Trouble Restored

by Carolyn Haines

  “If I hear anything else, do you want me to let you know?” Nancy said before Harley shut the door.

  “That would be great.” Tommie went back to her desk and wrote her number on a slip of paper. “Call me here. And thank you, Nancy.”

  “No problem.”

  * * *

  Tommie and Harley walked across the courthouse grounds and back to Tommie’s car. She realized instantly that Trouble was missing. “Where could he have gone?” she asked, turning in all directions. It was a beautiful fall day and the sound of saws and construction could be heard about two blocks away.

  “I don’t see how a cat that…healthy could squeeze out the open window,” Harley said.

  “I was warned he was smart. And determined. Now we need to find him.”

  “He belongs to the bookstore owner. Maybe he went back there,” Harley suggested. “Wherever he is, the cat is smart and most likely doing exactly what he wants to do.”

  “Or maybe he’s at the construction site. Let’s check there first. I need to talk to Hank and Katie Evans anyway.”

  “The construction is on the way to the bookstore so that’s a plan.”

  As they were walking companionably down the sidewalk, Tommie cut a look over at Harley. “Nancy is a little sweet on you.”

  “You think?” He looked honestly surprised.

  “Definitely.”

  “She’s a nice enough woman.”

  “She thinks you’re a bit more than nice.” Tommie couldn’t believe she was teasing Harley. When she’d first met him, he’d seemed so somber and formidable. Now she was causing his ears to turn red. “If I had to guess, I think she’s hoping you’ll ask her out. That’s why she was being so helpful.”

  “I don’t want to disappoint her, or anyone, but that’s a false hope.”

  Tommie unexpectedly felt a little thrill. She liked that Harley wasn’t interested in the receptionist.

  As they approached the construction area, the sounds grew louder. A big saw kicked in and it was impossible to talk more. Tommie saw the petite Katie in a hard hat, steel-toe boots, and a tool belt. She was working right along with the men as they began taking a front porch off an old house. When the saw stopped, Tommie called out. She didn’t want to enter the work area because of liability issues for the renovation crew.

  Katie waved, called to Hank, who came out from under the porch, and they walked over. “We’ve got an estimate for you,” Hank said. “It’s low because we really want to do that work. It would give our TV show a little extra juice.” He handed her a folded sheet of paper from his pocket.

  Tommie read over the figures and grinned. It was so much less than she’d anticipated. “When can you start work?”

  “In a day or so. I’ll have to order supplies and have them delivered. We’ll work as quickly as possible, but you’ll be without a kitchen for a little while.”

  “Not a problem,” Tommie said. She wanted to dance a jig in the street. This was better than she’d ever dreamed. “How long do you think?”

  Hank chuckled. “Well, if you wanted to, you could open the inn by Christmas I would think.”

  “Christmas!” Tommie couldn’t help herself. She saw the manor all decorated in Christmas finery and the windows ablaze. The front parlor would be perfect with a giant fir tree trimmed with colored lights and ornaments.

  “Tommie, honey,” Katie touched her shoulder. “Are you okay? You kind of left us.”

  Tommie shook her head to hide her embarrassment. “I was just seeing the manor all decorated for Christmas. You know, a little time-forward fantasy.”

  “You’re giving the approval to move on this project?” Hank asked.

  “You bet I do.” She saw that even Harley was smiling. He might not care for the idea of the manor being an inn, but he seemed genuinely happy for her.

  “Me-ow!” The adamant cry of a cat made them all turn and look across the street where Trouble sat on top of the same black SUV that had been at the lawyer’s office. Nina Ahearn’s car. And he was swatting at the window again. Tommie’s heart jumped into her throat. Trouble was going to get himself killed on such a busy road.

  “I’ll get him.” Tommie dashed across the street with the intention of scooping the cat into her arms. “You little beggar, you’re going to be a pancake in the road if you keep taking such risks. Now stay with me or I’m going to take you to the bookstore and leave you where you’re safe.”

  She heard Harley calling her name in an agitated voice and she stopped as she was reaching up for the cat. She heard a woman scream and Hank Evans call out, “Stop! Stop!”

  The next thing she knew she was smacked hard by a heavy body and she was flying through the air. She landed against the curb with a bone-jarring thud. There was the sound of squealing tires and a red sports car sped away.

  She looked over to see Harley also sprawled in the asphalt. He slowly sat up, blood coming from the palm of one hand where he’d scraped it on the roadway. A heavy silence had fallen over the work crews as they gathered at the edge of the road to gawk.

  “Are you hurt?” Tommie asked him while she was still moving her arms and legs to make certain nothing was broken on her.

  “I’m fine. Just scraped up a little.” Harley pushed his hair out of his face as he sat up taller.

  “What happened?” Tommie was still stunned. She hadn’t hit her head, but nothing made sense.

  “Odell Rains almost ran you down,” Harley said as he stood up, dusted off his hands, and pulled her to her feet.

  “You knocked me out of the way.” She was still trying to process what had occurred.

  “Odell either wasn’t looking or she meant to harm you. We need to call the police.”

  “No!” Tommie realized she wasn’t hurt. “No, I don’t want to involve the police. Not until we get to the bottom of what’s going on here.”

  “Are you sure?” Harley asked her, lowering his voice as Hank and Katie started running toward them.

  “I’m sure. For the moment. It could have been an accident.” But she didn’t believe that for a minute. There were far too many accidents associated with Loftus Manor and the people there for Odell’s near vehicular homicide to be mere coincidence. She reached up and grabbed Trouble from the top of the car. The cat was uncharacteristically docile, as if he felt guilty for what had happened.

  Tommie forced a smile for Hank and Katie as they rushed up. Katie was extremely pale. “Are you hurt? Harley, what about you? That was some flying tackle you performed. You literally flew ten feet through the air! It was amazing.”

  “We’re both okay,” Harley said, but the look he shot at Tommie was less confident. She knew he really wanted to call the police and he didn’t understand her reluctance.

  “Where did Odell come from?” Tommie asked.

  Hank cleared his throat. “I saw the whole thing while Harley was perfecting his flying tackle to help Tommie. That woman was parked down by the bookstore in the city lot. She tore out of the parking area like the devil was after her.”

  “Do you think she was trying to injure you?” Katie asked Tommie.

  “I don’t know,” Tommie answered truthfully. She didn’t know anything for certain, and she didn’t want to level any accusations she couldn’t back up.

  Harley brushed at some dirt on her shoulder. “Odell, the woman in the car, has made a claim against Samuel’s estate. It’s possible she didn’t mean to cut it that close to hitting Tommie. Maybe the sun was in her eyes. Maybe it was…deliberate. A warning or a real attempt to harm Tommie.”

  Hank snorted. “There was no sun blinding her. What kind of claim is she laying?”

  “That she’s Samuel’s illegitimate child,” Tommie said quietly.

  “Then you need to watch your step, Tommie,” Hank said. “You could have been killed. I agree with Harley. Let’s call the police.”

  “No.” Tommie wasn’t ready to do that, even though both men had voiced the exact same sentiment. Judging from Kat
ie’s face, the renovator was also thinking that it was time to involve law officers. “My step-mom used to always tell me to give a person enough rope and they’d hang themselves. I want her to show her hand, and that’s going to take some time.” Tommie picked up the list of proposed changes that Hank had written up. “This is an incredible list and price. I’m so excited. Let’s get started on the renovations as soon as you can,” she said.

  “I’ll have some supplies delivered as soon as possible, maybe tomorrow even. I’ll be there with a work crew to start tearing out the old kitchen as soon as the goods are delivered. And you need to have in mind the type of professional cooking gear you’ll need. The range and refrigerators will be key to your success.”

  “I can’t believe this is really happening,” Tommie said. She was a little stunned, from the speed of the renovations and the near brush with death.

  “It won’t all go this fast,” Hank warned her. “Keep in mind that we may run into plumbing or electrical work that needs to be done also. That could slow us way down.”

  Tommie nodded. “I understand. But at least we’re getting started.”

  Chapter Thirteen

  The Coosa River was fast flowing, as evidenced by the white water where it rumbled over rocks and boulders. Tommie sat on a blanket on the bank of the river with Trouble in her lap and Harley beside her. The near car accident had taken the wind out of her sails, and even though she needed to clear up some legal issues and dig deeper into Odell and Nina, she simply couldn’t confront it. Not yet.

  Harley had suggested a walk to the river when they’d returned to Loftus Manor. He’d brought a bottle of wine. She’d finished one glass and sipped at a second, letting the tight spring in her gut uncoil.

  The area around her—the woods and bluff that fronted the water—was more beautiful than she’d expected. The South wasn’t known for colorful fall foliage, but there were touches of red and yellow in the trees that surrounded them. The solitude was fabulous. She couldn’t hear a car or any human-made noise, just the calls of various birds, the chatter of a squirrel in a walnut tree, and the rustle of the leaves in a breeze.

  The black cat stretched on the blanket beside her leg. While he was relaxed, he was also vigilant. The ability to be both simultaneously was a feline talent, and one she envied. She had so much to do, but she longed to stay here, in this safe little paradise, a bit longer.

  “You mentioned that the docks are dangerous,” she said to Harley, who sat quietly beside her. “Why?”

  “Getting down the bluff here can be a challenge for even someone skilled in hiking rough terrain. If it’s raining, it’s very dangerous. The banks are clay and they get really slick when wet. Your feet will fly out from under you, and you could end up falling all the way to the river.”

  The prospect of a twenty or thirty-foot drop wasn’t appealing. “And the water? Is it okay to swim in it?”

  “The Coosa has been clean and a wonderful recreational river—so far. But the currents are treacherous. The docks were once an important part of life at Loftus Manor when supplies and goods came and went by water. Now it’s just for pleasure craft. I don’t know when the last time the docks were checked for safety and stability, so please stay away from them until an expert has assessed them.”

  It was the please that made her smile. “Okay.”

  He poured another dollop of wine in her glass. “All of this will come together in good time, Tommie. You’ve been here less than forty-eight hours. Give yourself some time.”

  “Do you think Odell really meant to hit me?” she asked. It was a tough thing to ponder. She’d never had enemies in her life. Sure, there were people she disliked, but no one who would deliberately do her harm.

  “I don’t know,” Harley said. He met her gaze. “I really think we should report the incident to the police. I can call the bookseller’s boyfriend, Aiden. He’ll look into it and be discreet.”

  Tommie shook her head. “I don’t want to escalate this. If Odell truly is Samuel’s child, I’d like to be able to work this out with her. If we bring the law into it, then it’s out of my hands. An officer may charge her. He would have to, in fact, if he thought she’d tried to harm me.”

  “Which would be the smart thing to do,” Harley pointed out. “She could have killed you.”

  “But she didn’t. Thanks to you.” Tommie was still a little in awe of Harley’s bravery to leap in front of a speeding car to push her to safety. “Thank heavens you weren’t hurt.”

  “We were both lucky, but if that woman is gunning for you, you might not escape unscathed the next time.”

  He was right about that. She knew it. She also knew she was latching onto a foolish notion that if Odell was really a Loftus, then they were related. If part of the Loftus estate belonged to Odell, Tommie wanted her to have it. That was a really big if, though. The matter needed to be settled quickly before she got so involved in turning the manor into an inn that she got her heart broken in the process.

  “Give me a chance to talk to her again.”

  Harley only sighed, and the black cat bumped her chin with the top of his head. She stroked his sleek fur. From the pocket of her jeans she pulled up the coroner’s report. “We should look at this.” She shifted closer to Harley so they could read together.

  The report was brief with the basic facts of Samuel’s life and a bit of medical language—and the ruling of death by suicide, hanging.

  Harley read it through and got to his feet. “I still don’t believe it. They can rule anything they want, you know. And it isn’t signed by the medical examiner, only the coroner here in Wetumpka.”

  “Do you know this Leo Moore?” Tommie asked. She’d begun to understand that in a town the size of Wetumpka, most people knew everyone else. It was both charming and horrifying.

  “I don’t know Leo well. Never had an occasion to be around him.”

  “Is he honest?”

  Harley didn’t answer right away, and Tommie sat up taller as she waited for his answer.

  “He has no training. Coroner and sheriff are elected here. Sometimes the people elect professional office holders, and sometimes popular ones. Leo is a real glad-hander. Folks like him because he puts them at ease. I’m pretty sure he just went along with what the medical examiner in Montgomery had to say.”

  “Britt Gordon, Uncle Samuel’s lawyer, said they’d done an examination of the body in Montgomery and the ruling was without doubt.” She faced Harley. “But I have doubts. And so do you.”

  “People make mistakes.” Harley offered his hand to pull her to her feet. “Let’s see if we can find any information on Odell Rains.”

  “How can we do that?” Tommie asked.

  “I have internet and a computer in the cottage. We can start there. Samuel was deeply involved in the Loftus history. He was always researching and writing letters to people. He was obsessive about the Loftus line, which is how he knew about you. I have to believe if there was a chance he’d had a child, he would have noted it. I believe he would have claimed Odell as his child. If he knew. If it’s real and not some elaborate scheme made up to cheat you.”

  “Odell is one problem, what about Nina Ahearn?”

  Harley laughed softly. “She was good to your uncle. Never doubt that. If I’d had any idea she was trying to pull off a scam like this, I would have intervened. She always seemed to enjoy being Samuel’s personal assistant, managing the house and meals, driving him to doctor’s appointments. He didn’t require care, as in skilled nursing care. It was always my impression that Samuel gave her a place to live and a job so he could pay her because she didn’t have a lot of options.”

  That sounded a lot more like what she’d come to expect of her uncle. “You didn’t think it odd that someone so…young and attractive would be happy so isolated in an old house with an older man?”

  Harley hesitated before he answered. He seemed to be thinking her question through. “The first time I saw Nina, I was shocked. I admit t
hat. It seemed incongruous. She does look like a woman who’d be out to marry into a more permanent…situation where her future was assured. Watching her interact with Samuel, though, I completely bought the story she told—that she enjoyed caring for him and living in the manor was the solution to a lot of her problems.”

  “But…” She appreciated Harley’s careful wording. He wasn’t a man who wanted to blacken or malign anyone in a slap-dash manner.

  “I was suspicious at first, but after the first few months, Nina became a part of the manor. She stayed busy and seemed content with her life. Samuel and I just drifted into the rhythm. She made it easy for us with home-cooked meals and always a laugh. And she wasn’t intrusive. Sometimes she’d eat with us but just as often not. When the meal was done, she’d clean the kitchen and then disappear in her room.”

  “How long has she been here?”

  “I have to think,” Harley said. “Over a year.”

  “How did Samuel find her?”

  Harley’s eyes widened. “I don’t know. I don’t believe he ever said. One day I was working in the side garden and saw her old car go down the drive. When I walked up to the big house to see if Samuel wanted to play a game of chess, Nina was here moving the last of her things from her trunk up to her bedroom. Then she was simply here. She fell into place.”

  Tommie didn’t want to ask the next question, but she had to. “You never got a hint of anything romantic between Nina and Uncle Samuel?”

  “Not the first whisper,” Harley said with conviction. “They were friendly, but there was never an indication that they felt anything for each other.”

  “She’s a pretty woman.” Tommie found it hard to drop the subject.

  “She is, but Samuel was devotedly in love with his wife. Rachel was gone, but not from his heart. He said it and he meant it.”

  Tommie smiled at the quaint sentiment Harley expressed. So few people seemed to believe in true love forever. “How can we prove this so-called marriage is a fraud?”