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

  SCREWED DOWN MURDER

  Mrs. Fix It Mysteries, Book 2

  Belle Knudson

  Copyright © 2015

  All Rights Reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review. All characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead is purely coincidental.

  Table of Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter One

  Kate Flaherty, Rock Ridge’s resident handywoman, parked her work truck in front of the coffee shop. She liked her truck. It was gray and had the words Mrs. Fixit on it. That was her. The idea was that women were more comfortable letting a woman into their house to fix things than a man. The wives of the house usually were the ones to call for repairs.

  None of the big chain coffee shops had seen fit to put one of their stores in the small town in Central Pennsylvania. Kate liked that idea. Better that a local person had a business rather than a corporation. Even if a Starbucks café moved in, she would still frequent this shop.

  She’d been out of coffee at home and hadn’t been to the grocery store in days. With her sons off at college, Kate didn’t cook as much as she used to. No fun cooking for one, though once in a while she had a dinner companion in the form of Police Chief Scott York.

  He had made it clear that he had romantic designs on her, but she was having none of it. Until she found her missing husband, in her mind she was still married. The chief would just have to get used to that idea.

  Today Kate had to fix some shelves in the mayor’s office. The Department of Public Works, who should have made the repair, was backed up so Mayor Dudley Stuart opted to pay for the repair himself.

  First Kate needed coffee. She lived on coffee some days.

  The day was dawning warm and the humidity of the summer was in full swing. She could see it in the trees on her property, like smoke hanging on the leaves. When she’d walked out this morning she thought she was walking into a wet towel. It took away her breath.

  Summer was not her favorite season. No, she preferred the coolness of fall.

  At least most of what she had to do was inside today. Everywhere she had to work had air conditioning. It would be cranking in the mayor’s office. He kept it cold.

  The bell above the door in the coffee shop jangled as Kate entered.

  “Hey, Kate,” said Clara, the young barista behind the counter.

  She was young, but she owned the place. Instead of going to college, she’d opened Bean There. Having contracted with the local baker, Cookie, Clara also served baked goods in the morning. They were probably the best baked goods in the whole county. Kate could rarely resist one if she hadn’t had breakfast.

  “Hi, Clara. I need a plain coffee,” Kate said.

  She pulled her red hair up into a ponytail as she ordered. The hot day meant she needed her hair out of her way.

  “Coming right up.”

  “Hello, Kate,” Dean Wentworth said.

  Dean was a contractor who had moved out to Rock Ridge after his girlfriend was found dead. He did the big jobs and Kate did the little jobs. They often recommended each other to customers, and Kate had seen her business grow in the months that Dean had been in town.

  He was young man. Up until recently he’d been wearing only black, but had toned down his dress to fit into the small, conservative town. He even stopped wearing guyliner. Now he looked more like a respectable businessman.

  She found him to be smart and a good entrepreneur. She had probably learned a thing or two from him about running her business.

  Kate admired his ability to adapt after having come from Philadelphia. Dean sat at a table with a half-eaten cinnamon bun. Kate slid onto the opposite chair to wait for her coffee.

  “Hi, Dean. I hear you put a bid in on renovating the community center.”

  He frowned. “I did, but I’m up against the mayor’s brother from what I understand.”

  Clara handed Kate her to-go cup of coffee then left them alone.

  “The lowest bid is what they have to take. That’s how government works out here in the sticks,” Kate said. She’d like to think that little Rock Ridge didn’t have the corruption of a big city like Philadelphia. Then again, this was Pennsylvania.

  Dean looked concerned about getting the project. She knew he did good work, but she understood that sometimes nepotism happened. She hoped not in this case. She didn’t trust the mayor’s brother. She’d heard rumors, and when she’d met him she’d gotten a bad vibe from him.

  “I saw your plans. They were top-notch.”

  Dean shrugged. “We’ll see how it goes.”

  “Good luck,” she said.

  Kate had a special place in her heart for the community center after having taken her sons to classes there when they were small. Now the twins were sophomores in college, spending their summer with AmeriCorps, and she figured the center probably needed a redo. Dean would do a great job.

  She’d seen what he’d done to a vacant strip mall that was now thriving.

  “I’m sure Dudley will do the right thing,” Kate said.

  “You have more faith in him than I do.”

  She wondered if Dean’s business was doing well if he was worried about this one job. She couldn’t imagine that he’d been having any trouble getting business.

  She sipped her coffee while studying him. He had dark circles under his eyes, as if he hadn’t been sleeping. She didn’t know him well enough to ask any personal questions. Then there was the fact that she had been the one to discover his girlfriend’s dead body.

  For a time she’d been a suspect, but she hadn’t killed anyone. She had no idea what his thoughts were on her, but he’d always been nothing but professional.

  As if wanting to change the subject, he said, “Did you see that new office building I just completed?”

  “Yes, I was wondering why it was so far out of town.”

  The building had been constructed to house all types of offices, including medical doctors.

  He shrugged. “I have no idea either, but a bunch of the bigwigs in town own it so they must have a reason.”

  She’d thought it odd that the mayor, among others, had bought the land out there. It was like they knew that the town would eventually grow in that direction. Rock Ridge hadn’t made any leaps in growth like that in years. She also didn’t want it to grow in that direction because her house was there.

  Out in the country. Just how she liked it.

  “Whatever their thinking, the building looks nice. Your work is always good. The mayor should know that,” she said.

  He didn’t seem to want to be mollified, and it wasn’t Kate’s job to be his cheerleader. She had her own business to worry about.

  She stood. “I need to be on my way. The mayor is waiting for me.”

  “What are you doing for him?”

  “Some shelves the DPW can’t seem to get to. He’d rather pay me than wait for them to come around and do it.”

  “Isn’t the mayor’s other brother head of that department?” Dean asked.

  “Yes.”

  Dean ran a hand through his black hair. It stuck up at odd angles, and the mother in Kate resisted
the urge to brush it back into place. He was a grown man, even if he was a young one.

  “Is everyone related to everyone else in this town?”

  Kate understood how it could feel that way to an outsider. Her husband had not been born here, and he’d remarked on many occasions that everyone was related to at least one other person in town.

  “Seems that way sometimes. I’m not related to anyone else. My dad moved away a few years ago. My sons are away. It’s just me.”

  Dean laughed, but the humor didn’t reach his eyes. Part of Kate wanted to reach out to him, but part of her wanted to mind her own business. She’d been involved in finding his girlfriend’s killer, but she’d hung up her detective hat after that.

  Now she wanted to build her business and get on with her life in the wake of her husband’s disappearance. She had to support herself since there would be no life insurance until she could either find him or declare him dead.

  “Maybe that’s why I like you, Kate.”

  Another woman might have read into that statement, but he was practically young enough to be her son. “No nepotism?”

  “None with you. Have a good day, Kate.”

  “You, too, Dean. I’ll keep my fingers crossed that you get that job.”

  “Thanks.”

  She left him to finish his sticky bun, though he never left her thoughts as she climbed into her truck. She tried to start it, but it balked. She’d had it in the shop just a month ago. What now? She was calculating what she could afford to fix on it when it finally caught.

  “I thought you weren’t going to get her going,” Scott said, his hand on her open window.

  “You scared me,” she said.

  For a big guy with such a presence, he could be quiet when he wanted to be. Guess that came from patrolling the mean streets of the City of Brotherly Love. He didn’t need to do that in the not-so-mean streets of Rock Ridge.

  “Sorry. Beginning your day?”

  “Yes, at the mayor’s office. You want a ride to work?”

  The mayor’s office was in the same building as the Rock Ridge Police Department.

  “Normally I wouldn’t, but it’s hot today.”

  “I’ll even turn on the air conditioning.”

  Not that she was sure it was going to work. It had begun to be persnickety lately. Just another item she had to get fixed on this truck, but it was still cheaper than buying a new one.

  “Riding in style,” Scott said as he climbed into her truck.

  ***

  Kate wanted to park by the Rock Ridge Police Department since it was the quickest way to the mayor’s office. The complex was a maze, each part having been added on as an afterthought.

  The parking space was blocked by a utility truck that was working on a downed pole.

  “Guess I have no power to work by,” Scott said.

  “No generator?”

  “Only for the 911 Communications Center. The rest of us have to muddle along without computers,” Scott said. “I’m hoping that I can get another generator put in next year’s budget.”

  “You stepped into a mess, didn’t you?”

  “Sort of. I did. Coming in halfway through the year means I have to live with someone else’s idea of a budget. And that person had clearly been coasting.”

  She thought about the last chief. He probably had been. He’d been chief for a decade and was two years past retirement when he finally gave his notice. After his last day, he’d immediately moved to North Carolina. Kate wondered if the man had something to hide.

  “You like a challenge, right?”

  He turned his light brown-and-gold-flecked eyes to her. He ran a hand through his snow-white hair. “I do, but I was hoping for a little less of a challenge.”

  As if this man couldn’t take on anything that came his way. Having been a star quarterback, he’d led the Rock Ridge High School football team to the state finals three times.

  “Oh well. You got what you got,” she said.

  She parked her truck by the front door of the complex. The employees were outside, but Kate didn’t see the mayor.

  “Why would they be outside?” she said.

  “Probably too hot. With no air conditioning inside, it gets hot. The only thing wrong with building a square building is that some offices don’t have outside windows.”

  “Right. The square had been the cheapest option,” she said, remembering the debates that went on with the town council. The original offices had been in two different historic buildings. Both of them should have been knocked down. One fell before anyone could bid on renovating it. So someone was awarded the bid to clean up the site. A soccer field stood there now—a better use of the space, in Kate’s mind.

  She climbed out of her truck, but she didn’t want to gather any equipment until she knew exactly what she was fixing. She hadn’t given the mayor an estimate. He’d just hired her because he knew her work was good. She’d painted many rooms in his house and repaired other things. He was probably her best customer.

  She didn’t have to give him an estimate. He just hired her. Made her life easier. She needed more customers like Dudley and his wife, Jessica. That would be her dream. If she had customers like that, she wouldn’t have to hustle quite as much to get new work.

  She shook herself. She should just be happy she made money doing something she loved, something that allowed her to keep her house and her bills paid. The money for some of her kids’ college tuition came from a savings plan that Greg had opened the day the two boys were born. The rest of the money came from loans that the boys would be responsible for upon graduation.

  “You free for lunch?”

  She sighed. Scott asked her just about every day to have lunch. No matter how many times she’d made it clear that nothing romantic was going to happen, he still asked. She admired his persistence.

  “Uh, I don’t know. We’ll see,” Kate said.

  She and Scott had been together in high school. Then he’d left for college and she had been forced to move on with her life. She married a man named Greg Flaherty, a former professor at the local community college where she had earned her degree.

  Now that Scott was back in town, he made no attempt to hide the feelings he had for her. Kate only wished he was less forward about his intentions. She had to look at herself in the mirror every morning. She still had to be an example for her kids.

  “I guess I’ll wait out here with everyone else. Can’t imagine Dudley’s inside in this heat,” she said.

  She pondered staying in the air-conditioned truck. Wearing overalls for work made her too hot to be outside.

  “I’ll keep you company,” Scott said.

  “Have you made any progress on finding Greg?” she asked to put some distance between them.

  He smiled as if he knew what she was doing and that it wouldn’t work. If she didn’t know he was a good guy, she’d be unnerved by him.

  “I haven’t. You know that I’d update you if I had something.”

  She did know that. No one wanted to find Greg as much as she did, except for Scott. She knew that he had a personal stake in finding out what happened to her husband. Scott wanted to find Greg so she could officially file for divorce. Or find his body, so that Kate could lay him to rest and move on.

  She had no idea why he was so persistent. She was just Kate. A middle-aged woman with two college-aged kids. She wasn’t a supermodel. She had a few extra pounds on her, and she didn’t wear anything but overalls most days.

  Having seen Scott’s ex-wife, Kate had no idea what he saw in her. That woman had been sex on a stick.

  “This delay is going to make me late to my next appointment.”

  Kate pulled out her phone then sent a text to Jessica that she would be delayed. Jessica sent a text back that it was okay. She wasn’t home at the moment anyway.

  Tucking her phone back into her pocket, Kate eyed the building. Hopefully the power would be back on soon. Time was money. If she could get to Jes
sica’s house and be done, she might fit in another job before dinner. Since she lived alone, she didn’t have to worry about anyone else’s schedule. She could eat when she wanted. Sleep when she wanted.

  Or do neither, which lately seemed to be happening more.

  Scott reached out and rubbed a thumb down the middle of her forehead. “You worry too much. You’ll get inside eventually.”

  “I would love to just switch the jobs, but Jessica isn’t home, so I can’t even start on her thing until I’m done here,” Kate said.

  “It will all be fine.”

  Scott had always been an optimistic. Like Winnie the Pooh, he saw everything in the best light. How could he do that after what he’d seen as a homicide detective in Philadelphia? And his wife had cheated on him. He still had a good heart, and Kate wished things were different—that she could love him.

  The lights in the building went on and a cheer went up from the crowd. Finally. She could get to work.

  The mayor was probably waiting for her, or would be now that the power had been restored.

  “Off to the salt mines,” Scott said, a grin on his face.

  “You have a good day.”

  He stopped then turned fully to her. “You, too, Katydid.”

  She wished he wouldn’t call her that. It had been his nickname for her in high school, and it implied an intimacy that wasn’t there. Thankfully, he didn’t do it often.

  Yet part of her was thrilled, even if she didn’t want to be. He’d remembered things about her. Things only a lover could know.

  She rolled her eyes then walked in the opposite direction to the mayor’s office. She tugged on her shirt. The air was stifling in the building. She hoped it would cool down soon. Wishing for shorts, she strode to the mayor’s office.

  Chapter Two

  Mayor Dudley Stuart had a secretary that he shared with the rest of the town council. She didn’t work full time and she wasn’t at her desk today. The older woman who had been secretary had retired a few months ago, and so Celia Johnson, the mother of Kate’s best friend, Carly, had taken the position for something to do since she’d retired as a nurse. Kate suspected she took the position because she wanted to know everything that was going on in the town. A lot of people had been surprised when the mayor hired her, given her propensity for gossiping.