A VENEER OF MURDER (Mrs. Fix It Mysteries Book 3) (8 page)

The police department buzzed with activity. Phones rang. Keys on computers clicked. It reminded Kate that she could never work in an office. No, she liked each work day to be different from the last. Her jobs took her all over the town. Now with Kendall it would take her out of town.

If the woman shared Kate’s number with her friends, it might even take her all over the county.

Ken Johnson poked his head into the office. “You need coffee, Kate?”

Guess everyone knew about her addiction.

“No, I’m good. Thanks.”

Chapter Six

Scott entered his office grumbling. His hands were fisted. Kate had never seen him so agitated.

“What’s wrong?”

“That was a meeting about Founder’s Day. Not that it was included in the budget for this year.”

“Founder’s Day happens every year. Why wouldn’t the other chief have put it in?”

“The town council might have taken it out. Who knows? I don’t have any money for it, and I have to provide security. Have you seen one? Are there really a lot of people there?”

“I don’t usually go.”

“You don’t go? It’s a huge thing in Rock Ridge.”

“I don’t go because I hate crowds.”

He shook his head as if he couldn’t believe such a thing. She really didn’t like crowds. Being short, she had a hard time seeing over people. The weather usually turned out hot. The county 4H had its fair that day, so the whole place smelled like animals. It was not her scene at all.

Greg had taken the kids until they could go by themselves.

“I’d invite you to come with me, but apparently I’ll be busy that day. I heard you’ve been drafted into fixing the bleachers.”

“Is that a big deal? Everyone seems to know about it.”

Scott shrugged. “I don’t know. We’ve already had some threats for that day.”

“Threats?”

“Yes, but I don’t know how seriously to take them. There is a gathering outside of town that same week. It’s like a bike week, but for anarchists.”

“Anarchists bike week?”

“Exactly.”

“They come from all over the state to meet that week. On motorcycles.”

“Plotting to overthrow the government?”

Scott nodded. She’d never heard of such a thing, but then she didn’t get out of Rock Ridge much. The world of politics was foreign to her. Scott had to deal with these things every day. She couldn’t imagine that. A nail was a nail. Sheetrock was sheetrock. It was a simple life in many ways.

“Something like that. Most of the time they are harmless. We’ve had some indirect threats. Nothing that my office can track down or trace to this group.”

“Then what kind of threats?”

“Just chatter and increased activity in the groups that the state cops are watching. They’ve kept me in the loop, and today I had to inform the mayor of these threats. I’d like to cancel the whole thing, but he wants nothing to do with that.”

“So you have to protect against some nebulous threat with no budget.”

“Sweetie, you just summed up my day.”

She laughed, but there was no humor in it. She’d never seen him this stressed, and her heart went out to him. He rubbed a hand down his face.

“I’m sorry.”

“Not your fault, and sorry for venting to you. I wish I could go for a run. To the Ohio border.”

She laughed. That was a long way. “Would that get the stress out?”

“Yes, it would.” He finally looked at her. “I’m sure you didn’t come here to listen to me belly ache.”

“I didn’t, but that’s okay. You listen to me a lot of the time.”

“So what did you come here for?”

She pulled out the receipt. “I found this in Jessica’s house in the room that had been Dudley’s office.”

He took it from her. “It’s a receipt for coffee. So?”

“Jessica doesn’t go out for coffee. She prefers her own. Clara even confirmed that Jessica is never in her shop buying coffee,” Kate said.

“So she ran out once.”

“No, Clara said that she came in before the dedication of the community center, but only Dean bought coffee. Jessica and Dean left for their getaway right from the ceremony. It could not have been either of them in her house.”

“You’re sure that you heard a door close?”

“Yes, I did, Scott. I’m sure.”

She wished he would just believe her. Sometimes his skepticism was hard not to take personally. Frustration had her fisting her hands. She took a few deep breaths to try to let it go.

“I’ll talk to Clara, but I’m not doing anything until Jessica gets back.”

She couldn’t blame him for that. It was still Jessica’s house. “Did you contact her?”

“I did, and she said that if you didn’t notice anything missing then it wasn’t an emergency. The woman is on her honeymoon. I don’t think she wanted to come back, and I don’t blame her.”

It was not her real honeymoon, but certainly a getaway with her new husband. Must be nice to be in love again.

“What’s next?”

“I’ll talk to Clara.”

“I did already.”

Kate put a hand over her mouth. She hadn’t intended to blurt it out like that.

“I wish you wouldn’t interfere with police business.”

“You and the cop acted like I was nuts for thinking that someone had been in there. I don’t appreciate being treated that way, and I’m not going to go meekly into the night just because a man questions me.”

Scott licked his lips. She’d raised her voice when she hadn’t meant to. Then he smiled. “Okay. What did Clara say?”

She gave him the list of people who Clara remembered being in the café.

“Why would any of these people want to be in Jessica’s house?”

“Only Kendall, but I can’t see her breaking and entering.”

Scott put up his hand. “There was no breaking. No sign of forced entry. No one else but Jessica and the agent had a key. Jessica has an alibi, and she had no reason to hide from you. It’s her house. The agent wouldn’t have hidden either.”

“I had a key and lost it. No idea where it went. Someone could have found it.”

“Did it say it was Jessica’s key?”

“Yes. I labeled it before I put it in my purse.”

“Yikes. Well, maybe you lost it in your truck.”

She shrugged. “I looked, but didn’t find it.”

“Still. It could be in there.”

She was too tired to argue with Scott anymore. “Fine. Believe what you want.”

“I have no reason to talk to any of these people until Jessica gets back. Besides, I have to worry about Founder’s Day. That takes priority.”

“Right.”

She rose then her phone rang. She waved to Scott as she answered it. Kendall.

“Oh, Kate. I had a leak in my ceiling. The plumber fixed it, but can you come out and fix the ceiling?”

“I’ll have to stop by the hardware store. How big a spot?”

“I don’t know.”

“Can you measure for me?”

“Hold on.” There was rustling as she put down the phone. Then Kendall picked it up again. “Three feet by four feet. It’s really a mess, and I’m having book club tonight.”

“I can only put the new sheetrock in and do the first coat of spackle. I can’t paint until tomorrow.”

“It’ll have to do. Can you come out?”

“I’ll be there in about an hour. When is your book club meeting?”

“Not for a couple of hours.”

“Okay. It should give me time,” she said.

She was at her truck already. She hopped in then drove it to Grayson’s. Thankfully Larry had one piece of sheetrock that would work. He’d get more in the morning.

She put it in her truck with a can of spackle. Hopefully Kendall had whatever paint had been used on ceiling the last time it had been painted. Otherwise, Kate would have to repaint the whole area. She wished for it to be a small room, but she wasn’t sure that Kendall had any of those in her house.

***

Kendall opened the door before Kate could even ring the doorbell. Today she wore floral bell-bottomed pants with a bright green tank top. Once again she was spilling out of the shirt. Kate wondered where the woman bought her clothes. She’d never seen anything like that in her nearest Walmart store.

“What took you so long?”

“I had to pick up the sheetrock, Kendall. I told you that. I’m still here in under an hour.”

She shouldn’t have to explain to the woman. She was doing her a favor coming here in an emergency. Kate tried to let it roll off of her back as Kendall showed her the damage. She’d been right about the size of the hole. She’d already cleaned up the floor and moved the furniture.

Kate eyed it.

“Can you fix it?”

“You fixed the leak?”

“Yes, the plumber took care of it,” Kendall said.

“Good. Then I can fix it.”

Kate figured she could snoop a little if Kendall stayed around. She brought in the sheetrock and the spackle. “Saw you at the dedication ceremony.”

“I couldn’t miss it. The life of a politician’s wife. I have to show up and smile at all sorts of events.”

She hadn’t looked like she was smiling. She didn’t look like she was having a good time at all. Kate couldn’t do it. Smile and pretend that she liked people she didn’t really want to be around. She’d had to do a little of that as a professor’s wife, but that had only been at Christmas. Other than that, Greg had never socialized much with his peers.

“I was surprised to see Clem Tully there. You know, with his sister having just been murdered.”

Kate wished she’d been looking at Kendall when she’d mentioned it. She might have caught something in her body language. When she spoke, Kendall was calm. “I guess he needed to get out of the house.”

If Kate lived where Clem did, she’d want to be out of the house also.

“Did you speak with him? You were back that way.”

She cut out the old sheetrock then measured and cut the new stuff. It fit perfectly. Her eye was getting better at this. She opened the spackle can. She liked spackle. It looked like icing.

“I was wandering around the back. Was I near him? I would have given him my condolences. I was paying attention to Harvy. He likes me to gauge how the crowd reacts to his speeches.”

“I guess from my angle, it looked like you were talking to him.”

Kendall shrugged, not making eye contact. “No. I hang out at the back also because I don’t want to upstage Harvy. I’m a pretty strong personality and all.”

That she was.

“What do you have next?” Kendall said.

Was she actually making conversation that wasn’t about her?

“Uh, this is the last stop of the day.”

“You want to go to dinner? Harvy has a meeting tonight, and I don’t like to eat by myself.”

Probably the last thing she’d want to do is hang out with Kendall. “No, I’ve had a long day, and I’d like to get home.”

Kendall’s smile dimmed a little. “Sure. I understand. You have family to get home to.”

She didn’t bother correcting Kendall. Her house was empty, but she preferred that to partying or going out to dinner with a person she barely liked. Or didn’t like at all. Besides, Kendall was a customer. She shouldn’t mix business with pleasure. That only happened with people she already knew.

“Thanks for the invite, anyway.”

“Sure thing. Another day.”

“Another day.” Kate finished her spackling. “I will have to come back and sand. After that I’ll see if it needs another coat of spackling. If not, I can paint. I’ll be in touch about when I can do it.”

“Okay. It looks much better than it did.”

Was that almost a compliment from Kendall? Maybe she was softening. Kate said her good-byes. She was exhausted when she climbed into the truck. She had to figure out when she was going to fix those bleachers for Founder’s Day. Maybe this Sunday.

The idea of it made Kate even more exhausted. She turned on the truck then let the air conditioning blast her. She’d turned on the air at her house this morning so it would be cool when she arrived back home.

Before she could put her truck in gear, her phone buzzed. It was a text from Scott.

I have food. You hungry?

She was starving. If she didn’t have to cook or stop for anything, that was wonderful. The way to her heart was with food. Scott must be figuring that out.

I am starving
, she texted back.

Good. I’ll be on your doorstep in ten minutes.

I’ll be there in fifteen. Wait. The outside motion detectors are on.

He sent her a smiley face because he was always bugging her about turning on her security system.

Scott’s car was in the driveway when she arrived. She used the remote to turn off the outside system. He parked in front of her house. She pulled in next to him.

“I still think you have a tracker on me. With vital signs so you know when I’m hungry,” she said.

He grinned. “Maybe I can just anticipate your needs.”

She looked at him. In another time and place she’d ask him to stay the night. Too bad she wasn’t ready for that yet. “Maybe.”

She unlocked the door then sighed at the cool air in her house, glad she had turned it on.

“I brought Chinese tonight. I hope that’s okay.”

“Whatever I don’t have to cook is okay,” Kate said.

She put her keys in a bowl by the door. She led Scott into her kitchen. He knew where everything was, so he pulled out plates. She watched him for a moment in her kitchen, thinking he fit there well.
No, Kate. Don’t think that.

“I’m going to pull on a pair of shorts,” she said then left him to his tasks.

She returned in shorts and a tank. Scott looked her over, clearly enjoying the amount of skin she was showing. He’d put the food into serving bowls. She didn’t mind, since she knew he’d probably do the dishes when they were done.

What a great guy.

“How was your day?” he said.

“Okay. Had to finish up by doing an emergency repair at Kendall’s house.”

“You two are like BFFs.”

Kate laughed. “How was your day?”

“It didn’t get any better after you left.”

“Sorry to hear that.”

She sat then dug into some pork lo mein. This scene was so domestic. Two people, eating dinner, talking about their day. She’d missed this since Greg was gone. She hadn’t had another adult to talk to like this in five years.