Mrs. Fix It Mysteries, Season 2 (5 Cozy Mystery Books Collection)

by Belle Knudson

  Reading between the lines, she asked, “Do you think the drug dealers know that? Do you think they wanted you to search the park so you would be distracted?”

  “It crossed my mind.” He kissed her forehead and opened the door for her. “Try to relax. I’ll be home soon.”

  Kate did just that, or she tried to. She drew a hot bath, plucked a novel off the bookshelf—making sure to choose a lighthearted romance and not a murder mystery—and poured herself a glass of white wine, having gotten the craving from Justina. That half glass of chardonnay hadn’t been nearly enough.

  As she sipped her wine in the bath and cracked open the novel, her fast-working mind wasn’t even in the ballpark of calming down enough to get lost in the story. She drank more wine, hoping it would help soothe her worries and get her centered, but it only riled up her anxiety.

  Where had Jason gone after he fled Over the Moon? He promised he wouldn’t leave town, but she hadn’t heard from him. How was she supposed to carry the weight of his secret? It had only been a day, and already it was a terrible burden. But the alternative—turning him in—was unthinkable.

  Then it occurred to her. Scott was inclined to believe Donna and Jenna had the same killer. Kate was confident Jason hadn’t killed Jenna. Would it be the end of the world if Scott caught Jenna’s killer and pinned Donna’s murder on that person, as well?

  She didn’t like that she was even considering it, but as a mother, how could she not? A mother never stops protecting her child, never stops caring and worrying, no matter what.

  It was less than a sliver of hope, but enough to calm her mind. She sank into the bubbles, took another sip of wine, and began reading the first chapter of her book.

  An hour passed, and when she finally set her book on the ledge of the tub and stepped out, her fingers were wrinkly and she felt very relaxed. She dried off and dressed in her sweats and a comfy robe.

  In the living room, she sat on the couch and realized her cell phone, which she had set on the coffee table, was flashing with a voice message. She swiped the LCD screen and saw that she had not one message, but three.

  The first message was from Dean Wentworth, explaining he had made the mistake of stacking too many files on a shelf. The weight of it broke the shelf and he was wondering if she could come by and fix it

  The second was Jared touching base. He sounded as though he were trying to come across as calm, but there was an edge to his tone. Lastly, he asked if she had heard from Jason.

  The final message was from Jason. He sounded rushed and panicked, saying that he had a lead on Becky.

  Kate’s heart skipped a beat, and she sat up on the couch, listening.

  “Don’t call me,” he said. “I’ll call you.”

  How could he ask her not to call after leaving a message like that? It was torture. Quickly, she dialed Jared, hoping that speaking with him would shed light on his twin’s alarming message.

  “Hey, Mom,” he said. It sounded like he was driving. She could hear the whirl of tires flying over a highway and light music playing from his car radio.

  “What’s going on with Jason?” she cut in.

  “I haven’t seen him or heard from him,” he said in a heavy voice. “These disappearing acts are driving me crazy.”

  He wasn’t the only one.

  It killed her to lie, but she forced out, “No, I haven’t heard from him.”

  “Damn,” he said.

  “I’ll be at the mayor’s office tomorrow. He broke a shelf,” she offered.

  “All right,” he said, his voice sounding small. “I’ll see you tomorrow then.”

  “Could you tell Dean I got the message and I’ll be in?”

  “Yeah, I’ll tell him when I get to the office tomorrow. See you then.”

  Kate tossed her cell on the coffee table, grabbed the remote control, and flipped the TV on. The news broadcast filled the screen. The reporter, Eric Demblowski, was standing on the sidewalk right in front of the Carnegie Real Estate parking lot. In the background, the ambulance light flashed over the clustered news crew, as they spoke to the police. The very scene Kate had been a part of earlier that evening. She could barely stomach it.

  Eric Demblowski, with a determined glint in his eyes, concluded the report by stating, “It’s time to get these convicts out of our town.”

  She pressed the remote control, turning the TV off.

  The ex-cons might have been sucked into all of this, but they weren’t behind it. They hadn’t been orchestrating the drug ring. And it set her teeth on edge that an entire group of people could be condemned on the news simply because they were the obvious culprits. As far as Kate was concerned, they were being used. Gillian O’Reilly had revealed that much to her.

  One thing was true, though. The crime had to stop.

  The entrance door clicked open and Scott stepped inside. She couldn’t remember the last time he had been home so early. When he walked around the foyer corner and into the living room, she said, “I’ve got wine in the fridge.”

  “Won’t I need a glass,” he muttered as though truer words had never been spoken.

  As he disappeared into the bedroom to change out of his suit, she padded into the kitchen, grabbed a glass, and poured the white wine, which was ready by the time he returned, meeting her at the kitchen counter.

  “Should I ask?” she said.

  “How things are going? I wish you wouldn’t.”

  She rubbed his back and smiled sympathetically up at him.

  After taking a long swig of wine, he said, “Man, I thought the crime in Philadelphia was bad. And it is. But that city has nothing on Rock Ridge. Considering how low the population is, Rock Ridge has had more murders per capita than Philadelphia, you know? Hell, it’s had more violent crime than New York City.”

  “As a cop, could that be a good thing?” She was trying to see the bright side, but her joke landed badly. “Sorry.”

  “Let’s watch a stupid movie and take the night off from thinking about it,” he suggested.

  It sounded exactly like what she needed.

  Chapter Four

  Kate stepped into the anteroom of the mayor’s office with her tool kit in hand. Jared turned in the receptionist’s chair and smiled at her, though his desk phone was clenched between his cheek and shoulder. He wrapped up the call, and after setting the phone in its cradle, he mentioned, “Our receptionist called in sick. I’m manning the lines.”

  “How’s the office working out?”

  “Great,” he said easily. “If I could route the incoming calls to my desk, it would make today a heck of a lot easier.”

  He told her that Dean was in his office, so she made her way over, knocked on the frame even though his door was open, and peeked inside.

  Dean was hunched over his desk and reviewing reports by the looks of it, but he met her gaze as soon as she stepped in.

  “Kate, great you’re here,” he said, rising to his feet. He rounded the front of his desk, making his way to the bookshelf in question.

  As she neared the shelf, which he had cleared of contents, she noted from the corner of her eye that Dean didn’t look quite right. His dress shirt was rumpled, the cuffs unbuttoned, and only one sleeve was pushed up his arm. His hair was a bit wild, as well, giving her the impression he’d either slept somewhere strange or didn’t bother running a comb through his hair after climbing out of bed that morning.

  Focusing on the shelf, she saw that it was cracked down the middle. When she touched it, the board came loose, its connecting hinges having popped out of the wooden sides. The crack would hold up if she used a little crazy glue along the seam, but the hinges would have to be redone since the screws attached had stripped the small holes in the wood where they belonged.

  Meeting his gaze, she explained as much. She studied his eyes as she spoke, not quite placing why he looked bizarre. Then it hit her. His pupils were dilated so wide there was barely a hint of color around them. Dean’s eyes were blue, piercingly
so. He looked wired. In fact, he looked like he might’ve been on drugs.

  “So how long will it be?” he asked, snapping his gaze from the shelf to her and back again in manic alteration.

  “Shouldn’t be too long. Ten, fifteen minutes?” she said, unable to tear her eyes from him. She hoped she didn’t look stunned, because that’s how she felt. “Dean, are you okay?”

  “Yeah, why? Yeah,” he said sharply.

  “You look like you’ve had twenty cups of coffee,” she commented, forcing a smile to keep things light.

  “Oh, ha, that, no, I’m fine. Just so much going on over here. Trying to keep the amusement park on schedule. Those cops...” he trailed off, and his already wide eyes grew wider. She thought his eyeballs might fall out of his head. “I’ve got the corporate executives breathing down my neck. There’s no time to sleep.”

  Concerned, Kate eased the office door closed so Jared wouldn’t hear. If Dean believed they were speaking in private, he might be more apt to open up.

  Easing into the subject, she said, “I heard the police didn’t find anything. You should be in the clear.”

  “Should be and will be are two very different things. And these days, appearances are all that matter. It’s good they didn’t find anything,” he said, but in such a way that indicated perhaps they could have. Dean was sounding like a man who knew he’d gotten lucky. “But the fact that the police were there at all doesn’t look good. The executives are having a hard time fathoming how the park could’ve even been under suspicion.”

  Kate wondered. In addition to Donna Kramer’s clandestine role as drug kingpin, she had also been one of the executives. Based on Kate’s experience with the woman, she wasn’t exactly shy about intimidating others. Kate couldn’t imagine Donna working closely with people and them not knowing she was a formidable force.

  “I can see how that would be stressful,” she said, offering him an empathetic smirk. “But at least you got that insurance money.”

  His expression hardened. “It would’ve been better if the explosion hadn’t happened at all.”

  “Of course.” She drew in a deep breath and debated pushing him further. “You know one of the executives killed Tommy Barkow because he set off that explosion...”

  It was impossible to read his reaction, because he seemed not to have one.

  “An executive?” he said finally.

  Digging deep, she confronted him by stating, “Donna Kramer.”

  “Donna Kramer’s dead.”

  “And before she was killed she said she murdered Tommy because he set off that explosion as a means to ruin Becky Langley’s return to her family.”

  Dean ran his hands down his face like a man coming undone.

  “Bradley told me about the affair,” she pointed out, letting a little anger into her tone on Jessica’s behalf.

  “I ended things with Donna. Plus, she’s dead now. It’s over.”

  “Is it?”

  He held her gaze for a long moment, challenging her. “I’d never jeopardize the amusement park by getting involved in such questionable activity.”

  His subtext was unmistakable, but she had a hard time believing him. If anything, he was sampling the goods that he claimed to know nothing about.

  “At this point,” she went on, “with what Scott has on Tommy and Donna, and considering they’re both dead, you can’t get in trouble. There’s nothing to worry about if you only tell Scott what you know.”

  “Why do you think I know something?”

  She shot him a leveling stare, but he wouldn’t budge.

  As a last-ditch effort, she told him, “I stopped by Drake’s Firing Line. I spoke with Drake. Even though Tommy was responsible for the actual explosion, Drake named you.”

  “He named me?”

  “Yes,” she asserted. “He said you were behind this.”

  “That’s ludicrous. I’m the mayor.”

  “And Rock Ridge has seen a fair amount of corruption in that department.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “It means there could be something about running this office that requires going outside of the law. I’m not blaming you. But these murders have to stop. They all connect to the drug operation. Even Becky’s abduction seems tied to it. If you know something, then you have to say something.”

  Dean sighed as though he was giving in, but Kate worried he would only tell her what so many others in Rock Ridge had—that he didn’t know who was behind this, that he was scared, that he had to do what they said, and that they only communicated through anonymous notes. But Dean said none of those things. And what he told her was utterly shocking.

  “Becky is fine. I know where she is. She wasn’t abducted.”

  Kate’s jaw dropped.

  “Where is she?”

  “Look,” he said, hushing his tone in a way that indicated she would have to do the same. “I can’t talk here.” Paranoid, he glanced around his office as though they were being listened to. “Meet me at the amusement park tonight at ten, and I’ll tell you what I know. Nothing is what it seems.”

  Was this for real? Or was she hearing the drugged ramblings of a madman? Kate had no choice but to agree. As soon as she did, Dean rushed to his desk, grabbed his keys and briefcase, saying, “I have an appointment.” Then he tore through the office and out the door.

  Kate peeked out at the receptionist’s desk, but Jared wasn’t there. She heard his voice carry out through the anteroom. He was in his office again, on a telephone call.

  Kneeling next to her tool kit, she opened it and hunted for her Phillips-head screwdriver and extra hinges she kept in the bottom tray, but getting any work done after Dean’s intriguing declaration was an impossible notion.

  She sat and began thinking. If Scott knew about what Dean had told her and that Kate was planning on meeting Dean later that night to learn about everything he knew, then Scott would want to come, wire her with a microphone, or get involved in some way. And if Dean found out, he would very likely clam up, deny all he had disclosed, and never talk to her about such matters ever again.

  If anyone, Kate was dying to call Jason. Her son thought he had a lead on Becky, but there couldn’t be a lead if Becky hadn’t been taken. Was Jason fooling Kate? Or did he honestly believe she had been abducted? Who should Kate believe, the mayor or her own son? She felt the need to warn Jason. If he were poking around, functioning under the impression that he could find Becky, and Becky was actually one of the people behind all the crimes in Rock Ridge, then Jason would be walking into a trap or, at the very least, unearthing information that could get him killed. Was that what had happened to Jenna Johansen?

  She might not be able to let Scott in on everything without risking it all, but she could still meet him for lunch to have some semblance of a connection with him. She was starting to feel very alone in all this, harboring secrets too heavy to bear.

  She dialed his phone number, but after three rings, the call went through to his voice mail. Rather than leave a message, she hung up and composed a text message about having early lunch at Daisy’s Luncheonette. She didn’t have a lot of hope that he would be available. It was barely ten in the morning.

  Standing, she grabbed the screwdriver and neared the shelf. After a quick assessment, she began unscrewing the faulty hinges and replacing them with new ones.

  In less than twenty minutes she had fixed the shelf and received a text message from Scott. Now? If it’s a cup of coffee I have time.

  Immediately, she sent him a text back saying that she was on her way. As soon as she tucked her cell phone into her overalls, she collected her tools, closed her tool kit, and made her way through the anteroom and down the hallway to find Jared.

  “Hey,” she said, setting her tool kit on the floor in favor of writing up an invoice. “For Dean when he gets back.”

  She set the invoice on his desk. “No problem. I can have a check ready later today as soon as Dean signs off on this.”
>
  She lingered, looking at him. Her twins were so different; it amazed her more and more each day. If put in the same situation as Jason, would Jared have shot Donna Kramer in the back to save Kate’s life? What a terrible choice for anyone to have to make.

  “I’ll see you later,” she told him and plucked her tool kit off the floor. She gave him one last lingering look and started for the elevators.

  Daisy’s Luncheonette was crowded when Kate stepped through the door, and it didn’t look like late-breakfast customers. As she glanced around the diner for Scott, hoping he had snagged a booth for them, she began noticing all the new faces around the room. These weren’t Rock Ridge residents. They looked like out-of-towners, and it made her wonder about the amusement park timeline. Technically, the park wasn’t set to open for another month, but if Dean had a boost in funds (if the drug dealers were paying him off to keep him quiet, or worse), then it was possible the amusement park could be completed ahead of schedule.

  One of the waitresses finally noticed Kate standing near the hostess stand and she rushed over.

  “Table for one?”

  “Two, actually. That is, if you’ve got it.”

  “We’re slammed,” said the waitress. “I can get you settled at the bar if you don’t mind?”

  Kate told her that would be fine. As she followed the waitress towards two vacant stools at the middle of the bar, Scott caught up with her from behind, having jogged through the door.

  “I got a call,” he said breathlessly. “A break-in, an abduction. It was a young couple. The kidnapper left the husband, who claims he was drugged. And took the wife.”

  It was Jason and Becky all over again.

  Chapter Five

  Keeping her foot pressed firmly on the accelerator, Kate drove tightly behind Scott’s truck down Main Street so that no vehicle would be able to pull between them. If Scott had been thrown that another young couple had suffered the same fate as Jason and Becky, Kate was utterly dumbfounded. Her mind was racing with questions. Becky Langley had been taken in connection with the drug ring operating out of Rock Ridge. It was the only logical explanation at this point. Every lead she had followed took her to that conclusion. So she had to wonder, who was this young couple? Had they been targeted for the same reason as Becky? And would investigating their case cause new leads to surface that would ultimately bring Scott and the Rock Ridge Police closer to discovering where Becky was?