by Jeff Shelby
“Don’t mind me,” I said, smiling. “Just grabbing a drink.”
He chuckled and set the large coffee cup from the local coffee shop on the table in the middle of the low-ceilinged basement. “Yeah? You keep a coffee pot down here, too?”
I held up a can of soda. “I move on to this kind of caffeine in the middle of the day,” I told him.
“Not me,” he said, shaking his head. “I drink the java juice all day long.”
I stifled a giggle. Java juice? Who in their right mind called coffee ‘java juice?’
“I’ve gotta run out to the van and grab a saw,” he said, heading for the stairs. “I’ll be right back.”
I was about to follow him upstairs when I spied a box piled up with a few others in the corner next to the washing machine. I’d thought they were all boxes of books but I stared at the writing on one of them and saw the word KITCHEN. All of the hundreds of missing things I swore we’d lost when we moved came rushing into my head. What was in that box? The bin of missing cookie cutters? The ice cream machine I was sure I hadn’t given away? The waffle maker?
I moved the two boxes stacked on top of it and grabbed it. It wasn’t terribly heavy and I could have carried it upstairs to see what was inside. But I was impatient. I brought it over to the table in the middle of the basement and set it down on top of it. The table was covered in Rex’s tools and I gently pushed them aside to make room for the box.
I glanced up at the ceiling. It looked like he’d already taped off several areas in the ceiling where the vents were going to be cut. Several long orange cords ran from his power tools, past the furnace and up and into the crawl space.
I stepped around to the other side of the table, trying to remember where Jake had put his own stash of tools. I needed a box cutter to get through the packing tape sealing the box shut. My eyes scanned the basement, trying to remember, and, for some reason, I locked in on Rex’s orange cords.
Because they went through the crawl space. I craned my neck to get a better look. Sure enough, a tiny sliver of light shot through the crawl space. Sunlight was streaming in to the basement.
Through the secret entry.
I walked toward the crawl space to get a closer look. Maybe he just had a work light up there, I told myself. Maybe my mind was playing tricks on me.
I stood on my tiptoes and looked.
No. The cords ran through an opening in the wall to the outside world.
My stomach knotted.
It had to have been someone who knew about the opening.
Like the guy who inspected the house and spent four hours exploring it when we bought it.
My heart hammered in my chest. What was Rex’s connection to Olaf? Did he have one? Or was it just a coincidence that he’d known about the opening and was using it to run cords out to his truck?
My mind was spinning as I heard him coming back down the stairs.
I tried to steady my nerves but was afraid I looked more like a deer in the headlights.
He gave me a funny look as I stood there and stared at him. He glanced at the cords, then back at me. “Oh, I’m running those outside to my portable generator. I was afraid we might trip the breakers in here if I was running too many different things.” He grinned. “Don’t know how much this old wiring in here can take.”
I looked again at the cords. “Right.”
“Did you, um, know you could reach the outside like that?” he asked. “Through the wall?”
“Not until yesterday,” I said. “And Jake and I sealed up the cinder blocks after…we found it.”
“Looks like you missed a few,” he said. He shuffled his boots against the ground. “I just pulled one out to run the cords through. The mortar should have set if you did it yesterday.”
“Yeah, we were going to do the rest today,” I mumbled.
He nodded. “I probably have some stuff out in the truck. I can do it for you when I’m done. No charge.”
“How did you know it was there? The opening?”
He blinked several times, the color rising in his cheeks. “Oh, I, um, saw it when I did the initial inspection, I guess.”
“You did?”
He picked up his coffee from the table and took a long drink. “Yeah. Kind of a weird spot. Probably something to do with your coal chute. I guess I should’ve known about the coal chute, then, right?”
“Mmhmm.”
He started to say something, then spun the cup in his hands and lifted it to his lips.
And that’s when I saw it.
FORTY FIVE
Sexy Rexy.
It was written in black Sharpie, a little heart on either side of the inscription.
Rex noticed me staring at the cup, so he turned it so he could look at himself. Then he laughed. “You like my nickname from Java Jolt?”
Java Jolt was a coffee shop located about five blocks from our house. It had been a huge perk of moving to this side of town, at least for the kids. They loved that they could walk to Java Jolt for smoothies and cookies and other snacks. When friends came over to play when we’d first moved in, one of the things they always asked was if they could walk to Java Jolt. When I said yes, they would start to brainstorm what names they were going to give to the barista.
Because Java Jolt had become somewhat famous in Moose River for the handwritten names on the bottom half of their cups.
You ordered your drink and after you ordered, you told them your name and they wrote in fancy cursive on the bottom so that you’d know it was yours. And sometimes they drew little pictures or wrote down little notes to personalize the experience. It was a very cute way to make their business seem a little personal and unique.
But you didn’t dare just give them your regular name because they’d mock you. They wanted something fun and goofy and if you didn’t give it them, they’d make one up for you. Will regularly went and announced that he was Will The Thrill…unless he chose to make up a name like Winkleburton Sasberger. The younger girls usually gave them Barbie names. And Emily being Emily and a teenager, would just announce herself as Emily, at which point the barista would frown and write something like Emilameteenager on her cup and Emily would then roll her eyes when they called her name. Jake usually got his coffee as Jake The Snake and after one-time being called out as Crazy Daisy, I generally gave them the name Not Lazy Daisy so as not to sound like some coffee-loving lunatic.
All in good fun.
“Sexy Rexy,” I said out loud, the words sticking in my throat.
“I couldn’t think of anything the first time I went in there. They threatened me with Tyrannosaurs Rex, so I had to come up with something,” he said, grinning.
The knot in my stomach grew tighter. Maybe it was just a coincidence. But I was so tired of coincidence supposedly having played a role in all this.
“When you did the initial inspection for us,” I asked, trying to stall for time and trying to figure out what I wanted to do. “You found the opening? Up in the crawl space?”
He hesitated, then nodded. “Yeah. I’m sure I noted it on the paperwork.”
That might’ve been true, but our inspection report had been so long that our eyes had sort of glazed over at about the halfway mark. Our real estate agent covered the highlights—or lowlights, as Jake had called them—and that was it. We didn’t do a line by line reading of the thing.
“And did you also not find the coal chute?” I asked.
He set the cup down on the table and licked his lips. He glanced into the crawl space and seemed unsure of himself. “Well, I, uh…”
“I mean, I can’t believe you could’ve found the opening, but not the chute,” I said. “I know you said you didn’t. But the door is pretty obvious. I noticed immediately when I got up there to look at the frozen—”
“I’m sure I saw it,” he said, cutting me off. “I’m sure I did. And I’m sure I noted it in the report.”
I looked at the crawl space. “So you knew. About both. But you told us t
he other day you didn’t know about the door to the chute.”
He set his coffee down and folded his arms across his chest. “What are you getting at, Daisy?”
I was alone in my home with a man I thought was a murderer. I was being stupid, confronting him. Maybe Crazy Daisy was more appropriate.
“No one else knew about either of those things,” I said. “Not Jake, not me, not anyone else. You were the only one.”
The pipes crackled above our heads along the ceiling. Car engines whispered into the basement from the opening as they drove past. Dust flicked in the light that cut through the crawl space.
“And Helen told everyone you were sexy,” I said.
Now, I was going out on a limb. I realized that. I was putting two and two together because I was pretty sure it added up to four. I wasn’t entirely positive, but I was fairly certain. If he’d looked at me like I was insane, I would’ve felt stupid and probably started tripping over myself to apologize to him.
But he didn’t. He took his index finger and ran it over his bushy mustache. His mouth twitched. He stared at me.
“Yes, she did,” he finally said.
FORTY SIX
Rex set his feet apart and put his hands on his hips. “Helen and I dated for a couple weeks. Then she dumped me.”
I was acutely aware that we were the only two people in the house, that I was barefoot and without my cellphone. And that he was standing between me and the stairs, something his posture seemed to indicate he was aware of, too.
“She just couldn’t get over, Olaf,” he said, his mouth twitching again. “Everything she did, she just expected him to come running back to her. Which he was never gonna do. Everyone saw that but Helen.”
“Including you?” I asked, looking to buy more time rather than to find out more of the story.
“Including me,” he said, his eyes narrowing. “I tried to tell her that, but she blew me off. I told her he wasn’t coming back and that she needed a real man to take care of her. But she wouldn’t listen. Olaf this, Olaf that.” He made a retching sound. “She couldn’t stop talking about him.” Now he looked like he was going to retch. “It got so old.”
I was looking around for something to defend myself with if I needed to. But I didn’t see anything within arm’s reach.
“So, me being me,” Rex said, annoyance all over his face, “I went to talk to him. To tell him that she was still in love with him and he should give her another chance.” He tapped his index finger against his own chest. “Because’s that’s how much I care about Helen.”
I nodded. “Sure. Of course.”
“So I go to talk to the idiot,” he said, shaking his head. “And he just won’t listen. He’s telling me I’m wasting my time, that I don’t know what I’m talking about, that he’s just trying to move on.” He grimaced. “He had no idea what kind of woman he had in Helen.”
I saw a screwdriver but it was on the other side of the room by the washer.
“He asks me to leave,” Rex continued. “I tell him I’m not leaving until he actually listens to me because he clearly wasn’t. He tells me he’s gonna call the cops if I don’t leave. I tell him that’s fine. We both stand there. And then he grabs me and tries to push me out of his house.” He rubbed at his chin. “Well, Olaf shoulda known I’m stronger than I look.”
I nodded, only half-listening. I knew there was a hammer but it was up in the crawl space. I’d never be able to reach it if he came after me.
“We wrestled a bit and I finally took him to the ground,” Rex explained. “But he whacked his head on the coffee table on the way down to the floor. I knew it was bad.” He stared at me for a long moment. “But it was truly an accident.”
“That’s what it sounds like,” I said, trying to make it sound like I was on his side. “An accident.”
He nodded. “It was. It was.”
“So I’m sure if you just told the police—”
“I knew people wouldn’t see it that way,” he said, ignoring me. “I knew they’d think I’d done it on purpose, on account of how I feel about Helen. No one knew we were dating but it was only just a matter of time. And I knew they’d make me out to be the bad guy.” He stroked his mustache again. “So I had to figure something out.”
I glanced toward the crawl space. Towels. A broom. The cords. Nothing that looked weapon-like.
“So what?” I asked, still stalling for time. “You picked my house?”
His mouth curved upward into an ugly smile. “Well, it wasn’t that easy. But Helen mentioned to me at some point that you and Olaf had dated—”
Jake’s words came back to me. Easy target.
“We didn’t date!” I said.
“—and I remembered inspecting your house and I just figured that if they ever found his body in the chute, they’d look at you as the suspect.” His smile grew. “Which they did.”
Which they did.
“So I brought Olaf over here in the middle of the night,” he said. “The night of the accident. Because it was an accident.”
“I believe you,” I said, unsure of whether I did or not.
“I had him in and down there in about twenty minutes time,” he said. “Pitch black and quiet as a mouse. I knew we were due for snow later that night. Six inches would easily cover my tracks. Easy as pie.”
The thought of Rex or anyone else sneaking into our house in the middle of the night gave me goosebumps. I was going to want an alarm system and iron bars and an armed guard from now on.
If I made it out alive.
“And then you found him,” he said, frowning. “Honestly, I didn’t think you would. That chute has been sealed up for years. Would have made a good crypt if you hadn’t gone nosing around. Olaf could have rested peacefully for years…for eternity, really. But, no. And here we are.”
“Look, Rex,” I said quickly. “I believe you that it was an accident. I believe you. And I’m sure the police will, too. If we just tell them—”
He held up a hand cutting me off.. “Daisy. Please. You and I both know that at this point, there’s no turning back. I hid his body whether it was an accident or not. I’m guilty.” He paused. “But I’m not going to jail.”
I swallowed. Hard. “No?”
He shook his head. “No. Because people will think what they’ve been saying since the day they found his body. When they find you, they’ll just assume you did it and were guilty all along.”
When they find you.
“I saw Helen here earlier,” he said. “I think it’ll be an easy connection for the authorities to make, that you and she had some sort of an argument. Especially when I tell them that I drove by on my way to the hardware store and saw her here. I’m sure I can be a very persuasive witness.”
I thought he was underestimating Detective Hanborn, but that did nothing to calm the panic that was seeping into every vein in my body.
“I’m very sorry, Daisy,” he said, shaking his head. “I like you. I like Jake. But I’m not going to jail. If it’s me or you…then it’s going to be you.”
“Rex, please,” I said, my heart pounding like a jackhammer, my eyes flitting around the space near me, looking desperately for anything that might serve as a weapon. “We can work this out. We can—”
“No!” he yelled, his eyes flaring with anger. “No we can’t! There’s nothing to work out! Helen was too stupid to realize what she had in me. Olaf’s dead and she’ll never forgive me for killing him if she finds out. I have a chance with her now, dammit! So I’m going to make everyone think you did it. That’s what’s going to happen. That’s the only thing that can happen.”
Finally, I spotted something. On the shelf next to the crawl space. A long barrel, barely visible in the filtered light. But could I get to it in time?
Rex saw my eyes dart toward the crawl space and he lunged at me. I screamed and jumped toward the shelf and grabbed my weapon. I turned and swung as hard as I could at his head.
The hair dryer—the
hair dryer that had gotten me into the crawl space in the first place—smashed into his jaw. It disintegrated into about fifty pieces as Rex crashed to the ground with a thud, the bits of plastic and ceramic falling onto his back like puzzle pieces.
I stood there for a moment, my hand shaking, holding onto what was left of the hair dryer.
I looked down.
Rex was out cold at my feet.
FORTY SEVEN
“Why are we having pizza again?” Will asked, grabbing a slice from the box in the middle of the table. “Is this cause Mom beat up that creepy inspector guy today?”
I held up the bottle of beer and tilted it in his direction. “Yes. That’s exactly right.”
I couldn’t believe that just a couple of hours earlier, I’d jumped over Rex’s unconscious body and sprinted up the stairs. I’d locked the basement door behind me and, with shaking hands and eyes blurred from unshed tears, grabbed my cell and called the police. I’d called Jake next and he’d gotten to the house three minutes later, before the police arrived. He’d gone downstairs to stand guard over Rex and I’d stood on the back porch to wait for Detective Hanborn to arrive.
Jake put his around me and raised his own beer bottle. “Your mother handled herself quite nicely today. She was very brave.”
“Yeah, but we need a new hair dryer,” Emily said. “I have to take a shower and dry my hair tonight..”
Grace slapped the table. “You can use one of the Barbie ones in the playroom!”
Emily shot her a disgusted look before turning her eyes back to me. “We can go to the store tonight, right? And get a new one?”
“Sure,” I said. She could have asked me to buy her twenty hair dryers and I probably would have said yes.
“Or I could just not worry about my hair and skip school tomorrow,” Emily said, reaching for another slice of pizza. The cheese slid off and she dangled it above her mouth, dropping it in. “All I’m going to hear about is how my mom beat up the murderer.”