault.”
He was really piling on the respect for her title.
She liked that.
Her phone vibrated in her pocket. Pulling it out, she looked and moaned.
“What is it?” Mr. Caldwell asked.
“The Good Knight Manor Bed and Breakfast. Where my sister is staying. This cannot be good.” She picked up.
Phoebe shrieked in her ear, “Would you come immediately and arrest your sister for refusing to leave the great room so I can set up for the evening’s social hour?”
“I … don’t think that’s illegal.” Kateri made her eyes wide and appealing, and stared at Mr. Caldwell.
He chortled and kept eating.
Phoebe shouted, “She’s disrupting the schedule!”
Kateri took a breath to explain why the sheriff couldn’t answer a call like this—and collapsed in defeat. “I’ll come over and see what I can do. Yes. Right away.” She hung up, and asked Mr. Caldwell, “Anything else?”
“I’m going to give you some advice, young lady.”
“I’m listening.”
“Kipling said, ‘The female of the species is more deadly than the male.’” He nodded toward Linda. “If I were you, I wouldn’t turn my back on that woman. Or accept food from her. Or coffee. Or cross the street in front of her.”
“Thank you, I’ll keep that in mind.” Stepping behind the counter, she picked up the tray of sandwiches. “However—I’m female, too.”
“So you are, my dear.” Mr. Caldwell was still grinning. “So you are.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
Merida had spent almost ten years in an environment controlled by a despotic man who demanded the kind of peace and quiet one might experience in a sepulchre. To stand in the entry of the Good Knight Manor Bed and Breakfast and listen to Phoebe shout, “No, that is not your private sitting room, Miss Palmer, and you may not forbid our entry so you can enjoy your privacy!” made Merida hug herself with glee.
To hear Lilith reply, “My room has not yet been cleaned and the evening is approaching, so where else would I enjoy my privacy?” brought a silent chuckle.
Phoebe took a shuddering breath. “I told you. Susie didn’t show up for work today. I’m working as quickly as I can, but I work from the most expensive room down and your room is at the bottom of the list.”
“Whose fault is that? I required the most expensive room when I registered.” As Lilith spoke, her voice got more and more superior and contrasted strongly with Phoebe’s high-pitched indignation.
“You should have called sooner. Months sooner! It’s the tourist season!” Phoebe waved her fists. “As it is, you’ve overstayed and I’ve completely angered two different sets of guests who believed they had rooms reserved in the Good Knight Manor Bed and Breakfast!”
Lilith sniffed with such disdain Merida thought Phoebe was going to fling herself into battle armed with a serving fork.
Someone edged into the room from the direction of the kitchen.
A young man; Merida had seen him loitering on the premises, living in the supply shack at the far back, occasionally dashing toward the house and coming away with food and drink. She recognized him from her research: Phoebe’s son, Evan Glass, recently released from prison. Now he watched his mother, listened to the battle, smiled and swung his arms like a fighter against an imaginary opponent.
As much as Merida hated to miss the rest of the fight, if he was going to get involved, she would consider a retreat to her rooms.
A knock sounded on the front door. It opened.
More combatants?
Kateri walked in holding a plastic catering tray in one arm, her walking stick in her hand.
Phoebe’s son speedily backed out of the room.
Yes, he definitely had something to hide.
Merida signed, “Hello!”
Phoebe shrieked, “Sheriff Kwinault, thank God you got here.” She pointed. “Arrest that woman!”
Kateri said, “Hello, Merida, good to see you. How’s the entertainment?”
Merida gave her a thumbs-up.
From her chair, Lilith called, “Katherine, is that you?”
Kateri walked to the arched doorway. “Yes, Lilith. Please, per your innkeeper’s request, would you vacate the parlor?”
“Not until my bedroom is cleaned.”
Phoebe started shouting again. “My maid didn’t show up for work. I can’t hire someone else because everyone in this town is already employed. I can’t get it all done by myself. Make her move!” She seemed to expect Kateri to draw her pistol.
Instead Kateri said, “Lilith, tonight I go to my quilting club. Would you care to go with me?”
Lilith’s struggle between staying to annoy Phoebe and going out with her sister was almost audible.
Kateri slid Merida a sideways, conspiring glance. “Come on, Lilith.” She headed into the parlor. “I know how important your support of early American crafts is to you. Here’s a chance to see a contemporary quilting group in session. It is, I believe, exactly like the historical gatherings and a fascinating glimpse of culture in the western states.” She came out, arm in arm with her sister.
They were a contrast: Lilith with her blond hair, perfectly made-up face, casual vacation dress and superior irritation and Kateri, so very Native American with long dark hair pinned under a sheriff’s brimmed hat and amused brown eyes.
Kateri smiled brightly at Phoebe. “We’re going out.” To Merida, she said, “Want to come?”
Merida did want to come. Not because her sewing skills were any better than Kateri’s, but because she had spent much of the last twenty-four hours with Benedict and things were getting … worrisome. As if she should have taken her chances with the slasher. Not that Benedict was pushy. Not in the slightest. In fact, there hadn’t been even a suggestion of another kiss. Worse, when he thought she wasn’t looking, he watched her as if he suspected … something. When she thought of the somethings he might suspect—her long-ago identity or her plan for vengeance or both—she wanted to get as far away from him as possible. He had tried to kill her once before. He was not the kind of man who would fail a second time.
In answer to Kateri, she held up one finger, hurried into her room, grabbed her purse and a sweater—evenings so close to the ocean often became chilly—came out and activated the locks on her door. She turned to find Phoebe and Lilith locked in a glaring contest. She wanted to tell Phoebe she didn’t stand a chance; instead she took Lilith’s other arm and started toward the porch.
Her gesture broke up the impasse and earned her a look of gratitude from Kateri.
As they stepped outside into the early evening, Lilith asked, “We’re walking?”
“Yes,” Kateri said. “My only vehicle is a patrol car. I left it in its parking spot at City Hall in case someone needs it. Anyway, if I’d brought it, you’d have to sit in the back.” In the back with the cage between the front seat and the doors with no handles.
“I have a car,” Lilith said. “I rented it in Seattle and I’ve hardly driven it.”
“The library is only a few blocks. Almost everything in Virtue Falls is only a few blocks.” Kateri gestured north. In a solicitous tone, she added, “Unless you have difficulty walking?”
“Of course not! Every day I walk vigorously for exercise!” Lilith started swiftly in the direction Kateri had indicated. “Although I do prefer the gym. There’s quite a sufficient gym here, but it’s very busy. After my first time there, they have not had room for me to work out.”
“I’ll bet,” Kateri muttered.
Merida shook her finger at the sheriff.
“My concern was for you,” Lilith said to Kateri. “With your disabilities, will you be able to go so far?”
Lilith’s solicitude made Kateri aim the tray of sandwiches at Lilith’s head.
Merida removed them from her grasp.
Kateri thumped her walking stick on the sidewalk. “I’m fine, thank you, sister.”
“Good.” Lilith forged on, forcing Kateri and Merida to hurry and catch up. “Katherine, where is your charming doggie?”
“While I work, Mrs. Golobovitch babysits Lacey. They adore each other.” Kateri walked on one side of Lilith. “Mrs. Golobovitch also leads the Scrap Happy Stitchers.”
“The Scrap Happy Stitchers.” Lilith struggled between mockery and her excessive good breeding. She managed, “How quaint.”
“Mrs. Golobovitch has won so many blue ribbons at so many Washington county fairs she’s a legend in the Pacific Northwest quilting world.”
“I believe I’ve heard of her.” Because Lilith would never admit ignorance about any matter.
“Of course you have.” Kateri sounded the tiniest bit sarcastic. “Mrs. Golobovitch leads us as we talk and sew. Usually Bette Abrahamson, Gladys McKissick and Rosa Sage come together and sit together. They’re friends from high school. Emma Royalty is an electrician from Berk Moore’s construction crew. The electrical work she does has taught her such dexterity, she can do rocking stitches like nobody’s business. Lillie and Tora Keidel are sisters who are friends.” She sounded as if sisters/friends were an unusual occurrence, and hastily added, “Frances Salak is always there. Her mother, a cranky old woman if there ever was one, lives with her and Frances will do anything to get out of the house.”
“That’s too bad. I always got along with our mother very well. People said we were very much alike.” Lilith looked smug and somehow managed to convey pity for anyone who experienced a parental problem.
Merida admired that Kateri managed to say as much with her silence and her tight smile as most people did with their words. “At the SHS, we’re all friends, sometimes confidantes.”
Merida walked on the other side of Lilith and signed, “Will we be intruding?”
“Of course not!” Lilith replied. “Katherine wouldn’t have invited us if that was the case.”
Both Merida and Kateri stopped in the street and stared at Lilith.
“How did you know what she said?” Kateri asked.
“Oh. That.” Lilith smirked. “I’ve been studying signing so I can understand what Merida says when she speaks.”
Merida blinked in astonishment. Nauplius had learned sign language … after two years, when he finally had to admit his ideal woman, his Helen, would never speak again. He had come to like the fact she was mute; it kept her isolated.
Benedict Howard had learned sign language, but he had a motive—he wanted in her pants.
What was in it for Lilith?
Lilith didn’t wait for her to ask. “I like to know things. I find ignorance a disgrace to the human condition, and this time in Virtue Falls has reminded me of Kateri and her childhood friend who used to sign to shut me out of their silly conversations.” Lilith did a double take and stared at Merida, then at Kateri.
Kateri walked on.
Merida widened her eyes and stared back.
Lilith shook her head slightly. “Not that I cared, but while I’m still woefully slow at understanding, I will do my best to keep up.”
Merida nodded and touched her mouth in thanks.
Lilith signed, “You’re welcome,” then, obviously pleased with herself, she turned on Kateri. “Katherine, why are you going to a quilting club? Mother despaired of teaching you to sew on a button. She always said you were spectacularly unprepared to take care of yourself.”
Merida remembered that. Kateri’s stepmother had made it quite clear Kateri was not a daughter of the house and would someday have to fend for herself.
“Yet non-seamstress that I am, I facilitated the very first Thursday night quilting group.” Kateri sounded determinedly matter-of-fact.
“After you were court-martialed, left the Coast Guard and were forced to become the town librarian.” As Lilith remembered Kateri’s fall from grace, her stride lengthened as if satisfaction fed her energy.
Merida envied Kateri’s serenity whether it was real or feigned … Lilith was so annoying that with very little provocation, Merida could have shouted at Lilith.
They reached downtown and the concrete building with a sign beside the door proclaiming, VIRTUE FALLS LIBRARY.
Kateri ushered them in.
Lacey raced toward Kateri, barking in ecstasy, and danced around her, front paws in the air.
Kateri murmured endearments.
A dozen strange women sat around the quilting frame, a dozen strangers’ faces turned in their direction.
Merida shrank back.
One woman stood at a library table wearing an eccentric all-black outfit with half capes over the long black sleeves, a half skirt over capri leggings and black woven flats with a sparkle of silver. She was thin, elegant and European, and she rolled a rotary blade along a broad wooden straight edge, cutting perfectly straight strips of red cloth that she lifted from the table and set aside. She glanced over her shoulder. Her cool gaze met Merida’s.
Elsa Cipre.
Animosity swept Merida. Fear, too. How were these people everywhere she went? She backed out the door and retreated to the sidewalk out of sight of the open door and the quilters.
Why had she come tonight? What had she been thinking? She didn’t like strangers. She had been lured by the pleasure of a few moments spent with Kateri, and by the knowledge that Kateri needed her to help handle Lilith.
Friendship and compassion, both guaranteed to destroy her. Would she never learn?
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
Lilith and Kateri joined Merida on the sidewalk.
Lacey came out of the library and stood on the top step of the porch, head cocked.
“What’s wrong?” Kateri asked.
Merida stood shook her head and pointed inside, then shook her head again.
Lilith answered for her. “It’s Elsa Cipre. She and her husband are staying at the B and B with us. He’s a visiting professor at Washington State University. Wherever that is.”
“In Pullman, across the state,” Kateri said.
“I stand shoulder to shoulder with our friend Merida when I say—the woman is truly obnoxious.” Coming from Lilith, that comment was either funny or a damaging indictment.
“The Cipres are very superior people,” Merida signed, and if signing could be sarcastic, this was.
“Except when it comes to fashion?” Kateri muttered.
Merida gave a twisted smile. “She takes a special interest in me.”
“I’ve seen evidence of that interest. Elsa Cipre seems almost motherly toward you.” Lilith frowned, her brow knit in confusion. “Why would any woman feel motherly toward another woman? You’re obviously capable of taking care of yourself.”
Merida and Kateri again exchanged sideways glances. Lilith was so completely unself-aware in her judgments and of her own personality, they didn’t know whether to laugh or sigh.
“She is”—Merida seemed to search for the word—“tiring.”
“We don’t have to stay,” Kateri said.
Lacey gave a bark, ran down the stairs, did her dance around Kateri, around Lilith, around Merida, then put her paws on Merida’s leg and looked up enticingly.
Merida stroked her soft head and felt the return of her courage. She signed, “I can shake it off. Let’s go in.”
At their return, a spatter of applause came from the regulars.
Kateri loved these people. They were her friends, the backbone of her life in Virtue Falls, always there, always dependable, showing their support in discreet and loving ways.
As always, Mrs. Golobovi
tch sat at the head of the quilt directing operations. “Hello, Kateri, I’m glad you decided to join us. Would you introduce us to your friends?”
“My sister, Lilith Palmer, from Baltimore.” No one audibly gasped, but a few opened their eyes wide, as if they didn’t dare blink at the news Kateri had a sister. “My friend, Merida Falcon, currently living in Virtue Falls.” Merida commanded her own kind of reaction: she wore lavender coveralls, a purple sleeveless T-shirt and had recently shaved the hair over her left ear. Which put her in the mainstream of Virtue Falls fashion. But she was so beautiful, the women looked and looked away, as if she was difficult to view.
Kateri introduced the women around the table, and when she introduced Lillie and Tora Keidel, Lilith said, “Oh. The sisters who are friends.”
Damn. Lilith had noticed Kateri’s slip.
Kateri showed Merida where to place the sandwiches—on a table as far away from the quilt as possible—then they went to sit among the group, and everyone shuffled their seats to make room.
Kateri pointed Merida to a chair between Emma Royalty and Rosa Sage, then seated herself across the table with Lilith beside her. To the table in general, she explained, “My friend Merida can hear, so don’t shout! But she can’t speak. Lilith and I will translate as needed.”
An awkward silence. A little chitchat asking how Merida and Lilith liked Virtue Falls. Mrs. Golobovitch gave them quilting needles and showed them the basics of putting the patches together. Then Gladys McKissick asked, “How are your ribs, Kateri?”
Kateri touched her side. “Better, thank you. Since we lost John Terrance and we’re dealing with a period of relative calm—except for some of the less sensible tourists—”
Knowing laughter.
“—I’ve had time to heal.”
“And Rainbow? No change?” Tora Keidel’s voice trembled.
The room grew very quiet; the only sound was the zip of the rotary cutter in Elsa’s hand. Rainbow was a regular at the quilting group; she was sorely missed and they all waited on the sad news with tears and prayers.
Kateri cleared her throat. “No change.”