The Body in the Attic

by Judi Lynn

Reuben changed the subject. A good thing. Jazzi wanted to end the night on a happier note. “Remember when I asked you about painting the old Victorian three shades of lavender?”

  Jazzi nodded, ready to follow his lead. “Olivia loved the idea.”

  “A crew comes this weekend. I can’t wait to see it. You and Ansel will have to come to see it when it’s done.”

  Jazzi would have never considered light purple on a house, but she had no doubt Reuben would make it look wonderful. “Sounds like you’ve got plenty going on, inside and outside. Bet workmen wake you up every morning.”

  “We’re making a lot of headway.” He gave a sideways glance at Isabelle, hoping to cheer her up. “We gave up on the idea of living in a reconstruction site, so I moved into Isabelle’s apartment for the moment. We’re hoping everything will be finished in another three weeks.”

  “Then Ansel and I will have to come and bring supper to celebrate your new place.”

  “We’d love that.”

  The waiter came with their checks, and Ansel winced when Jazzi paid for their meals and the tip.

  “I always paid when I took Emily out,” he complained.

  Jazzi gave a sweet smile. “I’m not Emily.”

  Isabelle reached for her and Reuben’s bill, and Ansel bit back any more arguments.

  They left the restaurant together, promising to get together again soon. On the drive home, Ansel motioned to her purse. “You should call Gaff. It can’t hurt to have him meet with Cal’s lawyer and ask about Cal’s will and to see if he can track guests who visited the Country Club.”

  She finished the call before they pulled into their drive. When they stepped into the house, Ansel went directly to George to share his steak. They locked the door and set the alarm, and then they both headed upstairs and changed into their pajamas before hitting the couches to watch TV together. George begged until Ansel lifted him up to stretch beside him.

  At ten, Ansel wiggled his eyebrows at her. “You look pretty fetching in a white T-shirt. It makes things more accessible.”

  “It’s now or never,” she told him. “We got a lot of sun today. I’m losing steam.”

  “We can’t have that.” He pushed to his feet and took her hand to lead her upstairs to bed. “Let’s see if we can get your engines purring again.”

  George whimpered.

  “I’ll be back to get you later.”

  George flopped on the floor and sprawled at the bottom of the steps to wait.

  Ansel’s worries were a moot point. A touch here, a nibble there, and the next hour flew by in a blur of pleasure.

  Chapter 32

  When Jerod came the next morning, on the ride to the house off Lake Avenue, Jazzi sat shotgun in his pickup, and Ansel and George squeezed into the back seat. She told him what they’d learned about Cal’s will.

  Jerod whistled. “You know what they say on crime shows—follow the money.”

  Ansel nodded in agreement. “Lots of kids feel entitled to their parents’ money, whether they helped earn it or not. My two older brothers have earned their share of Dad’s dairy farm, but they never intended to share anything with my sister or me, and I earned a share, too. Money doesn’t always bring out the best in people.”

  Jazzi had never thought about her mom and dad’s money. Mom and Olivia were partners in the salon, and Jazzi didn’t expect a share from their business. Hopefully, her parents would live so long, she’d be set before she had to worry about their will. But to be told, like Ansel, that you were cut off from the family fortune before you even graduated from high school had to hurt.

  “Didn’t that bother you?” she asked.

  He scowled. “Yeah, it did. My oldest brother announced it at the supper table when I started my senior year of high school. He told me I’d better find a job when I got my diploma, because if I stayed on the farm, I’d be a hired hand and that didn’t pay well. Dad explained that the farm could support two families, but not three. That’s why I left to work with Uncle Len, and I ran into the same thing, so I struck out on my own.”

  She worded her next question carefully. “In the two and a half years that I’ve known you, you’ve never gone home to visit them.”

  “And it’s going to stay that way. They chose Bain and Radley over me, even though I had just as many chores to do on the farm. They didn’t even consider Adda because she was a girl.”

  “You said she was spoiled.”

  He smiled. “She at least had that. They treated her like a princess. I’m glad. She was a pain, but I love her. I was happy she married a good man with a solid future.”

  “Do you like your brothers?”

  “They’re my brothers. I love them, but I don’t want to see them.”

  “Do your parents ever offer to come to River Bluffs to see you?”

  “Every once in a while. I tell them I’m too busy. I don’t have time to visit with them.”

  Well. Ansel was easygoing, but when he hit his limits, that’s as far as anyone could push him. His family hurt him when they sent him away, and he didn’t intend to forget that.

  Jerod pulled in front of the big old house with the wraparound porch they were going to check out. “We’re here, kids. Keep your fingers crossed. Let’s hope this house works.”

  The owner was sitting in the porch swing, waiting for them. He stood when they joined him and unlocked the front door. “Before you even get started, the furnace is over twenty years old. The hot water heater is on its last legs. The roof has a leak. I don’t want to deal with it anymore. I’m ready for the next person to tackle the projects.”

  Ansel tied George’s leash to a spike he pounded into the front yard.

  “Any foundation issues?” Jerod asked.

  “Check for yourself. I’ll wait for you here.” He returned to the swing.

  They started in the basement and worked their way up. The foundation was good. They’d have to replace two or three support poles, but they’d dealt with those before. The plaster was cracked upstairs, but they were going to gut the entire second floor anyway. The rooms were big and airy.

  “This works for me if we can get it at the right price,” Jerod said. “You two?”

  They both nodded.

  Ansel and Jazzi let Jerod haggle with the owner while Ansel went to pet George. “We’re going to have to replace all the old galvanized pipes,” he told her. “If we get the house, that’s probably where we should start.”

  Jerod and Ansel were both good with plumbing, but that was a big project. They might have to hire someone to pass code. They looked up at Jerod as he hurried toward them. “He’ll take eighty thousand. I think that’s too high. What do you think?”

  Ansel shook his head. “We won’t make a profit. The median price range around here is eighty-five grand. This is one of the better houses, but a neighborhood sets the price. We might even lose money.”

  Jerod looked surprised. “You’ve done your homework.”

  Ansel grinned. “I might be a blond, but I’m not stupid.”

  No, no one would accuse him of that.

  Jerod smirked. “We’ll see if I can budge him. He’s pretty shrewd.”

  “Then he knows the going rate around here,” Ansel said. “I wouldn’t go over sixty-five thousand. We have a lot of repairs.”

  The next time Jerod came to them, he wore a smile. “Sixty thousand?”

  “Done.” Ansel nodded toward the house. “We were wondering, since we have to replace a lot of old plumbing, if we’d have to hire someone to meet code.”

  “Even if we do, they can finish the job in one day. It’s doable.”

  By the time they left, if their lawyer didn’t find any liens or problems, they had a new house to work on. Paying cash and signing a contract for a home “as is” made things move quickly—if everything checked out.

 
“Vegler will let us know by Friday,” Jerod said as they pulled away and started home. “If there’s a hang-up, he’ll find it.”

  George lowered his head on Ansel’s lap and Jazzi admired the Lakeside rose gardens as they passed them. Her mind returned to Ansel’s family and the farm and then to Cal’s will.

  “Has your dad met Cal’s nephews?” she asked Jerod. “Did they ever bring their cars into his garage?”

  Jerod snorted. “No way. Will’s an electrician and Wade’s a plumber. They drive white vans just like Ansel. I worked with them on a project a few years ago. A friend needed help for a week, so I went to pitch in. Will showed up every day on time. Wade was almost always late. He’s super thin. Likes his beer and drinks his meals.”

  Jazzi couldn’t believe it. “Katherine’s sons are tradesmen, just like us?”

  “Their dad ran through all the family money. They had to get their hands dirty. The rumor back then was that Wade was deep in debt. He probably danced a jig when he got Cal’s money.”

  “Would he kill Noah to make sure he got it?”

  Jerod went silent. “I sure hope not. I liked him a lot more than I liked his older brother.”

  “Why is that?”

  Jerod waited to comment until he’d turned onto the road for Cal’s house. “Will’s one of those guys who likes to pat himself on the back for being the good son. He makes sure that his parents know every time Wade slips up. He even went to the supervisor for the project we worked on and asked if he’d seen Wade because he wanted to ask him about something. That backfired. The supervisor gave him a dirty look and explained that Wade had scheduled the morning off to drive his elderly neighbor to a doctor’s appointment.”

  “A backstabber,” Ansel said.

  Jazzi nodded. “Sounds like he took after his mother.”

  “Glad he’s no relative of mine.” Jerod pulled into the driveway and glanced at the time. “Only ten forty-five. Let’s start with the front yard. It’s easier than the back. What have you got in mind?”

  “There’s nothing here. I guess Cal wanted to have people focus on the house, but I’d like some rose bushes and two flower boxes.”

  “Ansel and I can build the flower boxes if you want to mow and clean up leaves around the foundation that no one bothered with. You and Ansel can go to a nursery tonight to buy all the plants you want.”

  They finished the front yard before lunch and got a good start on the backyard before five. They’d weeded and trimmed the hedge, picked up and thrown away any trash the renter had left, and shaped every bush.

  “Tomorrow, we can plant and landscape,” Jerod said. “I’ll see you then.”

  After he left, Ansel loaded George into his white van, and he and Jazzi went to buy flowers and bushes. They stopped at a root beer stand to grab supper so that George could eat with them.

  Jazzi sighed. She was getting as fond of Ansel’s pug as he was. She never saw that coming. And later that night, when she spooned against Ansel to sleep, she had to admit she didn’t see that coming either.

  Chapter 33

  Oh, Lord. When Jazzi zipped downstairs the next morning, Ansel was already outside, talking to Jerod, who was sitting on a bulldozer, looking pretty happy with himself. Their backhoe sat in the drive.

  Ansel turned to her with a huge grin. “Jerod filed for a permit for a pond, just in case you’d ever want one, and we’ve been approved. The dirt has plenty of clay, so if you’re still good with the idea, we’re going to start digging.”

  Of course they were. If Jerod could play on a bulldozer, why wouldn’t he? “Is that expensive to rent?” she asked.

  Jerod shrugged. “I got a deal for seventy-five dollars a day.”

  “And how many days did it take to dig your pond?”

  “For a half acre one,. Ansel and I will be at it a week.”

  Not as bad as she’d thought it would be, and Jerod had already been through what to do and how. She shrugged. “Why not? Go for it.”

  Jerod drove behind the hedge to get started, but Ansel mounted the flower boxes at the house’s two arched front windows and dug holes along the foundation for bushes before he went to join him. He wanted to make it easy for Jazzi to plant what they’d bought last night instead of leaving her to do all the work alone. They’d bought a miniature lilac for the corner of the house. She planted that first. She filled the flower boxes and had the rose bushes in place and watered before lunch. They ate quickly to get back to their projects. Ansel and Jerod returned to the pond, and Jazzi rolled huge, plastic flowerpots to the patio to fill them with soil. She arranged them near the outdoor furniture they’d bought.

  She was planting geraniums and petunias in the pots when Gaff came to join her. “I knocked and rang the bell, but when no one answered, I figured you must be out here.” He glanced around and shook his head. “You guys have done a great job. The place is picture perfect.”

  “Thanks, we’re happy with it.” She patted dirt around the last petunia and ignored the herbs she meant to plant beside the garage. “Can I get you something to drink?”

  “Do you have any of your iced tea made?”

  “I’ll be right back.” She tossed her gardening gloves on a chaise lounge and stepped into the kitchen. The coolness of the air conditioning took a minute to adjust to after the intense heat of the sun. She poured tea for her and Gaff and carried the glasses outside.

  She dropped onto the chair across from him at the patio table. “We haven’t seen you for a while.”

  “The case sort of stalled, and I got busy on other things, so I’m glad you called me about Will and Wade. I talked to Cal’s lawyer, and he’d already given Cal the new papers to sign so that Noah would be his beneficiary. Tim was at the Country Club four times to talk with a member who owns a construction company. Tim and Will are thinking about going into business with him.”

  “No Wade?”

  “Wade bowed out. Wasn’t interested, from what the guy said.”

  “So, Cal didn’t divide his will between Noah and his nephews? Noah would have inherited all the stocks and bonds?”

  Gaff nodded. “I thought you might like to go with me to talk to Will and Wade when they get off work. Their shift ends at four.”

  “To Battle Creek?”

  He shook his head. “They’ve been working in River Bluffs for a while now on the new lofts they’re building downtown. The owner’s turning an old warehouse into condos.”

  “Did they move here?”

  He set down his glass after taking a long sip of iced tea. “Good stuff. I don’t suppose you have a recipe for my wife?”

  “I’ll write it out for the next time I see you.”

  “Thanks. You asked me about the nephews. They share a room in a cheap motel during the week and drive home every weekend.”

  “How long have they been doing that?”

  “Almost a year. They worked on the converted apartments near the Landing, too. Rumor is Cal found out they were in town and didn’t bother to see him, and that was the last straw.”

  Jazzi frowned. “They never took the time to see Cal? Even when they lived here?”

  Gaff drained his glass. “Nope. I thought maybe you’d like to ask them about that, since you knew Cal and all.”

  “I didn’t know him.”

  “Close enough.”

  She shrugged. He’d made her curious, and she was feeling braver now that she was with Ansel. Why would Katherine’s two boys live and work in River Bluffs and still snub Cal? She glanced at the clock. Almost three. “I’ll go find Jerod and Ansel and let them know I’m going with you.”

  Gaff nodded and reached for her unfinished tea. Ansel grinned when she told him she’d be gone a while.

  “Good, then when Jerod leaves, I can play on the backhoe.”

  Now she knew where she rated. He’d rather spend
quality time on an earthmover than eat supper with her. She could live with that.

  By the time she got back to Gaff, it was time to go. She didn’t have a chance to wash her face or fix her hair. But then, the crew at the warehouse wouldn’t look much better. On the drive downtown, she thought about Cal’s nephews. They shared a cheap motel together. Were they married? Did they have kids?

  In no time, Gaff parked in back of the building. Its lot ended at the beginning of Headwaters Park. A perfect location. It would be easy to get to any downtown festivities from here. The city had bulldozed buildings to create the park with its winding trails and tall stages. When the river that wound through it flooded, nothing was damaged.

  Gaff didn’t give the park a glance. He went directly to a supervisor and showed him his badge. The man directed them to where Wade was working and gave them instructions on where to find Will. “Are they in trouble of some kind?”

  Gaff shook his head. “I’m only here to ask questions.”

  “Better hurry then. They’ll be out of here in another twenty minutes.”

  They found Wade in a second-floor loft that was only framed in. He was installing plumbing for the kitchen that would hug the front wall.

  “Mr. Draper?” Gaff showed Wade his badge. “I’m Detective Gaff and this is Jazzi Zanders, her aunt was engaged to marry your Uncle Cal Juniper. We’d like to talk to you and your brother, Will.”

  Wade had been kneeling in front of a pipe, fitting an elbow piece onto it. He stood, and Jazzi was surprised by how tall and lanky he was. His hair was longish, the same soft brown as Jerod’s. He sported a scruffy beard, too.

  “What’s wrong?” Wade asked. “Cal’s dead and we sold his property.”

  “That’s what I need to ask you about. I need to talk to your brother, too. He’s working on the first floor.”

  Wade glanced at his watch. “They’re going to lock up the building soon, shut things up for the day. What if we find Will and grab a picnic table in the park to talk?”

  Wade led the way to where Will was working, and Gaff went through his explanation again. Will was as tall as Wade, but more filled out. His brown hair was cut short and his goatee trimmed and neat. He frowned at Gaff. “Is there some kind of problem? We went through Cal’s lawyer to sell his place.”