by Misty Simon
“Oh gosh, no. Please don’t worry about it. I’m just stunned. I really thought I was just being tolerated as the swan-dive survivor that they wanted to watch flounder in their own homes. Since they have the cash, I just thought they were willing to pay money to see it happen. I never really considered that they liked me.”
“You need to get over that. Now. You’re valued by a lot of people. More than you know. Max, me, Gina, Mama Shirley, your uncle, your dad, your brothers, your mom. Even Burton values you, though he’ll probably never say it.”
And yet he had. And that was a big list of people.
But Letty wasn’t done. “And far more people than that, but I don’t have time to list all of them. Except you are also valued by those who have died and no longer have a voice to tell us who did it or how. I get that you don’t want to be a vigilante or interfere with Burton, but I also think you have a knack for finding things out and piecing them together in a way no one else does.”
“My head is going to expand to the point that I can’t get out the door,” I said, laughing.
“Well, let’s not go too far, but I think it’s time you looked at what all you have going for you, instead of always looking for that something else you could be doing.”
Okay, a little bit of a smackdown, but that was allowed and wouldn’t burst my bubble. “So what am I looking at as far as Caleb? He said that he didn’t put a ring on it, but he doesn’t know who did? Does he at least have any ideas?”
“I don’t know. Oh . . .” Her voice dropped to a whisper. “Mrs. Petrovski just walked in, and she does not look happy. You might want to come down here and use your valued talent to talk us out of a bad situation. Like now. Bye.”
I had wanted to find Burton, but it wasn’t a choice at this point. Letty needed saving, and she was more important. Burton would still be there when I had time. And if I could approach him with real proof, I’d much prefer that over a theory.
Time to be the boss.
Chapter Sixteen
When Letty sounded the alarm and it involved Mrs. Petrovski, I was ready to jump. I did not want the ladies handling her on their own if they didn’t have to. I’d seen her tongue-lash a poor butler once, when I was married to Waldo, and the guy had left looking like he had just been drawn and quartered yet was still breathing.
Fortunately, the house was only a few blocks away. Unfortunately, when I headed to my car, I stopped short when I realized it was blocked in by the hearse again. I knew I had not parked the hearse like that earlier, so who had been out in the behemoth? It didn’t matter. I could walk to the house and get there faster than if I went back into the funeral home for the keys to the hearse, moved the thing, and then got my car out.
I walked and texted Max to let him know where I was heading, then picked up the pace once the message was sent. It wasn’t easy in my heels and skirt, but it had to be done.
I flung open the door to the house, then called out to see where everyone was, hoping to catch Mrs. Petrovski in mid-haranguing without coming across that way.
It worked, I was pleased to say. She turned to me, with her eyes burning, her mouth turned down, and her fists clenched.
“Ma’am, to what do we owe the pleasure of your visit?” I said.
“I don’t need you to patronize me. I know you weren’t here when I arrived, and I want to know why. I saw your car over at your father’s. I’m not paying you to sit upstairs with your boyfriend and neck while your crew is here cleaning this monstrosity.”
How did she even know about my car? My low-slung car was parked in the drive-through portico at the funeral home’s entrance, and the hearse, parked right behind it, towered over it and made it impossible to see from the road. Not important, I told myself and soldiered on.
“I’m here now, and my crew is more than capable of doing all we have on our plate. With this new house that you gave us, we’ve had to rearrange some schedules.” I was not going to address the necking comment.
“Fine, but I want to know how soon you can have this place cleaned up.”
I looked around and was honestly astounded by the amount of work everyone had done so far. The floors were bare, if dirty, in the front room, and as I looked through the doorways in the shotgun-style house, I could see that the other rooms were in pretty much the same condition.
“I think you should be pleased with how much progress we’ve made so far. This place had a heap of junk all the way to the ceiling when we got here, and now we’re almost down to just the cleaning.”
Mrs. Petrovski scoffed. “It was not a hovel when I gave it to you, and the floors are dirtier now than they were when I was last here. I don’t know what you’re trying to pull, but I will not pay you for extra time just because you want to gouge me.”
Okay, so she was not one of those people who didn’t want to hurt my feelings, but that was okay.
Letty signaled to me over the woman’s shoulder. I had no idea what she was trying to tell me. She kept mouthing a word, yet I couldn’t for the life of me figure out what it was, though I knew what she was saying was important. Her shoulders dropped after three seconds, and she took her phone out of her pocket. Was she going to text me? I couldn’t look at my phone. My life depended on behaving right now.
Letty waved her phone at me, like that was supposed to help, and I gave a slight shake of my head.
“What do you mean no?” Mrs. Petrovski barked at me. Oh, man, she had still been talking.
“I’m so sorry. I felt a hair tickle my ear and was trying to get rid of it without interrupting you.” I frowned and then shot the same look at Letty.
“Fine. That’s acceptable. I do want this place cleaned up as soon as tomorrow, though. There is no reason why this should look dirtier than when I left it. Don’t make me regret that I let you in to do the work you say you and your crew can do.”
I seriously thought about telling her to stuff it but couldn’t. The ladies of the crew were depending on me.
Letty’s shoulders dropped farther as she shook her head. I wished I knew what she wanted, but I had no clue.
Finally, she stepped forward. “Tallie, I have those pictures we took of the house before we got started cleaning, just in case we had to remember where something went.”
Oh! There were pictures on the phone she had been waving at me. That made sense now.
“What pictures? And who gave you permission to photograph my house?” Mrs. Petrovski was on the warpath, no matter what was said.
I was quicker on my feet this time. “We photograph every house before we start housecleaning, in case there’s an issue down the road, as sometimes happens with the more intense jobs.” That was a total lie, but if she bought it, then I would sell it with everything I had.
She harrumphed but didn’t say anything else, so I took the phone from Letty and scanned through the pictures. Once I found the photo of the exact room we were standing in, I turned the phone toward the sourpuss woman.
“What am I looking at?” She pulled the glasses hanging on a chain around her neck up to her eyes and stared through the lenses instead of putting the glasses on her face.
“This is the room when we first arrived. This room, actually.” I carefully picked out a place on the wall that matched the wall in the photo exactly, because I just knew she was going to tell me that I was lying. I beat her to the punch as she opened her mouth. “If you look right here, you can see that the wainscoting is the same color as in the photo and placed at the same height at the push-button light switch.”
Her mouth snapped shut, and her glasses dropped as she stuck her hands on her hips. “You must be mistaken.”
So she was going to try, anyway. “I assure you I am not mistaken. When we came to this house, it was stuffed to the rafters with furniture and debris. There was some question about the person who cleaned next door just shoving things over here, instead of handling them, as she’d been asked to do.” It hurt to say that, because I didn’t like to speak ill of the
dead, and Audra had been my friend, or at least I had thought so. But there was no hiding the truth, and it was best to come clean about the whole thing right up front, especially if this was going to make us look better.
“I . . .” She grasped her throat and coughed and for a moment, I thought she might choke. “I don’t know what to say. When I handed you the keys, I certainly didn’t expect to have you walk into this. Where is everything?”
“It’s in the sunroom at the moment, unless it was trash, and then it went in the bin near the garage. We hadn’t discussed what you wanted to do with everything in here. You simply said to clean. When we got here and saw the amount of work, we just got to it, instead of calling for further instructions.” Because the woman would have had a fit and would have told me I was trying to get out of doing the job....
She closed her eyes and took a moment, either to calm herself or to figure out how not to apologize—I wasn’t sure which—but either was fine as long as she didn’t get angry again, at least not at us. “Well, as I said, I did not expect this. I can, of course, give you additional time to do your job correctly since this place will be on the market soon also. How much time do you need?”
I looked over at Letty, who raised a hand. Again, I did not know what she meant. We’d have to work on our telepathic skills. I took the safe route. “I’ll speak with the crew and consult the calendar. I should be able to text you tonight with an answer to that. In the meantime, what would you like done with the contents of the house that are in the sunroom?”
“Donate. Just donate it all, unless you find something that you believe has value and could be sold at auction. There shouldn’t have been much in here. I did ask that dratted Audra to donate everything before, but now I’m thinking that the receipts she gave me were fake. I already handed them to the man who does my taxes.”
“You might want to get them back or at least verify with the various places they came from that they’re real.”
“Yes, no doubt. I’ll leave you to your work, then, and I expect a phone call this evening to let me know when you will be done. I have high hopes that Chief Burton will be closing up this case shortly. I gave him the identity of the murderer just this afternoon, before I came here, so things should move swiftly now.”
My breath stopped in my throat. “You gave him the identity of the murderer?” I squeaked. Why hadn’t I heard this? Max was home doing research, when he could be with me, and instead I was alone, facing the dragon lady, while the murderer lazed around in jail. Why hadn’t Burton called me?
That was the big question, and one I was going to ask just as soon as I could get away from this house and phone him.
“I most certainly did. Preston Prescott got it into his head that he was going to take over things and had decided that he was going to marry that woman. I told him he would be cut out of the will, and apparently, he thought that if he couldn’t have her, then no one could. They should be picking him up now, and they’ll deal with him. He’s dead to me already.”
I nearly choked. Preston Prescott had been the number one suspect on my very short list. I’d wanted to talk to him again to see if I could get him to spill his beans, and now Mrs. P had just handed his name over to the police.
But nothing I had on Preston would be necessary now. Preston had been dating Audra and had given her that ring? And then, when his aunt had told him he’d be cut out of the will, he’d killed Audra instead of just breaking up with her? Or, even better, telling his domineering aunt where to go and marrying the woman he loved, anyway?
To say I was shocked would be an overstatement. Yes, I had thought he was the murderer, but it was still a theory, not something I would have completely bet on. He was a jerk, and I could see him thinking about actually doing Audra in when his inheritance was in jeopardy. But he’d given Audra a ring even when she was dating Caleb? How had she kept her two lives running concurrently?
Here was where the shock came in: Who knew he had it in him? Even I had been struggling with that part of my theory. He might talk a big game, but he always let other people do his dirty work. Then again, I guessed anyone could be pushed to kill for something. Or at least that was what all the podcasts about murders I’d been listening to lately seemed to say.
I had to get out of here, though, and see if I could talk with Preston before Burton caught up with him. I still wanted to know how he had done it. I didn’t want to wait for the newspapers to print the story, because I knew they’d never report the whole thing, and I wanted to know what had actually happened. Call me morbid or just overly curious, but I wanted to see what Preston would tell me.
I walked Mrs. Petrovski out of the house after telling her we’d be done as soon as possible. Once I came back into the front room, I planned and made detailed lists with Letty about how we would get this monstrosity cleaned, then realized I was twenty minutes away from having to drive the hearse for a funeral this evening.
After wishing my crew good luck and waving good-bye, I ran home as fast as I could. I didn’t try to text anyone on the way, as I did not want to stumble into a light pole or trip over a crack in the sidewalk and make myself late.
I buzzed into the apartment after shouting to my mother that I’d see her in a few when she tried to stop me on the stairs.
“The cops have the perp on their radar and are looking for him to question him,” I told Max as I entered the apartment. I went right for the closet. I shooed Mr. Fleefers out of the way when he came through the back of the closet. I always forgot that door to the other side of the building was in the back of the closet. He had a toy in his mouth, but he dropped it long enough to hiss at me, then picked it back up and sauntered away. Peanut ran in circles around the cat, then lay down for the cat to knead his claws into her back.
“Who?” Max turned around on his kitchen chair. He had spreadsheets and a ton of windows open on the laptop. I doubted it was our case he was researching.
“Preston Prescott, if you can believe it.” I pulled out a blouse and a black skirt, then zoomed into the bathroom to change, leaving the door open a crack so I could continue to talk while I dressed. The dirt in that house had clung to my clothes. Even though I would just be driving the hearse, I still had to be up to Graver Funeral Home standards.
“Really? Preston? I just don’t see him being able to do something like that.”
“He could be cruel after he’d been drinking. I would think he could conjure that up all on his own without the vodka when dear auntie told him that he’d be disowned if he married a girl not of her liking.” I yanked my blush and eyeliner out from under the sink and reapplied both as quickly as possible.
“He wanted to marry Audra? But I thought she was engaged to Caleb.”
I told him the whole sordid story about how Caleb had never proposed to her and how she had suddenly shown up with a ring on her finger. One he hadn’t given her and one whose origins he had no idea about. I also explained that Preston hadn’t wanted anyone to have her if he couldn’t have her, according to his aunt.
“That must be why he kept hanging around and showing up during the investigation. He wanted to see if anyone knew that it was him, so he could cover it up. Not a bad idea, actually, but it didn’t work this time.” I chuckled. Stupid people who thought they could get away with murder. The identity of the murderer almost always came out at some point.
“And he’s the one who called the truck to pick up the Dumpster?”
I poked my head out of the bathroom as I brushed my hair into a bun. “I guess so. I haven’t had a chance to talk with him or with Burton. By the time the aunt left and I got the brigade in order, it was time for me to hustle back here.” I placed the brush back on the counter and stepped back into my heels. “I’m sorry to run again, but I have to drive this evening, and then I’ll be home. At that point, I promise we can talk all we want and also have some time together without a murderer on the loose. Won’t that be nice?”
He chuckled. “Be safe out ther
e driving that beast.”
“I took my driver’s test in that beast. It’s my kitten. Bye. I love you.” I ran up to him, gave him a quick kiss on the forehead, stepped away, then stopped, turned around, and laid one on his lips. “I’ll see you soon.”
“I’ll look forward to it,” he said.
After taking the stairs two at a time—which was a feat in heels—I scooted past my mother again and went right for the hearse. The body would have to be loaded in, so I pulled into the drive-through portico and waited.
I didn’t have long to sit there, since I was right on time, and so were my father and brother. I smiled at them both and got a side-eye from my dad and a frown from my brother. Let them have their doubts about my happiness. I, for one, knew that I was not going to have to face a criminal before he was caught. I would not have to have that showdown where they delivered a monologue about the ways in which the world had done them wrong, and that was why they thought they had to kill to make their life better, but instead they only made it worse. It was a good day in my book. And Burton would solve the case, and maybe that would make him happy enough to smile once in a while.
Like I said, a good day.
My dad thumped the top of the hearse to let me know I was locked and loaded. I carefully pulled out into traffic, knowing that I would have a long line of cars behind me with their lights on, announcing that this was a funeral procession.
There was something so quiet and solemn about this part of the journey. No one talking to me, no one demanding anything. I didn’t even turn the radio on, though I could have. Instead, I drove slowly to the cemetery on Sycamore Street, winding through the streets of our little town to the top of the hill and turning left. I kept an eye out behind me to make sure I still had a car right behind me with its lights on. Some people in the procession would get held up at a light or two, but there was nothing I could do about that, and it was to be expected. They all had maps to where they were going in case they got left behind. It was part of the program my father drew up in the office on the second floor.
