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

by Belle Knudson

  Dudley’s relatives probably had no idea.

  She gave Jessica a hug when she reached her. “You holding up?”

  “I am. I’ll be happy when it is all over. All of it. Including catching Dudley’s murderer. No matter what I felt or didn’t feel for him, he didn’t deserve to die,” Jessica said.

  Kate didn’t know what to say to that. Jessica had already moved on from her marriage before Dudley was killed. Kate wondered what that would feel like.

  “I’m sorry, Jessica.”

  “Thank you for coming,” Jessica said.

  Kate waited in the hallway for Scott. He came out a few minutes later.

  “She is a strong woman,” Kate said.

  “She has a good man with her, even if he can’t be here,” Scott said.

  “I’ll get the car.”

  As she waited outside, she saw what she thought was Beth’s car. Looking around, she crossed the lot to get a closer look. The dent was still there. The green car had flecks of metal in it. Guess she couldn’t afford to get it fixed yet.

  The metal flecks seemed odd, but Kate had no idea why. She’d backed into something pretty hard, given the dent.

  Kate eyed it before looking up to see Scott driving into the lot. She flagged him down, and then climbed in.

  “You shopping for a new car?”

  “No, just looking at that green car. It’s Beth’s and she still has the dent in it.”

  “So?”

  “She was getting an estimate for the dent when I had the oil changed in the truck, and I wanted to see if the work had been done on it. I have a few spots on my truck that I’d like to take care of. They aren’t a priority, but if Bob does a good job, then I’ll use him.”

  “Okay. Let’s grab a bite.”

  “I don’t want to go anywhere. I’m tired. Let’s go to my place. I’ll fix something.”

  “Let’s stop for pizza then. That way you don’t have to cook,” he said.

  “You are sweet.”

  “Remember that,” Scott said.

  “Nothing is going to happen until I’m ready, Scott, and I’m not ready.”

  “I know, Katydid. I know. I just wish I could find out what happened to that husband of yours so you can be mine.”

  “You’re expending a lot of effort for me. What if I’m a letdown?”

  “Oh, I doubt that. I’ve seen you naked.”

  She laughed. “About thirty pounds and two kids ago.”

  “Doesn’t matter. It will be the same to me.”

  As Scott drove her home, Kate realized that all the poles on Main Street were wooden. Not metal.

  “Let’s go to my place and get that pizza delivered. I don’t want to stop. I just want to get out of these shoes.”

  “Okay. I’m in. You have some beer?”

  “I do—in the fridge even.”

  He smiled at her and she liked that smile. More than she should.

  Chapter Nine

  Kate woke refreshed after having spent the evening with Scott. She did enjoy his company, and she had to admit that it was nice having a man in the house again.

  Today was about getting the estimate to Jessica, but first Kate had to pick up a book she’d reserved at the library.

  The book was so she could learn some more repair techniques and expand her business. She was never too old to learn new tricks.

  The Rock Ridge Library was in a building separated from the municipal complex by a parking lot. She parked in front and then entered the air-conditioned building. It was hushed, of course, and the thick carpeting extinguished all sounds.

  Kate strode to the circulation desk with her library card. Meghan Tully, the town’s head librarian was behind the counter.

  “Hello, Meghan.”

  The woman had been at least two grades ahead of Kate in high school. She wasn’t at all surprised that Meghan had become a librarian. She’d volunteered in the school library and could always be seen with a book in her hands. Even when walking to school.

  “Hi, Kate, your book is here.” She grabbed it off of a shelf behind her. “Doing research?”

  “I am.”

  “We have some woodworking and repair magazines that you should look at. We have the current issues on the shelf and the back issues on microfilm.”

  “Ah, microfilm. It’s been years since I looked at one of those.”

  “You’d be surprised what you can learn from a magazine,” Meghan said.

  “I bet. I’ll have to make some time to stop in and look at them. Right now I need to read up on some stuff and finish an estimate for a client.”

  “The library’s empty if you need a spot to work.”

  Kate looked around and saw that no one was in the small library. “Are you less busy in the summer?”

  “We are except for our Children’s Reading Club. More kids come in on rainy days than a day like today.”

  “Makes sense. They want to be in pools and running around outside. While I’m here, maybe I’ll look at one of those magazines you talked about,” Kate said.

  She never turned down a suggestion from a librarian. Meghan led her to the rack of magazines, and the microfilm projector was next to it. There were several reels sitting on the desk.

  “Darn. I hate when people leave these out,” Meghan said.

  “That’s not very thoughtful,” Kate said.

  “The biggest culprit is not the kids.”

  “No?”

  “No, that darn reporter is in here all of the time. She leaves them out more than anyone.”

  “She does research here? Doesn’t she have a whole ‘morgue’ full of newspaper clippings at her office?”

  Meghan nodded. “She said she was working on something that she didn’t want anyone to know about, and this way no one could trace what she’d done.”

  “Did she tell you what it was?”

  “No, and frankly she annoys me, so I didn’t care.”

  Meghan cleaned up the mess, but Kate wondered what Beth had been working on. The Sentinel wasn’t about crusader journalism.

  The librarian showed Kate some of the magazines she’d been talking about. Kate thumbed through them and found some more tools she might need to buy before she expanded her business.

  Maybe she could rent them from Grayson’s before she bought, just to see if she liked them. She did that a lot.

  “Are you finding them helpful?” Meghan said.

  “Yes, except that I want to learn all of this at once. And buy all of the tools,” she laughed.

  Meghan sat down next to her. “A library is full of potential.”

  “I know. Too bad I haven’t been here since the boys were little.”

  “That happens to a lot of people,” Meghan said.

  She neatened a stack of newspapers on the table in front of her. Then her face lit up. “I actually need your services.”

  “Oh?”

  “At my apartment, I have a leak. Do you fix plumbing?”

  “I don’t do plumbing. You’re better off getting a licensed plumber.”

  “I do need a new lock on my front door.”

  “That I can do,” Kate said.

  She pulled out a card and handed it to Meghan. “Just e-mail me with the job. I’ll schedule you in.”

  “Okay. I’ll look at my calendar and see when I’m home.”

  “Sounds good.”

  She went back to thumbing through the magazines. She really did want to buy new tools. Instead, she worked on the estimate for Jessica.

  Kate used the computer at the library and was able to e-mail the estimate to herself. At least she’d have a copy now. She also printed out a copy to give to Jessica. She wanted to send a text to the woman, but then she remembered that she was at Dudley’s viewing. She could’ve dropped it in the woman’s mailbox, but she chose not to.

  Dudley would be buried later today. She was pretty sure Jessica didn’t want to deal with business right now. Even if she didn’t love her husband anymore, she st
ill must be affected by his death.

  This led Kate to think about her own husband. Was she still in love with him? Did she have any feelings for him? She just felt anger at this point. Where the hell is he?

  Kate knew she wasn’t going to get any more answers now than she had over the past five years. She’d just have to wait until Scott figured something out. Kate hated depending on him for this, but he was probably the best person to take on the case.

  “I’m actually closing soon, Kate.”

  “Oh, sorry. You want me to put the magazines back?”

  “No, I’ll get them when I come in tomorrow before I open up.”

  “Okay, if you’re sure.”

  Kate left Meghan in the library walked to her truck, taking in the sun. She didn’t have much to do until she gave Jessica the estimate. Kate wasn’t used to having down time. She usually had something to do, but she was stumped with this case. She pondered who she should talk to next.

  She’d been spending too much time with Scott, so he wasn’t an option. The fact that she thought of him first was alarming. He was weaseling his way into her life.

  Not that she’d done anything wrong, but appearances were everything. She thought of Beth’s car and wondered what had bothered her about the dent. Lots of people had dents in their cars. Kate’s truck certainly had a few.

  She sighed. With nothing else to do, Kate opted to go to the grocery store. That way she’d have coffee and something to eat the next day. When she arrived at the supermarket, her phone rang. It was Jessica.

  “Hello.”

  “Kate, please come over here. Someone broke into the house while I was at the viewing.”

  “Did you call the cops?”

  “Yes, but I’d like you to be here. They ransacked Dudley’s office.”

  That didn’t sound good. It sounded like it had something to do with the murder. “Okay. I can be there in ten.”

  She climbed back in the truck to drive to Jessica’s house, trying to stay under the speed limit. The traffic was heavier than she would have thought it would be. Her frustration level was rising.

  ***

  Jessica answered the door before Kate could ring the bell. She pulled Kate into the house. “The cops haven’t gotten here yet. Dean can’t get away from his job. You were the first person I thought of to call. You’ve been so kind to me.”

  Kate hugged Jessica to offer the woman some sort of comfort.

  “Do you know what is missing?”

  “No. Whoever it was only ransacked Dudley’s office.”

  Kate looked into the living room, but everything was in place. It didn’t look like she’d been robbed. Jessica brought her to the door of the office. A tornado might have gone through there from the looks of it.

  “Do you want to go in?” Jessica asked.

  Kate knew that would be a bad idea. She didn’t want to contaminate the crime scene. “We should leave it for the cops. They’ll want to fingerprint everything.”

  Jessica pointed at the window in the office. “The person broke the window you fixed.”

  “I can fix it again. Shall I make some coffee?”

  Kate needed some even if Jessica didn’t. She’d only had two cups today and she usually drank five or six.

  “That would be great.”

  Kate hustled around the kitchen as the front doorbell rang. That would be the police. Kate had the coffee going and was searching for some cookies when Jessica came back.

  “This is Officer Garrison. Officer Garrison, this is Kate Flaherty,” Jessica said.

  “I’ve seen you around the PD,” he stated.

  Garrison was a short man with a buzz cut. He definitely had that cop vibe.

  “Hi.”

  The man turned to Jessica. “You want to talk in here?”

  “Yes, I’d like Kate with me.”

  Suddenly she was Jessica’s best friend. Oh well. She could offer comfort if necessary. She wasn’t really sure what else she could do until she could fix that window.

  “Fine. What time did you leave the house this morning?”

  Jessica sat on a stool. “I left here at nine-thirty. The viewing started at ten. I wanted to be there early.”

  The cop typed into a tablet computer. The twenty-first century had come to Rock Ridge. “Did you go into the office before you left?”

  “I didn’t, but I did walk past it. I glanced inside. All was in order at that point,” Jessica said.

  Burglars often targeted houses when they knew the occupants were at a funeral or a viewing. That part didn’t seem odd to Kate, but the fact that the burglar only targeted Dudley’s office seemed connected to his murder. Kate was sure.

  “Would anyone else like coffee?” Kate said.

  The officer declined.

  “I’ll take a cup,” Jessica said.

  Kate poured them both a mug then leaned against the counter, the cup cradled in her hands. The brew gave her something to do while the officer talked to Jessica. The doorbell rang.

  “I’ll get it,” Kate said.

  She needed something else to do. She opened the door to find Ken and Scott. The chief looked at her with raised eyebrows.

  As if she had to defend herself, she said, “Jessica asked me to be here.”

  She let them in. “She’s in the kitchen.”

  “Point me to the crime scene,” Ken said.

  “We’ll pass it on the way.”

  She stopped outside the office. Ken and Scott both looked in.

  “Yep, it’s ransacked,” Ken said.

  He had what looked like a toolbox in his hand. He entered the office.

  “You’ll fix the window for her before you leave?” Scott said.

  “Of course. I have the tools,” Kate said.

  He tugged on her arm, back in the direction of the front door. “Did Jessica really ask you to be here?”

  “She called me.”

  She didn’t like his tone. He was overstepping the boundaries of their friendship. “You need to stay away from this case, Kate.”

  “Then I shouldn’t tell you that I overheard the auditor for Rock Ridge say that there was a problem with the last few contracts that Dudley awarded,” Kate said.

  “He’s already turned over the records to Ken,” Scott said with a smug smile on his face.

  “Fine. It isn’t news to you. Don’t you think it is likely he pissed someone off?”

  “That person might have killed him. All the more reason we need to figure out who was in the office that night.”

  “No video at all?”

  “No, they disappeared during the power outage. We’re upgrading the system, but I can’t until next year. It isn’t in the budget for this year. Like I said, the last chief was coasting,” Scott said.

  Which meant Scott had a pile of crap to contend with.

  “Lovely,” Kate said.

  He didn’t look stressed. How could he be so cool about all of this?

  “Kate, I really want you to stay out of this. Do I need to remind you what happened last time you became involved in a murder investigation?”

  “I caught the guy?” she said.

  He wasn’t amused. “I had to rescue you from the man.”

  “I would have thought you liked that. Isn’t that why you became a cop?”

  He growled. “Please, Kate. I don’t want to have to worry about you. I have enough on my plate.”

  She drew herself up. “It isn’t your place to worry about me.”

  “Maybe not, but I do. It’s part of my DNA. I need to know that you’re safe. What will happen to your kids if you’re gone?”

  She got up on her tiptoes to be right by his face. “Don’t throw my kids in my face. It isn’t your place. I think about my boys all of the time.”

  He didn’t step back. He didn’t flinch. She hadn’t expected him to, but she wanted him to know she was no shrinking violet.

  He did put up his hands. “You can pretend that there is nothing between us, but t
he whole town knows there is.”

  “The whole town is wrong.”

  “You can think that.”

  “Yes, I can think what I want, Scott. And do what I want as long as I don’t break the law.”

  “If I could arrest you, I would. I don’t want to see you hurt.”

  She stepped away from him. “I’m fine. I’m here to support Jessica, and then fix her window.”

  At that moment Ken came out of the office. He eyed the two of them. “I need to see what info the officer has gathered, then I might have a few questions for Jessica. Kate, you are free to fix the window.”

  “Thanks, Ken,” Kate said.

  She left Scott standing there. She looked at the window. The glass wasn’t broken as she’d expected. The window had been jimmied open.

  “Doesn’t look like a professional job,” Scott said.

  Kate jumped. She hadn’t heard him walk in. She was always surprised by how stealthy he was for a big guy.

  “How can you tell?”

  “Because it looked like brute force. With a tool. A professional would have gotten that unlocked then pushed it up.”

  “I’ll have to order her a new screen.”

  She ignored his presence. She needed to fix the window then get out. She turned, but Scott was right there. He got ahold of her arms. “So you know. We’re already interviewing a man who wasn’t awarded a contract from Rock Ridge. He’s been very vocal and he has no alibi. No need to help us do our jobs.”

  There was no humor or mirth in his words. He walked out, not giving her a chance to say anything.

  Chapter Ten

  Kate left Jessica with an estimate for the work she needed done on her house. She looked forward to having steady work. Leafing through the book she’d taken out of the library, Kate knew where she wanted to go with her business. She had big plans; she just needed an influx of cash to buy some new tools.

  Fixing Jessica’s house would provide that. She might even get her truck repainted with a new logo, but that was a few months down the road.

  Her next stop was a different type of fix. Marley Jones had found a used chicken coop online, so she had it delivered. It needed some work before she could have chickens. Marley lived in the same neighborhood as Jessica and Scott, but in the older section that had been built in the seventies. The house was a ranch, but because Marley and her husband had done some upgrades, it didn’t look as old as it truly was.