SCREWED DOWN MURDER (Mrs. Fix It Mysteries Book 2) (9 page)

The Rock Ridge Library was in a building separated from the municipal complex by a parking lot. She parked in front 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. Been years since I looked at one of those.”

“You’d be surprised what you 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, but 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 good,” 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.”

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 then 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 then 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 her husband’s viewing. She could drop 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 still must be affected by his death.

Which 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 was 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.

He certainly had motivation.

“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.”

Kate left her in the library then leaned against 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. Who should she 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 pondered 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. 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 car 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.

“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. Hadn’t she read that somewhere? “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 twentieth 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 head of finance 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 new 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 that person was.”

“No tapes at all?”

“No, they were taken out 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 flower.

He did put up his hands. “You can pretend that there is nothing between us, but the 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 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 cop 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. Stealthy 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. Marly Jones had found a used chicken coop online, so she had it delivered. It needed some work before she could have chickens. Marly 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 Marly and her husband had done some upgrades, it didn’t look as old as it truly was.