Barbara Graham - Quilted 05 - Murder by Sunlight by Barbara Graham Read Free Book Online Page B

exchanged puzzled glances with the quilters but there was really nothing to say.
    “You do remember this Friday is the Fourth of July?” Theo handed Tony another screw, which he quickly tightened into place. The final curtain rod was almost up in the girls’ room.
    “I’m trying very hard to forget it.” Tony stepped down from the ladder. “Two more screws on the other side, and we can hang those curtains.”
    Theo’s smile was brilliant but she continued on her topic. “The quilt show is always held during the celebration for the Fourth. Can you help us hang quilts on Thursday?”
    “As far as I know. What time?” Only half listening to what she told him, Tony focused on the screws. He knew he could depend on Theo to remind him several times before the event. Hanging quilts in their show was not his favorite job or, for that matter, his least favorite. He was part of a small, well-trained crew, mostly husbands, who know how to erect the display system consisting of poles, guy wires, and electrical conduit. The quilters owned the poles but borrowed the conduit from Duke McMahon’s hardware store, which helped the ladies and gave Duke free advertising.
    Once the big quilts were hung, most of the smaller ones would hang on some collapsible frames. He’d make his escape as soon as the big quilts were up and assumed he’d be as surprised as usual to see it in its much improved final state. He thoroughly enjoyed the quilt show. It wasn’t the time and work involved in helping hang it that bothered him, it was his fear he’d accidently ruin a quilt. An action both awkward and unforgivable.
    He tightened the last screw. “Ta-da! Grab those curtains you worked so hard on and let’s see how the room looks.”
    Obligingly, Theo vanished. She returned less than a minute later, her arms filled with white curtains dotted with vivid colored bunnies, butterflies, and caterpillars.
    He grasped the rod, sliding one end into the space for it, just below the top edge of the curtains. “Wow, these are heavy.”
    “That’s the blackout fabric lining. It weighs a ton, but without it, this room will light up like a runway the second the sun climbs over the mountains.”
    Tony immediately realized Theo was right. The twins’ current room was small as a closet and only marginally brighter than one. Moving them into an airy, sunlit space would require some adjustment for all of the family. He lifted the curtain-covered rod into place and the sunny room vanished, replaced with, if not total darkness, something close.
    Theo pushed the curtains apart, bringing in the light again, and attached the tie backs. “We have some pictures to hang on the walls.”
    “And the rugs you bought. And the cribs to move.” Tony, once again, but surely not for the last time, silently thanked his brother Gus for giving them this room. Theo’s excitement made her green-gold eyes sparkle as she walked across the shining wood-grained laminate floor. “There’s even room for your old rocking chair.”
    Theo smiled and nodded but couldn’t seem to speak.
    With little encouragement from him, she dashed off to gather the rest of the room’s décor. He, no less excited than Theo, forced himself to leisurely approach the moving of the cribs. In just a few minutes, Kara and Lizzie would get to move into their space and spread out.

C HAPTER S IX
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    “Sheriff, you’re not going to like this.”
    Tony imagined the statement would be true, just from dispatcher Flavio Weems’s tone of voice. Tony felt a surge of adrenalin and stomach acid at the same time and poured a handful of antacids from the large jar under his desk and dropped most of them into his shirt pocket. He popped the two in his hand into his mouth and started chewing. “What’s happening?”
    Flavio flipped a switch to let Tony listen in. “It’s Sheila. She’s looking into a nine-one-one call. Man called about an intruder who attacked him in the shower. Hit him with a wrench or