“It’s not impossible,” she allowed. “But I’ll have to take a look outside.”
“I’ve already begun sorting through resumes for you.”
“What?”
“Since you’ll need to hire contractors to do the bulk of the work,” she explained. “Like we talked about over the phone.”
“You already looked into contractors?”
Amelia smiled sheepishly. “Technically, I started looking last week.”
Kate knew what she was implying. Amelia had tried to find cheaper labor than Mrs. Fix It and had come up dry.
“I couldn’t imagine anyone else but you building my balcony,” she said quickly, but the compliment seemed disingenuous for some reason. “Your daughter is so well behaved.”
Kate figured she was trying to change the subject and that was just fine by her. She wasn’t about to have a confrontation over being insulted. All told, she didn’t feel insulted. She only worried if she’d actually have time to oversee a project of this magnitude.
After jotting down some measurements onto the margins of her estimate pad, Kate asked, “Can I look around outside?”
“Of course,” Amelia said, leading Kate down the hallway and then the stairs.
Once outside, they stalked around the side of the inn over melting snow and soggy grass. Kate was wearing sneakers, but wished she’d thought to put her boots on. Puddle water was seeping into her shoes.
As they rounded the back of the inn, Amelia asked, “If you have a few minutes, I’d like to pick your brain about all sixteen murders that took place in Rock Ridge over the past four and a half years. You know, for my murder tour.”
Chapter Two
Three busy days passed. Kate interviewed contractors to assist her in building Amelia’s balcony, and she ordered materials from Grayson’s Hardware. She resisted having fully-caffeinated coffee exactly seven times and changed approximately a dozen diapers, many with Maxwell’s help, though he had difficulty doing as much without going on and on about how great things were going between him and Gillian O’Reilly.
Scott had been home less and less due to the Bobbie Hamden case and Kate felt like she hadn’t seen him in days as she left the house with Josephine and drove over to the Permits Department in the Municipal Building.
According to Joe Swenson—the town auditor who had not only worked closely with Bobbie, but had been married to her for just over four years—the building permit Kate had applied for on Amelia’s behalf had been processed and was ready to pick up.
With Josephine on her back, Kate started through the parking lot. It was warm for ten o’clock in the morning, which told her that the afternoon would be hot and working outside with a baby on her back might prove exhausting. But she was eager to work. Sticking to small fix-it jobs over the month had kept her busy, but it hadn’t satisfied her need to undertake an impressive project.
The lobby was cool when she stepped inside the municipal building. She checked the marquee to refresh her memory as to where Joe Swenson’s office was located. Just as she read the floor number, Josephine yanked on Kate’s hair and yelped excitedly.
Gritting her teeth, she loosened her daughter’s grip and found a hair elastic in the back pocket of her overalls. As she braided her hair, Maxwell barreled in through the entrance door.
“It’s gonna be a hot one!” he exclaimed.
Glancing over her shoulder, she noticed his nose was covered in a thick layer of pink sunblock.
“Don’t you think you’re overdoing it a bit?”
“I’m optimistic,” he said with a smile. “Today’s the day all the leftover snow will melt. Spring has sprung!”
“All right,” she said, skeptical, as she started for the stairwell.
Maxwell trailed after her, offering, “Need me to take her?”
Unlike the majority of residents in Rock Ridge who had been vying to hold her daughter, Kate actually trusted her assistant to hold and even watch Josephine for short periods of time. At this point, Maxwell was the only other person aside from her own husband that she allowed to hold her daughter. Nevertheless, her shoulders weren’t tired and she didn’t mind climbing the stairs with a little extra weight on her back.
“That’s okay,” she said. “I’ve got her.”
When they reached the second floor, Maxwell held the stairwell door open for her and they found Joe’s office at the end of the hallway.
“So how late do you think we’ll go tonight?” asked Maxwell, implying he had already made plans with his new girlfriend.
“It won’t be a long one,” she told him. “We’ll have to call it a day at sundown.”
“But sundown will be around seven-thirty,” he complained.
“Do you need to take off sooner?”
He held the door to the Permit Department open for her and mentioned, “I made reservations for seven and I’ll need to shower and freshen up.”
How could she argue with budding love? “Fine,” she grumbled. “You can leave at six-thirty.”
“Six,” he countered.
Kate stared at him and he shrunk before Joe Swenson saved him by booming out a hearty greeting. “Kate! I got your permit right here.”
Nearing the middle-aged, balding man, Kate wondered at his apparent good mood. She hadn’t seen Joe around town too much, but when she did, he struck her as someone who had soared through the mourning and grieving process and came out on top.
It made her wonder why Scott hadn’t scrutinized Joe’s whereabouts the night of his wife’s murder.
“Thanks, Joe,” she said, taking the permit and eyeing the terms carefully to be sure his office had included all the materials and structural additions she planned on making at the inn. “How’re you holding up?”
Joe tempered his overzealous grin, clearing his throat. “One day at a time. I have to say, though, this warmer weather has me in a great mood.”
“And it’s going to be a hot one,” Maxwell pointed out, tapping his pink nose.
“Looks good,” said Kate, as she folded the permit and tucked it into her overalls.
“Hey,” said Joe. “I almost didn’t notice the little one.” As he rose from his desk, leaning over to squeeze Josephine’s socked foot, he said in a baby-voice, “You’re going to grow up to be a contractor just like Mommy, aren’t you?”
Maxwell chimed in, “Or a cop.”
Kate grimaced at both options and mumbled, “Let’s hope not.”
After thanking him again, Kate started for the stairwell. Maxwell was quick to open the door for her, and as they began climbing down the stairs, he asked, “You never thought to look into Bobbie’s murder?”
“Scott’s handling it,” she said easily.
“But isn’t that kind of your thing?”
She stopped on the third tread and glanced at him. “What’s my thing?”
“Solving unsolvable crimes.”
“Bobbie’s murder is solvable,” she objected.
“Technically it hasn’t been solved.”
“And Scott is handling it, like I said.”
“Is he?”
She was glaring at him now. “Yes,” she asserted. “He is. Besides, I don’t need to run around Rock Ridge getting into trouble when I already have ten pounds of trouble strapped to my back.”
Maxwell frowned and tickled Josephine’s foot.
“Come on,” she said. “I’d like your novice opinion on the contractors I’ve hired.”
“Thanks,” he said sarcastically, as they made their way through the lobby.
Outside, Kate got her daughter situated in the car seat and then asked Maxwell if he was hungry. If Kate thought being pregnant had gotten her appetite churning, breast-feeding had magnified her cravings tenfold. It hadn’t been an hour since breakfast and already she was starving for lunch.
“Bean There?” he asked, which reminded her she hadn’t finished her muffin.
“No, I’ll make it.”
“You sure? Oh hey, I have a
box of protein bars in my trunk.”
“Bring them,” she said as she climbed in behind the steering wheel.
Maxwell jogged off to his Volvo and Kate waited in her idling truck as he backed out beside her.
Soon they were driving through Rock Ridge. At times Kate glanced at the rearview mirror, checking that Maxwell’s Volvo was still directly behind her truck, as well as spying Josephine’s kicking feet.
When she pulled into Over the Moon, a few of the contractors she had hired were smoking cigarettes just outside the door and it made her blood boil in a matter of seconds.
She jumped out of her truck and marched over.
“What the hell are you doing?” she demanded.
The contractors exchanged a confused glance. The shorter of the two was about Maxwell’s age. He wore a weathered baseball cap over his shaved head and looked like he hadn’t laundered his clothes in months. The other, a portly man who had worked on constructing the amusement park a few years back and who the mayor, Dean Wentworth, had recommended to her because of it, pulled a long drag off his cigarette and blew it in her face.
“You got a problem with smoking?” he asked as if provoking her was a fine source of entertainment.
“There will be no smoking on this job, not out front, not during breaks, not out back, not even in your vehicles as you drive into the parking lot. Got it?”
The men chuckled, but appeased her, dropping their cigarettes to the soggy grass and stepping on them.
Kate glanced over her shoulder. Maxwell was settling Josie into the baby carrier, which he strapped to his back.
“Have you both met my assistant?” she asked them, “Maxwell Stone.”
Maxwell walked over and shook hands with Carter Davie, who flipped his hat off during the introduction.
“Mitchell Williams,” said the older of the two.
“Let’s hope the others are inside already,” said Kate curtly.
Behind her, Carter asked Maxwell, “Ever heard of a condom?”
Kate turned on her heel and glared at the young contractor. “Ever heard of minding your own business?”
“Touchy,” said Mitchell.
But Kate was already interrupting him. “She’s my daughter, not Maxwell’s. Remember that the next time you’re thinking of cracking a joke. It wouldn’t be wise to offend the woman who signs your paychecks.”
The men frowned, and as Kate threw the entrance door open she wondered if it had been necessary to bark out her response. After a moment, however, she decided it was. She had worked in a male-dominated field almost her entire life and if you didn’t put your foot down hard and fast at the first sign of disrespect, then things could quickly spiral out of control.
Of course getting to the lounge, much less to the second floor, was no easy task. As soon as Maxwell saw Gillian behind the desk, he made a detour to flirt and show off the adorable three-month-old.
Realizing Maxwell was lingering, Kate called his name and waited with the two contractors as her assistant gave Gillian a long, lingering hug.
“Can I crack a joke about that?” asked Carter, watching them.
Kate suppressed the smile that was threatening to blow her authoritative resolve, and when Maxwell finally joined them, she started off again.
After climbing the stairs, she neared the windows at the end of the hallway. “We need to remove the panes, secure the wall, and install a doorway. I’ll put you two on this task and get the others started outside.”
“Where are the others?” asked Maxwell.
Kate frowned, pulling her cell from her overalls and not looking forward to the phone calls she would have to make. But just as she was scrolling through her contacts for Zack Bristow, he stomped onto the landing and Kate’s eyes snapped up.
At 6’4” and 320 lbs., Zack had a formidable presence, but Kate needed his brawn. His arms were covered in tattoos and his brown hair was buzzed so short she could see the sheen of his scalp when the angle was just right.
“Great, you’re here,” she remarked. “One less person to call.”
“Eddie’s on his way,” said Zack in a deep tone that nearly rumbled the earth.
“Driving over?” she asked.
“Locking up the truck. We carpooled.”
She was tempted to remind them to be on time as soon as Eddie managed to make it upstairs, but she decided to hold her tongue just this once.
To Maxwell, she explained, “I’ll work with Zack and Eddie outside, and you get Mitchell and Carter started on the doorway.”
Kate helped her assistant to shoulder out of the baby carrier and once Josephine was securely on her back, Kate led the tremendous man through the hallway and down the stairs.
“I read about you,” said Zack as they crossed through the lounge where the guests had fallen silent to stare at the gigantic man in their presence. “You went into labor when that killer attacked you.”
“Something like that,” she said, not entirely comfortable with having a personal conversation.
As they wound through the lobby, Eddie Jackson stepped in through the entrance door. He was small and wiry, but his expression gave away his age. He had probably worked in construction for all his adult years and if Kate had to guess, she’d say he was fast approaching fifty.
“Eddie,” she said, shaking his hand. “Good to have you.” Before continuing on around the inn, she added, “There’s no smoking and I want to be very clear about that.”
“Got it,” said Eddie. “I chew.”
“Tobacco?” she asked, trying not to sound disgusted. At least it wouldn’t produce second-hand smoke.
“I won’t chew on the job,” he explained. “And Zack here doesn’t smoke.”
“Good to hear.”
Kate led them outside. Zack seemed interested in the marble fountain as they passed it and soon they came upon all the building materials she had arranged with Larry to drop off earlier.
“Fancy place,” he commented, jabbing Eddie’s shoulder. “Have you taken that murder tour yet?”
“Man, please,” said Eddie, sounding annoyed. “The rich keep getting richer and the rest of us can barely make rent.”
Zack frowned. “You make rent just fine, and you wouldn’t have to scrimp so much if you spent less on beer.”
“And who drinks all my beer?” he challenged, giving Kate the impression that Zack and Eddie were more than just work acquaintances.
“All right, guys, let me walk you through this.”
Kate rolled out the blueprints she had devised over the past few days and held it up for them to review. As she began explaining the course of action they would take, she pointed to the various stacks of materials that were resting under giant blue tarps.
After a lengthy tutorial, the men got started, pulling boards and hammering in the support structure.
Though the balcony would be made of wood, Amelia had asked that it have a stone finish, so Kate had ordered stone tiles, and laying them would be the final step.
Kate texted Maxwell several times as the hours unfolded, asking him to run a protein bar down to her. By the time she called for a lunch break, Zack and Eddie had built a solid frame and Kate had eaten exactly four protein bars.
Zack wandered off toward the front of the inn and after Eddie had admired the structure for a beat, he started after his friend. Kate hung back, eyeing the structure. The windows on the second floor had only been partially removed, which begged the question: how much work had Maxwell really gotten done up there? One of the windowpanes was resting against the window frame that had yet to be removed from the wall.
At least Josephine had been good. She hadn’t made a peep in the last hour except to snore breathily in Kate’s ear.
Kate rounded the house. All four contractors had gathered in front of a truck that she presumed was Eddie’s. She nodded at them, calling out, “Forty-five minutes!” and then she ducked inside.
She found Maxwell on the second floor. He was unscrewing the last
window frame, but when she reached him, she said, “Give it a rest. Where do you feel like going for lunch?”
“Anywhere but Daisy’s,” he groaned. “If I eat there one more time...”
“All right. I feel like having a hamburger.”
He seemed game for that, so he set his power drill next to a tool kit and gave one final look at the window.
“It’s fine,” said Kate impatiently. She was starving and figured that Josie would be ravenous as soon as she woke up from her nap.
Downstairs, Maxwell lingered at the front desk where Gillian was filing a few bills.
“Feel like a hamburger?” he asked her.
And Kate quickly interjected, “Gotta make a fast decision. I’m starving.”
Gillian rose to her feet, but looked indecisive in Kate’s opinion.
“Does it have to be hamburgers?” she asked, when suddenly a loud crash came from the back of the lounge.
Kate jogged into the lounge and her gaze immediately locked on the window where just outside she caught sight of one of her contractors on his back. If she wasn’t mistaken, it looked like the windowpane had fallen on him.
Quickly, she jogged back through the lounge, out the door, and around the inn with Maxwell at her heels.
The windowpane hadn’t just fallen on one of her men.
Eddie was lying unconscious on his back. The pane of glass had broken on impact and its jagged edge had sliced through the man’s neck.
“Oh my God!” yelled Kate, as she rushed to him. “Call an ambulance.”
Maxwell was already on it, frantically describing the accident as Kate pressed her fingers to Eddie’s throat, hoping for a pulse.
There wasn’t one and as she wiped the blood from her fingertips she glanced up at the second floor, catching sight of a man’s shoulder as he walked away from the open window frame.
It was then that Kate knew this had been no accident.
Chapter Three
Kate sprung to her feet and quickly paced around the side of the house, while Zack Bristow crouched over Eddie’s dead body. The image of the man turning from the window frame was burning into the forefront of her mind and she had every intention of rushing into the inn and up the stairs to catch the killer. As she picked up her pace, her sneakers sloshing through soggy grass and patches of melting snow, Josephine bounced in her carrier on Kate’s back.
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