Morse shook her head.
“As you well know, the Foggy Point Police Department isn’t known for its creativity, but let me hear it.”
Harriet took a deep breath.
“Okay, correct me if I’m wrong, but it seems like you aren’t getting anywhere on this case.”
“We’ve eliminated a lot of suspects—the usual friends and family—but it would be fair to say we’re getting nowhere,” Morse agreed.
Harriet continued.
“It seems to me the killer particularly wants Jade to suffer before he kills her. So, why don’t we give her to him?”
Morse began shaking her head. “I thought you had a real idea.”
“Hear me out. We don’t really give him Jade, but we make him think he can get to her. He wanted to hurt her horse, so what if we make him think he can get to her horse? You could put the word out that a group of horse thieves were caught operating in the Puget Sound area. Then you could remove all the extra security from the stable. Or at least appear to. You could even have a policewoman dress like Jade and be obviously visible at the stable. Just for good measure, you could move Becky somewhere else.”
Morse chewed on her bottom lip while she considered.
“I generally don’t like elaborate plans, but this has possibilities. And as you pointed out, we aren’t getting anywhere.” She looked at Jade. “What do you think?”
“As long as Becky and I aren’t directly involved, I guess it’s okay. But where will we go that’s safe?”
“We have a relationship with some of the volunteers in the King County Sheriff’s Posse. One of them lives in Gig Harbor. I think she would be willing to put up Becky for a few days,” Morse told her.
“That’s so far away,” Jade protested.
Morse looked at the ceiling.
“It’s about an hour-and-a-half-drive. That’s not bad. It’s far enough to keep her out of harm’s way. You could go with her, if you want. I’m sure the woman I’m thinking of would let you stay there.”
Jade turned to Sunny.
“If you’re asking me, I’d say go for it. Anything to get away from here until it’s safe,” Sunny told her.
“But how will you get Becky out without anyone knowing?”
Harriet poured more cocoa into her mug.
“If it were me, before I reduced the security at the stable, I’d take Becky out for a ride. I’d take her through the woods to the road, where I’d have her trailer waiting. If you wanted to be really sneaky, you could bring another horse in the trailer and ride that horse back to the stable.”
Morse held her cup out to Harriet, and Harriet refilled it.
“I’m not convinced this will be enough to lure the killer in, but I’ll run it by my lieutenant. I can call the posse woman and make sure she’s on board.”
“I wish I could call my parents,” Jade fretted.
“If you’re not okay with this, it ends here,” Morse told her.
“No, no,” Jade said. “Something has to happen. I can’t go on hiding in the barn attic, hoping some crazy person doesn’t find me. But what if it doesn’t work?”
“Then you haven’t lost anything,” Lauren all but shouted. “Geez, what is the question? The rest of us don’t enjoy having a killer running around our streets. At least this would be something.”
Harriet put a hand on her friend’s arm, but Lauren pulled it free.
“You’re the one who was captured and narrowly escaped this killer,” she snapped, glaring at Harriet. “Don’t you want him or her caught?”
Harriet sighed.
“Of course I do, but we can’t force Jade to help the police.”
“What does she have to do?” Lauren complained. “Keep hiding? She’s already doing that.”
“You don’t need us anymore, do you?” Harriet asked Morse.
The right side of Morse’s mouth lifted in a half-smile.
“No, I think you’ve done enough. I’ll let you know if this is a go. I might need to talk to you about the stable set-up.”
Harriet stood up.
“Let’s go, Lauren.”
Harriet led Lauren across the street to the sidewalk in front of Pins and Needles before stopping.
“Before you say anything, yes, I think there’s something off about those two. Maybe not the same something, but I don’t think either one of them is telling our friend the detective the truth.”
“I shouldn’t have lost it in there, but come on, she’s hiding in the attic of the stable, and she has to think about whether she wants help from the police in catching the guy she’s hiding from? There’s something not quite right about that.”
“Morse didn’t say anything about Jade showing up when she was ‘possibly calling’ tonight, so I didn’t think it was my place to mention it, but it makes me think Sunny is a little more involved with whatever is going on with Jade than she wants us to believe.”
Harriet looked up and down the street, checking for the gray sedan, but other than a black pickup truck, Morse’s sedan, Lauren’s car, and her own, Main Street was devoid of vehicles.
“Listen, do you want to come have dinner with us tonight? James and Luke have been at his parent’s house all day helping James’s dad set up the new saw and then playing with it. Which is all to say, dinner will be something simple.”
Lauren smiled.
“I’ll take James’s something simple any time. Do I have time to go let Carter out? He’s been home alone for hours.”
“Bring him with you. I’m sure Scooter and Cyrano would love to have company.”
Harriet cleared the plates off the table, and James served fruitcake.
“So, let me get this straight,” he said as he sliced the cake. “The police are going to put out false information about a horse-theft ring being caught and take away the security at the stable—or at least pretend to. And the killer will come try to steal Becky, only she won’t be there, but the police will, and they will arrest whoever it is, and we’ll all live happily ever after. What could go wrong?”
Harriet set small dessert plates beside the cake dish. James put a slice on one and handed it to Lauren. She took a bite.
“Wow, this is really good. Do you serve it in the restaurant?”
“No, it’s my mom’s recipe. She won’t tell me her secret.”
Luke accepted his plate of cake and ate a forkful. He smiled.
“This is good.” He inhaled the remainder in two bites. “May I be excused? Emily texted and wants me to call her.”
“Sure,” Harriet said.
James watched Luke until he was up the stairs and out of sight.
“You know he’s going to ask if he can go out to the stable and ride tomorrow,” he said.
Harriet swallowed her first bite of fruit cake.
“This really is good.” She put her fork down. “I know he’s going to want to ride, and it’s going to be hard to say no when it’s his Christmas break.”
“Do we think it’s dangerous for him to be there while the police are trying to lure the killer?”
“It’s not my place to say,” Lauren interrupted, “but I don’t think the killer is picking people at random. He’s blackmailed all the victims first.”
Harriet ate another bite of her cake.
“Major seems to be pretty protective, also. I don’t think he’d let a stranger approach without raising a ruckus.”
James sighed.
“That all sounds reasonable, but you’re assuming our killer is a stranger. What if he—or she—isn’t?”
Harriet set her fork down.
“If they aren’t a stranger, then it could be anyone. If that’s the case, we should stay home and never leave the house again.”
“Come on, you know what I mean.”
Harriet got to take a glass from the cupboard and filled it with water.
“Anyone else?” she asked before sitting down. James declined, and Lauren accepted.
Lauren ate the remainder of her fruitcake.
“It’s none of my business, but I’m pretty sure there will be more than one or two plainclothes policemen at the stable once they set the plan in motion.”
“And the action will be centered on Becky’s stall. I noticed a short row of stalls on the opposite side of the warm-up arena. They’re probably for overnight visitors. We can ask if Major can be moved to one of them for the duration,” Harriet suggested. “That would keep Luke a good distance away from the action.”
Lauren set her fork down. James leaned back in his chair.
“I suppose we can’t keep him in a glass bubble,” he said.
“It’s not obvious the killer will even take the bait. If you ask me, it’s pretty weird that someone kills three people they’ve been blackmailing and then decides to just mess around with the fourth person, who they’ve also been blackmailing. And I’m not sure what I think of Sunny’s whole ‘my brother is a feared gang member, so no one will mess with me’ thing. I guess it’s possible, but how probable is it in Foggy Point?”
James stood and took the remaining fruitcake to the counter to wrap.
“Well, for tomorrow anyway, I can go watch him.”
“I’m sorry you’re having to do that,” Harriet said. “You don’t get that many days off.”
James smiled. “I don’t mind hanging out with Luke. We had fun today.”
“Are you going to the stable tomorrow?” Lauren asked Harriet.
“No, I got a call from a new customer. She has a Baltimore Album quilt she needs quilted on a fairly short timeline. I haven’t seen it, but she says it has a wide border with dense berry vines, leaves, and flowers. It will take a lot of slow, careful quilting. I’d like to receive it and get it on the machine first thing.”
“I’ll be around tomorrow, if you want to go to coffee when you’re ready for a break.”
“Okay, thanks. Do you want to stay and watch a British mystery? They have a whole collection of Christmas episodes.”
Lauren grinned.
“How can I refuse?”