Mrs. Fix It Mysteries (5 Cozy Mystery Books Collection)

by Belle Knudson

  Kate punched the digits for Jessica’s phone. She once again heard it ring inside the house. She considered trying to get in. Jessica could have fallen; maybe she was injured.

  Kate jogged back over to Scott’s house. He was just leaving for work.

  “I’m concerned. Jessica didn’t pick up her paper this morning. Her cell is still in her house. What if something happened to her?”

  “I’ll have patrol do a well-being check this morning.”

  “I want to see if I can get in,” Kate said.

  She had a bad feeling about all of this. Jessica had never been this flighty. Kate had always found the woman to be responsible. Not that she owed Kate any explanations.

  “Don’t break in, Kate. I’ll call dispatch now.” He called as she waited. “They are sending a car over right now.”

  “I’ll wait then,” she said.

  “I’ll wait with you.”

  Her phone rang. “It’s Dean. I called him yesterday.”

  “Kate?” Dean said.

  “Yes.”

  “Sorry, I didn’t call you back. My phone died and I didn’t have my charger with me, so I didn’t see that you called. I can’t get ahold of Jessica. She isn’t answering her phone.”

  “Her cell phone is inside her house, but she isn’t answering the door.”

  “I’ll be there in five minutes.”

  “The cops are doing a well-being check. I’ll be here,” Kate said.

  They disconnected. “Dean is on his way,” she told Scott, who grimaced. “You can’t keep him away.”

  “I know. He has more of a right to Jessica’s house than I do. Maybe he has a key.”

  “I know where their hide-a-key is. Although, if we have to break in, at least I can fix it.”

  Scott chuckled. A patrol car parked in front of Jessica’s house. Scott went to greet them. Kate tagged along. She helped them look into the windows, but no one saw anything.

  “We can’t break in, Kate. She’s a grown woman.”

  Kate saw Dean’s truck pull into the driveway. “Did you find her?”

  “No, we haven’t. Would you have a key?” Kate said.

  “No, I don’t. I’ve never met Jessica here. She’s been staying with me since Dudley died.”

  Kate didn’t comment. She didn’t blame Jessica. Why not stay with the man who loves you? “The fact that you don’t know where she is concerns me.”

  “Still, I don’t think we can legally break in, Kate.”

  “I’ll do it,” Dean said. “I doubt she’d press charges against me.”

  He wasn’t wrong on that issue. He turned to Kate. “I don’t have any tools with me. You have a hammer?”

  “Hold on.” She walked to the hiding spot and breathed a sigh of relief when she found the hide-a-key. She returned with it and handed it to Dean, who then used it to unlock the front door.

  “Stay out here, Kate,” Scott said.

  Kate glared at him, but waited on the driveway. They came out looking grim about a half an hour later. She’d paced a trail in the driveway while waiting for them.

  “She isn’t inside,” Scott said. “There are coffee cups on the counter as if she left in a hurry.” He looked at Dean. “Can you come to the station to fill out a missing persons report?”

  “I can and I will. I’m very worried now.”

  “Did she say she was meeting anyone?” Kate asked.

  “Kate,” Scott warned.

  She glared at him again. “Just asking.”

  “I’ll have to think about it,” Dean said. “I know she was meeting someone, but I cannot remember who. It didn’t seem significant to me.”

  “I was supposed to meet her yesterday. Could it have been me?” Kate said.

  “No, it was someone else. It’ll come to me.”

  Kate’s phone rang. It was Carly. “Hello?”

  “Hey, Kate. I have a small emergency. Can you come fix something?”

  “Sure. What is it?”

  “It’s some shelves I had in the storeroom.”

  “Okay. I’ll be there in ten,” Kate said. “I have to go, but keep me updated please?”

  Dean nodded.

  Chapter Twelve

  When Kate arrived at Carly’s shop, her mother, Celia, was there. The tension was palpable as Celia chattered away.

  “Oh, hello, Kate,” Celia said.

  Kate was eager to escape to the storeroom so she could do her repair and then get back to looking for Jessica. She knew the woman had to be in trouble. She had to find her. Someone had to find her. “Hello, everyone. I’ll just get to those shelves.”

  “Coffee?” Carly said.

  She clearly didn’t want to be alone with her mother any longer. Kate had briefly considered setting Carly up with Larry. Maybe then the older woman would leave her daughter alone.

  “Uh, okay, but I’m going to bring it back with me.”

  Carly glared at her, but Kate had to get to work. She had to make a living, and looking for Jessica had taken enough of her time today.

  Kate took her mug back to the storeroom. Carly appeared in the doorway. “Save me,” she whispered.

  “She’s your mother.”

  Kate didn’t have much sympathy. She wished her own mother were here. There were so many times when the boys were younger that she could have used her advice.

  “Kate?” Celia said behind Carly.

  “Yes?” Kate said.

  Carly escaped, leaving the two alone, but Celia didn’t bother Kate the way she bothered her own daughter.

  “Did you know that Beth from the newspaper and Jessica were friends?”

  “I didn’t know that. Why do you ask?”

  “I saw them driving out of town yesterday in Jessica’s car,” Celia said.

  Kate gave the woman her full attention. “When?”

  “Oh, in the morning. Say nine or so.”

  That would have been right after Jessica had called her. It occurred to Kate that Beth may have been the female in Dudley’s office.

  “I’ve been looking for Jessica. Now I know where she is…or at least who she is with.” Kate walked out to the front of the shop. “Carly, I’ll be back.”

  She left them with their mouths open. Kate called Scott.

  “Kate?”

  “I just talked to Celia. She saw Beth Chance from the Sentinel and Jessica driving out of town yesterday in Jessica’s car.”

  “Hold on. Dean’s here. Let me put you on speaker.”

  “Celia said she saw them?” Dean asked. “Dudley had a hunting cabin outside of town.”

  “That could be where they were going,” Kate said. “Let’s go find them. Beth could be your mystery woman.”

  “Kate,” Scott said in a stern voice. “You stay put. I’ll go out there with a patrol car and alert the state troopers.”

  “Sure.” Like that is going to happen. “How will you get in? I have tools.”

  Dean spoke up. “I have a key. It’s where Jessica and I used to meet.”

  Kate didn’t know what to say to that. “Okay. Fine. You don’t need me.”

  She disconnected the call. Kate waited until she saw Dean’s truck go by, and she followed him out of town and into a hillier region. Her little truck was no match for his large one, but she kept him in sight. She hoped that Scott wouldn’t catch up before they arrived.

  The log cabin was set back from the road by almost a mile. Kate’s truck bounced her around as it went over the rutted, dirt road. She stopped a little before the clearing and pulled her truck off to the side. Scott would see it, but she didn’t care at this point. Jessica’s red Mercedes was parked in front of the cabin.

  She knew that Beth hadn’t killed Dudley with a gun. Besides, Kate outweighed her—she could take her.

  Dean was already creeping up to the front door when Kate joined him.

  “I thought Scott told you to stay out of this,” he whispered.

  “Scott isn’t my boss.”

  Dean just shoo
k his head. They crept to the front window which was opened. Jessica was tied to a chair.

  “You had to meddle,” Beth said. “You couldn’t leave it alone. The cops were going to charge that contractor with murder.”

  “Why’d you do it?”

  Beth stopped pacing. “I didn’t mean to kill him.”

  “Why were you there?”

  “I wanted to confront him with the evidence I’d found. He wasn’t giving the contracts to the lowest bidder. He was awarding them to his favorites—his cronies.”

  Kate and Dean looked at each other. Behind them, they heard a curse. Kate turned to see Scott pointing at her and motioning her away from the cabin. He was probably right. This wasn’t her place, but Dean was a civilian also.

  “Then how did he die?”

  “He got angry with me. He threatened me and tried to hurt me. I only defended myself by Tasering him,” Beth said.

  Kate gasped. Beth must have heard her because she looked toward the window. Dean and Kate ducked. Scott signaled for the patrolmen that had arrived to go around back. He grabbed Kate and pulled her close to him. “Go back to your truck. Get out of here.”

  She nodded, and then she and Dean walked away. She hoped that Beth was no longer looking out the window.

  Kate waited by Dean’s truck. He fidgeted and she wondered what was going through his mind. She didn’t think that Beth would have a chance to harm Jessica.

  “What will I do if something happens to her?” Dean said.

  “She’s going to be fine, Dean. Scott will take care of it.”

  “You have a lot of faith in him,” Dean said.

  “Yes, I do. I’ve seen him do what he says he will. He’s never let anyone down as far as I can tell.”

  Dean tapped the side of the truck. He couldn’t seem to stand still. A few minutes later there was a yell. Dean and Kate crept closer to the house. A patrolman was pulling Beth out of the house. She had handcuffs on.

  “I think it’s okay,” Kate said, but Dean was already running toward the house.

  Jessica appeared on the porch and Dean took her in his arms. She wasn’t sure that Greg would be that excited to see her if they met again. Before he left she hadn’t had these doubts, but now she did. The longer he was gone, the more she questioned their relationship. Maybe she’d been wearing rose-colored glasses all that time.

  Kate walked up to the house after the patrol car left. Scott stood on the porch.

  “I’ll need a statement,” Scott said, “but it can wait until later in the day.”

  Dean nodded. “I’m going to take her home to my house. We’ll be by later.”

  Jessica looked shaken but happy to be with Dean. He walked her to his truck, his arm over her shoulder. Kate was glad that the woman had someone who loved her that much.

  “She’ll be okay,” Scott said.

  He put a hand on Kate’s shoulder. It felt comforting. She felt safe. Something she hadn’t felt since Greg left. She patted his hand. “She will be and that’s good. Did you hear what Beth said? It was an accident.”

  “She should have come forward.”

  “It would have been her word only,” Kate said. “She’s young.”

  “But now she has the added charge of kidnapping,” Scott said.

  ***

  Kate met Scott for breakfast the next morning. While they ate muffins and drank coffee at Bean There, Larry walked in with Carly.

  Scott looked at Kate. “Is that your doing?”

  “I might have made a suggestion to Larry.”

  “You insist that you aren’t nosy, but you are,” Scott said.

  “I like to take care of people. That’s all.”

  “I get that. Maybe I need some taking care of.”

  She put up her hand. “You know how I feel. We’re friends for now.”

  “And when I find your husband? Will you keep me in the friend zone?”

  “We’ll see.”

  She wasn’t making any commitments. Before she could change the subject, Dean and Jessica walked in. Jessica made a beeline for Kate.

  “Oh, Kate. I have the estimate signed. And I’ve prioritized what I want done.” She dropped a key on the table. “I’m moving into Dean’s place, so I won’t be at the house much. Just tell me when you complete each task and I’ll pay you.”

  Kate looked at the key then palmed it. “Okay.”

  “Good. Hello, Scott. Didn’t mean to ignore you.”

  He smiled. “No offense taken.”

  He seemed more amused than anything. Jessica went back to Dean.

  “How is your disposal working?”

  “Like new. Thanks.”

  “Good.”

  “So Jessica is going to put her house on the market?”

  “Yes, as soon as I’m done. I think she’s ready to be out of that house. Dudley had horrific taste in decorating.”

  “I don’t understand men who feel they need to dominate women,” Scott said. “I don’t have the energy to do that. I want a partner.”

  Kate sipped her coffee, not sure how to answer that. If Scott was auditioning, he was doing a good job. She wanted a partner also.

  “Kate, don’t fret about the passport until we know for sure what his visits were about.”

  Sometimes she would swear Scott was able to see inside her mind. She found it uncanny that he could figure out what she was thinking. As if he was on the same wavelength or something. Greg had always treated her as if she were a foreign object. He’d never understood her.

  She had to stop comparing the men. It wasn’t fair to either of them.

  “We got a confession out of Beth.”

  “Oh?”

  Now this was more interesting.

  “She was confronting Dudley about what she’d found with the contracts. He’d tried to harm her, so she pulled out her Taser weapon. She had no idea that he had a heart condition.”

  “So not premeditated.”

  “No, she’s been charged with murder two,” Scott said.

  “Really sad to see a young life ruined like that.”

  “If she had just come to us then we could have helped her. And she was the one who backed into the utility pole causing the power outage. She was rattled and wasn’t paying attention.”

  “That would explain the dent in her car. I knew it wasn’t from running into a concrete barrier like she’d said. It had metal flecks in it. I didn’t make the connection because the new pole they put up was made of fiberglass.”

  “She lucked out when the recordings were ruined.”

  “What had Jessica found?”

  “She found an appointment in Dudley’s book to meet Beth. She called Beth, who came over, and then when she figured out that Jessica knew something, she kidnapped her. She was going to kill her then dump the body.”

  Kate shuddered. “How awful.”

  “But it’s done. And now you can get on with your steady work at Jessica’s house.”

  “True. That means I can get my truck fixed, too.”

  At least it all worked out okay. Jessica had Dean. Larry had Carly. Kate glanced over at them. They didn’t know that anyone else was in the room. It made Kate happy. Now if she could just figure out where her husband was, she, too, could get on with her life.

  ~~~

  A VENEER OF MURDER

  Chapter One

  Kate Flaherty looked around the wedding reception and wondered when it would be polite to leave. Though she was an extrovert at heart, she still liked to be by herself sometimes. Dean and Jessica Wentworth were about to cut the cake, and Kate figured she could leave after that.

  The ceremony had been beautiful. If Kate knew where her missing husband was—and why he’d disappeared—she might be in a mood to reminisce about their wedding. However, as she discovered more about the man, she wasn’t sure that her wedding, or her marriage, were nearly as happy as she’d thought.

  She wished Scott York, her friend and the chief of police, was here. At least she’d
have someone to talk to. And someone to fend off the drunken divorced man who had been keeping an eye on her all night.

  He hadn’t been invited because Dean, the groom, had been the reason Scott’s marriage had ended in divorce. When the woman wound up dead, Dean decided to settle in Rock Ridge where he met Jessica.

  Now they were married and heading off for a short weekend honeymoon with a bigger trip planned for later on in the year.

  Kate sighed heavily. It wasn’t that she didn’t like happy endings, but she was ambivalent until she could sort out her own life. She hoped to find her husband soon, or reach the point where she could file for divorce or declare him legally dead, but it seemed neither option was going to happen anytime soon.

  Carly, Kate’s best friend, and Larry, her new beau, were just coming off the dance floor so it could be cleared for the cake. Kate shifted her gaze to Jessica, looking beautiful in an off-white gown. Kate felt as though she should know what it was made of, but she was not a girly girl. No, she was a handywoman who spent most of her time in overalls or coveralls.

  Jessica fed Dean first and was nice. She didn’t shove it in his face. It was Dean’s turn next. He put a touch of icing on her nose and licked it off. Get a room. Kate chuckled as the rest of the crowd groaned.

  Meghan Tully, the town librarian, sat down next to Kate. “I’m in the process of inputting all of the books into the new computer system. I came across something you might be interested in.”

  “Oh?”

  Kate had taken out every home improvement book she could to learn more about fixing things for her handyman business. Her next expansion involved home staging. She was learning how to stage a house to get the maximum price for it. Meghan had been an invaluable resource for her.

  They’d also become friends, having dinner every few weeks. Carly had been scarce lately, but Kate couldn’t blame her. She was in love.

  “I don’t want to say anything here.”

  “Is it a new book for me to take out?” Kate said. She was eager to learn more about fixing household items. She had recently learned to fix toasters which made many people happy. No one wanted to throw away the one they had because they worked so well. Newer toasters were crap.