Make Quilts Not War

chapter 32



The kitchen filled with crime scene-related personnel, and Harriet, Aiden and Detective Morse went into the dining room to regroup. Harriet’s bottom lip was quivering from the pain in her arm.

“Where are your pain meds?” Aiden asked.

“Upstairs in my bathroom,” she told him in a tight voice.

He looked at Morse.

“Okay if I go get her pain meds?”

Morse nodded.

“I need to ask you some questions,” she said, “but I can wait until your meds kick in, if you want.”

“I’m okay,” Harriet choked out, and then recounted Jenny’s story one more time while Morse scratched notes as quickly as she could write.

“Here,” Aiden interrupted when he brought Harriet’s medication and a small glass of water. He had a bed pillow clenched under his arm, and he placed it gently under her damaged arm.

“Did you suspect Byrne was our killer when you invited him here?” Morse asked.

“Not even a little,” Harriet said in a shocked tone. “I was starting to wonder why he was so interested in me, though. He brought me CDs and T-shirts, and then he kept wanting to come for dinner. But he was a rock star, so who was I to question him?”

Aiden looked at her.

“You let your head be turned by the glitz and glamour of a rock star?”

“Better that than a crazy sister,” Harriet shot back.

“Children, please. You can fight all you want later. Let’s go back to this,” Morse glanced at her notes. “Paisley. You said he found her some years ago and just in time. Did he say what he did about it?”

“No, he didn’t. The implication was clear, though.”

“Any idea who Paisley was?”

“You need to talk to Jenny, not me. She knows all the players. I’m sure she’ll know who Colm Byrne really is when she finds out he’s had plastic surgery.” She yawned.

“She needs to lie down,” Aiden advised. “The pain meds make you sleepy.”

“I need to go get my bandage changed first,” Harriet held her arm up, displaying her blood-soaked sling. “Colm bled on me.”

Aiden jumped up.

“Come on, we have to get you to the emergency room.” He looked at Morse. “You can come with us if you want, but she needs this cleaned right away. We need to see if his blood got into her raw wound.”

Morse declined, and Aiden took Harriet to the hospital alone.