HAMMERED (Mrs. Fix It Mysteries Book 1) (5 page)

He’d surprised her with that statement. Scott hadn’t been able to get out of Rock Ridge fast enough. He must have gone through a rough time in Philadelphia to want to come back here.

“I’ll take your word for it. I never made it to the big, bad city.”

He smiled sardonically. “You could have come with me.”

She sighed. They’d had that argument more than once. Then he’d left and not looked back. She had no desire to rehash this. “Do we need to do this right now? I’m working.”

“And I’m going out of my skull. Hopefully tomorrow we’ll have an exact time of death on Jackie, and I can be cleared.”

“No one reports anyone suspicious here during the time she might have been here. In fact, Carly saw someone that looked like her alive earlier.”

Kate glanced over her shoulder. The look on his face could scare the dead. Not that it scared her.

“Are you sticking your nose into this case?”

“Just asking some questions. Ken already had you convicted. I don’t want to see you railroaded.”

He laughed. “So you do care.”

She turned back to her work, shaking up the quart of paint in her hands. “I don’t want to see anyone railroaded.”

Scott’s ego was the size of Pennsylvania. It hadn’t been dimmed by whatever had happened in the City of Brotherly Love.

“Are you going to tell me about your husband?” he said.

She’d expected it to come up sooner or later. Scott, the cop, would be curious. Scott, the man, would wonder if Greg was competition even in his absence. “You have access to the police reports.”

“I do, but I want to hear it from you, first.”

She sighed. The last two days hadn’t been fun. She didn’t want to rehash old news about Greg right now. She opened the paint can on the drop cloth she’d spread out. She took her favorite paintbrush out of her toolkit. Yes, she was stalling.

“Katydid.”

That nickname that used to make her melt. Some part of her melted a little, but she wasn’t going to let Scott know that. She didn’t need him to have a hold over her.

“Scott.”

“Tell me. It’s just two old friends catching up.”

She laughed as she stroked paint onto the wall she’d fixed and put primer on. The paint would blend well. Hard to do when the walls were white. “We weren’t friends, Scott.”

“No? I didn’t tell you all my hopes and dreams?”

“We were lovers, and that brings with it more baggage than friends.”

She had to get them back on the right footing or she wouldn’t be able to do this. She wouldn’t be able to run into him at the grocery store and be okay with it. That she wasn’t okay with it spoke to her loneliness, not any lingering feelings about an old boyfriend.

Her painting finished, she packed up her things.

“I don’t want you investigating or getting involved in this investigation, Katie,” Scott said finally. “Leave it to the experts. It’s Ken’s job, and even though Ken isn’t a fan, he’d have to prove a whole lot to prove that I killed my ex-wife.”

“How long were you married?”

Damn. That slipped out before she could run it through a filter again. She grimaced.

“Eight years.”

“No kids?”

“No kids. Jackie didn’t want to ruin her figure.”

“Are you sad she’s dead?” That was a deep question. She held up her hands. “Don’t answer that. None of my business.”

He spread his arms out to his side. “My life is an open book, Katie. Ask me what you really want to know.”

“And what is that?”

Can he read her mind?

“You want to know why I’ve come back. You want to know what happened in Philly that has me back in the hometown I swore I’d never come back to.”

She cleared her throat. “I have some other jobs today. I can’t shoot the breeze with you all morning.”

He laughed. “Running away? Not like you, Katydid. You always stood up to me. Toe-to-toe. You did that with any man, no matter the size.”

She wasn’t that woman anymore. Her husband disappearing had taken something out of her. Something she thought was lost forever. Didn’t matter. She had a murder to solve and some more jobs today before she could hang up her tool belt.

She ran through the rest of her day, prioritizing based on who she needed to talk to. “I have to make a living, Scott.”

“What do I owe you?”

“I’ll write up a bill.”

She loaded her truck then wrote up a bill. She needed a moment to get away from the tension. To get away from Scott’s overwhelming presence. No matter what happened to him in Philly, he still had that aura of power about him.

It would suit him well in leading the Rock Ridge Police Department. The power was no longer raw. Instead, it had a greater intensity and focus to it. She got the impression that would be directed at her for a while. Hopefully he’d get bored and leave her alone.

She strode back into his house. He hadn’t moved, just seemed to be waiting on the steps. She handed him a bill.

“I’ll write you a check. I promise it won’t bounce.”

Chapter Five

Kate moved her truck several houses down to Mayor Dudley Stuart’s house. It was by far the biggest edifice on the street. Quite possibly the biggest house in Rock Ridge. Dudley considered himself royalty having been elected by a landslide four elections in a row.

Each time he’d added on to the house. The latest addition was just about done, and Dudley had asked Kate to do the final painting. She had a good hand at it and some of her jobs were just for painting, not fixing anything.

Kate found painting therapeutic. The steady brush strokes soothed her. Today she was in need of soothing. Her talk with Scott had unnerved her, and she got the impression that he watched from his front window as she drove to the mayor’s place.

Hopefully he’d be back at his job in no time and leave her alone. That’s what she needed.

The mayor’s wife, Jessica, answered the door when Kate rang the doorbell. She resisted the urge to glance back at Scott’s house. He would be unobtrusive if he were observing her. He was just as much a complication in her life as was the murder of his ex-wife.

Kate smiled at Jessica.

“Hello, Kate. Come in. Dudley is working from home today, and his office is next to the new addition. I hope he doesn’t mind you working in there.”

“If he does, I can come back tomorrow. My schedule is usually flexible.”

“Well, come in and we’ll talk to him.”

Jessica led her past some of the most garishly decorated rooms she’d ever seen. Money did not buy class. A real estate agent would have a nightmare trying to sell this house. Everything would have to be repainted.

Which reminded her that she had to stop in and see some of the town’s real estate agents to remind them that she was available for painting and repairs of their rental properties. She might do that after this painting job.

Dudley sat behind a large wooden desk that looked like it had been stolen from the set of a movie. She couldn’t imagine that he’d purchased it from the local furniture store. No, he’d probably had it custom-made. The bottom had wood carvings in it as if someone had taken a trunk of a tree and made it a square before etching out animals.

Kate tried not to grimace as she looked at it.

“Dudley? Kate is here to paint the addition. Will that disturb you?”

“Not at all,” Dudley said, smiling from under his thin moustache.

He had thinning brown hair, and he’d always struck Kate as someone who that would bother. He wore a button-down shirt but no tie and no suit jacket.

“Thanks, Mayor,” Kate said.

Jessica disappeared while Kate unloaded her supplies. The color they’d chosen was a lime green. She wasn’t sure what the room was going to be used for, but it reminded her of a hospital.

She didn’t have to live with it, just apply it to the walls.

With drop cloths down, she put tape up around the windows and doorframes. She heard the mayor talking on the phone. Just a muffled voice, not that she was interested in listening. She imagined running a trucking company wasn’t that interesting.

Having forgotten her radio, she worked in silence other than the mayor’s phone ringing.

She’d completed one wall with the roller and knew she would have to do a second coat. She’d have to go out to her truck to get a few more cans of the paint. This job would help her replenish her truck fund. Too bad she’d have to use the cash for repairs and not a new one.

She spent less on repairs than she would on a new car payment, so she guessed she was doing okay. She would rue the day her truck died.

At a good stopping point, meaning she’d finished a wall, Kate was about to head out to her truck. The mayor, whose office door was open, began to talk louder.

“I don’t care what she said before she died. Jackie York was a liar.”

Kate stopped in her tracks. She glanced out the door of the new room, but didn’t see Jessica anywhere. Maybe Kate could listen for a minute.

“I know. I know, but she is no longer a complication now that she’s dead. We can go ahead with things.”

What things? Kate stood very still so the mayor wouldn’t know she was just outside his office door.

“That’s a bonus that Ken thinks the new chief did it. I want Ken in that job. He could be useful to us.”

Useful? In what way? Ken was a good guy. She didn’t see him doing anything but the best job he could for the town. What plans did the mayor have for him?

“Anyway, she’s gone. We might even be getting rid of the new chief and his straight-up ways. Two birds. One stone, you know? Sometimes things work out and we’ll all be rich.”

Kate needed to sneeze. Damn. She gripped her nose and the feeling passed, but it was only a matter of time before it came back. She couldn’t listen anymore without getting discovered. She strode out of the room as if she hadn’t been standing by the door.

She waved at the mayor as she went by. If she hadn’t heard his conversation, she wouldn’t have noticed that he’d gone a little pale. Not pausing, she kept going. He’d think nothing of it when she came back in with paint cans.

His door was closed when she returned and his voice had quieted. Guess she wasn’t going to get any more information out of him. She couldn’t deny that he’d piqued her curiosity. Mayor Stuart had known Jackie York. In what capacity? Had she invested money for him?

Maybe Kate needed to do some research on Jackie York and her connections to Rock Ridge. Kate didn’t remember her, but if she’d gone to the private school outside of town, she might never have run into her.

St. Pius was a boarding school for wayward girls. The sign didn’t mention it, but Kate knew it to be that way. Some were pregnant. Some had just gone afoul of the law. What had a cop like Scott seen in a woman like Jackie?

Kate shrugged.

Nope, Scott and his past lovers had nothing to do with her future. She had to stick to the case at hand.

Back to painting, Kate had time to mull over what the mayor had said. Who had he been talking to? He hadn’t said a name. He’d referred to them all making money. Who all?

The conversation brought up more questions than it answered. Finally, Kate finished for the morning. She’d let the paint dry overnight. Maybe she’d get to snoop in the mayor’s office if he wasn’t working from home tomorrow.

If Jessica left her alone, she’d get the painting done then see if she could find something that told her how he knew Jackie.

That was a task for tomorrow.

***

Before Kate could leave, Jessica appeared out of nowhere. Even when the woman was just at home, she dressed well. Kate would always look like a slob next to her. Even with her best dress on.

“I just made a pot of coffee. You want some?”

Maybe Jessica could shine some light on how the mayor knew Jackie. Besides, she had a few minutes before her next job. “Sure, sounds good.”

They sat in a bright kitchen at the back of Jessica’s house. A rough estimate on the renovation told Kate they’d spent a six-figure number on it. Granite countertops sat on cherry cabinets. It was the only tasteful room she’d seen and Kate suspected that Jessica had good taste, but her husband didn’t. He must rule since he made the money.

Kate sat at an eight-foot duel level island. One side was a preparation area. The other side was for eating. The Stuarts didn’t have any kids, so she guessed they never ate in the formal dining room.

The coffee smelled almost as good as the cup she’d had at Carly’s shop. This one had come from one of those coffee makers that made only one cup at a time. She sipped from a stoneware mug as Jessica put out a plate of muffins.

“I baked them this morning.”

“They smell good.”

Breakfast had been hours ago, and she still had to complete another job before lunch, so Kate dug into it. Moist and fruity. Jessica had a real talent.

“You like?”

“I do. You should go into business.”

Jessica frowned then shook her head. “I don’t think that would work.” She didn’t say anything more on that subject. “So sad about Scott’s wife. Do you think he did it?”

“No, I don’t. Scott’s always been an honest person.”

Despite his bad-boy persona in high school, he never actually broke any rules that she knew of. He’d gone to class and graduated before going off to a state university.

“Of course you wouldn’t think that. You and Scott had a thing in high school.”

If Jessica knew about it, the town must have been talking about it when Scott returned. Nice to know she’d been part of the gossips. Didn’t anyone realize that had been three decades ago? Old news.

“I forget how small a town this is and that everyone remembers everything you’ve ever done.”

“I’m sorry. I didn’t know it was a sore subject. I’m not from here, remember?”

“It isn’t a sore subject. I just don’t understand everyone’s fascination with Scott and me. That was high school. We’ve both been married, so I guess we’ve moved on.”

“Right. Still, Jackie did kind of bring trouble onto herself.”

Here was her opening. “Did you know her?”

Jessica blinked then looked away. “Uh, yeah. I did.”

Despite her obvious discomfort, Kate couldn’t let it go. “How?”