Mrs. Fix It Mysteries: The Complete 15-Books Cozy Mystery Series

by Belle Knudson

  She understood how disheartening that was. It made Kate wonder about all that Greg had kept from her.

  “Could it be something to do with his trucking company?”

  “It might. As mayor, he was only there part time. He didn’t really have that much power.”

  Kate suspected that Dudley took more than was his share if the rumors were true. “Have you been through the books at the company?”

  “No, but I have a private accountant auditing them. You’re welcome to talk to him if you think it will help you figure out who killed him.”

  “If you don’t mind.”

  “Not at all. As much as Dudley and I had our differences, I don’t want his murderer to get away.”

  “Thanks. I appreciate the help.” Kate licked her lips then broached a more sensitive subject. “There are rumors that Dudley played favorites in giving out contracts. That he didn’t always take the lowest bidder.”

  Jessica put down her coffee mug. “I’ve heard that also. When I confronted Dudley, which is what we were arguing about when he left that morning, he insisted that he didn’t do that. I have no proof of what he did. You might have to talk to the other council members. They might have a better idea of what the exact complaints had been.”

  She could talk to Larry Stadt. He had been the fire chief, but now had taken over his father’s hardware store after Clark had been taken away on murder charges. Larry used to be interested Kate but had been scarce since his father had threatened her for investigating Jackie’s death.

  She didn’t blame Larry for anything. He wasn’t his father’s keeper. Though it wasn’t surprising that Larry would feel guilty, he was that kind of man.

  “Good idea.”

  “Let me get the card for the accountant.”

  “You already hired him?”

  “I had him on retainer because I’d already filed for divorce from Dudley. I didn’t want him to be able to hide any assets from me.”

  Dudley had underestimated his wife. She’d probably been underestimated her whole life. She was smart and savvy. Knowing what she knew now, Kate wondered why Jessica had ever married Dudley.

  “Can I e-mail you the estimate? It might take me a day or two. I need to figure out supplies,” Kate said.

  “Of course. I’m in a hurry, but I understand that you want to do this properly,” Jessica said.

  “Yes, I do,” Kate said.

  That’s one of the things her father had taught her. Never do bad job. Ever. People remembered those things. Kate had no doubt that he’d been right.

  Though Jessica’s list was long, none of the jobs were too much for her to handle. Kate would have steady work for several weeks.

  ***

  With the check cashed for fixing the window, Kate was now able to get an oil change on her truck. She drove it over to Bob’s Garage to see if he could fit her in.

  No one was at the desk when she entered the lobby. The place was from a bygone era when the customer could come into the bay to see what the mechanic had been doing on his or her car. There wasn’t the separation as in modern facilities.

  Kate sat down to wait. A television blared at one end of the waiting room. Kate wasn’t interested in whatever was on. It was just a bunch of women talking over each other. She never understood that, but she’d never been part of a group of women like that. She’d mostly been a loner in high school until she caught the eye of the star quarterback. The cheerleaders hadn’t been happy with her since they had all wanted to date Scott.

  Her social popularity plummeted even further when she and Scott were first seen together. He didn’t care what others thought, but there were days of teasing when she wanted to break up with him just to get relief from it.

  She shuddered at the memory of high school. Her sons had been athletic, and so they’d had an easier time in those four years than she’d had. Greg had been a runner. They must have inherited their athletic prowess from him.

  Kate heard voices and then Beth Chance, a reporter with the Rock Ridge Sentinel, appeared in the doorway to the bay. Oh crap. She’d want to talk to Kate, who had been able to avoid the woman for days.

  Beth’s face lit up, indicating to Kate that this would be an inquisition. Lucky her.

  Bob, whose name was on the building, was right behind Beth. “Give me about fifteen minutes then I can give you an estimate.”

  He looked at Kate. “What can I do for you?”

  “Oil change, but I can wait until you are done with your estimate.”

  Not that she wanted to talk to Beth. At all. She could get through fifteen minutes without answering any questions. She’d done it before.

  Beth sat down across from her. A table littered with magazines sat between them. Kate picked up a gossip rag and leafed through it, hoping that Beth would get the hint. She didn’t.

  “So I’ve been trying to track you down, Kate. I have some questions.”

  “I don’t have any answers for you.”

  “Come on, Kate.”

  “The story is a few days old. My viewpoint can’t be that interesting now,” Kate said.

  “Well it still is. You apparently directed the police to the person who could give Jessica Stuart her alibi?”

  “No comment.”

  She turned a few more pages, but Kate knew no one in the magazine. She didn’t watch much television and she didn’t listen to current music. These people were strangers to her. Still, it was better than having Beth interrogate her.

  “What did the body look like?”

  Why would she want to know that? That was just gruesome. No reader needed that graphic detail.

  “So what are you getting an estimate on?” Kate said.

  She could ask questions also. Beth’s mouth opened then closed. “I hit a concrete barrier with my car. It was in the newspaper’s parking lot. I need to see if I have the money to get it fixed or if I have to file a claim with my insurance company.”

  The television droned on. The show had changed to another set of women talking over each other. Kate didn’t see the entertainment value in it.

  “I see.”

  Beth stopped making eye contact, which made Kate wonder if she was feeling guilty about something. It’s not as though Kate really cared about how her car was damaged.

  “He’s taking a while,” Beth said.

  “He said it would be at least fifteen minutes,” Kate pointed out.

  Everyone was in a hurry these days. Kate appreciated the chance to sit still for a few minutes. At least she’d derailed Beth’s questions.

  Or so she thought.

  “So back to my questions, Kate.” Beth pulled out her phone and began typing into it. “You found the mayor. Why were you there?”

  “No comment.”

  “That’s an innocuous question, Kate.”

  “No comment.”

  Kate knew that if she answered one question, Beth would get her to answer more, and she wasn’t opening herself up for that. She wanted to sit and wait for her truck to be done. Of course, no one else entered the lobby during this inquisition.

  Kate would have longed for anyone to break up this conversation.

  “Give me something here, Kate. The public wants to know.”

  “No comment, Beth. That’s all I have to say to you. You can save yourself grief and stop asking questions. I’m not answering any of them.”

  “Why not? You seem to know a lot about the case. More than the cops.”

  Kate doubted that. She knew more than the average person who read the Sentinel. It wasn’t a hotbed of journalistic accuracy. In fact, the paper had twice been caught printing libelous stories. They were given the choice to retract them or face lawsuits.

  The paper had not been kind to her when Greg had disappeared. The editor had speculated that she had something to do with her husband’s vanishing. They’d intimated, without going into an outright accusation, that she might have had him harmed. They’d had no basis for the accusation. As far as anyone
knew, she and Greg had been a happy couple.

  As far as she knew, she and Greg had been a happy couple. Each time she uncovered something else about his life, she wondered if her whole marriage had been a lie. She wanted to believe that Greg had loved her and the boys, but she wasn’t as sure as Carly was.

  She could never forget how horrid the editor had been to her. She even refused to advertise in the local newspaper. She hadn’t had a subscription in years. She’d never been a news junkie, and she had other sources for the information she needed.

  None of this was Beth’s fault, but Kate still could not bring herself to help the organization that Beth worked for.

  “You won’t give me one good quote for the paper?” Beth asked.

  Kate admired her persistence, but she wasn’t giving in. She knew how words could get twisted and people were misquoted.

  Bob returned and Kate had never been so eager to see anyone.

  “I have your estimate, Beth,” he said.

  He handed her a piece of paper. She frowned at it. “Okay. I’ll call and make an appointment if I decide to get it fixed.”

  “Let me drive it out of the bay.” He turned to Kate. “Then you can drive your truck into the bay.”

  “Sure.”

  Since she’d parked on the street, Beth was able to drive her compact car out. Once it was vacant, Kate put her truck in the only bay in the garage.

  “Might take me a half an hour.”

  “I’ll probably go find lunch. I haven’t eaten in hours,” Kate said.

  “I think you might have company,” Bob said.

  When Kate looked in the direction that he was pointing, she saw Scott standing there, his arms folded over his chest. He looked as if he were waiting for her. She briefly wondered if maybe he had a tracker on her truck.

  He seemed to turn up wherever she was. Not that Rock Ridge was a large place, but Kate was beginning to be convinced that Scott had spies everywhere. She knew the town was rooting for them to get together, but she didn’t think everyone would go as far as keeping tabs on her to make that happen.

  Chapter Seven

  Kate strode out to see Scott. A smile lit his face.

  “Hi.”

  “Did you put a tracker on me? Or do you have spies telling you where I am?”

  He chuckled and wiggled his eyebrows. “Maybe both.”

  She punched him lightly on the arm. “No need to give the rumor mill anything to talk about.”

  “Well, I wanted to see if you had lunch yet. I got caught up in paperwork and forgot.”

  “I got caught up at Jessica’s house. She’s going to put it on the market,” Kate said.

  “Then it’s settled. We’ll go grab a bite,” Scott said.

  He motioned for her to walk beside him. They were only a block off Main Street, so they could find something there.

  “I wanted to make sure you were okay. I know the revelations about Greg’s passport rattled you.”

  Kate looked up at the blue sky. She could see the haze and couldn’t wait for fall again. She didn’t like summer. She should have moved to a colder climate years ago, but then she’d married Greg. She guessed he could have taught anywhere, but she’d never thought about moving at that point.

  “I went and talked to Carly. She helped me put it into perspective. A little bit, at least.”

  “That’s good. At this point, I have no idea what he’d been doing in those places. I have some contacts in federal law enforcement I can tap to go a little further with the investigation.”

  He’d only do that with her permission. He may not respect her boundaries when it came to dating, but he would when it came to Greg. She knew this.

  “You want my permission?”

  “Yes.”

  “Go ahead. I have nothing to lose. I think I’m already questioning a big portion of my adult life. I didn’t know Greg at all. To me he was this professor who spoke at conferences all over the country. Not some guy who made quick trips to the Middle East on a regular basis,” Kate said.

  “I wouldn’t question it yet.”

  He held the door open for her to Daisy’s Luncheonette. Only a handful of tables were occupied. Daisy didn’t stay open for dinner, so it would be closing in the next hour.

  It wasn’t a diner, but it wasn’t a full restaurant either. Kate could easily find something here to eat to make up for those cookies. A salad would do.

  They sat at a table in the window and read the menus. A waitress came by and took their drink orders. Kate was in the mood for a soda that had caffeine in it and Scott chose iced tea.

  “How can I not question it? He spent a lot of time lying to me.”

  He looked over his menu at her. “But we don’t know why yet. It might have been for a good cause.”

  Kate sighed. She didn’t have that feeling in her gut. She was sure this was bad. “That’s what Carly said.”

  “Hold on to that until we know differently. This was your husband.”

  Scott was right. She should give the man the benefit of the doubt. As far as she knew, he never cheated. She couldn’t imagine him going halfway around the world just for sex. “I know, but I’m the last to know that he had a double life.”

  “I’ll go talk to his colleagues at some point,” Scott said.

  Kate ordered a salad while Scott insisted on a burger. She tucked the menus back into their holder. “I understand this isn’t your biggest priority. You do have a police department to run.”

  He smiled. “Yes, they are paying me to do that. On the other hand, I have a personal stake in finding out what happened to Greg. I have no desire to taint him in your eyes. I just want to give you closure. So you can move on.”

  “With you?”

  Scott laughed, leaning back in his chair. “Of course with me. I’m not working this hard for some other guy to benefit.”

  She looked at him, her head cocked. This was all too much. She needed to get some answers from him. “Why are you working this hard?”

  The waitress put down their drinks. Kate took a sip, enjoying the bubbles dancing across her tongue.

  “Why not? You’re smart and sexy and loyal.”

  “You make me sound like a sexy puppy.”

  He leaned closer to her. “I’d make you out to be a sexy kitten.”

  Kate blushed, not liking where this conversation was headed. “Stop.”

  “Seriously? Maybe you remind me of a simpler time.”

  “But I’m not that teenage girl who was dazzled that the star quarterback was interested in her.”

  She’d had stars in her eyes. The quarterback had wanted her. It sounded so lame now, but she’d been young then. Stupid, in a way. But he’d been good to her up until he had left.

  “I’m not the star quarterback anymore, Kate. And I don’t miss that. I’m a grown man who knows what he likes. I knew what I liked then. You were so different from the crowd I ran with. You were bookish, and you didn’t seem to care what other people thought. I was intrigued by that.”

  She wasn’t sure how she felt about this revelation. That wasn’t how she saw herself. “I was awkward. Maybe a little high maintenance.”

  “If you were high maintenance, then you have no idea of the meaning of that word. The girls I dated other than you made me wear certain clothes. I had to look a certain way to be seen with them. You didn’t care.”

  He really did have a different view of her than she had of herself. “The point is: I’m not that girl anymore.”

  “I wouldn’t want you to be. I’m not that boy anymore.”

  He was closer to that boy than she was to that girl. “You haven’t lost any of your swagger.”

  He puffed out his chest. “I’m still confident.”

  “Yes, sometimes too much.”

  He laughed. “I’m not obnoxious, am I?”

  She laughed also. She enjoyed his company. “No. Annoying sometimes.”

  “Only because you won’t give in to my charms,” he said. Hi
s eyes went dark. “I would take good care of you, Kate.”

  “I’m not sure I need taking care of.”

  “Sure you do. A little bit. Everyone does.”

  “Even you?”

  “Especially me, but only in one place.”

  She didn’t utter the words, but she knew what place he was referring to. He’d had a voracious sexual appetite in high school. And he always found places that they wouldn’t be disturbed. She sighed. Those were heady times. He’d brought out a woman in her that she hadn’t known she could be. Her confidence had soared during their relationship.

  Not so much after he left. As much as that was a long time ago, it still hurt some part of her.

  “Yes, I remember.”

  Scott chuckled as the waitress brought their food. She shouldn’t like him this much. She was having thoughts that she knew she shouldn’t have. Having lived day to day for so long, she was beginning to think of what the future could hold. That was dangerous.

  This man was dangerous. What would her boys think?

  It could be that they missed having a male role model in their lives. Or maybe that wasn’t necessary anymore. They were nineteen now. They were finding their own way in life.

  Even if it was without a father.

  “Where did you go?” Scott asked.

  She frowned. “Just thinking about my boys.”

  “Young men now.”

  “I know. It all happened so fast. They’ll be out on their own before I know it.”

  He reached across the table and put his hand on hers. “All the more reason to look after your own happiness.”

  ***

  Scott walked Kate back to Bob’s Garage. He kissed her on the cheek and left her there. She paid Bob for the oil change, and then headed to Grayson’s Hardware Store for supplies. She could figure out what she needed for Jessica’s list of repairs and give her an estimate.

  She walked in to find Larry Stadt all by himself. That didn’t often happen in this store. She’d noticed that some of the regulars didn’t hang out there anymore since Larry’s father had been convicted of murder. The big-box store was an hour’s drive away. If they wanted to, they could go there.

  Kate had relied on Larry’s father for advice. She wasn’t sure Larry could give her any, but she’d stop and chat anyway. She always preferred patronizing local businesses, especially since she ran one.