Tj Jensen Cozy Mystery Boxed Set 2: Books 6-10

by Kathi Daley

  Kyle and I would be working that evening on the theory that the book Striker had been reading in the library provided a clue, and we planned to follow up on Jennifer Reinhold’s death tomorrow, so I wanted to focus my thoughts. I turned to a new page and jotted down the suspects that were left, along with any notes I had about each.

  I began with Striker Bristow. I had a strong feeling he could be our guy. Money was about as strong a motivator as you were likely to find, especially when so much of it was involved. Next to his name I wrote the words land ownership. And even if he turned out not to be guilty of killing Judge Harper, I was interested in the circumstances that surrounded a large plot of Collins land being sold to him. Below the words land ownership I added Frannie’s book. I didn’t know if Bristow found something to blackmail Judge Harper with or an old forgotten statute that might help his cause, but I did think Frannie’s book could very well end up providing an important clue.

  I skipped a couple of lines and then entered my next suspect, who, at this point, I could only think of as the person who actually killed Steven Reinhold’s wife. Trying to figure out first if Steven was innocent, as his neighbor claimed, and second, who was really guilty if that were the case, wasn’t going to be an easy matter. Still, it made sense that the real killer would feel threatened if Judge Harper began to look into the old case. If Steven did turn out to be innocent, I would have to rank this as-yet-unnamed individual my number one suspect. For the time being I listed this suspect as possible wife killer.

  And then there was Sam Wilson. The guy had always been odd, but there was something about him that made me downright uncomfortable. Killing a man for sleeping with your mother might be a bit extreme, but Sam struck me as an extreme sort of guy. Still, at this point I considered the likelihood that he did it to be a distant third to the other two, but my instincts told me it was too early to eliminate him.

  “Tj,” I heard Gracie shout.

  I looked up to see Kyle and his team standing in front of the best Cinderella sandcastle I’d ever seen. I had to hand it to the man, who had a huge grin on his face; when he said he could do something he almost always came through, no matter how huge the challenge. I was still getting used to us as a couple, but I did realize, as I watched him jumping up and down with the girls as they were awarded a second-place ribbon, that I was a very lucky woman to have such a totally wonderful guy in my life.

  Later that evening Kyle and I settled into his computer room with the documents we’d copied from Judge Harper’s files as well as the file Roy sent over, the book Frannie had lent us, and the notes we’d made. Since we planned to focus on Jennifer Reinhold’s murder the following day and I’d all but eliminated Sam as a suspect, we decided to focus our efforts on Striker Bristow. What we really needed to do, I decided, was speak to the man in person. It was too late to call him this evening, but perhaps I’d follow up tomorrow.

  “Let’s start with the book,” I suggested.

  Kyle moved over to a table with conference-style chairs surrounding it and opened it to the first page. “It’s hard to know where to start.”

  “Frannie said the men were looking at the middle third of the book, so let’s start one third of the way in,” I suggested after taking a seat next to Kyle.

  I could feel the warmth from Kyle’s shoulder next to mine as we worked side by side. I tried to focus on each page of the book as Kyle carefully turned the pages, but all I could think about was how much I wanted to kiss him. I guess it was always this way at the beginning of a relationship. I could remember being hypersensitive to the presence of other men I dated in the beginning, but somehow my heart knew this was different. I glanced at Kyle’s face. He was looking intently at the page he’d just turned to. I wondered if he was as aware of our shoulders touching as I was.

  “Look at this.” Kyle pointed to the page.

  He was looking at a newspaper article dated June 5, 1974.

  “What does it say?” I asked.

  “Apparently a young attorney working for the district attorney’s office mishandled some evidence and it ended up being inadmissible in court. The end result was that a man who’d been on trial for killing someone in a bar fight went free and he killed someone else later.”

  “Oh, no. That’s awful. But what does that have to do with Judge Harper?’

  “The young attorney responsible for the man going free was none other than Harold Harper before he was a judge.”

  I frowned. “You think Bristow somehow found out about the black mark on Judge Harper’s otherwise outstanding career and hoped to blackmail him into changing his position on the strip mall in exchange for his silence?”

  “Maybe. I suppose young attorneys make mistakes all the time, and I’m not sure if this mistake is one Judge Harper tried to bury, but it seems that at the very least it’s worth following up on.”

  “I agree. Let’s try calling Bristow tomorrow and see if he will meet with us.”

  “If Bristow did kill Judge Harper, he’s unlikely to say as much,” Kyle pointed out.

  “True. But maybe we can pick up a vibe. It seems to me it might be important to find out how the judge responded to Bristow’s threat, if a threat was even made. If the judge agreed to change his vote to support Bristow’s project in exchange for his silence, he would have no motive to tamper with the car. However, if Judge Harper resisted Bristow’s blackmail threat that could have angered Bristow enough to take the next step and make his demands more clearly heard.”

  Kyle took a photo of the article with his phone so we would have it with us the following day. “Do you want to keep looking?” he asked.

  I yawned. “No. I’m exhausted. I really should get home. If the lead with Bristow doesn’t work out we can still try to speak to Clarissa Halloran tomorrow as planned. If that doesn’t turn up anything we can come back to the book tomorrow evening.”

  Kyle closed the book, then turned so he was facing me. I felt the heat rise to my face as Kyle cupped my cheeks in his hands and looked deeply into my eyes. My heart began to pound as he opened his mouth just a bit. It seemed like he was going to say something, but then at the last minute he leaned forward and kissed me. I wrapped my arms around his neck and kissed him back.

  After a moment, he pulled away. “About that rain check from earlier.”

  I took a breath and blew it out as I willed my heart to slow. “What about it?”

  “I know you said you were tired, but I was thinking now might be a good time to cash it in.”

  I leaned forward and kissed Kyle softly on the lips. “Now is good.”

  Kyle took my hand and led me to the sofa. He sat down and then pulled me into his lap. Every bit of fatigue I’d been feeling suddenly faded away as his lips once again met mine.

  Chapter 14

  Monday, July 3

  I woke up with a smile on my face. Last night with Kyle had turned out to be very datelike indeed. Not that Kyle wasn’t a perfect gentleman; it was, after all, part two of our first date, but first dates led to second dates, which led to tenth dates and the inevitable question of would we or wouldn’t we. Honestly, I couldn’t remember being quite so nervous about that particular question since the first time back in high school with Hunter.

  I had to wonder if Kyle was as nervous as I was.

  “What do you think?” I asked Echo, who was lying on the rug next to my bed. “Do I bring the subject up with Kyle and let him know how I’m feeling, or do I just let things go and see what happens?”

  Echo barked in response, but I wasn’t sure. If I just let things unfold naturally, was I setting myself up for an awkward and uncomfortable situation down the line? Would he be ready to move on to physical intimacy in the complete sense sooner than I was?

  I pulled my pillow over my head and let out a long groan. It was too early in the morning to be thinking about this sort of thing. I was sure that if Kyl
e did make his move he wasn’t going to make it today, so maybe I should just put the subject on hold and focus my energy on the murder investigation. The previous evening Kyle and I had decided to dig into Jennifer Reinhold’s murder today to see what we could find out after all this time.

  I rolled out of bed and headed to the shower. Kyle was picking me up in less than an hour, so I’d need to get going if I wanted to spend a few minutes with the family before I left. I felt bad I wasn’t going to be spending time at the resort, but Grandpa seemed to have everything under control, and we all really wanted to figure out who had killed Judge Harper.

  “Pancakes?” Grandpa asked when I made my way downstairs and into the kitchen.

  “No, thanks. Coffee is fine. Kyle will be here soon. We’re going to stop in to see Dad and then do some investigating. Do you have everything here at the resort covered?”

  “It’s all taken care of.”

  “Where’s Rosalie?”

  “She’s over at the vet clinic. She does discount shots on Mondays.”

  “Rosalie has kittens,” Gracie informed me.

  “Kittens? Where did she get kittens?”

  “Someone brought in a stray cat who was in labor. She said there are four. One has stripes. Can we get one?”

  “I don’t think so. We already have four cats. I think four is plenty.”

  “We have four cats, but we don’t have any kittens,” Gracie insisted.

  I poured some milk into my coffee. “Kittens are really just small cats.” I decided to change the subject before Gracie wore me down and we doubled the cat population in the house. “What are you girls planning to do today?”

  “Kristi and I are going to a movie,” Ashley informed me.

  “That sounds fun. What are you going to see?”

  “I’m not sure. Jenna’s going to find out what’s playing and then we’ll decide.”

  I turned toward my youngest sister. “How about you, Gracie?”

  “Kari’s grandma is going to watch us until Aunt Jenna gets off work. Did you know Kari’s grandma moved into Bookman’s big house?”

  “Yes, I did know that.”

  “Are they getting married like Papa and Rosalie?”

  “Yes, they are. Now finish your breakfast. I’ll call Jenna to let her know I’ll drop you both in town to save her the effort of coming out to get you.”

  Luckily, the girls and I were all ready by the time Kyle arrived. We dropped the girls off at their respective locations and then headed to the hospital to see Dad. He seemed to be doing better with each day that passed. I hoped he’d soon mend to the point where he could come home.

  Kyle and I were standing hand in hand waiting for the elevator when Hunter appeared. He gave us a funny look before he quickly recovered and greeted us.

  “Here to see your dad?”

  I nodded. “How’s he doing?”

  “Much better. He wants to go home, which I might consider in another day or two, but he’s going to need help getting around. Things are so busy at the resort right now, I was going to suggest that you might want to line up a nurse to come to the house, at least for the first week or so.”

  “I’ll talk to Rosalie about it, but that sounds like a good idea.”

  “You’ll need to set up a bed downstairs for him as well, at least until the cast comes off his leg. If you can get those two things handled, I might be willing to release him as early as Wednesday.”

  I felt such a sense of relief. “Thank you again for everything you’ve done for Dad.”

  Hunter shrugged. “Just doing my job.”

  He headed down the hall as Kyle and I entered the elevator. Our encounter had been awkward, but it could have been a whole lot worse. I hoped once Hunter got used to seeing Kyle and me together the weirdness would fade and we could all go back to being friends who were comfortable in one another’s company.

  I waved to the nurse at the station as we passed. She waved back but didn’t detain us in any way, so I continued down the hall to Dad’s room.

  “Tj, Kyle. I’m so glad the two of you stopped by,” Dad greeted us. “Now that I’m starting to feel better I’m going stir crazy just lying here.”

  I crossed the room and kissed him on the cheek. “We ran into Hunter on our way up. He seems to think you can come home later in the week so long as you’re okay with us hiring a nurse to help take care of you.”

  “I don’t need a nurse,” he grumbled.

  “Dad, you can’t walk. You need a nurse, at least until you can get around on crutches. I’m going to talk to Rosalie later, but I’m sure she’ll agree that temporary help is a must.”

  Dad made a face, although he didn’t respond.

  “I suppose I could just tell Hunter to keep you here until you can get around on your own.”

  “A nurse will be fine,” Dad said, giving in. “But only for a few days. Once I get my strength back I’ll be able to manage on my own.”

  “I’ll talk to Rosalie about it. I’m sure she’ll be glad to have you home. We all will.”

  Dad adjusted his position in the bed. The poor guy looked so uncomfortable. “I thought Rosalie might be by this morning.”

  “It’s Monday: clinic day,” I reminded him.

  “Oh, that’s right. She reminded me about it before she left last night. I guess I’m becoming forgetful in my old age. What are the two of you up to today?”

  I hesitated before I answered. I wanted to talk to Dad about the accident, but I wasn’t 100 percent certain if anyone had discussed it with him yet. I didn’t want to be the one to bring up the subject of his friend’s death if he didn’t already know. “We’re looking into the accident. Has anyone explained to you exactly what happened?”

  Dad frowned and then sighed. “Yeah. Bookman filled me in. I can’t believe Harold is gone. The whole thing seems surreal. One minute we were chatting about going fishing and the next he was fighting to control the car.”

  “Did Bookman mention that the car had been tampered with?”

  Dad let out a long breath. “Yeah. He told me it seems someone intentionally caused the accident. I’ve been thinking about that a lot this morning. I know it seems as if someone murdered Harold, but I’m not sure that’s the case.”

  I crossed the room and sat down on the chair next to Dad’s bed. “What do you mean? Of course someone murdered him. The brake lines in his car were cut.”

  “I understand that, but hear me out,” Dad insisted. “I’ve spoken to Roy and it seems the brakes had a slow leak. The accident occurred five miles after we left the community center. Unfortunately, the brakes failed at the exact spot where the highway hugs the lakeshore after going up over the big hill that drops sharply toward the lake. When the brakes failed, we were going down the steepest part, where the sharp curve veers to the right. It just so happens there’s a significant drop-off in that exact spot. If the brakes had failed almost anywhere else on the road, the accident probably wouldn’t have been fatal.”

  “Maybe the person who cut the brake line was skilled enough to make sure the car failed at that exact spot,” I said.

  “While that could be possible—although, to be honest, I sort of doubt it—Harold wasn’t supposed to be on the west side of the lake that night. If my car hadn’t broken down and Harold hadn’t offered me a ride, he would have driven through town and then headed out to Lakeshore Estates. That road is completely flat. Harold would most likely have ended up on the beach or in a field. He certainly wouldn’t be dead.”

  “You don’t think the person who tampered with the brakes meant to kill him?”

  “I think the faulty brakes might have been meant as a warning. I don’t have any evidence to back that up, but I do think it should at least be looked at as a possibility. I told Roy as much when he came by earlier this morning.”

  I paused. D
ad made a good argument. If the intention had been to send a warning to Judge Harper and not kill him, it could open up our suspect list. We’d only been looking at people we felt might be motivated to kill the judge. If we also looked at people whose motive might be to send a message, I was certain we’d find new suspects.

  “Suppose the reason someone tampered with the judge’s car was to send him a warning of some sort and not to kill him. Can you think of someone who might have wanted to send Judge Harper that warning?” I asked.

  Dad shook his head. “No. I’ve been thinking about it and thinking about it and I have no idea.”

  “Did anything else happen that night?” I wondered. “You’d just left a town council meeting. Did anything that was discussed stand out as being particularly controversial or important? Was Judge Harper worried about something? Had he argued with anyone? Was someone hanging around after the meeting?”

  Dad paused and considered my questions. He had a thoughtful expression on his face. “I can’t think of anything, but my memories of that night are still fuzzy. I keep hoping that if I think about it long enough something will come to me. You might ask the other council members about the meeting. Until my memory comes back completely they’d be better equipped to fill you in on the details.”

  “That’s a good idea.” I smiled at Dad and put my hand over his.

  “Did you ever find out why your truck wouldn’t start?” Kyle asked.

  “The battery was dead. I’m not sure why. The truck seemed to be running fine earlier in the day. I guess there could have been a drain on the system I wasn’t aware of. Roy had the truck towed over to the repair shop. He was going to talk to the mechanic to see if he can find out exactly what the problem was.”