Haunted Fixer-Upper, The (21 page)

Just as I’d sit back down and opened the paper to the front page, Carrie approached with my plate of pancakes. Blueberries and their accompanying syrup dripped down the sides of the fluffy cakes. I still hadn’t glanced back over at Stan. I assumed by now he’d at least closed his mouth and taken a seat at the counter.

She placed the plate down in front of me. “I see you know Stan.” She didn’t glance over at him.

I
t was as if she didn’t want to make eye contact with him. Apparently she knew him too. I happened to glance in his direction and caught him staring at us. He looked none too happy either. His eyes narrowed as he glared at us.

“
He’s helping us work on the house.” I gave a quick look again.

Yeah
, he was still staring. I wasn’t sure why, but I felt like I could confide in Carrie. Something told me she hadn’t had a good experience with Stan either.

“
There’s just something about the guy that gives me the creeps,” I said.

She cast a glance to her left and right to see who might be listening
, but she never looked at Stan.

“
Well, you didn’t hear this from me.” She leaned a little closer.

“
Of course not.” I sat up a little straighter.

I didn’t want to miss this. Whatever she had to say had
to be good.

“
He’s not exactly a nice guy.” She twisted the end of her apron nervously.

I frowned.
That wasn’t exactly news.

She quirked a brow.
“He was arrested before, you know.”

My eyes widened
. “No, I didn’t know that.”

Now this was news that I needed to hear.
Had Reed hired a convicted felon to work on the house with us? What had he been thinking? Did he know Stan’s status? Surely the answer to that question was no. Reed wouldn’t do something like that. I had to know more.

“
What was he arrested for?” I leaned in closer.

“
Manslaughter. Or attempted murder, I don’t remember exactly,” she said.

It was as if she’d punched me in the stomach.
She looked me straight in the eyes and didn’t blink. I swallowed hard. That hadn’t been the news I was expecting.

“
He never went to trial though. Not sufficient evidence, I guess.” She shrugged.

Stan had been fighting with Gordon
the day before his murder. And he had been accused of trying to kill someone in the past. What more did the police need? Arrest him now. There was no way I would let him continue working on the house. And Reed was going to hear about this from me.

I looked over at Stan again an
d a man was standing beside him this time. They were laughing and the man patted Stan on the back. They seemed awfully friendly. One good thing though, they weren’t looking at us. Every time he watched me a chill ran along my spine.

“
He seems to have a lot of friends. I’d think a lot of people wouldn’t want to be that friendly with him if he’d been accused of murder.” I played with my fork, contemplating what Carrie was telling me.

“
His dad was the mayor. He practically owns this town. He gets away with whatever he wants. He can do no wrong and people love him. I just don’t understand it.” She shook her head.

“
You don’t seem to be one of those people who love him,” I said.

She snorted and rolled her eyes
. “Far from it.”

I wanted to ask what had happened between them
, but I figured maybe I had better wait. She seemed pretty mad by the look of her red face. There was one question I had to ask though.

“
Who did he try to kill?” I asked.

“
He tried to kill one of his customers.”

I
t was even more shocking than I had thought. That was the same situation that he’d been in with Gordon. He had been one of Stan’s customers. It seemed as if when Stan wasn’t happy with the way something went he tried to kill off the person.

Why weren’
t police checking on Stan? Was it because of his father? That had to be the case and now Reed was going to take the rap. Over my dead body would I let that happen. That was when it hit me. I was one of Stan’s customers too now. If I fired him or made him unhappy would he try to kill me too? This had just taken a very serious turn. Now our lives were in jeopardy. What would I do? And to think I’d probably just pissed him off by not letting him eat breakfast with me. Was there a killer amongst us? All signs were pointing to yes.

Chapter Twenty-Five

How would I get
out of the diner without having to talk with the guy again? Could I slip out the bathroom window without anyone noticing? What was I talking about? Could I slip out the bathroom window without killing myself? Probably not. I had to call Lacey and my mother and warn them not to come to the diner.

Suddenly the pancakes didn’t look so good.

“You seem to know a lot,” I said.

“
Well, when you work in here you get all the gossip and goings-on around town. That’s why I knew who you were right away.”

I nodded.

“Some people believed Stan was guilty but there was nothing they could do. There was one cop definitely on Stan’s side.” She crossed her arms in front of her chest.

“Who?”
My eyes widened.

“
His brother,” she whispered.

“
His brother is a policeman?” I mimicked her tone.

Thank goodness I’d met
Carrie. Maybe she could be my source for the police department. Okay, it wasn’t exactly the best source, but it was better than nothing and about the only option I had.

A flash came back to me of the officer who
had been on the scene of the murder and who hadn’t been all that friendly the night they had questioned Reed. What was his name? Oh yeah, Officer Morgan. But if he was Stan’s brother, then wouldn’t they have the same last name? I had to ask though. Maybe Carrie could give some insight on why the officer had been such an ass.

“
His brother’s name wouldn’t happen to be Morgan, would it?” I asked.

She nodded.
“Yeah, that’s the one. He’s even nastier than his brother and I didn’t think that was possible.”

“
Why do they have different last names?” I asked.

“
They’re half-brothers. Same mother. The oldest one is Morgan. His father died when he was a baby.”

Bu
t that didn’t explain why he had been so rude to us the other night. I thought Reed was on good terms with Stan and you’d think that would apply to his brother as well.

“
I think there’s some bad blood between your boyfriend and Morgan, but I don’t know what it is. I get almost all the news around here, but unfortunately, not all of it.” She glanced over her shoulder again.

I nodded. I’d have to ask Reed what that was all about. There were all kinds of secrets in this town.

“Well, I’d better let you eat your pancakes before they get cold. Let me know if you need anything else.” She placed my ticket on the table.

After Carrie bounced away
, I picked up my cell phone and tried Lacey and my mother again. There was still no answer from either one. I’d hurry up and eat, then get the heck out of there. I grabbed the syrup and smothered the pancakes with them. I stabbed my fork into the fluffiness and pondered what Carrie had just told me. I had a ton of more questions for her. I chewed the food, relishing the burst of flavor from the blueberries, and tried to forget about my worries for just a moment.

As I flipped through the paper,
I spotted the article about Gordon’s murder. And I definitely lost my appetite when I saw my name in the paragraph. Reed of course was in there too. Maybe buying the house hadn’t been such a good idea after all. I needed to abandon my food and get out of there. Maybe I could get some work done and hopefully get us away from this town sooner.

We cou
ldn’t abandon the project now, though. It was too late for that. Me and my bright ideas. I tossed my napkin over my plate and grabbed my purse. Stan was still talking with someone. Maybe I could sneak out without him spotting me. But with everyone else watching my every move that was highly unlikely. I felt like yelling, “Nothing to see here, move along, people.” Yeah, and they could mind their own business while they were at it too.

I made it past Stan without him looking my way
, but when I reached the door, a hand clasped onto my shoulder and I jumped. When I spun around, it was Carrie.

“I left the money on the table,”
I said. “I didn’t want to go to the register and have to talk with Stan.”

She waved off my statement.
“Oh honey, I completely understand. But it wasn’t that.” She paused and looked around. “I get off in five minutes. Would you like to talk some more?”

Would I? T
hat was exactly what I wanted. It was as if she had read my mind.

“I’d love to, b
ut I’d prefer not to wait in the diner, if that’s okay. At least not until he leaves.” I gestured toward Stan with a tilt of my head.

She snorted.
“I don’t blame you.”

“
I’ll just wait in my car until you get off.” I pointed toward the door.

And pray that Stan didn’t come out and see me waiting out there. He’d think I was waiting on him.

“Great.” She smiled. “I’ll just be a couple minutes.”

Chapter Twenty-Six

Thank goodness I’d remembered to leave a tip. I hurried over
to my car and climbed in, locking the door in a hurry. Luckily, I had parked next to a big black truck. I crossed my fingers that Stan wouldn’t see me there. The couple of minutes that I waited on Carrie passed by slower than pond water. I fumbled with the radio, trying to find a station playing a good song. After scanning several times, I flipped off the radio and nervously tapped my fingers against the steering wheel. Finally, I spotted her coming toward my car and I hopped out. Was Stan still in the diner? I hadn’t seen him come out.

“
Do you want to go for a walk?” she asked.

Carrie had changed into jeans and a bright pink T-shirt.

I glanced around. We were the only people in the parking lot at the moment.

“
The historic part of town is this way and they have a lot of old houses to look at.” She pointed down the street.

Now I liked the sound of that.

I checked my watch. “Sure, that sounds great.”

“
I figure you must like that kind of thing since you bought the McKeeley Plantation. Do you plan on living there or is this an investment like Gordon Millerton was trying to do?” she asked as we moved down the sidewalk.

I paused, unsure of what my answer really was.
“Both?” I laughed. “I’m not really sure. I guess we’ll see how things turn out. The house needs a lot of work. It is beautiful though.”

I looked up at the grand Victorians as we walked past.
Three stories tall, the homes hovered above us. Thick, green lawns with flower beds popping with color greeted us. Grand old trees stood proud with history. Sun glinted off the windows, making the homes practically glow. There were wraparound porches, gables, and ginger-board. I envisioned the ladies in their long dresses and men in their suits climbing into their carriages in years gone by.

She nodded.
“It is gorgeous.”

“
I hope to bring it back to life.” The thought made me giddy. Bringing the old houses back to life gave me a rush.

“
You know it wasn’t so long ago when people lived there.” She cast a glance at me.

I quirked a brow.
“Really?”

This was my chance to ask about Amber
Gaines and the connection with Stan.

“
Yeah. You do know the history of the house, don’t you?” She inclined her blonde head.

I shook my head.
“No, I don’t. I’d planned on going to the library later today and doing some research, maybe talking with the town historian.”

“
Well, I don’t know about the history that goes way back to when it was built or anything, but I do know what happened there twenty years ago.”

My stomach turned. I wasn’t sure I wanted to know what had happened in the house. Reed had talked about a serial killer. Did that have something to d
o with the house? I’d thought he’d been joking.

I mustered up my courage and asked,
“What happened in the house twenty years ago? Was there a serial killer?”

She
looked confused as she shook her head, then adjusted her ponytail. “Not that I know of. But what happened was awful. A man and woman owned the home. The woman was found in the house bludgeoned to death. The husband proclaimed his innocence, but everyone believed he did it.”