by Eryn Scott
Why wasn’t he just coming inside? Hadley wondered. Maybe she’d gone and locked the door on him.
The banging sounded again. “Hold on.” Hadley placed Ansel on the couch and stood to go let Paul inside. Old, wooden farmhouse floors creaked under her feet as she made her way into the front room and pulled open the front door.
But instead of Paul or even Suzanne, like she’d hoped for, Luke Fenton stood on her porch, worry etched across his face.
19
“You okay?” he whispered, stepping inside and scanning the front room. “I saw a silver car parked here. I couldn’t tell whose it was, but I figured you might need some help.” He patted Hadley’s shoulders, arms, grabbing her hands as he reached them.
Pulling her hands away from the intense closeness of having Luke standing in front of her, holding on to her, Hadley shook her head.
“Luke, I’m fine.” Frustration rose inside her, but she tamped it down because just a few minutes ago, she’d been scared for her life too. He was only trying to help. “Thank you for coming to check on me, but I am okay.”
He sighed, large shoulders relaxing, then nodded. “Okay, good.” Then, craning his neck to check the kitchen, he asked, “Who is it?”
“Louise,” Hadley whispered. “But I don’t know that she did it, any longer. She was just about to tell me who might’ve, though.”
Luke’s eyebrows lifted. Then, instead of leaving like he should’ve since she hadn’t invited him to join them, he walked into the kitchen.
“Why hello, Mr. Fenton,” Louise called out.
Hadley closed her eyes and took in a calming breath. Luke was staying, apparently. She followed him into the kitchen.
“We’re having tea. Would you like anything, Luke?” Hadley asked, walking to grab her own mug off the end table and take a sip.
He waved. “I’ll get it.” Luke began moving through her kitchen as if he lived there.
It was then that she remembered he’d stayed at their house a few times since they’d bought it about five years ago. Those weekends always had seemed to coincide with times Hadley had been gone visiting family or on a business trip away from Tyler, so she’d never been in her house with Luke. But he obviously knew his way around. And it was in that moment that she realized seeing him on her porch was the first time she didn’t immediately think of Tyler when she saw him.
“I can leave,” Louise said, standing.
As Hadley moved her focus from Luke to the older woman, she realized Louise was watching the two of them with a particular cat-got-the-cream expression on her face.
“It looks like you two have something to discuss, so …” She padded over to the counter and placed her mug gently on the island.
“No.” Hadley shook her head emphatically. “Nothing to discuss. There’s nothing going on here.” She motioned back and forth between her and Luke, who glanced over his shoulder from where he was bent over, rifling through her fridge. The smirk he shot her before focusing back on the fridge didn’t help things—at all.
“Paul just asked me to come check on Hadley, Mrs. S,” Luke called, without turning around, as if he were talking to someone inside the refrigerator. “You two can keep talking. Don’t even worry about me.”
Hadley, about to agree with him, paused. Wait. He said he’d been driving by, and he was worried about me. Now he’s saying it was Paul who asked him to check in on me. Which is it? And is he changing his story for Mrs. Stanton’s benefit or mine?
“Yeah,” Hadley said. “Don’t worry about him. I want to hear about why you were up in Cascade Ridge earlier.”
Louise blinked from Hadley to Luke. A pop rang through the kitchen as Luke opened a bottle of beer he’d found in the back of the fridge.
“But what about …” She pointed at Luke as he tossed the cap into the garbage.
“He’s fine,” Hadley said, waving in his general direction. “Won’t say a thing.”
He winked at Louise before tipping his head back and taking a long swig of the beer.
“If he does, I know how to beat him at both thumb and arm wrestling, so …” Hadley put a hand on one hip.
Luke almost spit out his beer, but collected himself into a surprised grin. “That was when we were eleven, Had.” He stood up straight and pushed back his shoulders. “I doubt you could take me these—” He cut out as he caught the way Hadley was just about eye-murdering him. Clearing his throat, he added, “But that’s beside the point. I promise I won’t tell anyone what you say in this kitchen, Mrs. S.”
Angry as she was with him, she had to admit the man had enough charm to calm a feral cat and Louise was definitely not immune to it. Ansel, however, seemed to be, since he’d disappeared at Luke’s arrival.
Louise smiled. “Well, all right. But this is only to help catch whoever did this to poor Edith. She and I may not have always gotten along, but that doesn’t mean I want a killer running free in Stoneybrook.” She took a deep breath. “The reason I was in Cascade Ridge today was because I had to sign the paperwork for the yarn shop.”
“But Dirk Croft owns that building.” Luke placed his beer on the counter.
At this statement, Louise’s gaze snapped up to meet his.
“He doesn’t anymore, does he?” Hadley asked, the question a gasp. “He sold the building to a company in Cascade Ridge?”
“He threatened to sue me within an inch of my life if I spilled the news,” Louise said. “He’s been keeping it a secret for almost a year. Remember how the school board was choosing between two lots of land for the new high school last summer?”
Hadley nodded, but Luke didn’t. He’d still been in Seattle. “One of the two pieces of property they looked at was Dirk’s large lot by Edith’s place and your family farm,” Hadley explained to Luke.
“And Dirk had thought he couldn’t lose,” Louise added, “so he sunk a bunch of money into the land to get it ready for the school district purchase: cleared it, ran water and electricity.”
“But then they went with the other piece of property,” Hadley said.
“Leaving him in quite a bit of debt. According to what I’ve heard from Cascade Ridge Property Management this morning, he had to sell a few properties to them to cover his debt since they were the ones who took the land off his hands for him. Even now he still owes them a ton more.”
“Hence him trying to push the golf course that they want to build there instead.” Luke nodded, caught up. “The twenty acres he owns isn’t enough for a golf course, but if he found a way to get ahold of Edith’s thirty, that would definitely fit a solid nine-hole course.”
Hadley took a sip of her tea. “And once the town denied their application for eminent domain last week, Dirk had run out of options. Even though Edith’s sister wasn’t a sure thing, Dirk could’ve been desperate enough to bet she’d want to sell the property. If he could get in touch with her and snatch up the land before anyone else, he would’ve fulfilled his promise to the Cascade Ridge company and would be on his way to finally paying them off.”
“Which makes Dirk the most likely suspect in Edith’s murder.” Luke took another swig of beer.
“And it means his story about having lunch with Cathy has to be a lie,” Hadley added. “Louise swears Edith was still alive when she left at …” She looked to Louise for confirmation.
“Eleven.”
Hadley nodded. “Eleven; so the next person to visit her that morning must’ve been the killer.”
Luke sighed. “I leave Stoneybrook for a few years and it’s gone to pieces; people murdering each other.”
Hadley, equally upset by the new development in her town, shook her head. “And the faster we get this figured out and someone behind bars, the less likely it is to happen again.”
“Well, I’d better get going.” Louise put her tea in the sink on her walk over to her purse. “You let me know if you need anymore help.” She winked at Hadley. “With the case or your knitting. Also, we’re having a fundraiser in Edith’s
honor next month. I’m wondering if you couldn’t think of something to can and add to the auction. Let me know.”
Hadley hugged the older woman. “I will. Paul might want to confirm all of this, by the way, so don’t be surprised if he comes by in the next few hours.”
Louise gave her a salute and then headed out to her car, leaving Hadley and Luke alone in her kitchen.
“So …” Hadley glanced around the room. She had kind of expected Luke to leave with Louise, knowing Hadley was just fine now. But he simply leaned back against the counter, getting comfortable as he took another drink from the beer he held.
“A lot’s changed since I left.” He met her gaze, making her feel slightly flustered.
She focused on her bare feet. “That’s what happens when you skip town for a decade. Though, I’d argue you left way before that.” She cautioned a look up at him.
He lifted an eyebrow. “You would, would you? Why’s that?”
“You were a different person senior year, even before any of us started talking college.”
Without saying it, she knew he would understand what she was talking about, how he’d gone from one of her best friends to one of her worst enemies. Hadley decided to leave out what she’d heard him telling Tyler about her, not sure she was ready to hear the truth.
He sighed. “I think you’re right. I was ready to get out of here. I honestly didn’t know if I would ever want to come back, but … I went and got all lost and sentimental in the city. I guess your thirties will do that to you.” He gave her a dry smile.
Hadley folded her arms across her chest. “I’d argue they’ve done the exact opposite for me.”
Luke’s smile faded. “Yeah, well we’ve always had a hard time being on the same page, haven’t we?”
His comment made her want to scream. Same page? They were far from that. The fact that he’d tried to get his friend to break up with her, telling him she wasn’t good enough for him, was akin to being in a completely different section of the library to Hadley, let alone not being on the same page.
Because she was now a woman in her thirties, and knew how to stand up for herself, she decided to fake a yawn and avoid talking to Luke any further.
“Well, I’d better hit the hay if I’m going to function around a hot stove tomorrow.” She smiled, but even she could tell there wasn’t any happiness behind it.
Luke finished his beer and nodded. “Right.” After rinsing the bottle in the sink and then dropping it into the recycling bin next to her garbage, he held her gaze and said, “Good night.”
There seemed to be a whole library’s worth of words behind his look, but Hadley couldn’t find the energy to figure that out right now. She had a murderer to help catch.
20
Despite kicking Luke out with claims she was going to bed early, Hadley had been up half the night, tossing and turning, unable to turn off her brain. Add to that she started her cycle, and Hal had been completely out of any sort of feminine products, and she wasn’t having the best day.
The one box of feminine products she’d bought from Hal two months ago must’ve completely cleaned him out. And when she’d asked him if he had any more in the back, he’d turned red, muttered something about more being on order, and then spilled the “take a penny, leave a penny” jar on the floor.
Which, unless Hadley was willing to drive all the way up to Cascade Ridge again, meant she was stuck with going into the Henley Family Grocer to buy the necessary supplies.
Between the way her eyelids felt like sandpaper and her cramps, she was not in any mood to deal with her ex in-laws. But she slunk into the store regardless, piling her basket high with all conceivable needs, so she wouldn’t have to worry about this for a long time.
The sounds of twenty-year-old hits spewed through the speakers in the celling, while the beeping of the checkout machines kept an uneven beat. Everything was white, and it almost hurt Hadley to look at the bright place in her dark mood.
Trundling her basketful up to the register, she grabbed a bottle of iced coffee from the fridge near the conveyor belt then plunked everything down in front of Tara.
Tara glanced up. While older than Tyler, she shared the Henley family’s dark hair and model good looks. She rolled her pretty brown eyes as she pressed the button to move the conveyor forward. Hadley, in no mood for anyone’s attitude, dared her—with her thoughts, of course—to say anything rude.
“Heard you’re talking about selling your place.” Tara didn’t make eye contact with her, just started putting her items into a bag as she rang up each one.
Hadley took a deep breath, expecting an admonishment about how Tyler still owned half the house, and she couldn’t sell it without talking to him first.
“If you ever do sell, would you let me know? Bobby and I would love it. Our place is a little too small for us and two kids, and I’ve always loved the view you have, not to mention all of that land.”
“Uh, sure.” Hadley nodded slowly.
Tara smiled at Hadley. If Tara’s question had caught Hadley off guard, then the smile just about knocked her over completely. It also almost caused her to miss one very important detail about Tara’s question. How had she known that Hadley had been talking to anyone about selling the house?
She hadn’t done anything but—Hadley held on to the old check-writing platform to steady herself as realization washed over her. The only time she’d ever mentioned it was during her fake meeting at Cascade Ridge Property Management the day before.
Louise wouldn’t have said anything, since she didn’t want people to know she’d been there either, and that just left Suzanne, whom Hadley trusted implicitly. That was when she remembered. She was Tara Croft now. Bobby, Tara’s husband, was Dirk and Cathy Croft’s eldest son.
“How’d you hear about that?” Hadley asked, searching for confirmation.
Too late, Tara realized her mistake and redness crept into her cheeks. She looked down, probably just realizing she wasn’t supposed to say anything about the Croft family’s ties with Cascade Ridge.
“Uh, well Cascade Ridge Property Management is Croft Properties’ competition, so …” Tara shrugged. “Sometimes competitors stay in touch.”
Hadley stopped herself from saying, “Not any competing companies I know.” Instead, she shook her head. “I’m just checking out my options. Don’t worry. I promise I’ll talk to Tyler before I do anything with the house or the property.”
Tara scoffed. “What you do and don’t tell Tyler is your business. You’ve made your feelings for him very clear. I just want first dibs on that house.”
Narrowing her eyes, Hadley appraised her former in-law. She was too tired to fight with anyone, let alone someone who didn’t know any better. Hadley had known she would take the brunt of the criticism when she’d decided not to out Tyler and tell everyone what he’d done to prompt their divorce. And today wasn’t the day she would change any of that.
“Sure, Tara.”
Smiling, Tara told her the total, and Hadley paid for her supplies.
“Do you still have my number? Just in case?”
Hadley vividly remembered deleting all of the Henleys from her contacts one particularly frustrating day—except Mickie, of course. She didn’t feel like explaining that to Tara, though, so she waved a hand. “I know where to find you.”
Tara must’ve wanted the house, because she’d never been so chatty.
She added, “I’m here Monday through Friday. Eight to Four. I take my lunch break from eleven to noon, but I usually just walk over to the Crofts and have lunch with Cathy, so I’m close by.”
If Hadley had been a cat, like Ansel, her sleek ears would’ve twitched at Tara’s statement. Dirk had said he often goes home to have lunch with Cathy, and that had been where he was on the Friday Edith was killed.
“That’s nice,” Hadley said, taking her receipt from Tara, but staying put. There was no one behind her in line, thank goodness. “Do Dirk and Bobby join you or is it
just a you-and-Cathy thing?”
“Dirk and Bobby are much too busy, so it’s just us girls.” Tara grinned. “Unless Cathy has something come up, we try to lunch together every day.”
No Dirk, huh? Hadley chipped at the nail polish on her right hand as she thought through the implications of this news. June Dougherty walked up behind Hadley in line, though, so she knew she couldn’t stay and chat any longer.
“Okay, well I’ll see you around, Tara.” Hadley grabbed her bag and waved goodbye as she headed out onto Main Street.
Stopping as soon as she was safely out of the way of street traffic, Hadley pulled out her phone and texted Paul and Suze. She’d texted them in a group message last night to let them know of Louise’s confession about the real reason she’d been lying about her alibi and how she wasn’t likely the killer.
Scrolling past those texts, she added a new one.
Just found out that Dirk’s alibi is most likely a lie. Tara says she has lunch with Cathy most days and Dirk is not there. You guys, I think Dirk is the killer!
Suze texted back almost immediately.
No, no, no. I just found out that while Hazel was at work, she forgot her lunch at home, so Robert drove it to her. Which means Robert was also lying about his alibi … Paul, tiebreaker here, man.
After a few seconds, Paul texted a response.
I will check into both alibis. You two, it’s probably about time you butt out. If we’re getting close to the killer, they’re likely to make rash decisions. I wouldn’t be able to forgive myself if either of you got hurt.
Suze quickly texted back. Got it, but were you ever able to verify if the note in Edith’s house matched Robert’s handwriting or not? Asking for a friend, thanks.
No. I haven’t been able to get a sample from him yet.
