The Double Cross Read Online Free PDF Page B

husband. I’m semiretired. I was the town druggist before that big-box store opened ten miles from here and stole my business,” he said. “George and I played poker last week and I lost. Said if I came to the class, I wouldn’t have to pay my debt.”
    “Oh good God!” Susanne blurted out and turned to the two women at the next table.
    “We’re Alysse and Alice,” one fortysomething, brown-haired woman said as she pointed to the identical woman standing next to her, identically dressed in blue jeans and a yellow shirt. “We’re twins. Both quilters.”
    “Quilters for years. Traditional Quilts,” said her twin.
    “We don’t much like the arty stuff but we’ll try it,” said the first.
    I could see panic creep into Susanne’s eyes. She said nothing though. She just turned up the corners of her mouth in what, I assumed, she hoped would look like a smile. I waited for a moment, but when it was clear that Susanne was going to remain silent, I jumped in.
    “What’s your favorite quilt pattern?” I asked.
    The first twin shrugged. “All of them. All the normal ones that you see.”
    I nodded. This was going to be a lot more work than I had imagined. “The great thing about Susanne’s techniques is you can take something traditional and add your own spin to it,” I said.
    I pulled out a couple of Susanne’s sample quilts. One was a six-foot-square double cross—a seemingly complicated quilt pattern made up of squares and half-square triangles. The quilt, made in a variety of reds and whites, was actually Bernie’s, but Susanne had borrowed it to explain how it could be used as inspiration for an art piece. The second double cross was a variation Susanne had made, which included batik fabrics and was equally beautiful.
    “See,” I said. “Tradition meets art quilt.”
    “We have a quilt just like that.”
    I turned to see George at the back of the room.
    “I’m sorry to interrupt your class, but I wanted to stop in and see if anyone needed anything,” he said.
    “You have quilts?” I asked. “Where did you get them?”
    “I found them,” he said. “They were up in the attic. One is just like that red one you have there, only it’s mostly greens and blues. A bit stained but a nice quilt.”
    “I’d love to see them sometime,” Susanne said.
    “What are they worth?” one of the twins asked. “They are so lovely. They must be expensive.”
    “Quilts sell for as little as fifty dollars and as much as five hundred thousand,” Susanne explained. “It depends on their age, the workmanship, the condition. But that’s really not what this class is about.”
    “What about a quilt like that double cross?” one of the twins asked.
    Susanne shrugged. “I don’t know. I made it a couple of years ago. Maybe a couple of hundred. If I were selling it.” Susanne turned back to George. “Did you remember to bring the collage from the entryway? I was going to show it to the students.”
    George looked around. “I brought it here last night,” he said. “Left it right on your table.”
    Susanne and I searched her table, at the front of the room, and the other students did the same at theirs, but nothing was found.
    “Raccoons must have taken it. They’ll take anything, the little bandits.” George smiled. “Lot of them around here. Sorry about that.” He took a seat behind Helen and Frank. “I’m just going to watch, if that’s okay.”
    Susanne nodded, then turned to the last person in the class, a man of about sixty. “Are you a quilter?”
    “No, ma’am. But I’m a carpenter, so I am good with my hands. And I live next door, so I’ll be in class on time,” he said. He was sandy haired with a strong jaw and the look of a man who worked outdoors. “I’m Pete. I’ll probably be very bad at this, but I’ll do my best if you’re patient with me.”
    “You’ll be fine, Pete,” George chimed in.
    Pete laughed. “If it’s so easy, you join the class.”
    The two men made a