Free Disappearing Nine Patch (A Harriet Truman/Loose Threads Mystery Book 9) by Arlene Sachitano

firm but not painfully so. She nodded to Lauren, who was standing a few paces behind Harriet.
    “You’re Beth Carlson’s niece, yes?” Harriet nodded, and Janet looked past her to Lauren. “I’m sorry, but I don’t think we’ve met.”
    “I’m Lauren Sawyer. Harriet’s friend.”
    Harriet gestured to the quilt display box and then the wall.
    “These are beautiful. I’m surprised we haven’t seen your quilts in any of the local shows.”
    Leo came back from the kitchen carrying a tray with frosty glasses of lemonade.
    “That would be because of me.”
    “Now, Leo.” Janet smiled as he turned to look at her. “I was there, too.”
    He handed her a glass of lemonade then offered glasses to Harriet and Lauren.
    “Sit down, make yourselves comfortable.” He moved a couple of throw pillows off the sofa, clearing more space. He and Janet sat in matching overstuffed chairs opposite the sofa.
    “I might as well tell you my story. It will make things easier to understand.”
    Harriet caught herself before she leaned forward. She took a deep breath and tried to relax.
    “It all started in nineteen-sixty-seven. ‘The Summer of Love,’ as it was called. I was eighteen and on my own for the first time. I lived in San Francisco and worked for the parks department, picking up garbage. I was to start college in the fall.”
    Janet picked up the story.
    “And I was fourteen going on thirty, a booster child in a family of over-achievers born ten years after my youngest brother. My parents lived in Redwood City and worked in what would become the high-tech industry.”
    “My parents were Marin County liberals,” Leo interjected.
    Janet continued.
    “My parents thought I was going to the library to study when I was really going down to Haight-Ashbury, telling people I was eighteen and calling myself Sunshine. I followed some people to Golden Gate Park. Jefferson Airplane, Grateful Dead, Big Brother and the Holding Company—they were all there playing music. Lots of people were high on drugs.
    “A small group of people were taking their clothes off. They started trying to rip clothes off of the people standing around them, and I was in their line of sight. I was wild, for a fourteen-year-old, but I wasn’t ready for that.”
    Leo set his glass down.
    “I saw that Janet was scared, so I stepped in and put my arm around her like she was my old lady. They backed off, and we walked away from the gathering.”
    Janet’s eyes twinkled.
    “He was my knight in shining armor. We talked until dark and made plans to meet again the following day.”
    “I still thought she was my age. We talked, but she carefully omitted any reference to age or school or anything that would give it away.”
    “Because my brothers were so much older,” Janet continued, “I could talk like I was older than fourteen. They took me to movies that weren’t suitable, and I read books I found in their rooms. I thought I was hot stuff.”
    “It was love at first sight for me,” Leo said and gazed at his wife with affection.
    “We saw each other as often as I could sneak away,” Janet said. “Besides the library, I was supposed to be volunteering at the free clinic, and I had a girlfriend who would swear I was at her house. Leo rented a room in a commune house, and well, with all that freedom and lack of supervision, one thing led to another, and several months into our relationship we found ourselves in a family way.”
    Harriet could see where this was going.
    “So, your parents charged Leo with statutory rape?”
    “And everything else they could come up with,” Leo said. “We were told we could never see each other again. Her parents didn’t want anything to do with our baby, but fortunately, my parents, bless their liberal hearts, went to court and were awarded custody of our son.”
    Janet clapped her hands softly together.
    “It was a stroke of genius, really. The courts allowed me visitation rights, which, of course, Leo’s