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

by Belle Knudson

  “I can see it out my side window.”

  She’d have to talk to Jessica to see if she’d seen anything suspicious.

  “I’m going to make some noise. Will that bother the girls?”

  “No, they just are shy around people.”

  Kate used a Sawzall to disconnect the risers from the house. She had a prefabricated piece to replace it and new boards for the treads. She hadn’t had to do much building on this project, and she’d negotiated the price down from Grayson’s because it was for Marla.

  Dropping the risers on top of the used boards, she unplugged her tool. She stretched after she put it aside, and then she sipped more lemonade. The day wasn’t scorching, but working in the sun made her sweat.

  She sat for a moment drinking some more. The sweet and tart liquid cooled her thirst.

  “Who else did you see?” she said finally.

  Marla tapped her chin. “I did see Celia out on her walk.”

  Of course Celia would be out. Since retiring from Hershey Medical Center, she walked the town every day. Not that Rock Ridge was large, but the woman probably covered a few miles in her trek. She only walked the populated part of the town, not the country lanes.

  Celia might need to be her next stop. She saw everything. She was Kate’s best friend’s mother, but she was the town gossip. If anything untoward was going on in the town, she would know. Her eagle eyes didn’t miss anything.

  “Will you be able to finish these today?” Marla asked.

  “I’ll be done in half an hour, including cleanup,” Kate said.

  “Good. The kids keep forgetting and going out this door.”

  “Next time they do, it will be safe.”

  Kate could hear the kids next door splashing around in a pool. Not summer yet, but they were enjoying a day off because the schools hadn’t used all of their snow days.

  “I heard that Scott was arrested,” Marla said. “Do you think he did it?”

  She had to get used to that. Everyone was going to ask her if she thought Scott had done it. As if they’d kept in touch or something all of these years. She wouldn’t have been surprised if everyone thought that they were already an item. “I don’t think he did it, but I haven’t talked to Scott in years until he came back recently.”

  “He was a cop in Philly? I heard he was shot and quit.”

  That’s also what Kate had heard, but she hadn’t brought it up with Scott. It was one of the stories, at least. There’d been more that hadn’t been so complimentary. Maybe he’d tell her, but ultimately it was none of her business. “I heard the same thing, but we haven’t talked about it. Really, none of my business.”

  “Someone told me you two dated?”

  “In high school. A lifetime ago.”

  Though seeing him again brought it all back—the good and the bad. She’d agreed to do the job at his house only because she refused to give into her desire to isolate herself from him. She was a married woman and needed to act that way.

  No matter that her heart said something different.

  She attached the risers and then screwed the boards onto them. “You need me to paint them?”

  Marla waved her hand. “No, I’ll do it. Gives me a project.”

  “I would think you have one big project with your two daughters.”

  Having raised two boys, Kate knew how much time and energy children took. She hadn’t remembered being too productive when the twins were little. Later on, she’d been able to include them in projects despite Greg’s hesitance. He’d insisted that they could afford to pay someone to stay with them. She didn’t know where he thought the money was going to come from.

  “They certainly keep me busy.”

  After she finished up, Marla wrote her a check for the supplies. Then Kate left to talk to Celia.

  ***

  Celia Johnson lived in a brick two-story home on the other side of town from Marla’s neighborhood. Having no other pressing jobs, Kate drove to her place. The day was getting behind her, and she was just about ready for dinner.

  A teenage boy mowed Celia’s lawn. He looked bored, and had his shirt off and tucked into the back pocket of his jeans and his ear buds on. His phone was tucked into the other back pocket. She didn’t recognize him, but everyone waved to everyone else in Rock Ridge, so she waved.

  He gave her a look that said he couldn’t be bothered waving back. Nice. If one of her boys had acted like that, she’d have had words with him. For a moment, she found herself missing them.

  Both were freshman, and she was still getting used to the empty nest even though this was the end of the school year. At least she had her business to keep her busy. With the economy getting stronger, more people were selling houses. That meant more people doing renovations or fixing things they had previously let fall by the wayside.

  And that meant more money for her business. This was very good for Kate because tuition for two was expensive, even with the money her husband had put away. He’d gone missing, but he hadn’t taken any money with him.

  The forensic accountants hadn’t found any irregularities in her account, so she had no idea what he was living on—if he was alive. She gulped. “Don’t think of him as dead.”

  She climbed out of her truck and walked up to Celia’s front door. She rang the doorbell and heard the notes reminiscent of a classical song. Kate never listened to much classical, so she couldn’t be sure.

  The front door had been painted red and a lion knocker stared back at her. A little pretentious for a small town, in Kate’s opinion, but whatever floated her boat. Celia always behaved as though she were royalty, but the woman had been kind and caring when Kate’s mother had died, so she couldn’t be too critical of her.

  The Johnson household had been a refuge when she was overwhelmed with taking care of her mother. Celia and Ken had also been good to her right after Greg had disappeared. They’d been the only ones.

  A few minutes later, Celia appeared in the doorway.

  “Hello, Kate. What brings you here?”

  Celia was older than Kate was, but looked the same age. She’d had her daughter Carly at a young age. Kate had heard the rumors that she and Ken had to get married, and then after they did, they’d lost that baby.

  She guessed they were in love since they had Carly a few years later.

  “I wanted to ask you a few questions about what you might have seen out on your walk this morning.”

  She pushed open the screen door. “Come in. Is this about Scott’s wife’s death?”

  The grapevine in Rock Ridge had a speed that rivaled social media. Of course Celia would know about the murder.

  “Ex-wife,” Kate said when she settled on Celia’s couch. She wasn’t sure why she’d needed to clarify that. Scott’s relationships were none of her business.

  “Why are you asking questions? Didn’t Ken arrest Scott?”

  “Yes, but Scott didn’t do it.”

  “Is that your brain speaking or your heart? Good thing we found out he was a killer now before he was entrenched in the community. That would have been a harder blow.”

  Kate had forgotten that Celia didn’t like Scott. She hadn’t even back when Kate and Carly were in high school. Carly had had a crush on Scott, and he hadn’t asked her out. Instead, he’d asked out Kate who had no idea that Carly liked Scott. That was a million years ago.

  Kate was pretty sure that Carly was over it. Her mother should be, too.

  “I don’t believe that he did it. He’d already divorced her. He had no reason to kill her,” Kate said. “What I was wondering was if you saw anything suspicious on your walk this morning.”

  Celia pondered that for a moment. “No. I saw the usual people out and about.”

  Yes, got that. “Who is that?”

  “Well, the fire chief’s truck and Carly’s were there. I guess she had some flowers to deliver. I didn’t see her, otherwise I would have chatted with her,” Celia said. “She’s my daughter, so you’d think we see e
ach other all the time. That’s not the case, even though we live in the same town.”

  Kate knew why Carly didn’t visit her mother much, but that had no bearing on the case. Kate suspected she wasn’t going to get much out of Celia. She’d already made up her mind that Scott was guilty because of something petty he’d done close to thirty years ago.

  Nothing like living in the past. The bad part of living in a small town was that everyone knew your business. They know every butthead thing you did as a teenager and won’t let you forget it. Scott hadn’t been a bad kid, but he’d also not been a completely good kid. Part of Kate’s attraction toward him at the time was his motorcycle. Her mother had almost had a cow the first time he showed up to take her on a date.

  In true Scott fashion, he’d charmed her mother. Her father had been more skeptical, but he hadn’t interfered with her dating Scott. She would have fought back anyway. She was sixteen at the time and finding her way in the world.

  “So you saw the chief’s truck and Carly’s truck.”

  “Yes, that was it.” Celia nodded. “I heard that Scott’s wife cheated on him. Or is that the story he’s giving out?”

  Man, this woman does not like Scott. “I don’t know why the marriage broke up. Not my business.”

  Not that she wasn’t curious. She was, but that would imply a level of intimacy with Scott that she didn’t want to encourage. She’d talked to him on the phone twice, and he’d flirted with her both times.

  Seeing that Celia wasn’t going to enlighten her any further, Kate said her goodbyes. She had to get rid of the wood at the scrap yard, and then she could go home. Or should she go visit Scott in jail? Tell him what she knew so far?

  Except that all she knew was that Celia Johnson didn’t like him. She was not a good person to have against you, but mostly she was harmless. But then, Scott probably knew that already.

  Kate’s phone rang as she climbed back in the truck at the scrap yard.

  “Hello?”

  “Kate, it’s Scott.”

  “Don’t tell me that I’m your one phone call,” she said.

  He knew other people in town. He must. He’d grown up here. Besides, she had no access to a lawyer.

  “No, I’m out. I’ve been released on my own recognizance. I’m starving and wanted to know if you wanted to go to dinner.”

  He wants to go out when he’s been accused of murder? That takes big brass ones.

  “You just get out of jail after being accused of murder and you’re asking me on a date.”

  “Not a date, just dinner.”

  Dinner could mean so much. She should go to prove to herself that there was nothing between them. No spark. No quickening of her heart when he so much as called her. Nope.

  But she wouldn’t. She was chicken.

  “Dinner sounds too much like a date. I’ll have to pass.”

  “I’ll get takeout and bring it to your house,” he said.

  She had to admit there was some appeal to that; it would save her from cooking or getting takeout herself. If she did do takeout, she needed to drive back into the center of town, past her house, and then back to her house. The idea tired her.

  The day in the sun was beginning to catch up to her. Her bones ached and she could feel the hitch in the ankle that she sprained when she’d tripped over one of the boys’ toys years ago. She’d probably done too much today, but she had bills to pay. She could go home and soak in the tub and feel better.

  “No, Scott. I just want to go home and put on my pajamas.”

  “You can wear pajamas. I’ll wear mine, too.”

  She had a feeling he didn’t wear them. And that was the point.

  Chapter Four

  Kate went home after fending of Scott’s invitation, ate, and then went to bed. The next morning dawned cloudy, breezy and a little warm. Her first stop would be Carly’s Florist. Her best friend had found her calling before even going to college. She’d worked afternoons at Sunshine Florist.

  When the woman who owned it retired, Carly bought it and renamed it. Kate needed to put up a shelf for Carly, so this morning that’s what she’d do. She could also talk to her and ask if she saw anything odd when she was delivering flowers yesterday.

  The shop sat on a corner on Main Street and had the usual storefront windows with a door in the middle. Carly was standing in the window display, one hand on her hip, when Kate pulled up.

  Carly had blonde hair that had stayed light for years. Now she colored it to keep it that way. It was a soft color, one which redheaded Kate often envied. She also envied Carly’s curvy figure and how she always managed to look feminine in the least girly clothes.

  Today, she sported a frilly blouse and a long, flowered skirt.

  Kate had already stopped at the hardware store for supplies. Carly’s shop smelled of flowers and the cinnamon coffee she had brewing. Kate snagged a cup and watched Carly work her magic in the window.

  “I’ll never understand how you do what you do,” Kate said.

  Carly shrugged. “I can’t hammer a nail or hang Sheetrock, so we’re even. I can’t even paint,” Carly said, hopping down from the window ledge. She wiped her hands on her green apron.

  The coffee was warm and Kate hugged the mug. The day wasn’t cold, but she felt a coolness in her bones from yesterday’s events. Scott was home and she’d go see him at some point to finish his project.

  His house had been cleared. He was making arrangements for his ex-wife to be buried here. Why had she come to Rock Ridge? What business did she have? Was she on a mission to get Scott back? Kate knew all too well that he could leave a hole in your life when he was gone.

  She refused to contemplate that Scott’s leaving had left just as large a hole as her husband’s departure. No need to think about that.

  “You are so deep in thought,” Carly said.

  Kate poured herself a second cup of coffee. She ran on caffeine most days, not always stopping for lunch. Her father had instilled his work ethic in her. She didn’t mind downtime, but when she knew there were things to do she couldn’t sit.

  “This murder is on my mind. Oh, by the way, you were over that way yesterday morning?”

  “I was delivering flowers to Janice Gabe. She had twins.”

  “Did you see anything suspicious?”

  “I saw a woman at Scott’s house. She was very much alive. She wore a tank top, tight skirt and impossible heels. She was walking up the driveway to Scott’s house.”

  Tight skirt? Carly hadn’t examined the woman’s wardrobe, but that sounded like the woman she’d found.

  “Did she knock or go right in?”

  Carly mulled that over. “Knocked, and then went in.”

  As if she belonged. She must have been that kind of woman. Scott would need a strong woman to balance him out, to fend off his own strong personality. A woman could get run over by Scott and find herself lost.

  “The door wasn’t unlocked for me, so I’m surprised she could walk in,” Kate said.

  Someone locked it after they left. The killer? She shuddered to think that the killer had been there right before her.

  “You didn’t see anyone else that didn’t belong in that neighborhood?”

  “I saw Larry’s truck, but he’s often parked everywhere when he does inspections.”

  It was not odd that Larry’s truck was there, but something about it struck her as odd. She couldn’t get a handle on it. Hopefully it would come to her. “Whose house was he parked in front of?”

  “I don’t know the name, but catty-corner to Scott’s.”

  The Olsens. Kate had repaired a hole in their ceiling that had happened when the tub on the second floor sprung a slow leak in the drain. Water hadn’t built up, but over time, the leak became bigger. Once it had been fixed, they called Kate to make it look nice.

  Being short, ceilings were not her favorite. Working on a ladder with her hands in the air was not her idea of a good time.

  The Olsens’ house was not
for sale, but that didn’t mean one near theirs wasn’t. She didn’t remember seeing any “For Sale” signs, and Scott had already closed on his house, so that inspection was done.

  She’d have to talk to Larry about that.

  “What time did you deliver those flowers?”

  “I’d say seven.”

  “That was early,” Kate said.

  “Yes, they were deliveries from yesterday. That teen I hired didn’t show up again. I was left with flowers to deliver, and I was too exhausted the night before. Today I have a wedding to prep for and I think Larry’s coming in to get centerpieces for a firehouse banquet.”

  Larry had asked her to attend with him, but she said if she did go, she’d go stag. It was a fundraiser for a child with cancer. Hershey Medical gave a list to the fire company and they chose a recipient. The fire company had raised thousands of dollars to cover the medical expenses of several different children.

  That banquet was that coming weekend, and Kate hadn’t decided to attend or not. This year it would be a square dance and she wasn’t a good dancer. Larry could really cut a rug, but her days of doing that were over. Greg hadn’t been a dancer, and they hadn’t attended the fundraiser at all during their marriage.

  Greg hadn’t originally been from Rock Ridge and didn’t necessarily embrace the small-town life.

  “You going?” Carly asked.

  “Not sure.”

  “I’m sure you have a date,” she said.

  Kate shook her head. Everyone in town pushed her and Larry together. They all seemed to forget that she had a husband.

  That included Larry. She wished he’d moved on. It might be a few years before she could declare Greg legally dead…if she chose to.

  Then there would be a mourning period, so he should just find someone else to go out with. He wanted to marry, and he might not get the chance if he waited for her. He’d been married, but his wife had died. He’d liked being married, he’d always told her. For her part, Kate wasn’t sure she would get married again.

  The silver lining in this situation was that Kate enjoyed her independence.

  No one questioned her decisions. She’d loved her husband, but sometimes he could be overbearing. She didn’t like being told what to do when she was perfectly capable of making a decision. She’d disliked that her husband had questioned her every move. Thankfully, she had a strong enough personality not to take it to heart, but it had been wearing on her.