Frayed Edges by Carol Dean Jones

Author:Carol Dean Jones
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: C&T Publishing

Chapter 20

Ruth introduced Detective Halifax, although he had met most of the club members at the Parkers’ house the day after the theft. He told the group that he was there to let them know what progress had been made in the investigation.

Detective Halifax cleared his throat and began. “Good evening, ladies.” He then paused. He had intended to ask Charles what to call the members of this group. He had trouble keeping up with what was politically correct at any given moment. He had the feeling that “ladies” was the wrong term, and once he looked around and saw a young man in the audience, he knew he had made the wrong choice for yet another reason.

“I wanted to let you folks know what we’ve learned.” Feeling a bit more comfortable once he saw friendly smiles of encouragement, he went on to explain about the quilts that had been located in Hamilton. He assured the owners of those seven quilts that the quilts would be returned to them at the end of the investigation.

“Where are they now?” one of the women asked.

“They are being held by the Hamilton Police Department, and I’ve been assured that they have been packaged and stored safely following proper procedures.”

“They know how to store valuable quilts?” someone else called out.

“They contacted Mrs. Weaver here,” he said, looking toward Ruth, “who is the owner of several of the quilts being held, and she informed them about storage.”

“Thank you,” the person responded.

“They haven’t been able to apprehend the man involved, but I’ve been assured that it’s high priority. They are treating our crime here in the Village as part of an ongoing investigation in Hamilton involving several similar thefts.”

“As for here in Middletown, we have a couple of suspects. I’m not at liberty to discuss the details, but rest assured we are taking this very seriously.”

“I’ve seen the police chief on television,” Sophie said as she stood, “and he’s telling people to call in if they know anything about the crime. Do you get calls, and have any of them provided useful information?”

“Again, I’m not at liberty to discuss details of those calls, but I can tell you that two of those calls led us to our current suspects. We may, in fact, be making an arrest shortly.”

“Do you think we’ll get the rest of the quilts back?” Sophie added before sitting down.

“I can’t answer that definitively, but if the theft here is related to the ones in Hamilton, they believe the merchandise is being shipped to other states for sale. If that’s true, it would be tough to recover them. And that brings me to something I wanted to discuss with you.”

Detective Halifax reached for the glass of water that had been thoughtfully provided on his makeshift podium. “I would like to request that everyone who knows how to access the internet begin searching for your quilts. If you find one, however, please do nothing. Call me immediately, and I’ll check it out. Contacting them yourself could cause us to lose the suspect and the quilt or quilts he might have.

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