Then she had a thought. “Did you know that woman?”
That would explain the look on his face. No matter how jaded you were from working homicide, if you knew the person, then you’d be affected by it. Scott must have recognized her, because Kate didn’t think the woman was from Rock Ridge.
“Yes.”
“Who was it?”
Scott stared back at her, not blinking. “That was my ex-wife.”
Chapter Two
The Rock Ridge Police Department was part of the municipal complex in town. All the government offices were in a building next to it, along with a community center. The fire department, a paid operation, and the first-aid squad (strictly volunteer) had a building nearby.
The noise hit Kate when she walked in. Phones rang. People talked. A few people yelled. They were all behind a glass partition, but the cacophony seeped out into the lobby. A petite blonde sat behind the partition, not smiling but waiting. She wore a uniform and had a large belly that made it hard for her to reach the phone on the desk. When Kate first entered the lobby, she’d watched the officer answer it, and it had been a struggle.
She must have been on light duty; she looked ready to deliver that kid any minute. Kate shuddered, remembering how large she’d been with the twins.
“Can I help you?” the young woman said.
Kate realized she had no idea who she was supposed to see. “I guess I’m here to see the chief.”
“He’s still out. You can wait in the lobby.”
“I’m supposed to make a statement about the thing he’s at.”
The woman nodded. “I’ll see if someone else is here that can do that. Just have a seat.”
Kate sat on a bench that was as comfortable as being stretched on a rack. Despite the bench looking like wood, she was sure it was made out of concrete. It held the chill of the air conditioning. She had her work overalls on, but they weren’t thick at all, so she felt the coolness on her butt. She was tempted to stand, but she’d been instructed to sit.
Not that she couldn’t be a rebel, but she was off her game today. Discovering a body will do that.
“Miss?” the woman said finally.
Kate stood and moved to the glass. “Yes?”
“Detective Johnson will see you. When you hear the buzzing, push the door to your right open.”
Kate heard an anemic buzzing sound and she pushed the door open. Inside, the noise was even louder. How does anyone work here? She was usually alone in her tasks, so she didn’t have office mates to shoot the breeze with. If there was noise, she was the one making it with a power tool.
She enjoyed the solitude. After years of having two boys in the house, she liked the peace and quiet of working alone. This environment would never do. More than once, the drone of a busy building had convinced her that she hadn’t been cut out for an office job.
Detective Johnson, or Ken as she knew him, loped toward her. He was a long man. Long limbs, long neck, long body. Making the transition from calling him Mr. Johnson to Ken had taken her years because she and his daughter, Carly, had been best friends since high school.
He had brown hair and dull, brown eyes, which belied a quick mind. More than once, Kate and Carly thought they were getting something past her father, but it hadn’t happened once. Most people underestimated him.
Kate wondered if he was close to retirement—or did he never plan to leave the job? He’d been up for the chief of police job, but Scott had been given that. Does he hold any resentment? She hoped not.
“Hi, Ken.”
He didn’t hug or kiss her. He was obviously in cop mode. “Hello, Kate. Follow me.”
She did as he asked, and he led her past a maze of desks. She hadn’t realized that the Rock Ridge Police Department was that big. There were at least eight desks in the small room. Each had at least one inhabitant.
Ken led her to the back of the office to a smaller room. Probably for interrogation purposes since there was a mirror on one wall just like in the cop shows.
“Have a seat. You need coffee?”
“Yes.”
She could drink coffee all day, even right before bed. She didn’t hold out hope that this cup would have much taste. It might have been in the pot all morning for all she knew. Ken grunted, and then left her in the room as he went to the kitchenette.
A chill went up her spine as she sat there alone. Do I need a lawyer? She hoped not. She couldn’t afford one. If her business had been doing better, she might have been able to, but she’d only started up six months prior.
It had taken two months after the boys left for college for her to figure out what she was good at.
Ken came back in with the coffee.
“Thank you. Do I need a lawyer?”
“If you want one, we can wait.”
“No, I’ll answer your questions. I’m not a suspect.”
“Everyone’s a suspect until we know time of death. Can you account for your time before you found the deceased?”
“I stopped at Grayson’s for supplies first thing, and then I went to Scott’s to do repairs. You can talk to Chuck if you—”
“We’ll worry about that when the ME tells us the time of death.”
That reassured Kate. The woman would have had to have been killed before she arrived at the chief’s house or she would’ve heard someone else there. And people could verify seeing her in town before that.
“Tell me about finding Jackie York.”
Kate told him everything she could remember up to and including finding Scott’s ex-wife on his kitchen floor. She wondered how long they’d been married. Jackie York was probably a beautiful woman in her day—the kind that turned heads.
She was probably the opposite of tomboyish Kate. Kate had long ago learned to be comfortable with herself in most situations, but once in a while a gorgeous woman did intimidate her. She’d bet that Scott’s ex-wife would have been one of those women.
Jackie would have sported the latest trends in clothing with some person’s name on the tag that Kate had never heard of. If LL Bean or Carhartt didn’t make it, then Kate had no idea what it was.
“So, you fixed the hole, used the restroom, and then Chief York called you? Do you often wander around your clients’ houses?”
“I’m not going to answer that. It’s none of your business what I do on a job. I’m not a suspect and don’t have to explain myself.”
Scott took that moment to stop in the room. “Are you antagonizing Mrs. Flaherty?”
He looked a little better than he had at the house. He’d straightened his tie and rolled down his sleeves.
“I’m just doing my job,” Ken said.
“Well wrap it up. She’s not a suspect.”
“Why do you say that?”
“She didn’t even know my ex-wife. Right, Kate?”
Kate shook her head. That was the truth. “Never met her.”
Ken frowned. “Okay. I’ll print this out and you need to sign it.”
“Fine,” Kate said.
She was ready to move on to her next job. She turned to Scott and asked, “Will I be able to get back into your house tomorrow? I need to sand and paint.”
“No. I can’t even get into my house at this point.”
Even though it was none of her business, she asked anyway. “Where will you stay?”
“I have a couch in my office.”
“Comfy.”
He shrugged. “I’m hoping it’s only one night.”
Ken left and quickly returned with a piece of paper. Kate read it and it was exactly what she’d said. She signed it.
“You’re free to go.”
As she was leaving the interrogation room, she heard her name. She looked up to see Larry Stadt, chief of the Rock Ridge Fire Department. Larry had been interested in Kate for years.
***
She wanted the floor to swallow her up as Larry strode across the room. This was not going to be good: two alpha males in one room—both unnecess
arily vying for her attention.
Larry had taken it upon himself to be Kate’s protector. She suspected that he had ulterior motives, but she’d made it clear that she wouldn’t date—him or anyone else.
She didn’t like her life being in limbo, but until there was a definitive answer about the whereabouts of her husband, she was still married.
Larry always skated to the edge of understanding that. He stopped in front of her and put his hands on her arms. Marking his territory much?
She didn’t want to embarrass him but she gently stepped away, out of his reach.
Larry had brown hair, parted on the side, and soft, puppy-brown eyes. He was one of the sweetest men that Kate had ever known.
“Are you okay?”
“I’m fine, Larry. I just needed to make a statement.”
“You aren’t being charged, are you? I can call a lawyer for you.”
His taking over like this rankled her. She was an independent woman, and she didn’t need him to do that. “No, I’m fine. I’m on my way home.”
Scott stepped closer to them. Of course. There was so much testosterone in the room that she’d bet she could pee standing up next time.
He held out his hand. “I’m Scott York, the new chief of police.”
Larry looked at the man’s hand then up at his face. He clasped Scott’s hand. “I’m Larry Stadt, chief of Rock Ridge Fire Department.”
Kate wanted to laugh. Or break out a ruler, so they could all see once and for all whose was bigger. Instead, she walked away and let them play their male games.
She had work to do.
Larry caught up with her at her truck. “There something going on between you and that cop?”
He spit out the last words as if they hurt him to say them. She resisted the urge to roll her eyes.
“Not that it is any of your business, but no. We knew each other in high school.”
Larry’s face relaxed. “You free for lunch?”
“No, sorry. I have to fix someone’s steps this afternoon. I’m late, but I’m sure they’ve heard that I was at the police station.”
“Nothing goes unnoticed in a small town.”
“That’s for sure,” Kate said. “I really have to go.”
She looked past Larry. Ken was putting Scott in the back of a squad car. He was handcuffed. “What’s going on?”
Larry turned in the direction she was looking. “Guess the chief is getting arrested.”
She didn’t like the glee in his voice. She brushed past Larry to talk to Scott before the back door closed. “Scott? What’s going on?”
“ME gave us a preliminary time of death. I have no alibi for my location, so Ken here arrested me.”
Ken nudged Kate out of the way. “I’m taking him to the county jail out on twenty-two.”
Kate knew the place. It was a fortress right next to the county college where her husband had taught. She hadn’t been out that way since the school had asked her to clean out Greg’s office. The trip had taken a lot out of her, and she still hadn’t looked in the box she’d packed.
“But he didn’t kill her. He’d divorced her already. Ken, this doesn’t make any sense.”
Larry came up behind her. “Best let the cops deal with this, Kate.”
He might as well have patted her on the head and told her not to worry her pretty little head. If she could have, she might have jabbed him in the ribs. Not in front of two police officers, though.
“I’ll be out when my lawyer springs me, Kate. Couple of hours tops.”
He didn’t look worried, but Kate couldn’t say the same. How could they accuse Scott of killing his ex-wife? If he’d wanted to do that, being a cop, he could have covered his tracks much better than this. Besides, unless he’d changed in the last decades, she knew he’d never hurt anyone intentionally.
From what the Rock Ridge Town Council had said when hiring him, he had a spotless law enforcement record. He’d come highly recommended. Even so, the mayor had wanted to hire from within, but he’d been outvoted.
If Scott had not originally been from Rock Ridge, Kate suspected that Ken would be chief of police. But Scott had that hometown connection on top of his exemplary record.
Scott’s gaze bore into her. His light brown eyes darkened for a moment. He seemed to be making sure that she looked at him. “I didn’t kill her, Kate.”
She would have touched his shoulder, but there was a barrier in the patrol car. Of course she believed him. “I know, but what was she doing there?”
Larry tugged her away. He was beginning to get on her nerves. He wasn’t her keeper. As much as she appreciated that he’d taken her boys under his wing as their scoutmaster, she didn’t think she owed him anything else.
“I think this is none of our business, Kate.”
She shrugged off his hands. Why was Ken so sure that Scott did it? Couldn’t he extend a professional courtesy to Scott? Didn’t cops do that? Or was a murder too serious? “Call me when you get out. There’s something not right here.”
“Katydid, leave this to the cops. They’ll sort it out,” Scott said before Ken pulled away.
Katydid? No one else had ever called her that. For a moment, she was back in high school. She remembered being young and in love; when the world had been laid out in front of her.
Then her mother died and she’d stayed in Rock Ridge instead of going away to college. Scott had left for university and never made it back. His parents had moved to Florida not long after his departure, and she apparently hadn’t been reason enough for him to return.
The anticipation of his return to town after all these years had set her nerves on edge. Now he was being charged with murder? She couldn’t stand by. Even though they had no future, she couldn’t just let him go to jail for a murder he didn’t commit.
That didn’t sit right with her.
Scott York was not a killer, Kate was sure of it. She would just have to make sure that she found the person who was. Being a handywoman, she had access to all sorts of people. She could talk to them. Maybe someone knew something.
He’d called her Katydid. She’d never let anyone else, thinking it was too babyish. Now it sounded like music to her ears.
Chapter Three
Kate’s next job was a house three doors down from the chief’s. She’d postponed the Evans project. She had to repair steps on Marla Zook’s house. Marla was a single mother whose husband had died in Iraq. Everyone pitched in when they could, and Kate would only charge her for materials.
She surveyed the steps. Marla worked from home while taking care of her two daughters. Maybe she’d seen something. Not that a single mother of two kids had much time to stare out the window, but a single mom at home might be more aware of her surroundings than, say, a man. Women had to do more to protect themselves, and part of that was being cognizant of what was going on around them. She may have seen something that she didn’t think significant.
The sun was high in the sky and warm. Marla came around from the front of the house. It was a one-story cottage, painted sky blue. The shutters were yellow. Not Kate’s style, but cute nonetheless.
Marla’s two daughters moved closer to her when they saw Kate. She smiled at them, but knew from past work she’d done on the house that they were shy. Their lives had been turned upside down by the loss of their father.
Marla had two glasses of lemonade in her hands. Kate hoped one was for her.
“I brought you a drink,” Marla said.
She was still young, probably in her late twenties. She’d married young from what Kate remembered and had left Rock Ridge to follow her husband’s military career. She returned here when he’d died to be close to her mother.
Her mother had died last year. Marla had never known her father.
“Go play, girls,” Marla said.
The two girls went to the swing set at the end of the yard. It sat in the shade of the neighbor’s oak tree. Marla set Kate’s glass down on the picnic table situated by
the house. Kate took a sip then put it back down.
Rather than joining her girls, Marla sat. Kate guessed she wanted to talk, which was perfect. Kate wanted to talk, too. She began to demolish the damaged stairs as they chatted.
“I’m so freaked out about that murder. In this neighborhood…” Marla said. “You must be too, since you found the body.”
“It wasn’t the highlight of my day. Did you see anyone suspicious?”
“No one suspicious. Only the usual.”
“I don’t live in this neighborhood. What is ‘usual’?”
“I saw the fire chief’s truck.”
“He does inspections. Not odd. There are a few houses for sale here, and they need a certificate that says their smoke detectors work,” Kate said.
She stacked the boards she pulled off the risers. She’d haul them away to use later since there wasn’t anything wrong with them. The steps were being replaced because someone hadn’t built them properly. The rise and run ratio wasn’t right, and Marla’s oldest daughter had tripped on them.
Kate had put Marla’s job on the top of her priority list. The only reason she’d been at Scott’s house was because he’d begged her. And she was curious to see what he’d done with the place. She knew she shouldn’t have been. Sniffing around an old boyfriend was not acceptable.
“I never knew what he was doing, but had seen his truck here often. Now it makes sense, since it was usually in front of houses for sale or recently sold,” Marla said.
She gazed over at her children for a moment.
“Who else?” Kate prodded.
“Jessica Stuart was out planting some flowers.”
“You can see their house from here?”
The mayor and his wife lived in a big house, larger than any other in the neighborhood. Being mayor was a part-time position, and he ran a trucking company for his full-time job. He’d done well and had added on to his house as his company grew.
Kate always thought that they’d never get the right resale on it because it was too big compared to the rest of the houses nearby. There would be no comps to figure out the correct price.
Not that she expected them to sell anytime soon. The mayor had held his position for ages. She didn’t suspect anyone would run against him.
Mrs. Fix It Mysteries (5 Cozy Mystery Books Collection) Page 2
