A Quilt in Time (A Harriet Turman/Loose Threads Mystery) by Arlene Sachitano Page B

come up. Nothing was said about why a licensed pharmacist would be sleeping over at a small-town nursing home, either.”
    “That will bear some investigation,” Harriet said.
    “On it,” Lauren said and pulled her laptop from her bag.
    Connie sat down.
    “That’s all from me. They again invited us all to the open house and, of course, thanked us for the bibs.”
    Jorge came in carrying three baskets of chips balanced on his arm, a bowl of guacamole in each hand.
    “That family has always been a little strange, if you ask me.”
    “Strange how?” Harriet asked.
    “The stepfather is very active and prominent in the business community—Chamber of Commerce, Small Business Association, the local business association. The señorita’s mother is as invisible as he is visible. I’ve heard it’s the mother who owns the business, but he controls it, along with his son.
    “There are other kids attached to the family, too. The man has a daughter with his second wife, and there is a blond boy in there somewhere. I don’t know who is the mother of the dark-haired son that is the señorita’s boyfriend.”
    Lauren snapped her laptop shut as the waitress started bringing everyone’s lunch in.
    “So far, I found the pharmacist in the family is Seth Pratt. He is, indeed, licensed and in good standing. There have been no complaints against him—at least at first glance. Beyond that, I need to do more digging.”
    Jorge’s waitress set a plate with a small chile relleño and two tacos al pastor on it in front of Harriet.
    “This looks good,” she said. She glanced at her aunt.
    “I’ll wait until we eat to tell you about my morning,” Beth said.

    Lauren crumpled her napkin and dropped it onto her plate. Twenty minutes had passed since the food had been put before them.
    “I’m glad you ladies have all day to lunch, but I need to get back to work.” She looked at Beth.
    “Okay.” Beth pushed her chair back from the table and stood. “As some of you know, I spent the morning at the hospital with Sarah. She came through her surgery with no problem and was released, but not before I was able to make one last plea for her to leave her fiancé and move to the shelter.”
    “Did you make any headway?” Robin asked.
    “I think I did. Possibly because she was taking pain medication and her resistance was lowered. I think I got through.”
    “But?” Harriet prompted when her aunt didn’t continue.
    “Her mother showed up. Sarah knows she can’t go back to the cabin by herself right now. I didn’t know if the shelter could take her immediately, so when her mother came in and told her she was going to take her to the senior center and have her stay in the skilled nursing wing for a few days, what could I say?”
    “So, she’s going to stay with her abuser?” Lauren said. “I mean, didn’t Sarah say he was the night manager there?”
    Beth’s shoulders drooped.
    “When her mother showed up, there was nothing I could do.”
    “Surely, she’ll be safe while she’s in their nursing wing,” Harriet said. “And that’ll give us time to make arrangements with the shelter, if she’ll let us.”
    “I wouldn’t make any assumptions about her safety there,” Robin said. “Abusers can be incredibly persistent.”
    “Short of staging a raid on the place, can anyone think of anything else we could do immediately?” Harriet asked.
    Carla raised her hand as if she were a child in school.
    “Oh, honey, you don’t need to raise your hand,” Beth told her.
    “What if we visited her a lot?”
    “We can’t be there twenty-four-seven,” Lauren pointed out.
    Harriet leaned forward, her elbows on the table.
    “That doesn’t mean it’s a bad idea. If we set up an irregular schedule, so people are coming and going several times a day and evening, he’ll never know when we’re going to show up.”
    “It would be better if someone could be with her all the time, but I suppose visits would be at least a partial