by Misty Simon
Also by Misty Simon
Deceased and Desist
Grounds for Remorse
Cremains of the Day
Carpet Diem
Misty Simon
KENSINGTON BOOKS
www.KensingtonBooks.com
All copyrighted material within is Attributor Protected.
Table of Contents
Also by
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
Acknowledgments
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 Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-one
Teaser chapter
Mrs. Graver’s Snickerdoodles or Tallie’s Cookie for All Occasions (like figuring out whodunnit!)
KENSINGTON BOOKS are published by
Kensington Publishing Corp.
119 West 40th Street
New York, NY 10018
Copyright © 2019 by Misty Simon
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without the prior written consent of the Publisher, excepting brief quotes used in reviews.
To the extent that the image or images on the cover of this book depict a person or persons, such person or persons are merely models, and are not intended to portray any character or characters featured in the book.
If you purchased this book without a cover you should be aware that this book is stolen property. It was reported as “unsold and destroyed” to the Publisher and neither the Author nor the Publisher has received any payment for this “stripped book.”
Kensington and the K logo Reg. U.S. Pat. & TM Off.
ISBN: 978-1-4967-2374-1
ISBN-10: 1-4967-2374-0
ISBN-13: 978-1-4967-2375-8 (ebook)
ISBN-10: 1-4967-2375-9 (ebook)
To all the readers who have brought Tallie to life—thank you! And to Daniel and Noelle, who make this all worthwhile.
Acknowledgments
In all my years of dreaming about publishing, and my very vivid imagination, even I couldn’t have known how awesome it would be to work with Esi and Norma at Kensington for edits and the entire team to bring these books to the reader in such style. And even before them there are the wonderful women who critique like nobody’s business. Thank you to Natalie, Vicky, and Vicki!
Chapter One
Few things in life bothered me more than a person who could not seem to get the hint that I had no desire to interact with them.
Preston Prescott, part of my old crowd, was very high on the list of people I had avoided when I was married to the now deceased Walden Phillips III—or, as I called my ex-husband, Waldo—because it had irritated him to no end.
And like Waldo, Preston was obnoxious and irritating and a plethora of other words I didn’t have time to look up in a thesaurus. I had divorced Waldo months before he died, and I was thankful I had gotten out of his circle. Or at least I had tried to stay out of his circle, until people like Preston decided to harass me.
This man irritated me, as in I wouldn’t just go to the other side of the street but would gladly take a detour through a swamp in order not to be in the same county with him. But he had unlocked a next level—which I hadn’t even known existed—when he accosted me at the Hershey Theater during my first date in over a month with my boyfriend, Max Bennett.
A date I had been looking forward to all week. I’d won tickets on the radio to this play I’d been dying to see. There was no way I could have afforded to buy the tickets. I had winced at the fact that it was possible I would run into some of my old crowd there and I might have to interact with the people I now was not fond of, but I hadn’t expected it to come from this corner. I had held out hope that being across the river and twenty minutes away from our small central Pennsylvania town, I might not have to deal with anyone I didn’t want to, but that hope was dashed.
I was a theatergoer, or at least I had been back in the day when I was married to Waldo. What else was I supposed to do to get out of the house and not have to talk with him very much? The theater had been a place where he could show me off but not bother me, because he couldn’t talk during the performance. Now I had very little money to splurge even on my favorite kind of shampoo, much less go to a play, which meant I didn’t get out much.
So when I won the tickets, I was elated. That feeling lasted, and it grew as Max and I held hands and watched the actors work their magic onstage. And then it was time for the intermission. Max asked if I wanted a drink and a snack before the second half of the show, so we entered the lobby to get both.
Our schedules had not been meshing lately, and it had been weeks since I’d even seen him. I wanted only to enjoy myself with him and concentrate on the two of us, not work. When Max and I ran into many of my old acquaintances in the lobby they were actually nice to me and told me it was nice to see me and to meet Max. I was enjoying myself immensely. And then Preston made an appearance.
“Tallie Graver, who knew you had a taste for anything finer?” Preston said after sweeping into the carpeted lobby in a dove-colored tux with a maroon paisley vest and with a fluffy hunter-green cravat wound tight at his neck.
“Preston,” I said in a strained voice, though I wanted to yell. Max stood at my side with his hand on my elbow. Probably because of my dead-flat tone. To say I did not like the man in front of me would be a gross understatement. Choking him with his cravat would have been a blessing.
There were many people whom I didn’t particularly like dealing with or whom I wasn’t overly fond of, but from the first day I met him, Preston had been right up there with the people whom I always actively avoided. Everything about him was like poison, from his attitude to his high-handedness to his cruel streak, which even Waldo couldn’t beat.
And now he had been threatening me on a daily basis, to make sure his aunt, Mrs. Petrovski, did not give me a chance to win the contract to refurbish and clean her mansion from top to bottom. It was a big job for my bigger crew. I’d moved beyond just Letty and me, and now I had a total of five people in my company, which still didn’t have a proper name. If my crew was given the chance to clean the Astercromb mansion at the edge of town, it would be a huge boost to the budget and to my ladies. They were thrilled. I was happy, or at least I was until this man had started throwing his barbs at me two weeks ago.
To say things had been unpleasant since I was asked to compete for the job was a gross understatement, as in a massively disgusting understatement of epic proportions. The nasty emails from this man, whom I had always considered a huge nuisance, had started shortly after the announcement was made that I and another cleaning crew, one run by Audra McNeal, would be competing for the job, and these emails hadn’t stopped in the two weeks since. He apparently didn’t like me any more than I liked him, and he was determined that anyone but me would get this job. Intimidation wasn’t going to work, but he hadn’t yet been deterred.
Jerk.
In the lobby, I took a moment to look over Preston’s shoulder, and I focused on the soaring arched ceiling to regain my equilibrium.
When I looked back at him, he had a hint of a sneer on his mean mouth.
“Nothing more than my name?” he said. “Have you forgotten your manners now
that you no longer have Walden to keep you in line?”
Max’s hand tightened on my elbow. And for good reason. I needed to be held back from going at this venomous snake right here in the swanky theater. Maybe I could try out some of my recent self-defense course moves and kick him in the eye. If I was lucky, he’d fall onto the old gold and maroon carpet, where maybe an usher would sweep him up with a broom and a dustpan after the show was over.
I calmed myself as best I could and cleared my throat, imagining him fuming over not keeping me from getting the contract at the mansion. And when I sealed the deal, I’d clean with wild abandon, while he sulked at being bested by yours truly.
“What do you want, Preston? I told you in our last exchange that I have nothing more to say to you. It’s going to come down to who’s better with a vacuum, and I’m willing to see what your aunt, the actual owner of the mansion, has to say about that.”
He laughed. “You may think this is going to be yours, but I know better. I know exactly who’s getting it. I’m just waiting for the old lady to call and let you know. I don’t even know why they’re letting you clean anything. You’re not good at what you do, and you’re just going to make more of a mess of things.” His soft voice and huge smile were for anyone who passed by, but the underlying tone was one of total menace. After shoving his hands on his hips and flaring his designer jacket at the sides, he tapped his manicured fingers on his waist.
The man was a nuisance who liked to control everything, even those things he should keep his nose out of. Why had I ever wanted to be with people like this?
Usually, I wasn’t a fighter when it came to jobs. I had no problem bowing out of a disagreeable situation and just doing my own thing elsewhere. But this man had got under my skin, had bothered me all the years I’d been with Waldo. I hadn’t had to interact with Preston since I’d left Waldo, and now that I was going for this job, the man wouldn’t leave me alone. No matter what he did, I wasn’t going to lie down while he walked all over me.
No way, no how.
“Talk is cheap, Preston. If you think you’ve got this wrapped up, then show me. Stop telling me. Now I have nothing more to say to you, and I’m on a date with my boyfriend, who I am not going to introduce you to. Skedaddle.” I cocked an eyebrow at him and waited to see what he’d do. I was goading him, but he was ruining my first evening with Max in a long time, and he had been needling me for days.
He had nothing to say back to that. He just lifted his nose at me before walking away, throwing his tux tails behind him. He stumbled while moving from the carpet to the white marble edging the doorway. After catching himself at the last second, he straightened his jacket, smoothed his lapels, and lifted his nose again. When he looked around to see if anyone had noticed, I just smiled at him. Then he flounced off.
I wasn’t proud of that moment, but I was human, and he was being a pain in my rear end.
“Do you want to go?” Max asked, putting his arm around my shoulders.
“No. He will not ruin my night out with you.” I hugged his arm and smiled up at him. Spending time with Max was at a premium lately. With his job ramping up, and with his new promotion to head Taxinator, we hadn’t seen each other as much as we would have liked in recent months. I was not going to let some bitter trust-fund baby get the best of me on one of my special nights.
But I sighed as he led me through the lobby and to the refreshments. My black heels clicked over the cream marble, and my dress whispered over the floor behind me. I should be incredibly happy to be out and dressed to the nines, especially with Max. Instead, I was mighty tempted to order a stiff drink to make it through the rest of the performance after that confrontation with Preston. I talked a big talk, but being the center of someone’s anger like that was a trigger for me. I’d spent years dealing with Waldo’s tantrums and having everything be my fault. I did not like going back there.
I got a soda instead of something with a triple shot of vodka, then followed Max to a velvet settee in the old theater lobby. The posh space featured ceilings that were arched and carved. Heavy drapes hung in similarly arched windows that were at least fourteen feet above the floor. The beautiful sconces threw off enough light to make the space intimate, and yet I could still see where I was going. All in all, there was something magical about being here, and especially being here with Max. Preston was not allowed to ruin that for me.
I smiled when Max looked at me, but I tried to avoid eye contact. I didn’t want him to see how upset I was.
Tallie Graver, faker. It wouldn’t be the first time I’d faked something to make someone happy. But Max was worth it, and leaving early would not make me feel better. It would just make me angry. Angrier.
Max leaned over, and I expected to have some sort of sweet nothing whispered into my ear or to be asked how much I was enjoying the play. Instead, I fell more in love.
“You know there’s nothing wrong with leaving. I’m sure everyone else sees your brave face and believes it. Even I believed it for a second. But I know you, Tallie, and if you want to go, we’ll just come again another time.”
He knew me because he took the time to look and care. He knew me, and he stayed.
I hugged his arm again. No faking necessary, thank God. “No, let’s stay. I want to see how this ends. I really am okay.”
Or at least I was after Max’s words. I had finally found myself an actual keeper.
In the middle of that lovely moment, my phone vibrated in my purse. I’d been waiting for a message from my new hire, Bethany, so I made my quick excuses to Max, who waved me off as I took my phone out of my little clutch purse. It was a text from Bethany, with pictures of the inside of the mansion. At last! I’d bid for the contract without being able to walk around, because Mrs. Petrovski, the owner of the mansion, was an old family friend, and I had figured I could trust her to be fair with me. I still wanted to know what we would be walking into, though, before we got started tomorrow. Mrs. Petrovski had agreed to let us in tonight to look around. I wasn’t sure if she was letting the other company in, too, but that wasn’t my concern.
Bethany was taking off the first two days of the job to go out of town with her boyfriend, so when I’d won the tickets, she’d offered to check the place out tonight.
As much as I had not wanted to have an actual company, I couldn’t deny that it was nice to have people to help with this kind of stuff now that I had a boyfriend and was building a life for myself. When I’d walked away from my old life, I’d really thought I’d just live upstairs from my dad’s funeral home, clean houses, and probably die up there some day. This new direction I was going in was totally not what I had envisioned, and I had to say I was mighty pleased about that.
What I was not pleased with, though, was the fact that the pictures had not come through with the text. It was just a series of blank bubbles, with downloading symbols attached at the bottom. I texted Bethany to see if she could email me the pictures instead.
“Tallie Graver! I haven’t seen you in days!” I raised my gaze from my phone, knowing that voice. Audra McNeal walked with purpose across the marble floor, her arms swinging and her dress a confection of tulle and silk. She was lovely, and one of the new people in town whom I really liked. She was also the one I was going up against for the contract. If I could have figured out a way for both of us to clean, I would have. From the few interactions we’d had, I thought she’d been a peach ever since she’d moved here. She worked for a company that did commercial cleaning, so I had been surprised to learn that she was going for a job at a privately owned mansion. But it did make a certain kind of sense because it was a big job.
As she came toward us, she had a smile on her face. That at least was better than Preston’s sneer.
“Audra!” I yelled across the lobby, as if she hadn’t already said my name. I even waved. Whereas a moment ago I had been wishing that the lights would flicker to signal that the curtain was going up soon, thinking that surely the intermission had to be over
by now, at this point I’d love a few moments to introduce Max to Audra.
I stood in a swish of velvet and silk to welcome her open-armed hug. “How are you? I didn’t realize you were going to be here tonight!” I hooked my arm in hers and turned us toward Max. “My boyfriend’s in town, finally, and I want to introduce you. Max, this is Audra. Audra, Max.”
Max smiled and held out his hand. Audra took it and shook it with the steely grip I’d first experienced when we met at a chamber of commerce mixer six months ago. With her style and her youthful personality, I’d expected her to be closer to my age, so I’d been surprised when she told me she was only a few years away from fifty.
“Oh, I’ve been hearing such wonderful things about you, Max. It’s so nice to get to meet you.”
And now I smiled bigger, because I loved my best friend, Gina, but I was also enjoying opening my friend field up a little bit, and I would love for Audra and her boyfriend to go to dinner with Max and me some night. Her boyfriend had just proposed to her, and it could be a celebration of sorts, the beginning of a great friendship that hadn’t yet bloomed but was totally planted.
“So, are you ready to show Mrs. Petrovski what we can do tomorrow?” I asked. “I don’t know if she told you, but she’s looking to actually sell the mansion, not keep it, like she had originally said. That negates a long-running contract for cleaning services, but one big job is better than none, right? She wants us to come in and clean it out and strip it down so it can be refurbished. The last time anyone touched the place was when they had those decorators come in for that television special.”
She choked and then laughed. “I heard about that. It’ll be interesting to see what the thing looks like inside. I can’t believe she won’t let us in until tomorrow. What is this? Some kind of surprise?” It was on the tip of my tongue to offer to share Bethany’s pictures when they came in, but Audra was still talking. “No one is going to buy that monstrosity, no matter how much you clean it.”