The Fixer Upper
Page 44
It was later, much later, in fact, that we hashed out all the details of the merger proposal. I’d drifted off to sleep, with Tee’s arms wrapped securely around me, when I heard my cell phone ringing. Terrified that it might be a call about Ella Kate, I stumbled, naked, toward the chair where I’d left my pocketbook.
I grabbed the cell phone.
“Hello,” I said breathlessly.
“Dempsey?” It was FBI Special Agent Jackson Harrell.
“Jack?” The room was near freezing. I groped around in the dark for something to wrap around me, and managed to come up with the checkered tablecloth. “What’s wrong?”
“Wrong?” He was crowing. “What could be wrong?”
I held the phone away and looked at the clock at the bottom of the phone’s readout screen. “Jack, it’s nearly midnight. Are you drunk?”
“Drunk, hell no,” he said indignantly. “I just thought I’d share a little good news with you, is all. Are you near a television?”
I looked around the room and saw Tee’s tiny flat-screen television, and then I remembered. No electricity.
“No,” I said impatiently. “There’s no TV. Why? What’s happening?”
“Well, that’s too bad,” Harrell said. “’Cause if you did have a television, I’d tell you to turn on CNN so you could watch your buddies Alex Hodder and Tony Licata doing the perp walk.”
“They’ve been arrested? When? The U.S. attorney said it might take a while.”
“She meant hours, not days,” Harrell said, chuckling. “We had agents waiting for Hodder when he got off the plane. And by the time they’d escorted him out to the main terminal, what do you know? Somebody had leaked the news to the press. Your friend Shalani from the Post was there, front and center. I think you’ll be seeing a story tomorrow or the day after, clearing your name. Girl? You shoulda seen Alex Hodder trying to walk with his jacket pulled over his head. And he’s still limping from that nutcracker you put on him. I tell ya, Dempsey, it was a beautiful sight.”
I yawned despite myself. “That’s good, Jack,” I said sleepily. “It’s fantastic. Thanks for letting me know. I’m sure I’ll see the footage in the morning. Good night, Jack.”
And then I remembered that suitcase under my bed at Birdsong.
“Oh, yeah. Jack, wait,” I said. “What about the suitcase? Will you be sending a U.S. marshal or somebody to pick up the money?”
There was a long pause. I could hear voices in the background, and then static.
“Money?” Harrell said. “What money? Good night, Dempsey. See ya around.”
Recipes
Ella Kate’s Beef Stew
6 to 8 servings
¼ cup all-purpose flour
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. cracked black pepper
2 lbs. beef chuck roast trimmed of fat, cut in 1-inch cubes (or precut stew meat)
2 to 3 T. vegetable oil
4 cups beef broth or beef stock
1 bay leaf
2 stalks celery, roughly chopped
1 large onion, roughly chopped
5 medium-size red potatoes (skin on), cut in eighths
1 cup baby carrots, roughly chopped
1 T. GravyMaster
2 T. cooking sherry
Place flour and seasonings in large Ziploc bag, add cubed meat, close, and shake to coat. Heat oil in large, heavy-bottomed lidded pot such as Dutch oven, add meat, and cook over medium heat, turning until meat is browned on all sides. Add beef broth, and bay leaf, cover pot tightly, reduce heat, and simmer on stovetop approx. 1½ hours, or until meat is fork tender. Add vegetables to pot and return to simmer for additional hour. When vegetables are tender, remove meat and vegetables from pot with slotted spoon. Whisk in GravyMaster and cooking sherry. If gravy needs thickening, you may whisk 2 T. of flour into 2 T. water. Over medium heat whisk thickener into gravy, stirring constantly till smooth. Check seasonings and add salt and pepper if needed. Return meat and vegetables to gravy to heat through.
Lynda’s Fire-roasted Tomato Soup
8 generous servings
½ stick (¼ cup) butter (or 4 T. olive oil for vegans)
1 onion, finely chopped
1 cup baby carrots, finely chopped
3 T. minced garlic
Two 28-oz. cans fire-roasted San Marzano tomatoes
1 bay leaf
¼ tsp. red pepper flakes
½ tsp. dried thyme
¼ tsp. dried basil
Salt and pepper to taste
1 T. sugar
6 cups low-salt chicken broth (or 6 cups vegetable broth for vegans)
Optional: buttermilk or low-fat sour cream stirred in before serving, chopped fresh basil leaves
Melt butter in heavy-bottomed soup pot over medium heat. Sauté onions, carrots, and garlic until translucent. Add canned tomatoes with their juice, and all seasonings and chicken or vegetable broth. Cover and simmer 40 minutes. Remove bay leaf. For smooth soup use immersion blender or let cool completely before pureeing in food processor or blender. Reheat and swirl in 1 T. buttermilk or low-fat sour cream. May be garnished with fresh basil.
Dempsey’s Egg Salad
4 generous sandwiches
8 eggs, hard cooked
¼ cup finely chopped celery
½ cup mayonnaise (preferably Duke’s)
¼ cup sweet pickle relish
1 tsp yellow mustard
Salt, pepper, celery salt
Peel and roughly chop hard-cooked eggs. Toss in celery. Fold in mayonnaise, relish, and mustard. Season to taste with salt, pepper, and celery salt.
For sandwiches use multigrain bread; add lettuce and red pepper rings.
Acknowledgments
As always, I’m indebted to others for invaluable advice and support given during the writing and research of this novel. Any errors or misstatements of fact are due to my own bumbling. Huge thanks go to James Van Camp, of Pinehurst, North Carolina; Beth Fleishman of Raleigh; William L. McKinnon, Jr., and Sharon Douglas Stokes of the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Northern District of Georgia, who shared legal expertise; FBI Special Agent Greg Lockett in Atlanta; Chrissie Shoemaker, DVM, who helped save Shorty; the Scribblers, including Diane Chamberlain, Margaret Maron, Katy Munger, Sarah Shaber, Alex Sokoloff, and Bren Witchger; the Weymouth Foundation for the Arts and Humanities of Southern Pines, North Carolina, where the early germ of the book was hatched; and Diane Kaufman of Mermaid Cottages and Ron and Leuveda Garner who gave me shelter on Tybee Island, Georgia.
On the professional level, I’ve had the best of the best with the wonderful Carolyn Marino and the rest of the HarperCollins gang, and Stuart Krichevesky and “the girls” at Stuart Krichevsky Literary Agency guiding me at every step of the way.
On the personal level, without my family, Tom, Andy, Katie, and Mark, nothing would be possible. To them I send oceans of love and thanks.
About the Author
MARY KAY ANDREWS is the nationally bestselling author of Deep Dish, Blue Christmas, Savannah Breeze, Hissy Fit, Little Bitty Lies, and Savannah Blues. A former journalist for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, she lives in Atlanta, Georgia.
Mary Kay Andrews is available for call-ins and in-person visits with book clubs. For more information, visit the “For Book Clubs” page at www.marykayandrews.com or email your request to meg@marykayandrews.com.
Visit www.AuthorTracker.com for exclusive information on your favorite HarperCollins author.
ALSO BY MARY KAY ANDREWS
Deep Dish
Blue Christmas
Savannah Breeze
Hissy Fit
Little Bitty Lies
Savannah Blues
Credits
Jacket photo Montage © Veer and Reflexstock
Copyright
This book is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents, and dialogue are drawn from the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental
.
THE FIXER UPPER. Copyright © 2009 by Whodunnit, Inc. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
Adobe Digital Edition May 2009 ISBN 978-0-06-188824-3
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
About the Publisher
Australia
HarperCollins Publishers (Australia) Pty. Ltd.
25 Ryde Road (PO Box 321)
Pymble, NSW 2073, Australia
http://www.harpercollinsebooks.com.au
Canada
HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.
55 Avenue Road, Suite 2900
Toronto, ON, M5R, 3L2, Canada
http://www.harpercollinsebooks.ca
New Zealand
HarperCollinsPublishers (New Zealand) Limited
P.O. Box 1
Auckland, New Zealand
http://www.harpercollins.co.nz
United Kingdom
HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.
77-85 Fulham Palace Road
London, W6 8JB, UK
http://www.harpercollinsebooks.co.uk
United States
HarperCollins Publishers Inc.
10 East 53rd Street
New York, NY 10022
http://www.harpercollinsebooks.com
Table of Contents
Cover
Title Page
Dedication
Contents
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
Recipes
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Other Books by Mary Kay Andrews
Credits
Copyright
About the Publisher