A VENEER OF MURDER (Mrs. Fix It Mysteries Book 3)

by Belle Knudson

  After Scott left, she noticed a piece of paper on the floor. It was a receipt for Bean There coffee shop. The time stamp was for this morning.

  “Jessica didn’t go out for coffee.”

  Kate doubted that Jessica had been here at all today. She’d been busy with the ribbon cutting then leaving for her trip. This was a clue, but did it have anything to do with Meghan’s murder?

  Should Kate just let this go? No. She couldn’t. There had been someone in here and she knew it.

  She tucked the receipt into her pocket. She’d talk to the owner of the coffee place this afternoon. The woman might remember who was in the place at that time. With the office neat again, Kate worked on the rest of the house. It took her another hour before she was satisfied with it.

  She drove to Carnegie Real Estate to drop off the key that she didn’t have. The agent was Justina Anastasi, a million dollar seller. She had blond hair and sharp blue eyes.

  “You’re done?” she asked.

  “Yes, but I can’t find the key to Jessica’s place. I know I had it. I used the code to get in through the garage.”

  “Jessica actually dropped off a key before she left town today. She didn’t want you to have to worry about it.”

  “Oh. Good.”

  “We appreciate your business. Let me cut you a check,” Justina said.

  Kate waited in the office that sat at one end of Main Street. Across the street was Grayson’s Hardware. Two doors down from that sat a pub that Kate sometimes ate dinner at. The house was lonely without the boys.

  They wouldn’t be back until Thanksgiving.

  Justina came back with an envelope. She handed it to Kate. “We have a few more properties for you.”

  “You have a list and when you need them ready by?”

  Justina laughed. “I put them in order of priority. The list is with the check.”

  Kate’s heart leapt. More work. This was even more fun than fixing things. “Cool. Do you want them done this week?”

  “If you can.”

  “I have to do an estimate and send it off today. If the person accepts, I’ll be busy, but I could probably do one a day.”

  She looked at the list before she left. “Kendall Stuart’s house?”

  “You know her?”

  “I’m fixing some items in her house. A long list actually. When I’m done I can stage it. Did she agree to this?”

  “Sort of. The place isn’t in great shape in terms of decorating.”

  Kate grimaced. She’d been catty enough this week where it concerned Kendall. She didn’t want to say anything more. “She should paint over all of those colored rooms.”

  “If you can convince her of that, great. If not, we’re going to get her to clear out some of her tchotchkes. Then you can to the staging. That’s why it is last on the list.”

  “I see. You have to get around her.”

  “Right.”

  Kate nodded then left. She puzzled over Kendall. The woman was suddenly in her life in several ways. Was it a coincidence? Kate shook her head. She had no reason to suspect Kendall of anything. She was letting her dislike of the woman cloud her judgement. She had to stop that.

  Kate decided that she had to talk to Clem and see if Meghan had any enemies. Who would want the woman dead?

  Kate should probably do some research on Meghan. Something in her past might have caught up with her. Kate’s past was not interesting or radical. She had no idea how other people had led such amazing lives. Kate’s seemed so boring compared to everyone else’s.

  Yet Kate couldn’t help but think that someone had killed Meghan and left the paper on her when he or she did it. Was the killer trying to give her a personal message? Had the killer known she would be there?

  Kate couldn’t remember telling anyone but Scott that she was going to see Meghan. The more she thought about it, the more her brain hurt. She should give it a rest.

  ***

  Clara Jenkins was wiping down tables when Kate entered Bean There. She’d opened the café just two years ago, and since it was the only place in town to get coffee, she’d been doing well. A year ago she began to feature pastries made by a local baker. Just a month ago, she began to make breakfast sandwiches. Kate came here once a week to get breakfast and most days to get one of her five cups of coffee she drank each day.

  If a doctor ever told her that she had to give up coffee, Kate had no idea what she would do. The elixir got her through her sometimes long days. She might skip lunch, but she never missed having coffee.

  The place had an eclectic vibe with mismatched furniture and array of tables and couches. It had a cozy feeling. Kate would love to be able to hang out here, but she had no time.

  “Hey, Clara,” Kate said.

  “Sorry about Meghan.”

  They’d met here for coffee on more than one occasion, so the town knew that Kate and Meghan had been friends.

  “Thanks.”

  “I have a new flavor of scone from the baker. Orange cinnamon. You want to try one?”

  Kate’s mouth watered. While she was here, she might as well. “Sure.”

  “I’ll get it.”

  Before she came back, Larry walked in.

  “Hey, Larry,” Kate said.

  Larry smiled at her. “Kate, that new sawzall blade is in. I haven’t had a chance to e-mail you yet.”

  “Now you don’t have to.”

  “Did you get that big estimate out?”

  “I’m doing it this afternoon when I’m done with my jobs. I’m not looking forward to working for her.”

  She didn’t want to mention Kendall by name in case someone else was listening. Not that Kendall had made any friends in the town as far as Kate knew. Still, it was better for business not to be gossiping about her clients. At least she could do it discreetly with Larry in his store. The coffee shop was a much more public place.

  “I’d bet it will be better than you think. She can tell her friends and you can expand your business. It isn’t as if you have an ideological problem with her. She isn’t a murderer or something like that. She’s just annoying.”

  Leave it to Larry to put it in perspective for her. She sighed. “You’re right. My business is too young to pick and choose my clients. What brings you to the café?”

  “Coffee of course.”

  “You don’t get to sneak some from Carly’s coffee maker?”

  “I can, but I figure we need some boundaries.”

  God how sweet. Maybe he could teach Scott about boundaries. He seemed to want to push Kate’s all the time. She became exhausted fending him off. Okay, not all of the time, but some of the time.

  Other times she liked his attention. “Good point.”

  Clara came back out with two scones on a tray. “You want to try it, Larry? Orange cinnamon.”

  “Sure.”

  Larry took one. Kate took the other. She bit into it and it was heaven. “That’s really delicious.”

  “Yum,” Larry said.

  “I’ll pass that on to the baker. She’ll be happy,” Clara said. “Can I get you some coffee, Larry?”

  “Yes, an espresso actually.”

  “Going for the hard stuff?” Kate said.

  “Once in a while I treat myself. I used to drink it more on overnight shifts for the fire company.”

  “I don’t even drink that. I’d be afraid to.”

  “But you drink several cups of coffee a day.”

  “True.”

  Larry left with his espresso and the rest of his scone. The last few customers filed out and then Kate felt as if she could talk more freely to Clara. She pulled out the receipt. “I can’t say where I found this.”

  At this point, Kate didn’t even know if Jessica had been notified about the possible break-in at her home, so she didn’t feel she could reveal what had happened.

  “Okay.” Clara looked at her oddly. “Go ahead.”

  “I found this receipt and it’s from here. Based on the time stamp, do you
know who was in here?”

  Kate handed her the paper. Clara looked over it. “That was right before the dedication of the community center. A bunch of people were in here getting coffee. Seems that everyone needs a cup for every event. Not that I’m complaining.”

  The young girl smiled. She had a tattoo of a flower that wound up her arm. The flower was just above her elbow and continued under her tank top. Kate could see the end of the stem stopped just before her shoulder. It probably meant something, but Kate had never asked about it. She didn’t know what the etiquette was. Not many people her age had tattoos. At least not that she knew of.

  “Do you remember who was in here? I know that’s probably asking a lot.”

  Clara tapped her chin. “Okay. Right before the ceremony, the mayor came in. Kendall Stuart, Clem Tully, and even Dean had stopped in. I hadn’t seen Dean at his usual time, but he came with Jessica. She didn’t order any coffee. He did.”

  “She likes her own coffee,” Kate said. “She told me that once.”

  “Yep. I was surprised to see her, as she hasn’t ever been in here. Made sense when she came with Dean.”

  Clara greeted a few people walking by the store.

  “Anyone else?”

  Clara looked at the ceiling as if the answer were there. She was a cute girl. Some odd stripes of color in her hair. She wore mostly black, but that might be because she owned a coffee shop. This way, if the coffee spilled on her, no one could see it. “No. I had expected to see you.”

  “I only decided at the last minute to attend the ceremony. I’d already had a few cups of coffee at that point.”

  “It was a little nutty, so I may have missed someone,” Clara said.

  Other than Kendall, why would any of those people want to be in Jessica’s house? She had no clue what the person was looking for. Even Kendall wouldn’t stoop to breaking and entering. Though whoever was there must have had a key.

  “Well, thanks. I need to go talk to Scott.”

  “No problem. If I remember anyone else, I’ll let you know.”

  “Thanks, Clara. You’ve been a big help,” Kate said.

  She drove her truck to the municipal complex. Scott was in a meeting, so Kate waited for him in his office. She could have snooped, but she chose not to. She might see a picture of something gruesome that she’d never be able to unsee. She wasn’t one for things like that. She didn’t even watch horror movies.

  His desk was neater than she’d seen it in a while. Guess he was getting ahead of his paperwork. She had some of her own that she had to do, including her quarterly taxes.

  The police department buzzed with activity. Phones rang. Keys on computers clicked. It reminded Kate that she could never work in an office. No, she liked each work day to be different from the last. Her jobs took her all over the town. Now with Kendall it would take her out of town.

  If the woman shared Kate’s number with her friends, it might even take her all over the county.

  Ken Johnson poked his head into the office. “You need coffee, Kate?”

  Guess everyone knew about her addiction.

  “No, I’m good. Thanks.”

  Chapter Six

  Scott entered his office grumbling. His hands were fisted. Kate had never seen him so agitated.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “That was a meeting about Founder’s Day. Not that it was included in the budget for this year.”

  “Founder’s Day happens every year. Why wouldn’t the other chief have put it in?”

  “The town council might have taken it out. Who knows? I don’t have any money for it, and I have to provide security. Have you seen one? Are there really a lot of people there?”

  “I don’t usually go.”

  “You don’t go? It’s a huge thing in Rock Ridge.”

  “I don’t go because I hate crowds.”

  He shook his head as if he couldn’t believe such a thing. She really didn’t like crowds. Being short, she had a hard time seeing over people. The weather usually turned out hot. The county 4H had its fair that day, so the whole place smelled like animals. It was not her scene at all.

  Greg had taken the kids until they could go by themselves.

  “I’d invite you to come with me, but apparently I’ll be busy that day. I heard you’ve been drafted into fixing the bleachers.”

  “Is that a big deal? Everyone seems to know about it.”

  Scott shrugged. “I don’t know. We’ve already had some threats for that day.”

  “Threats?”

  “Yes, but I don’t know how seriously to take them. There is a gathering outside of town that same week. It’s like a bike week, but for anarchists.”

  “Anarchists bike week?”

  “Exactly.”

  “They come from all over the state to meet that week. On motorcycles.”

  “Plotting to overthrow the government?”

  Scott nodded. She’d never heard of such a thing, but then she didn’t get out of Rock Ridge much. The world of politics was foreign to her. Scott had to deal with these things every day. She couldn’t imagine that. A nail was a nail. Sheetrock was sheetrock. It was a simple life in many ways.

  “Something like that. Most of the time they are harmless. We’ve had some indirect threats. Nothing that my office can track down or trace to this group.”

  “Then what kind of threats?”

  “Just chatter and increased activity in the groups that the state cops are watching. They’ve kept me in the loop, and today I had to inform the mayor of these threats. I’d like to cancel the whole thing, but he wants nothing to do with that.”

  “So you have to protect against some nebulous threat with no budget.”

  “Sweetie, you just summed up my day.”

  She laughed, but there was no humor in it. She’d never seen him this stressed, and her heart went out to him. He rubbed a hand down his face.

  “I’m sorry.”

  “Not your fault, and sorry for venting to you. I wish I could go for a run. To the Ohio border.”

  She laughed. That was a long way. “Would that get the stress out?”

  “Yes, it would.” He finally looked at her. “I’m sure you didn’t come here to listen to me belly ache.”

  “I didn’t, but that’s okay. You listen to me a lot of the time.”

  “So what did you come here for?”

  She pulled out the receipt. “I found this in Jessica’s house in the room that had been Dudley’s office.”

  He took it from her. “It’s a receipt for coffee. So?”

  “Jessica doesn’t go out for coffee. She prefers her own. Clara even confirmed that Jessica is never in her shop buying coffee,” Kate said.

  “So she ran out once.”

  “No, Clara said that she came in before the dedication of the community center, but only Dean bought coffee. Jessica and Dean left for their getaway right from the ceremony. It could not have been either of them in her house.”

  “You’re sure that you heard a door close?”

  “Yes, I did, Scott. I’m sure.”

  She wished he would just believe her. Sometimes his skepticism was hard not to take personally. Frustration had her fisting her hands. She took a few deep breaths to try to let it go.

  “I’ll talk to Clara, but I’m not doing anything until Jessica gets back.”

  She couldn’t blame him for that. It was still Jessica’s house. “Did you contact her?”

  “I did, and she said that if you didn’t notice anything missing then it wasn’t an emergency. The woman is on her honeymoon. I don’t think she wanted to come back, and I don’t blame her.”

  It was not her real honeymoon, but certainly a getaway with her new husband. Must be nice to be in love again.

  “What’s next?”

  “I’ll talk to Clara.”

  “I did already.”

  Kate put a hand over her mouth. She hadn’t intended to blurt it out like that.

  “I wish yo
u wouldn’t interfere with police business.”

  “You and the cop acted like I was nuts for thinking that someone had been in there. I don’t appreciate being treated that way, and I’m not going to go meekly into the night just because a man questions me.”

  Scott licked his lips. She’d raised her voice when she hadn’t meant to. Then he smiled. “Okay. What did Clara say?”

  She gave him the list of people who Clara remembered being in the café.

  “Why would any of these people want to be in Jessica’s house?”

  “Only Kendall, but I can’t see her breaking and entering.”

  Scott put up his hand. “There was no breaking. No sign of forced entry. No one else but Jessica and the agent had a key. Jessica has an alibi, and she had no reason to hide from you. It’s her house. The agent wouldn’t have hidden either.”

  “I had a key and lost it. No idea where it went. Someone could have found it.”

  “Did it say it was Jessica’s key?”

  “Yes. I labeled it before I put it in my purse.”

  “Yikes. Well, maybe you lost it in your truck.”

  She shrugged. “I looked, but didn’t find it.”

  “Still. It could be in there.”

  She was too tired to argue with Scott anymore. “Fine. Believe what you want.”

  “I have no reason to talk to any of these people until Jessica gets back. Besides, I have to worry about Founder’s Day. That takes priority.”

  “Right.”

  She rose then her phone rang. She waved to Scott as she answered it. Kendall.

  “Oh, Kate. I had a leak in my ceiling. The plumber fixed it, but can you come out and fix the ceiling?”

  “I’ll have to stop by the hardware store. How big a spot?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “Can you measure for me?”

  “Hold on.” There was rustling as she put down the phone. Then Kendall picked it up again. “Three feet by four feet. It’s really a mess, and I’m having book club tonight.”

  “I can only put the new sheetrock in and do the first coat of spackle. I can’t paint until tomorrow.”

  “It’ll have to do. Can you come out?”

  “I’ll be there in about an hour. When is your book club meeting?”

  “Not for a couple of hours.”