by Jessica Beck
“What, and get ripped off by their high prices?” Jake asked. “I’ve seen this exact same work done a thousand times on television. Sometimes you have to take a project a few steps back before you can move forward.”
“Do you honestly call this a few steps?” I asked, incredulous at how much destruction these two men had accomplished in such a short period of time.
“You sound just like Dot did a little bit ago,” Phillip said, referring to my mother.
“Momma’s seen this?” I asked.
“She came by to check on our progress less than an hour ago,” Phillip admitted.
“Please tell me that she at least insisted on calling someone in to look at this,” I said, hoping that my mother had been a rational voice in this sea of insanity.
“She was pushing for it at first, but she finally agreed to give us twenty-four hours to keep digging into this,” Phillip said.
“There were a few conditions,” Jake added a little sullenly. “You realize that we didn’t have to agree to those, don’t you?” my husband told his partner in crime.
“Sir, you clearly don’t know my wife. If we hadn’t, she would have had a full crew over here before Suzanne even got home.”
“Tell me the conditions she placed on you,” I said, doing my best to keep my voice calm and level. What had Momma been thinking, giving these two maniacs free rein on the cottage repair? At the stage it was in now, it almost looked as though it needed to be torn down and rebuilt.
“The first thing we had to agree to do was to turn off the power at the main breaker,” Phillip said. “She expressed a fear that we might electrocute ourselves.”
“Well, I suppose that’s something,” I conceded. At least that way they wouldn’t end up killing themselves in the process of trying to save a little money. “What else?”
“We have to leave the water off, too. I’ve got to tell you, it’s making it pretty inconvenient not having water or electricity here,” Jake said.
“I’m sure you’ll both find a way to live with it. Is that it?”
“We’re not supposed to do anything structural to the cottage either, like taking down walls or things like that,” Jake said, almost sounding as though he resented that particular condition.
“Your mother said that she was worried about the old place, but I’m not sure how much we can do, given the conditions she demanded from us,” Phillip said.
“It’s not so bad. We’ll do what we planned to all along. After we fix the plumbing leak, we’ll rewire some of this, and then we’ll get it all buttoned back up, nice and neat,” Jake said as he slapped his partner on the back. “We should have it finished by dinnertime.”
That was one of the loftiest goals I’d ever heard in my life. “By dinner? As in tonight?”
“Well, by nine o’clock, anyway,” Jake said, conceding that maybe he’d been a little too enthusiastic in his prediction of completion.
“Tell her the final condition,” Phillip urged my husband.
“Your mother gets to bring in a licensed contractor to inspect our work after we’re finished,” Jake said almost sullenly.
“And we can’t plaster anything over, either. I’m not even sure if what she’s agreed to let us do is worth doing at this point,” Phillip lamented.
“Come on. There’s still a lot left for us.” Jake turned back to me. “Suzanne, you should probably pack a bag for tonight, just in case. We’re going to be hard at work here, so there’s no telling when we’re going to get finished up.”
“Should I pack something for you, too? Forget I even asked. I’m going to pack a bag for you, too,” I said, answering the question I’d just asked him without waiting for confirmation.
“Our clothes aren’t in there,” Jake said softly as I started toward the dresser.
“What do you mean?”
“We didn’t want everything to get dusty, so we moved it all up into the upstairs bedroom,” Jake said. The thought of my stepfather handling my clothing was more than I could take, and what was more, my husband realized it. “Don’t worry, I moved your clothes myself.”
Thank goodness for small favors. I suddenly realized that it might be better if I just got out of there before I said something that I might end up regretting. After all, most of the damage to the cottage had already been done.
Hadn’t it?
As I started upstairs to gather our clothing, Jake turned to Phillip and said, “Don’t do anything for a second. I’ll be right back.”
“Jake, I wouldn’t dream of moving forward without you,” my stepfather said, clearly planning to do just that once my husband was out of sight.
Furthermore, Jake knew it, too. “Just in case you’re tempted, I’ll take the flashlight with me so Suzanne doesn’t trip on the stairs,” he said with a broad grin. Without its illumination, the bedroom was more than just a little dark, given that clouds had populated the sky and were now putting a gloom on everything.
“Fine. I’ll just sit here in the dark and wait for you,” Phillip said sullenly.
“I won’t be long,” Jake said.
My husband’s grin vanished as he saw the look of disapproval on my face.
“Is something wrong?” he asked me.
“Jake, are you really going to try to tackle this yourself?”
“Come on. What could it hurt? You’ve been telling me for months that I needed a hobby.”
“True, but I didn’t expect it to come from the complete demolition of our home,” I said as I entered my old bedroom upstairs.
I’d been expecting a haphazard pile of mixed clothing strewn across the bed, but I was relieved to see that my meticulous husband had made certain that everything was folded neatly and organized on the bedspread. I supposed in the scheme of things that was something positive to take from the experience, anyway. Since we kept our overnight bags in the upstairs closet anyway, I packed two bags for us quickly, and then I was ready to go.
“That’s way too many clothes for just one night,” Jake protested.
“Humor me,” I said.
“I get it,” Jake said with a smile. “After all, you might want to change outfits more than once, am I right?”
My husband had clearly lost his mind, but there was nothing much I could do but just smile and nod in agreement. “Sure. Why not? That’s why I’m taking so much.”
Once I had the bags packed, I started to pick them up when Jake hugged me tightly and gave me a solid kiss before releasing me.
“Thanks for letting me take a swing at this,” he said, and I could see how happy he was to be doing something productive, or at least what he considered productive.
“Just try not to do too much more demolition today, okay?” I asked.
“I’m not making any promises,” he said with a smile.
I wasn’t going to budge on that though, no matter how cute he looked. “Jake. Promise me.”
“Okay, I promise, but you’ve been telling me for months that you wished the front window looking out onto the park was larger.”
“Don’t you dare!” I said firmly before I saw his grin.
“I’m just kidding, Suzanne. Come on. Loosen up.”
I knew any response to that would be the wrong one, so I just gave his cheek a quick kiss, and then I said, “Just be careful, okay?”
“You know I will,” he replied.
Once we were downstairs again, my husband walked me out onto the front porch. Storm clouds were definitely brewing, and I wondered how they would impact the evening’s Fright Week activities. Then again, it had been scary enough inside my cottage without the threat of an impending storm.
As I stowed the overnight bags into the Jeep, I knew that I needed to speak with Momma. As much as I appreciated her putting limits on our husbands, I believed that she should have stopped them altogether. Jake and Phillip might be able to steamroll one of us at any given time, but I knew that if I could get Momma on my side, they wouldn’t stand a chance, and we’d have professionals tackling th
e job instead of two well-intentioned but seriously undertrained amateurs.
CHAPTER 4
I was determined to speak with Momma immediately, but then I saw Grace’s car parked in her driveway, so I pulled the Jeep in beside it to see what she was doing home before noon. My best friend pretty much made her own hours working as a supervisor for a large cosmetics company, but I was still surprised to find her home at midday.
Grace answered the door looking decidedly frazzled. “Hey, Suzanne. What’s up?”
“That’s what I want to know,” I said. “Isn’t that a little bit of overaccessorizing, even for you?”
My best friend had three scarves draped over one shoulder, looking as though she was getting ready for the dance of a thousand veils, or three scarves, whatever the case might be. “What? Oh, these,” she said as she realized she had them on. “Yes. I’m packing, and I don’t know what to take. I’ve got a meeting with my boss’s boss in Atlanta.”
“Is something amiss?” I asked her.
“No. Maybe. I don’t know. They do this every now and then. I’ve been told that this meeting is to gauge my thoughts on a new product rollout, but who knows what the real reason is? All I know is that I need to be there by seven for dinner, and I’m not even close to finishing packing.”
“Need any help?” I asked her, though I knew that Grace was as meticulous at packing as she was at dressing.
“I can handle that, but you can keep me company if you have a few minutes to spare,” she said.
“For you? Always,” I said.
“Come on in, then.”
I followed my best friend into her bedroom, and I saw that most of her work was already done. She’d laid out five outfits and their accouterments. “I don’t know why I’m bringing any of these at all,” she said as she put the scarves back into her closet. Closing up her bags, she said, “That’s got to be good enough. I’m running dangerously low on time.” Grace paused a moment, and then she added, “I heard you found a new body this morning.”
“I did, but it appears that no one believes there was anything suspicious about it,” I said.
“Why on earth not? It was hanging from the town clock, wasn’t it?” Grace asked as I grabbed one bag while she got the other.
“Where on earth did you hear that?”
“Sam at the gas station. I had to fill up my tank for the drive,” she said.
“For your information, the man was sitting on the bench of the dunking tank wearing a pumpkin mask,” I said.
“And that’s not suspicious to Stephen?” Grace asked incredulously. “I know my boyfriend can be thick at times, but that screams murder, doesn’t it?”
“Don’t be too hard on him. He’s doing the best he can. I agree with you, and I suspect the police chief does as well. I believe it at least bears looking into, but the mayor is strong-arming the chief into putting it on the back burner so it doesn’t interfere with Fright Week.”
“I’m guessing that Cassandra Lane is behind that,” she said. “Is it just me, or is she exerting an unusually high amount of influence on George lately?”
“He might be a little too eager to please her,” I conceded, though I agreed with Grace wholeheartedly.
“A little? I can’t believe an ex-cop like George would just blow this off for the sake of a made-up festival.”
“At least the chief is trying to investigate,” I said, “with or without the mayor’s full support.”
“I’m just sorry that I’m going out of town. I bet between the two of us we’d be able to figure out what really happened to that man. Are you and Jake going to dig into it?”
“Unfortunately, Jake and Phillip have their hands full at the moment. They’ve decided to renovate the cottage.”
“What? When did this happen?” Grace asked, pausing on her way to the front door.
“The plan was initiated when Jake tried to hang a picture and hit a water supply line for the upstairs bathroom in the process,” I said.
“And you’re going to just let them wreck your place?”
“I’m on my way to Momma’s to straighten things out,” I said as we got outside.
“That’s smart. She’s the best person in the world I know of to have your back.”
“Besides you, you mean,” I told her with a grin as I handed her the bag I’d been carrying.
“Of course,” Grace said with a grin. After her bags were safely stowed away, she hugged me as she added, “Just don’t go trying to investigate this one alone.”
“What makes you think that I’d ever do that?” I asked her.
“Come on, Suzanne. I’ve known you too long not to believe that it’s at least a possibility.”
She had a point, but I didn’t have to concede it. Instead, I decided to ignore it completely. “Have a safe trip,” I said.
“I will, but I hate missing Fright Week. It sounds like a load of fun.”
“I’m not sure how much you’ll be missing. Call me if you need to chat.”
“Right back at you,” she said.
After Grace was gone, I got into my Jeep and headed to Momma’s house.
Hopefully I could get to the bottom of her decision not to stop the men dead in their tracks.
It was a poor choice of words, but the sentiment was real enough.
“Can you believe those two maniacs we married?” I asked Momma as she answered the door. She’d given me walk-in privileges the moment she’d moved into her new place, but I still had a hard time using them.
“Good afternoon to you, too, Suzanne,” Momma said with a grin.
“Sorry. Hi. I can’t believe you didn’t shut them down on the spot.”
“I considered it briefly, but they make a good point.”
I looked to see if there were any obvious physical signs that my mother had lost her mind, but I couldn’t see any. “In what way possible could that be true?”
“I’ve been worrying about the wiring and plumbing in that place for years,” Momma said. “I always put it off though, just waiting for a good opportunity to do it over correctly and bring everything up to code.”
“And you honestly think that those two amateurs can do it?” I asked.
She laughed at the very thought of it. “Of course not. They are so far in over their heads they can’t even see it.”
“Then why indulge them?” I asked her.
“Suzanne, if we do as you suggest and shut them down right now, they will both go to their graves believing that they were capable of the job, but we stood in their way. However, if we let them see just how wrong they are, then I’m guessing that the do-it-yourself projects will come to an end. I don’t know about Jake, but Phillip believes he can do anything after watching one episode of a home improvement show on television. Why not let them realize that it’s not as easy as it looks?”
“The work still needs to be done though, and frankly, we don’t have the budget for it, Momma,” I admitted.
“That’s the beauty of it, though,” she said. “I’ve been looking for something to get you two for Christmas. What better gift than updated plumbing and wiring?”
“Well, for one thing, it’s quite a bit more than the sweaters we were going to get you and Phillip,” I said.
“I love sweaters,” she said with a grin.
“I know that, but I still can’t let you do it. It’s too much.”
Momma’s smile brightened even more. “What if I told you that it would be an inexpensive undertaking, Suzanne?”
“I’d say that you’ve been watching too much television, too.”
“Not when you’ve heard the backstory. I bought a few houses in Union Square to flip last month, and the contractor I was using overbought on everything. He wasn’t padding his bill. He just overestimated what he’d need for the jobs, and I found myself with wiring and plumbing materials that can’t be returned and nowhere to use them. They’ve already been written off as a loss for that particular business venture, so why not use the
m ourselves?”
“Be that as it may, labor is going to be tremendous,” I said, “not to mention the plasterwork after it’s all finished.”
“Don’t worry about the labor,” she said. “He’s already agreed to do the job at cost. You see, he’s an excellent builder. He’s just not a great businessman. The entire job will be done at a fraction of what you’d normally have to pay for it, and I for one know that I’ll sleep better at night knowing that everything at the cottage has been updated.”
“Okay, I see how it makes sense, and I appreciate the gesture, but if that’s all true, why not get him started right now instead of letting Jake and Phillip tackle it first, their pride notwithstanding?” Before she answered the question, I suddenly knew the answer. “He can’t start the job for twenty-four hours, can he? That’s why you gave them free rein until then.”
“What harm could it do, especially since I warned them not to do anything structural?” Momma asked me. “Don’t you see the beauty of it?”
“I suppose so, but it’s not going to be a very happy few days even after we replace them, is it?”
“Oh, they’ll be fine once they see the reality of the situation. Do you mind staying with us while the work is being finished? It could be fun having you live with me again.”
“As kind as the gesture is, the last time we cohabitated, neither one of us had husbands, remember?” I asked.
“So much the better. Now don’t be so gloomy. It’s all going to work out just fine in the end.”
“If you say so,” I said, not fully believing it myself.
“Consider it settled, then. Now, tell me about finding that body this morning. The entire town is fussing about it.”
“There’s not much to tell,” I said, Grace’s earlier words still haunting me a little. Was the chief allowing the mayor to sweep the homicide under the rug for the sake of Fright Week? Surely someone needed to investigate what had really happened. Waiting for the coroner’s report could take some time, and in the meantime, leads could get stone cold. Maybe I should investigate, but I couldn’t do it alone. With Grace gone and Jake tied up with renovations, where did that leave me?