by Judi Lynn
“Keep in touch,” Ansel told him. “Remember, we have extra room if you want to come to visit.”
Bain glanced at Jazzi. “Could you stand seeing me again?”
“You’re always welcome.” And this time, she meant it. Bain was a changed man since he met his Greta.
The drive home was filled with talk about the wedding and how much Bain had changed. It was after ten when they dropped off Radley and Elspeth, and close to eleven by the time they got home. The cats ran to greet them, Inky meowing loudly and stalking to his food dish. They fed and petted the pets, then dragged themselves up the stairs to bed. Even though Jerod had told them he didn’t mind if they came to work late, they wanted to put in a full day. They could crash after that.
As Jazzi drifted to sleep, she pictured Jessica in a long, periwinkle-blue wedding dress. Ansel’s sister, Adda, with her silky, blond hair and gorgeous blue eyes, reminded Jazzi of the young girl. Probably because of their similar coloring. But thinking of Jessica made her sad. There was no college for her, no career, no marriage. Someone had stolen that from her.
Chapter 11
Monday morning came too early. While Jazzi packed sandwiches for their lunch at work, she noticed the blinking light on their message machine. Not many people called their home phone—mostly clients—so she listened to it. Gaff informed them that he planned on dropping in to see them when they got home from Merlot, if that worked for them. He had more information about Jessica’s case.
Jazzi gave him a quick call and left a message on his phone that they’d be home and hopefully awake that night if he didn’t wait too long. Then she packed food and chips in the cooler, Ansel grabbed George, and they drove to their fixer-upper.
When they got there, Jerod was lugging two more rented sanders into the house. They already had one of their own.
“A brilliant idea.” Jazzi smiled at him. “We each have a sander, so we should be able to sand every floor before lunch. Then, after we eat, we can stain them and let them dry overnight.” The floors were all good except in the kitchen. They had to put a new one in there, but that meant they could walk on it today. “How was your weekend, cuz?”
“We packed up the kids and drove to Salamonie Dam. On the way, I stopped in Huntington to grab food for a picnic. After we ate, I carried Pete in a baby backpack on one of the trails. He liked being outdoors. So did Gunther and Lizzie. We let them wade at the beach. It was all fun, but not the same as coming to your place. The kids like seeing River there. Plus, the food’s a whole lot better.”
He sounded so grumpy, Jazzi grinned. “Glad you missed us. Bain and Greta had a nice wedding, though.”
“Good, but next time, I might pack a picnic and bring the kids to your place and let them play in your pond when you’re gone.”
She shrugged. It was a little cold for that, but they could wade out a long way. The drop-off was so gradual, the water was shallow for quite a while. “Feel free. Eat in the gazebo if you want to.”
Ansel grabbed a sander and headed to the dining room. “Our basement should be done by the time the weather’s bad. Then they can play down there.”
“Only if you’re home.”
Jazzi and Ansel exchanged a glance. Her cousin’s Sunday must have been a bummer. He was nuts about his wife and kids and usually enjoyed spending time with them. “I take it everyone fussed more than usual,” she guessed.
Jerod shook his head. “I should just have stayed home. The kids’ legs got tired halfway through the trail. Pete got cranky and wouldn’t take a nap. Franny started snapping at everyone.” He stalked to the living room to sand, and Jazzi carted her machine upstairs to start on the bedrooms. She and Ansel were tired today, but at least they’d had a good time the day before.
She had three rooms sanded by lunchtime. The floors were in such good shape, they didn’t need much. When she walked into the kitchen, though, and saw George in his doggy bed, sound asleep, she had to shake her head. The trip yesterday had worn him out. Still, when she opened the cooler, the pug perked up his head and trotted to the worktable to beg for scraps.
“Did you get your rooms done?” she asked the guys as she finished the first half of her ham and cheese sandwich.
They both nodded. “And you?” Jerod asked.
“One more bedroom to go.”
Ansel reached for a second sandwich and Jerod grabbed more chips. “Jerod and I will come up with you after lunch and clean the floors that are done. Then we can start staining them and shut the doors to let them dry. We thought we could work from the upstairs down, then stain the study, then the dining room and living room, so we end up in the kitchen. That way, we can finish all the staining in one day.”
She nodded. A good plan. When they finished eating, they trudged upstairs and George returned to his nap. With all three of them working together, they finished it all before five thirty. By then, her knees were tired, and she’d stained more oak than she wanted to. She was ready to go home. They all were, so they packed up, locked everything tight, and took off.
“We’d better feed the pets and hurry through our showers,” Ansel said on the way. “We stayed on the job longer than usual, and Gaff’s stopping by earlier than he normally does. After supper, I might slip down to the basement to work a little.”
She rolled her eyes. “We didn’t work hard enough on the floors today?”
“I’ll do easy stuff.”
“Like drywall?”
He grinned. “It’s heavy, but easy.” The man really wanted his basement playroom.
Once home, they hustled through their usual routine. A good thing. Gaff arrived while they were coming down the steps after cleaning up and changing. Ansel would have plenty of time to nail up drywall tonight. If she wasn’t too tired to move, she’d help him.
Jazzi led Gaff to the kitchen island to talk. Ansel got beer and wine, and Jazzi started throwing the ingredients for a quick tortellini soup in the Dutch oven. “Can you stay and eat with us?” she asked Gaff.
“I wouldn’t mind. Ann has card club tonight, so I’m on my own.”
“It’s soup, salad, and a round of crusty bread. You’ve been warned.”
He grinned. “I’m partial to soup. Can I help with anything?”
“No, this is easy. We can talk while I cook.” She threw a pound of ground beef in the pot to brown, then sliced Italian sausages to add.
While those seared, Gaff said, “I told you Wendy Roeback was killed close to the same time as Jessica, and we suspected the two had to be connected, but I wanted to make sure. I talked to the detective who worked that case, and he said her boyfriend played center for the other team and was with his fellow players and coach all that night. He couldn’t find anyone who might have slipped off to bash her, so her case was never solved either.”
She nodded and added chopped onions, celery, and carrots with minced garlic.
“Brett’s brother, Damian, was one of the top players on the team. Jessica’s brother, Alwin, was a senior when Damian was a sophomore, and he was on the team, too.”
She noticed Gaff didn’t say Alwin was a top player. Poor Alwin must not have excelled at anything. “I thought he’d graduated by the time the murders took place.”
“He had,” Gaff explained, “but he went to college at Tri-States, close to home. He didn’t have the grades to get into the school he wanted. He lived so close, though, he drove home and worked as an assistant coach for the team until Jessica died and the family moved away.”
Jazzi turned down the heat under the pan and added a big can of diced tomatoes, a box of beef stock, and a can of cannellini beans. “What about some of the other people on my list? RJ, his aunt…”
Gaff cut her off. “I checked, and every single one of them was either watching the game or at the party when Jessica and Wendy were murdered. Any of them could have killed both girls.”
&nbs
p; Jazzi shook her head as she added Napa cabbage, zucchini, and fresh spinach to the pot. “That means we haven’t narrowed down the suspect list at all.”
“At least we didn’t add anyone from the other town to it.” Gaff watched her throw in a bag of frozen tortellini and seasonings. “The soup looks good.”
“Thanks. But the list?”
He drained his beer, and Ansel went to get each of them another one. “Nothing’s changed,” Gaff said.
“Bummer.” She gave the soup a final stir, then went to grab a bag of salad from the fridge. The bread was already on the island, along with butter.
“Better too many suspects than none at all,” Gaff told her.
Maybe. She turned off the heat and stuck a ladle in the pot. “Soup’s on,” she said. Then the men got quiet while they dished up food and ate. Jazzi knew they liked it when they both went back for seconds. She didn’t bother with desserts during the week.
When they finished their meal, Gaff left and Jazzi volunteered to do cleanup. “There’s not that much, and you can start work on the drywall.”
Ansel dropped a kiss on her forehead and headed for the basement. “You’re the best.”
Yeah, right. She couldn’t have kept her Norseman upstairs with her if she nailed the basement door shut. When it was just her, the cats, and George in the kitchen, she gave a small laugh. If he thought she was the best, why fight it? It was easy to please him, and food was at the top of the list.
There was enough soup left to take for lunch tomorrow. That would make Jerod happy. When she finished putting everything away, she’d gotten a second wind and went downstairs to help Ansel. He did all the heavy work, and she manned the nail gun. At eight, she declared, “Enough for tonight.”
He didn’t argue, just held a hand to his back. Her Norseman might have overdone it. “We got two walls done. I’m happy with that.”
“Good, ’cause it’s quitting time. Another shower, pajamas, and TV.”
The TV didn’t happen. They were both asleep by nine.
Chapter 12
The floors were dry when they reached the fixer-upper. Dry and beautiful. Jazzi took a second to admire them, then glanced at the job sheet. When she groaned, Jerod laughed at her. “Thought you loved removing wallpaper, cuz.”
“Yeah, as much as I love having cavities filled by my dentist.”
He motioned to three steamers. “I rented one for each of us.”
“Be still my heart.” She grimaced and went to grab one. The men followed her. Maybe with three steamers going at the same time, the wallpaper would give up and sag to the floor. But whoever put up the darn stuff must have used superglue. It took forever to scrape each wall. They’d spread drop cloths around the edges of each room to catch them, but progress was slow going.
Luckily, the master bedroom only had wallpaper on one wall as an accent piece. It took two hours to remove it, though. The second bedroom was smaller, but every wall was covered with drums, horns, and violins on a blue background. Someone must have loved music. By the time they finished steaming and scraping, Jazzi didn’t want to see another musical instrument for a long time.
They broke for lunch, and as Jazzi expected, when Jerod saw the soup and sandwiches, a smile stretched from ear to ear. George hadn’t been happy about having soup for supper the night before, so he was glad to see deli meat, too. After lunch, they bundled the wallpaper they’d removed into a garbage bin, and Jazzi scooted it down the stairs and out the kitchen door to throw away. She was on her way back into the house when Ruth Goggins called to her from over the stone wall.
Jazzi reluctantly went to see what she wanted.
“I told my nephew, RJ, that you were flipping the Hodgkill house, and he got excited about it. He’s coming into town later this week and asked if I could let you know he’d like to see what you’re doing to it.”
It didn’t sound like a request. Ruth Goggins expected to get what she wanted. Jazzi considered turning her down, but she’d love to meet RJ and get to ask him about Jessica, so she smiled instead. “Sure, why not?”
Ruth’s lips turned down. “The silly boy still thinks the world of Jessica. Can you imagine? After the way she treated him? But RJ’s such a nice boy, he doesn’t think ill of anyone.”
Jazzi wondered how he felt about his aunt. Maybe he’d moved from Merlot to get away from her.
Ruth went on. “Do you still have a lot to do to the house? I thought it was lovely when Madeline lived there and invited us over for parties.”
“It is a lovely home, but we still want to gut the kitchen and update it.”
Ruth shrugged. “If you must. Most people don’t spend much time there.”
“That’s where everyone congregates at our place,” Jazzi told her.
Ruth sniffed. “I guess if you like that kind of thing. We prefer cocktail parties and spending time in the dining and living room.”
She would. But Jazzi forced another smile and motioned toward the empty garbage bin. “We’re stripping wallpaper. The guys are going to need that.”
Ruth turned to go, saying over her shoulder, “Remember that RJ’s coming soon.”
When Jazzi dragged the bin back up the steps, Ansel was on his cell phone and Jerod was running his steamer over burgundy wallpaper decorated with sports equipment—basketballs, bats, football helmets, and golf clubs. “Ugly, isn’t it?” he asked.
“It was probably popular when they put it up.” Trends changed. What people paid extra for in the sixties was considered hideous today. She got her steamer and started on the strip next to his, wrinkling her nose. The room smelled like wet paste.
Ansel closed out his call. “Radley and Elspeth found a house they’re interested in. It’s close to the ball diamond downtown. I told him we’d stop and go through it with them tonight; then we can grab Coney dogs and eat supper at Radley’s apartment.”
She nodded. They’d still be home at a decent time. Ansel started work on the next wall, while she and Jerod each worked on theirs. Hers must have been used as a focal point, because it had another layer under the first to steam off. Three hours later, they’d finished that bedroom. She sent up prayers of thanks that Jessica had wanted a pink room. No wallpaper. They only had to remove it from one small bathroom and they were finally done.
This time, Ansel carried the garbage bin outside, and she and Jerod started mopping down walls to clean them to prime. They’d do that tomorrow.
Finished for the day, she and Ansel loaded everything into their van and drove to meet Radley and Elspeth. Jazzi’s arms ached. Moving the steamer up and down the walls made them feel too heavy to lift. As Ansel pulled to the curb in front of a tall two-story with peeling paint, she shook her head at the sagging porch.
George opened his eyes when the van stopped, glanced out the window at an unknown destination, and closed them again. Ansel cracked the windows for him. “It’s cool enough, he can stay in the van. He doesn’t like looking at houses.”
Jazzi zipped up her hoodie. It was borderline chilly outside. It was the second week of October, though. Temperatures bounced back and forth. This day had started out brisk and never warmed up.
When Radley’s work van pulled in behind them, Ansel’s brother and Elspeth came to meet them. He gestured to the house. “It could be great, couldn’t it?”
Ansel looked doubtful. “Looks like it needs some structural work done.”
“The porch?” Radley shrugged. “You’ve fixed those before.”
A dark, shiny car parked behind Radley, and a man in a suit got out to walk toward them. He held out a hand and gave a confident smile. “I’m the Realtor. Glad you could make it. I don’t think this place will be on the market long. This has become a desirable neighborhood since more people are moving close to downtown.”
Radley gave a quick nod at Ansel and Jazzi. “My brother and his wife are
house flippers. They’ve come to help us make a good decision.”
The man’s smile faded. “Well, then, let’s take a look inside, shall we?”
The rooms had all been freshly painted. There was new linoleum on the kitchen floor. The cabinets had been painted, too. When Ansel opened one, he raised an eyebrow at crooked shelving. “What happened here?”
The Realtor spread his hands. “My client started to renovate, but his job got too busy, so he’s decided to sell it as is.”
“As is?” That was never a good sign. Jazzi looked at the way the floor sank on the far side. She squatted and took a marble out of her pocket. They kept it in the glove compartment of the van. When she put it down, it rolled to the far corner.
The Realtor shrugged. “It’s an old house. It’s settled a little. Let me show you the bedrooms upstairs.”
Ansel shook his head. “Right now, I’d rather see the basement.”
“You know how old houses are,” the man said. “Basements are only used to do laundry and store things.”
Ansel headed to the steps. They followed him. Then they stared at the cracks in the cement walls and the damp floor. It hadn’t rained for a while. Ansel shook his head. “I know you love this place, Radley, but I’d pass. The house has issues that are going to cost a lot of money to fix.”
The Realtor nodded toward the house next door. “Those people jacked up a corner of the house and poured new cement. Pronto. Problem fixed.”
Ansel gave him a cold stare. “The whole side wall of this house would have to be replaced. Cement’s not cheap. The floors upstairs would have to be stripped to the joists and completely relaid. It can be done, but it will cost a lot of money.” He looked at Radley. “Do you have that much?”
Radley sadly shook his head. He looked at the Realtor. “We’re going to have to pass.”
The man gave a tight smile. “If you say so, but in a few years, this place is going to be double what it’s worth now.”
Elspeth spoke for the first time. “We understand that, but we can’t afford to invest in it. Thanks for your time. We appreciate your showing this to us.”