The Foggy Point Police arrived in under two minutes. Officer Nguyen came into the bakery with none of his usual comments about Harriet; and for once, Harriet was glad to see him. He went immediately to Valery Melnyk, who was still on the floor. He clamped handcuffs on him; but when he tried to make him stand up, Valery wasn’t able to get his feet under him.
“He’s wearing some sort shoe lifts,” Marjorie told him.
The officer lifted Valery’s pant leg, exposing a cut-down version of the sort of stilts worn by construction workers when they’re putting drywall on a ceiling. Nguyen started untangling the straps that tied the stilts to his leg. Harriet could see a nasty bruise above the edge of his sock where she’d kicked him.
Detective Morse arrived as Officer Nguyen was walking Valery out the door, hands cuffed behind his back. She looked around the bakery. Sunny had gotten a wet towel and was wiping the blood from her brother’s face at one table while Marjory and Harriet sat at a table on the opposite side of the room.
Morse joined her two friends first. She pulled her notebook out and looked around the room.
“How did you know it was Valery?” Harriet asked Marjorie before Morse could say anything.
Marjorie took a small bottle of hand sanitizer from her bag, squirted a generous dollop onto her hand, and then scrubbed her hands together.
“His pants. His wife sends him those black pants he wears from Ukraine. He brings them to me to be hemmed. They’re a coarser weave than you can get here, and I guess they’re warmer for winter wear. I’d recognize them anywhere. And he’d torn the hems out to cover those lifts he was wearing to disguise his height.”
“I should have recognized his head shape,” Harriet said. “DeAnn pointed out how the Russian nesting doll images on his quilt looked like him. His head is round like they are.”
“He was supposed to be dead, so why would you even think about him? If it weren’t for the pants, I wouldn’t have.”
Morse cleared her throat.
“Would either of you like to tell me what happened here?”
“I came in at the end,” Marjorie said.
Harriet started with the call from Sunny and explained the sequence of events.
“What I don’t understand, besides why he killed everyone,” she said with a wry smile, “is why he’s so obsessed with Jade’s horse. As far as we know, he killed everyone else more or less methodically, but he toyed with Jade, burning her shop and trying to steal her horse.”
Morse finished writing in her notebook.
“Do you have anything to add?” she asked Marjorie.
Marjorie smiled.
“Harriet summed it up pretty well. When I saw the blinds were closed, I peeked through the door glass where one of the slats was bent. I dropped the bag of fabric I was bringing Harriet outside and came in like I didn’t know what was going on.”
“It worked,” Harriet said.
Morse shook her head.
“This could have gone wrong so many different ways. I’ll admit, this time it seems like neither of you had a choice. Except maybe calling nine-one-one before either of you came into the bake shop.”
“I could—” Harriet started.
“Save it,” Morse said, holding her hand up. “I’m going to interview Sunny and her brother and go back to the station to see what Mr. Melnyk has to say for himself. I may need to talk to you both again.”
“I’m going home.” Harriet said. “Would you like to join me, Marjorie?”
“I wish I could, but I’ve got to close the shop and go check on my new kitten.”
Harriet called James to see where he and Luke were. Luke was still riding, which meant another hour before they’d leave the stable.
“Is everything okay?” James asked.
“Yeah, fine.”
Harriet had decided there was no need to worry James or cause Luke to have to stop riding early, since everything had come out okay.
Harriet was sipping a cup of Earl Grey tea when Lauren arrived.
“How was your new customer?” Lauren asked and sat down with her own cup of tea.
“She’s a good quilter. Her appliqué is incredible.”
Lauren started to ask another question about the customer, but Harriet held up her hand to stop her.
“Something happened.”
“I thought you looked a little rough.”
“I know who killed everyone, and Morse has him in custody.”
Lauren leaned back in her chair.
“Why didn’t you say so right away?”
“I’m saying so now. I was at Marjorie’s getting thread, and Sunny called saying I had to go to her shop immediately. When I got there, she and her brother were being held hostage by our man in black. He’d just zip-tied my hands behind my back when Marjorie came in. She recognized him and brazened her way into disarming him.”
“Who is it, already?”
“You’ll never believe it, but it’s Valery Melnyk.”
“You’re talking crazy. He’s dead. You went to his funeral. Don’t you remember?”
“Of course I remember going to his funeral, but I’m telling you, he’s not dead. He’s the killer. He held me at gunpoint and asked me where Jade was and where her horse was. If Marjorie hadn’t come to give me the fabric I was in the process of purchasing when Sunny called, I’d probably be dead.”
“So, if he’s not dead, whose funeral did we go to?”
“I’ve been thinking about that,” Harriet said and sipped her tea. “I can’t be sure, but I’m thinking it’s the homeless man, Smokey Joe, who Joyce Elias at the homeless camp has been asking me to help locate.”
“Seems like an elaborate set-up.”
“He almost got away with it. If he hadn’t decided to become obsessed with Jade’s horse, he could have killed her and laid low until Vern came out of hiding then killed him, and he’d have his perfect revenge, if that’s what he was after.”
“Hopefully, under Morse’s relentless grilling, Valery will crack and tell her everything, including why the horse.”
Harriet smiled.
“You should have seen Marjorie. She was amazing. She threw a pair of big dressmaker shears at Valery’s face. Cut him, too!”
“How did she know it was Valery?”
Harriet explained about the pants.
“That was lucky.”
“Yes, it was.”
James and Luke were in the kitchen when Harriet got home.
“What’s wrong?” James asked when she taken off her coat, put her purse in closet and collapsed onto a kitchen chair. Scooter jumped into her lap and licked her face.
She explained what had happened, ending with Morse taking Valery Melnyk to jail.
James crouched next to her chair and pulled her into his arms.
“You could have been killed,” he said, squeezing her.
“I’m fine,” Harriet choked out, and he released her.
“Sorry, I just don’t know what I’d…” He glanced at Luke. “What we’d do if anything happened to you.”
The dogs, sensing James’s upset, began circling them, barking.
“Nothing happened to me, I’m right here, all in one piece.” She nudged him and looked pointedly at Luke.
James took a deep breath, and Harriet was glad he’d gotten the message. The color had drained from Luke’s face when she’d recounted her story.
“Marjorie was fantastic,” she said in a lighter tone. “It was amazing how she recognized Valery from his pants.”
“Tell me what we can do for you,” James said.
“I don’t want to spoil our trip to Victoria.”
“I don’t mind,” Luke said quickly. “We can just stay home and be together.”
James took her hand.
“You’ve been through quite an ordeal today. Luke is off all week; we can wait until tomorrow or even the next day. I don’t really have to be back at work until the thirtieth.”
“We could stay home and watch those British mystery shows you like,” Luke offered.
She reached out to him, and he came over to her side so she could take his hand, too.
“You guys are the best. I think I would like to stay home for the rest of the day. And as much as I’d like to watch mysteries with you two, I know neither of you really likes them.”
James started to protest but Harriet stopped him.
“I love you both for offering, but Aunt Beth would kill me if I didn’t fill her in, and rather than retell the story a dozen times, I probably need to see the rest of the Loose Threads, too.”
“How about this,” he said. “You go upstairs and rest for an hour or so, maybe take a bath, a nap or whatever else you need. I’ll make some pizza dough while Luke calls Beth, and then we’ll both cut up vegetables, shred cheese and assemble pizza.”
“Are you sure. It’s a lot of trouble. We could order out.”
“Bite your tongue,” James said in mock horror.
Luke laughed.
Harriet gave James a kiss.
“You’re the best.”