Building Blocks of Murder (3 page)

“Don’t, just don’t. I can’t deal with this right now.”

“You mean you can’t deal with me right now,” she said.

He didn’t deny it. Instead, he turned and let himself quietly out the door.

What just happened here?
How had things gone so quickly from kissing to yelling? Lacy shook her head and headed for the kitchen. Really, she wasn’t any worse off with Jason than she had been before the encounter, except now she knew for sure he was upset with her. She could only hope that, given time, he might cool off and think rationally. When the hubbub her article had caused piped down and nothing bad happened to Jason or the department, he would realize Lacy had been correct. Or, at the very least, maybe he wouldn’t hate her anymore.

She ate a lonely supper of reheated leftovers while watching the news on television. What was wrong with her life that her grandmother was on a hot date while she, Lacy, sat eating reheated meatloaf and watching a segment about obesity in farm animals?

There was no excuse not to go to the SAD meeting at the town hall, but she didn’t want to go alone. Knowing Tosh wouldn’t be able to answer his phone during the middle of an all-important bingo event, she texted him and asked him to meet her there when bingo was over.

In addition to Shelia, there were a handful of angry-looking elderly people at the meeting. Lacy sat in the back, but Shelia still whipped her head around to smile in delight at her appearance. Lacy smiled self-consciously in return, and the meeting came to order.

For the first half hour, mundane town business was discussed. Lacy wished she had brought a book to read as the mayor spent a long time extolling the virtues of the new street salt supplier the city would be using in the winter. Lacy had no idea anyone could talk so long or so lovingly about salt.

Just as she began to despair of staying awake long enough to talk about the Stakely building, Tosh slipped into the seat beside her, and Sheila took the floor.

“Mayor, council members, I respectfully ask you to refrain from tearing down the Stakely building.” After that opening parry, she began extolling the virtues of the Stakely building, beginning with its history. After hearing the building had been constructed in the late eighteen hundreds and used as a candy factory, Lacy was even more intrigued.

“And so I implore you not to lose this historic treasure.” Sheila finished speaking and scanned the faces of the town council behind her. Lacy did the same, and was disheartened by what she saw. Without exception, all of them looked bored and resolute. She knew then that the decision to tear it down was a foregone conclusion and they had simply been humoring Sheila.

“Well, that was a fine speech, Sheila,” Mayor Watkins began. “But as I told you, we’ve already voted. The building will be sold, and the developers can do what they want with it.”

Lacy gasped. “That’s terrible,” she whispered to Tosh. “They’re not even listening. Someone needs to say something.”

“Don’t look at me,” he said. “I’m a new pastor in this community; I’m not getting involved in local politics.”

Before she could talk herself out of it, Lacy shot to her feet. The council looked at her in surprise. Sheila beamed.

“Please, you can’t tear down the Stakely building,” she blurted. “Don’t you realize it’s the epicenter of our downtown, the only thing that gives us distinction? A strip mall would take away the one piece of character we have going for us.”

Disconcerted murmurs rippled through the crowd. The mayor gave a hushing glare around the room.

“Young lady, I can’t possibly expect you to understand the finer points of business. The wheels of progress must sometimes be greased with pain. I understand that some have a certain attachment to the Stakely building, but it’s a behemoth. The cost to renovate it, let alone keep up on it, is more than anyone is willing to pay. Right now we have a company that wants to buy it and put in profitable businesses that could bring jobs to our community. Why should we say no to that?”

“Because as a town we would be selling our souls.” The audience gasped. Lacy wondered if this was as much excitement as a town council meeting had ever produced. “Can’t you understand that by taking the easy road, we would be cutting off our noses to spite our faces? Yes, some cheap stores will filter in when the strip mall comes, but the jobs they bring will be minimum wage at best, and the clientele those establishments attract will make the downtown a red light district.”

The mayor wasn’t listening, Lacy could tell. He shook his head obstinately and gave her a patronizing smile. “I couldn’t possibly expect you to understand the ins and outs of business. We have an offer on the table, and good business sense tells us to accept it.”

Lacy slumped into her chair, angrier than she had been in a long time. She hated condescension, either because of her age or her gender, and the mayor seemed to be employing both in one fell swoop.

“Someone should do something,” she muttered. “Someone should buy that building.”

Tosh leaned over to whisper in her ear. “Uh, Lacy, you’re a millionaire.”

Lacy sat up in alarm and looked at Tosh. She had completely forgotten about Barbara Blake’s money. Could she do this? Could she buy this building and save it?

She shot to her feet once again. The mayor tried to ignore her, but she spoke anyway. “How much are the developers going to pay for the Stakely building?”

The mayor ignored her, but Sheila spoke up. “A hundred and fifty thousand.”

“That’s it?” Lacy asked, incredulous.

Sheila nodded sadly. “We’ve raised some support to try and buy it ourselves, but everything has happened so suddenly we only have a few thousand dollars.”

Lacy hesitated. Should she really do what she was thinking? Tosh nudged her, urging her into action. “I’ll buy it,” she announced before she could change her mind.

That got everyone’s attention. The mayor finally looked at her with a frown. “There’s no time for you to go through the process of trying to get a loan, if you could even get one, which I doubt.”

“I don’t need a loan,” Lacy said. “I’ll pay for it in cash.” She tipped her chin stubbornly, aware that she was treading on dangerous ground when her pride had been lanced.

Now the mayor looked flustered. “But we’ve already agreed to sell to the developers.”

“Have papers been signed? Has money changed hands?” Lacy pressed.

“Well, no, but we have a gentleman’s agreement,” the mayor hedged.

“There are no gentlemen in business,” Lacy said, trying to sound like she knew what she was talking about. “You have nothing legal from them, and I’m offering to sign the papers tonight. And, really, do you want people to know that you turned down a chance to save the Stakely building in favor of outsiders who are going to tear it down?”

Behind the mayor, the council members were wavering.

“You let this go, Hal, and I’ll make sure everyone knows,” Sheila threatened.

Reluctantly, the mayor agreed, and just like that Lacy owned a building.

She signed the papers in dismay, having no idea how such a thing came about. Tosh hovered approvingly in the background, handing her a pen whenever the need arose.

“That was awesome,” he said as they finally exited the building late that night after all the bureaucracy had been handled. “I can’t believe you were like, ‘I’ll buy your building.’ Take that, city council!”

Lacy pressed her fingertips to her throbbing temples. “I can’t believe I just did that.” She spun and studied the town hall. “Do you think it’s too late to back out?”

Tosh took her hand and steered her once again toward the parking lot. “What’s the big deal? You bought a building. My family buys buildings all the time. My dad says real estate is always a good investment.”

“My family doesn’t buy buildings all the time. We buy a house when we can afford the down payment and spend the next thirty years paying it off.” Lacy stopped and bent over, sucking oxygen. “I can’t believe I just did that. I think I’m going to be sick.”

Tosh pressed his palm to her back. “Lacy, it’s no big deal. You could have bought ten of those buildings with what you have in the bank. If you don’t want to keep it, just find another buyer and resell it.”

How could she explain to a trust-fund baby the dynamics of growing up middle class? She couldn’t, she realized. While Tosh was down to earth on many levels, he had no grasp of finances. He had no concept of how most people lived week to week, paycheck to paycheck, just hoping to get ahead. Before Lacy’s inheritance came through, she’d had exactly three hundred dollars to her name.

“Let me drive you home,” Tosh volunteered.

But as they took a step toward the parking lot, a body suddenly hurled itself at Lacy, knocking her backwards against the wall.

“Sorry, did I hurt you?” Sheila Whitaker asked as she released Lacy from a bear hug. “I’m just so happy.” Without giving her time to answer her previous question, she grabbed Lacy’s hands in a death grip and continued speaking. “Listen, I know it feels like we’re alone in this fight, but we’re not. We have friends. Big, important friends.” Her tone was cryptic, as was the narrow-eyed look she was giving Lacy. With one final, painful squeeze of Lacy’s hands, Sheila turned and walked away.

“That was…weird,” Tosh whispered.

Lacy nodded. “Do you think she was a marine?” How else to explain her bone-crushing strength?

“Are we sure she’s always been a woman?”

“Tosh,” Lacy exclaimed. She lightly shoved his arm, and he laughed.

“What? She has a very masculine energy.”

“Sometimes I have a really hard time believing you’re someone’s pastor.”

“Not hers,” Tosh said. “Otherwise I wouldn’t be able to make fun of her.” He looped his arm around Lacy’s neck and gave her a playful squeeze. They walked in companionable silence to his car, and then he drove her home. He turned off his car, and they sat in comfortable silence a few minutes.

“So, my brother’s coming tomorrow. Are you free for dinner?”

“We don’t have to pretend to be a couple or anything, do we?” Lacy asked.

“I won’t lie to him, Lacy.” Tosh fidgeted with a keychain. “Although, if we were a couple, we wouldn’t be lying.”

Lacy squinted at the large maple tree in her grandmother’s front yard. Was it her imagination, or were the leaves beginning to fall early this year? “I don’t know, Tosh. I don’t think I’m ready for a relationship. I’m still in recovery mode.”

“Maybe you won’t know until you try,” Tosh suggested.

Lacy shrugged.

“That’s an underwhelming response,” Tosh said. He hunched in his seat and stared hard at the maple tree, too.

“You’re not allowed to be angry with me. I told you up front how it is.”

“I’m not angry,” Tosh said sullenly. He perked up and smiled at her, leaning across the seat to kiss her cheek. “Promise, I’m not angry.” He bussed her cheek a second time and started his car. “I’ll pick you up at six tomorrow. I won’t pretend we’re anything more than friends to my brother, but if you could wear something knockout and fawn all over me, that would be great.”

“I’ll see what I can do,” she promised. “See you tomorrow.”

He waited in the driveway until she was safely inside, and then he drove away.

As soon as she stepped inside, she saw her grandparents sitting together on the couch, their heads close together in conversation. They turned to her with smiles when she entered the room.

“Hi, honey, were you out with Jason?” her grandmother asked.

“No, I was with Tosh. I bought a building.” She sat heavily on the chair opposite them, her legs suddenly numb with renewed shock.

Her grandparents blinked at her in unison as if their eyelids were working in coordination. “You what?” Mr. Middleton asked.

“I bought the Stakely building,” she said.

He took a sip of his coffee before answering. “I always liked that building. What are you going to do with it?”

His matter-of-fact attitude made Lacy smile, easing some of her anxiety. “I have no idea. What do you guys think I should do?”

“That’s up to you, honey,” her grandmother said. She sat back with a nostalgic smile. “Lots of good memories happened at that building. Remember, Tom, when it was a happening marketplace?” Her hand rested on his forearm.

Now it was Mr. Middleton’s turn to smile. “Those were good days. The town was bustling and not everyone was old and dried up.”

“I didn’t know it was ever a marketplace,” Lacy said.

“It closed when you were a baby,” her grandmother replied.

“What was it like?” she asked. She sat back as her grandparents began to regale her with tales of what the town had been like fifty years ago. As they talked, a picture began to form in her mind. Wouldn’t it be great if the Stakely building could be returned to its former glory? The thought that she had no idea how to embark on such an adventure tried to intrude, but she wouldn’t let it. Where there was a will there was a way, right? How hard could it be to renovate a one-hundred-year-old building?

“I’m supposed to look at it tomorrow with the inspector,” Lacy said when their reminiscence was finished. “Will you go with me?” she asked her grandfather. Maybe it was an old-fashioned notion, but she believed that all men were endowed with the ability to know things about construction, whereas she knew nothing at all.

“Love to,” he said. His tone didn’t change, but she knew he was pleased by her request. For so many years, he had been alone, standing on the periphery of their family and looking in. Lacy felt bad about all those wasted years; she was anxious to make up for them by including him in her life as much as possible. Plus, she genuinely liked him. Like her grandmother, he was a kind, wise, and no-nonsense person.

“It’s a date, then,” she said, standing. “Good night you two.”
Don’t stay up too late,
she was tempted to add. Even though she yawned on the way to her bedroom, she had trouble falling asleep. The day had been eventful, to say the least. She had bought a building. Tosh’s brother was coming to town, and he thought she and Tosh were dating. Most of all, though, her mind kept replaying the earlier scene with Jason. And even though the fight had been ugly, her thoughts dwelled mostly on what had happened before the yelling began.