“See, there’s a reception upstairs, right now, for Bob and Marjory Crawford and I think they were murdered,” Jane said. “From the beginning it just didn’t seem right, their deaths. They were too young.”
“According to the autopsy, they were a little bruised like there might have been a light altercation,” Jake offered.
“And when I was looking at their medicine I saw that some of the potassium pills were missing. More were gone than should have been.”
The officer stared at Jane with a bored expression on his face.
“Phoebe saw something but won’t tell us what, and Fitch was sneaking into the bedroom,” Jake said
“He heard the police sirens and headed to the bedroom where the pills were kept. Phoebe caught him and when I found them he was, I don’t know. What would you say you were doing?”
Fitch looked at the ground. “I was just trying to stop her from making a scene.”
“What were you doing in the bedroom during the reception?” The officer asked, one eyebrow lifted.
“I was—” Fitch looked up at the officer, and then clamped his mouth shut.
“Come on, Phoebe, just tell us what you saw,” Jake said.
Phoebe took a deep breath. “I didn’t used to hate my mom.”
The cop didn’t turn away from Fitch.
“But one morning, I had come over early to get some clothes and I saw her put a pill in a cup of coffee. Dad hadn’t been feeling well, the heart thing, and I thought she was trying to make him worse. I was so mad.”
“That’s all you saw?” Fitch lifted his face.
“Then I saw her bring the cup to dad. He tasted it and said it was gross again, so I knew she had done it before. Neither of them saw me. I kind of snuck around all morning until I saw mom go back to her bedroom. She had put a bottle of pills on her dresser. She never keeps her pills there.”
“No, she never does!” Jane added.
“Who are you?” The cop turned to Jane.
“I’m the housekeeper.”
The officer nodded and turned back to Fitch.
Fitch was growing redder as Phoebe spoke.
“So I saw those pills there and figured they were the ones mom had put in the coffee.”
“It was the potassium, wasn’t it?” Jane asked.
“Yes. I looked them up later. They’re deadly to someone with a heart condition.”
“They weren’t supposed to die!” Fitch blurted out. “No one was supposed to die.”
“Repeat that?” The officer said.
“No one was supposed to die. We read everything we could. Weak, yes. Feeling unwell, yes. Not up to making big decisions? Yes! But no one was supposed to die.”
Fitch looked around the crowd, eyes darting between Stan, Phoebe and the officers.
“I think you’d better come with us,” the officer said.
“It was Pamela’s idea—just to keep him under the weather for a while, to give him time to think his decision over. I didn’t know it would kill him! I didn’t know she would die.”
“Can someone tell me how she died?” the second officer asked.
“According to the autopsy, she had a heart attack, probably caused by a lifetime of eating hamburgers and then having a light, physical altercation with her very large husband. I’m guessing he didn’t want to be poisoned.”
“Gotcha.” The second officer turned away and spoke into a crackling walkie-talkie.
“Well done, knowing Fitch was going to go get that bottle of pills,” Jake said to his sister.
“Oh, no.” Phoebe looked at her dark red fingernails. “I thought he was going to try and steal mom’s jewelry. He just kind of looks like a thief.”
The first officer took Fitch from Isaac and Jake and put him into the squad car with the bald guy.
The second officer gave Jake his card. “We’ll be wanting to talk to all of you very soon. No one leaves town, okay?”
They all said yes and nodded.
“And you—don’t move that Volkswagen, understand? It’s a stolen vehicle.” He pointed up toward the back driveway.
“Yes, sir, of course.” Jane looked back at her car. It had been a very good deal, and her dad had been completely against her buying it. Yet again, she should have listened to him, however this time God had used her mistake to provide just what the family needed.
27
Jane sat on the edge of the king sized bed in her parents’ suite at the hotel.
“Your roommate was both criminal and dangerous.” Stan stood near the window, his arms crossed over his chest. His face was grim.
The room smelled of commercial laundry detergent and fresh brewed coffee. Nancy ran an iron over a pair of jeans while Jane listened to her father’s lecture.
“Your car was in very poor shape, stolen, you were still paying the loan on it, and it smelled atrocious.”
“Yes, Dad.” Jane traced the gilded vine pattern that covered the duvet. Deciding to listen to her parents had been hard. Actually doing it, and considering what her dad had to say as he ran down every decision she had made in the last two years, was even worse.
“But, you have seven satisfied clients.”
Jane tilted her head. “Yes?”
“I’ve made a few calls. Everyone is very happy with your work. You are a good little business woman.”
“Thank you.” She glanced at her mom.
Nancy smiled at her jeans as she ironed them.
“You handled yourself well through this crisis.”
“Isaac really helped me stick with it.”
Stanley grunted. “You are a young lady who finishes what she starts.”
“Of course, Dad. That’s what I always say.”
“Yes, you do. Given that, I think you know that you need to stay here and finish school, but you are moving out of the Crawford house immediately, do you understand?”
She looked back down at the duvet. Sure, she understood it in theory, but that didn’t mean she knew where she could go.
“I spoke with Pastor Barnes and he is putting you up in the dorm for the rest of the term. I paid the balance of your tuition, your book bill, and your room and board. I don’t want to hear another word about it.”
Jane wasn’t tempted to argue. Staying on campus and knowing where her meals were coming from sounded divine.
“Before we leave we are buying you a car.”
Jane picked at her fingernail. She had avoided that one for years. And why? So she could feel superior to the other girls at the prep school, like it had been somehow godlier to earn her own stuff? “Thank you.” Her heart wasn’t behind her words yet, but she said them.
“Now, this is the important part, so pay attention. After term is up, you are coming to Phoenix.”
Jane’s jaw dropped. “What?”
“We pay your way through the end of this term, and then you come home.”
“But, Dad—”
“‘But, Dad’ nothing.” Stanley crossed his arms over his chest. “I’d like to see a little gratitude from you right now.”
Gratitude wasn’t flowing, but Jane’s blood was. She thrust herself to her feet, her face hot. “Dad, I am a grown woman. I do not have to move out of state just because you told me to.”
“You might be a grown woman, but you have no car, you are homeless, and you just about got yourself kicked out of Bible school.”
“Really, honey, who does that?” Nancy flipped the jeans off the ironing board. “It just wasn’t like you.”
“But what about my seven satisfied clients?” Jane sat back down on the bed with a thud.
“You’re a good business woman. A good business woman who will be without a home by May 25th.”
Jane stared at her father. May 25th. Her date with Isaac.
“Business people strike deals, Jane. Are you in, or out?”
Jane chewed her lip. “Let me be clear on this deal: I go to Phoenix in May or?”
“Or you come now.” Nancy slipped
her arms into a fuzzy pink sweater. “I’m so sorry, but things are a big mess here aren’t they?”
Jane looked out the window behind her dad. Rain slashed at the glass, falling from the pewter gray sky. “I can make it on my own here.”
“It’s because of that Daniels fellow isn’t it?” Stan stared at Jane over the top of his glasses, his jaw flexing.
Yes? No? Jane wondered. Didn’t she want to stay here because she was established? There were her clients to consider, and her church family, the people who would eventually be sending her on the mission field.
Then there was the mission field. Wouldn’t going to Phoenix slow her process down even more? She’d have to meet all new people, prove that she was serious in her intentions.
And then there was Isaac. How serious were her intentions if she could let him distract her from her goal?
Her trouble following the school rules, the way she had kept her troubles to herself instead of connecting with her parents and seeking help, and the overwhelming sense that she was puffed up with pride rather than faith, had shown her that her dream of heading to the foreign mission field was a bit farther in the future than she had originally hoped.
“Leave her alone, Stan. Isaac is a very nice young man.” Nancy folded up the ironing board.
“I don’t want to leave because Portland is home.” Jane scratched at the gold vine on the bedspread again, but the shimmery color was in the thread, not painted on.
“You’ll have to leave when you go on the mission field.” Stan’s voice had gone soft.
“I know.”
Nancy rubbed Stan’s back. “Don’t worry about that yet, love.” She turned to Jane. “This isn’t easy on your Dad, even if you are ‘all grown up’”
“Mom.” Jane tried not to roll her eyes.
“Forget about it, for now, okay?” Nancy kissed Stan’s cheek. “We’ve made you our offer. You consider it, and tell us what you decide.
Jane looked away from her parents. What was her choice, really? If she took them up on their offer to pay for school she was obligated to move back with them, at least for the summer. If she didn’t take the bargain she would fail to finish the school she had put her heart and soul into.
She knew she couldn’t quit school.
“Dad, did you talk to Marjory before we left the reception?”
“Yes. She is closing up the house and Jake and Phoebe are headed back to their dorm rooms and apartments. Don’t worry about missing the Crawford paycheck, we’ll make sure your ends meet.”
Jane flushed. “I was just wondering what happened with Fitch?”
“He’s in custody until the arraignment. They are talking manslaughter, I think. He planned the poisoning with Pamela for the sake of keeping the hamburger restaurants in business. The deaths weren’t planned. I believe him about that. He didn’t have the spine or the imagination for murder.”
“But why wouldn’t he want the family to run healthier restaurants?” Jane asked.
“Business is rough, and there was no promise it would work out. I think Pamela was behind the whole scheme, frankly. She liked the high life and turning the restaurants into something with a lower profit margin and no guaranteed customers was too risky.”
“It will be sad when the restaurants are all gone,” Nancy said.
“I wouldn’t kill for a hamburger, but it will be sad when they are gone,” Jane said with a grim smile. “Do you want to risk another run in with the protestors and get a burger for lunch?”
“Not on your life.” Stan laughed.
“So, kids,” Nancy said, “time to go car shopping?”
“Sorry, Mom. First I have to go clean the Larsen house, but I can meet you wherever you want by eleven.” It felt good to have that one last bit of autonomy: Good, Clean, Houses. Her own business, where she was the boss. She didn’t like the bargain her parents offered her, but she would have to make it work.
As she pictured the rest of her school term, cleaning houses, studying, and not kissing Isaac Daniels, the words of the beatitudes came to her mind again. Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be satisfied. Not a promise from God to have all of her needs met by her parents who had means, but a promise from God that He would satisfy her hunger for holiness, if that was what she hungered for. Not independence, not adventure, just holiness.
May 25th.
She’d keep her date with Isaac, and then fly to Phoenix. If he was waiting for her when she came back to Portland, as she promised herself she would do, then she’d let him take her on a second date too.
Now Available!
One
Jane Adler scraped the gunk out of the u-shaped pipe and flicked it onto the newspaper on the floor. She spread it thin with her gloved fingertip, but the missing wedding ring wasn’t hidden in the blob of gunk. Either it hadn’t fallen down the drain or it had washed away. She wasn’t a plumber, so she couldn’t vouch for the ring’s ability to wash away, but it seemed unlikely. Especially with the huge diamond attached.
A tight knot had formed at the base of her neck, so she rolled her head from side to side. The sink parts had to go back together before her client came home, no matter how her neck felt.
Jane rocked back on her heels. According to the Youtube video on her phone, the plastic pipes should go back together without any kind of putty or tape. Jane started with the pipe from the drain to the pea trap. Despite the slippery sliminess of her gloved hands, it fit. So far, so good. If the pea trap would connect to the drain from the other side of the double sink, she was good.
It almost did.
She pushed it gently toward the back wall, and snapped it into the receiving end of the other pipe. She let go of it, and slid the screw connector into place, but the threads were crossed and it wouldn’t twist on. She slid it up again. The pipe that led from the pea trap to the drain popped out.
Jane’s phone beeped.
It was Isaac.
She tried to take the call, but the phone wouldn’t read her latex and slime covered finger. She pulled her glove half way off, then changed her mind. Time was short, her boss was picky, and her boyfriend could wait.
She forced the PVC pipe back into place, but that made the pea trap pop out of the first connection she had made. She tried to slip it back up into the cap, but it wouldn’t go.
She took a deep breath. She relaxed her shoulders. She thanked God that she wasn’t the one who had dropped her client’s wedding ring down the sink.
With slow, measured movements, she unconnected the twisty connection ring that supposedly held the pea trap in place, and slid it back onto the pipe in the right order, noting how much easier things came apart than they went back together.
She tested all of the connections. They were solid.
Then she pulled her gloves off and called Isaac back. “Sorry about the delay. I was plumbing.”
“You know how to live.”
“My client dropped her ring down the sink and wanted me to get it out.” Jane crumpled up the newspapers she had used to protect the marble floor.
“And you tried, because you are awesome like that.” Isaac had a chuckle in his voice, but the phone call was breaking up.
“Let me guess, you taught a class of eager, enthusiastic young seminarians under the shade of a grass roof, and then went to the beach to swim in the clear waters.”
“Close. After class we went out back and kicked the ball around.”
“Are you in heaven?”
“Are you kidding? You’re not with me. It’s paradise, at best, but it’s not heaven.”
Jane flushed. “I wish I was there.” She mopped up the drips of grimy water that had missed the newspaper. “Only forty more days until you come home.”
“Yup.”
“Man, I do wish it was the other way around.” Isaac’s voice sounded far away, which was fitting since he was more than four thousand miles from home.
“You wish you were forty more days awa
y from going away?” Jane rubbed her forehead. She wanted to engage in romantic banter, but she had limited time to get the plumbing mess put away.
“I wish you were coming here in forty days.”
“I see! Sorry.” Jane pushed the box of organic home cleaners back under the sink. “I’m thinking the Seminario Christiano de Costa Rica doesn’t approve of girlfriend visits, though.”
“They’d keep a close eye on us, that’s for sure. But…”
Jane smiled. “But I could come, say, just for a week, right before you head home?”
“You could.”
“Do you know how many houses I would have to clean to afford a trip to Costa Rica?” Jane swept the kitchen, though at first glance, it looked clean.
“Your parents?”
“Are about as excited for me to run off to Costa Rica with my boyfriend as your employers would be.”
“Point taken. But I miss you.” The phone crackled again.
“I miss you, too.” The worst part of their summer apart was the patchy international phone calls.
“And I love you.”
“I know.”
“Jane, I’m serious.” Isaac’s phone crackled.
“I know. I’m just up to my armpits in Ajax and about to face a client who isn’t going to be happy with me.” Jane hedged. Love. Sure, she “loved” him, or she couldn’t have spent the last year dating him. But after a point, love means the rest of your life, and that’s where she hesitated.
The phone fritzed again. “I do, too, Isaac. You know I do.”
“I’ve got to run. Call me later?” His voice was distant. Jane wanted to blame the phone, but she was pretty sure it was her own fault.
“Definitely.” Jane racked her broom in the pantry. It was a balancing act, and no one knew it better than Isaac. Island life was getting to his brain, and she couldn’t blame him. She hoped his summer away would light a fire for missions in his heart that matched her own, but only time would tell.
In the meantime, Caramel Swanson wasn’t going to like it, but there was no ring in the kitchen sink pea trap.
Jane checked the house room by room to make sure all of the lights were out before she let herself leave for the day.
Good Clean Murder: A Plain Jane Mystery (The Plain Jane Mysteries Book 1) Page 22