Unexpected Sparks

by Gina Dartt

  Each room contained only a few random pieces of furniture, and Kate could tell that the most expensive and highest-quality items had been at the auction. These pieces, primarily individual chairs, bedsteads, and bureaus with depressingly bare drawers, hadn’t been worth the crating and shipping charges. Occasional tables, along with several odd little curios, filled spare corners and made the long halls seem emptier than if there had been no furniture at all. Kate noticed a significant number of bedrooms with attached bathrooms. Unquestionably, Rushton had been planning to turn the house into a hotel of some kind.

  Only when they returned to the ground floor and the library did they find anything worth the drive out. A large, heavy desk dominated the area in front of French doors that led out into what might have been a garden, but was presently a snow-covered square bordered by a three-foot cast-iron fence. Examining the furniture, they discovered that the two drawers on the right side were locked.

  “Odd. Why lock the drawers?” Kate murmured when Nikki drew her attention to them. “If the furniture comes with the house, then it doesn’t make sense to make it inaccessible to a buyer who might want to look at it.”

  “It’s a nice desk. Why leave it here at all?”

  Kate reexamined it. “You’re right. The rest of the pieces were mediocre, at best. This is a real antique, worth more than all the rest combined.”

  “You know a lot about antiques?”

  “You should see what I have in the top two floors of my building. I keep some of the smaller pieces in my apartment but store most of the furniture my parents left me upstairs. I keep meaning to sell it, but a part of me wants to keep it in case I ever buy another house. I suppose if the bookstore goes under, I can always open an antique shop.”

  Kate attempted to open the single remaining drawer that ran along the underside of the desk, but had difficulty. It wasn’t locked, but it slid open only about an inch. “It’s jammed. There must be too much moisture in the house, and it swelled the runners.” She hated to see nice things neglected.

  Nikki ducked underneath, looking at the desk from below. “That’s not why it isn’t opening,” she said, a touch of excitement in her voice. “There’s an envelope taped here.” She glanced back over her shoulder at Kate, her features entreating. “Dare we open it?”

  Intrigued, Kate knelt beside her, looking at the small, letter-size envelope taped to the side of the desk near the back, its corner obstructing the runner. “What made you think of looking here?”

  “Too many mysteries.” Nikki’s eyes were bright. “Shall we?”

  Kate inhaled quickly. She realized a part of her had never really expected to find anything in the house. She had only suggested the excursion as an excuse to spend more time with Nikki. But now she would have to decide just how far she was prepared to go with this adventure. “This is private property. Obviously whoever put that there didn’t want just anyone to handle it.”

  “Don’t you want to know what’s inside?” Nikki urged.

  Kate hesitated and then nodded. “Of course,” she said, amazed at her strong desire to take this situation to the absolute limit. “But that still doesn’t give us the right to poke around.”

  “We’re talking arson and murder. It might not have anything to do with this crime, but what if it does? What if this is the vital clue which brings a killer to justice?”

  “Now you’re just being melodramatic.”

  Nikki grinned. “I watch mysteries on television, too. All kidding aside, I can get it off and put it back without anyone ever knowing. We came all the way out here for this. Where’s the harm?”

  “Fine,” Kate said, wondering if she would regret her decision later. “Let’s do it.”

  Chapter Twelve

  Nikki carefully pried the tape along one side of the envelope, using the jackknife that she always carried in her pocket. Kate had eyed the blade briefly when Nikki brought it out but didn’t comment as she set to work. With a little more effort, she peeled back the tape, and the heavy envelope fell down and dangled from the tape along the other side.

  “If it’s sealed, we’re not opening it,” Kate said. “There are laws about this sort of thing.”

  “I know.” Nikki wasn’t as fanatic as her companion apparently was about this sort of thing, but she did respect other people’s property. If it hadn’t involved a possible murder, she wouldn’t even be attempting this. “It isn’t sealed. The flap is just tucked into the envelope.” She slid her fingers into the opening and discovered a hard lump. Capturing it between her fingertips, she drew it out. “It’s a key!” She glanced back at Kate, who was peering over her shoulder. “I bet it opens those drawers.”

  Kate looked disturbed. “Do we have the right to go digging around in there?”

  “Probably not. But since we’ve come this far, why stop now?”

  Kate frowned but didn’t say anything else, moving back as Nikki crawled from beneath the desk.

  Nikki was almost dizzy with excitement as she eased the key into the lock on the top drawer and sighed with relief and anticipation as it slipped in easily. She turned it, heard the click, then wrapped her fingers around the handle and pulled it open, her heart pounding with suspense. She could feel Kate’s body brush against her back as she leaned over her from behind.

  Lying on the bottom were two paper clips and a dust bunny the size of a golf ball.

  “Shit,” Nikki said before she could stop herself.

  Kate snorted laughter and, responding to her amusement, Nikki started to laugh as well, relaxing with the release of tension and at the absurdity of their discovery.

  “That was rather anticlimactic.”

  “No kidding,” Nikki said, feeling quite the opposite about Kate’s nearness. Shaking her head, she slid the drawer shut and locked it again. Almost as an afterthought, she tried the key on the other drawer that was much smaller than the top one. “Nothing in here either.”

  “Well, it was fun while it lasted.”

  Disappointed, Nikki started to slide it shut when Kate put a hand on her arm. “Wait,” she said, staring intently at the drawer.

  Nikki was confused. “What?”

  “The interior isn’t big enough.”

  Nikki looked back, wondering what she was talking about, and then abruptly understood. “That’s right,” she said, her excitement rising a little. “It’s too shallow.”

  “It might have a false bottom.”

  Nikki pulled out her jackknife again and slipped the tip against the small depression in the joint where the bottom met the front of the drawer. It came up easily, and she held her breath as she extracted the panel. Beneath lay a file folder and a handgun. Nikki supposed if she were a real detective, or one of those characters in the mysteries she enjoyed, she would have been able to identify the make and model of the weapon. As an abortive graduate from a fly-by-night computer college, all she could note was the way the light glinted on the blue metal, ugly in its implication.

  “Oh my God,” Kate said.

  Nikki clenched her jaw. “I heard that Sam had a bullet hole right between the eyes.”

  “That doesn’t mean it came from this gun. You saw for yourself that no one’s been up to the house for a while. Certainly not since Wednesday night.”

  “Are you sure? That was a hell of a blizzard that night, and it’s snowed twice since then. It could have covered up any tracks.”

  “You could be right.”

  Nikki picked up the file folders and put them on the desk. Opening the first one, she glanced down at the papers inside, unsure what she was looking at. “What is this?”

  Kate, obviously reluctant to go further but not quite willing to stop just yet, scanned the first sheet, then a few more, her eyes dark as she read them. “Contracts,” she identified. “Papers for a company called Mosaic Estates, invoices, itemized lists of supplies for this house...” She suddenly pointed at the bottom of one page. Her face tightened, the lines around her mouth and eyes growing dee
per. “Here’s your connection in black-and-white.”

  She tapped her finger on the lines at the bottom of the page, and Nikki bent slightly as she tried to decipher the signatures. “Katherine Rushton and Sam Madison both signed this. According to this date, they’ve known each other for awhile.”

  “No mere flavor of the month, our Miss Rushton.” Kate flipped through a few more pages, her frown growing deeper with each one. “They weren’t necessarily lovers, Nikki. They were business partners. And according to what I’m seeing here, the business wasn’t exactly on the up-and-up.”

  Nikki raised her eyes to meet Kate’s. “Money, not passion.” She felt dizzy. Suddenly, this was no longer a game, no fun excursion to occupy her time and grant her the opportunity to become closer to Kate. They could be looking at a motive for a murder here, as well as discovering the identity of the killer. “What should we do?”

  Kate straightened the papers and closed the folder. “We put this back. We replace the key, go back to town, and then I call Rick Johnson and tell him that I heard that Rushton and Madison were in business together and that he might want to look into it. If it’s necessary, I’ll tell him what I found here.”

  “What we found.”

  Kate started to respond, then her face gentled. “There’s no need for you to even be involved, Nikki. I’m the one who borrowed the key from Paulo Realties—”

  “I’m not a child. Don’t presume to make decisions for me. Or are you just embarrassed at the thought of him knowing you were alone up here with a lesbian?”

  Kate’s eyes shaded to gray before her mouth turned down. “That’s not it at all.” Her tone was unnaturally even.

  Anger dissipating as soon as it appeared, and keenly regretting what she had said, Nikki exhaled slowly. “I’m sorry.” She glanced at Kate. “I’m a little scared suddenly, and it’s making me say stupid things.”

  Kate studied her. “All right,” she said, her voice devoid of inflection.

  As Nikki carefully placed the folder in the drawer and picked up the panel, fitting it back into its spot, she felt miserable, knowing that she had overreacted to Kate’s honest attempt to shield her. She wanted Kate to admire her, to think highly of her, not regard her as some stupid kid messing around with things that didn’t really concern her. “Why do you suppose Rushton leaves this stuff here?” she asked, needing to break the silence that had fallen between them.

  “She probably believes that no one would be here who isn’t supposed to be. If a client’s interested in the property, then James would call her to let her know he’s showing the house on such and such a date. In that event, she’d have plenty of time to get up here and remove anything she wanted.”

  “So as a result, all the evidence linking her to Sam is tucked away here instead of in her condo in the event that it was searched. Clever.”

  “Rick wouldn’t necessarily be able to get these papers from her,” Kate said. “Not unless he had proof a crime had been committed.”

  “But he wouldn’t know about the gun.”

  Kate bent down, slipping the key back in the envelope and replacing it beneath the desk, pressing against it in order to make the tape stick. “No, he wouldn’t know about the gun,” she said as she straightened. “Which is why I may have to tell him that I…we…were up here.”

  “If that’s what we have to do, then we’ll do it. He’ll probably lecture me about ‘playing detective.’”

  “You say that like he’s done it before.”

  “He has.” Nikki shut up as they left the library and headed for the foyer, aware of Kate’s curious look but not about to satisfy it. It had been an embarrassing incident, and she rather hoped he had forgotten all about it. She had only been sixteen, after all. “Should we check the rest of the house?”

  “I think we have all our answers. Besides, I’m starting to get cold.”

  Startled, Nikki looked at her, abruptly aware of Kate’s discomfort and ashamed she hadn’t noticed it earlier. “Your jeans got wet when you fell in the drift.” The jeans had dried somewhat, but they still looked damp. “You should have said something.”

  “I’ll warm up once I’m back in the truck.” Kate removed her slippers and pulled on her boots.

  Nikki tucked the slippers in her coat pocket as they made their way back to the SUV, finding it a great deal easier on the return journey than they had in breaking the path to the front door. Inside, she looked at Kate as she started the vehicle, surprising herself when she reached over and covered the hand on the steering wheel. “I’m really sorry about what I said in there,” she said. “It was stupid and childish. I just...I react badly when other people decide things that are supposedly for my own good whether I have a say in them or not.”

  Kate didn’t turn her head, just looked straight ahead through the windshield. “Someone must have hurt you a lot at one time, didn’t they?”

  Startled, Nikki immediately took her hand away and moved back to her side of the vehicle, crossing her arms over her chest. Her withdrawal was so abrupt that even she was aware of how blatant it was, and she flushed hotly. “I guess you could say that.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  Nikki glanced out the window, taking measured breaths. “So am I.”

  Kate started the truck.

  Taking hold of the brace on the door, Nikki gripped it tightly as Kate eased the truck around, making even more tracks in the whiteness. Anyone could certainly tell they had been there, she noted as she glanced back at the churned-up snow.

  Kate seemed more confident in the drive down the lane. Perhaps a little too confident. As they neared the bottom turn, the SUV was moving faster than it should have been. Nikki felt it lurch beneath her and watched Kate twist the wheel to no avail as the vehicle slid gracefully into the bank on the corner as if in slow motion, the wheels spinning in place while she attempted to drive out of it. “Damn,” Kate muttered. Even the curse sounded elegant in that husky voice. “I think we’re stuck.”

  “Seems to be a recurring theme with you today.”

  Kate shot Nikki an arch look. “Cute. We’ll try digging ourselves out before I call for a tow.”

  “You should stay in the truck where it’s warm.” Nikki opened her door. “Your jeans are almost dry, and it won’t do to get them wet again. My ski pants are much better in this stuff.”

  “I guess I should have dressed better,” Kate said, but she remained where she was as Nikki walked toward the rear of the vehicle.

  Pleased that Kate had listened to her, Nikki retrieved a shovel from the rear and evaluated the situation, trying to figure out the best place to start digging. She discovered that she wanted to take care of Kate, and the fact that Kate would allow it, even this much, warmed her heart. She tackled the snow at the front of the truck with enthusiasm, lifting with her legs, throwing it in front of her, just as her dad had taught her on the farm. She cleared a path back onto the lane and then stood off to the side as she motioned Kate to try it.

  It took a little rocking, but once the SUV had forward momentum, Kate was able to extricate it, and Nikki waved her onward rather than let it stop and possibly become stuck again. As she jogged down the lane in its wake, she spotted a car pull into the end of the driveway, blocking Kate’s exit onto the road. Seeing the woman get out and glare at Kate, she somehow knew this was the mysterious Katherine Rushton.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Kate barely managed to stop in time to avoid colliding with the car pulling to a stop at the end of the lane. She shifted into park and watched curiously as a statuesque woman got out of a dark sedan and slammed the door behind her. Kate narrowed her eyes as she realized the vehicle seemed somewhat familiar to her...and where she might have seen it before.

  “What are you doing here?” the woman demanded in a shrill tone as she stomped toward the truck, though it was difficult to stomp effectively when one was in grave danger of going ass over teakettle at any given second.

  Kate rolled down her window
even though the antagonistic tone immediately put her on guard, as did the memory of that deadly little weapon tucked away in the desk drawer. Kate felt her indomitable composure take control. “Who are you?”

  “I own this place. I’m Katherine Rushton. And you’re trespassing.”

  Kate placed her hands on her hips. “Miss Rushton, I’m Kate Shannon, the owner of Novel Companions on Prince. I was interested in looking over your property. I’m sure James Stanton told you I’d be by to check it out.”

  Clearly taken aback by Kate’s assumption of having every right to be there, Rushton paused, her outrage seemingly blunted.

  Kate assessed her dispassionately, noting the expensive cut of her clothing, the polished finish to her makeup and light brown hair, the faint artificialness of her cheeks, nose, and jaw that suggested plastic surgery. The telltale signs around the eyes indicated that she was a little older than she appeared to casual inspection, and she was obviously very used to money and what it could buy. For all that, however, she seemed to possess very little natural mien...or was far more agitated about something than she should be displaying, particularly if she wanted to hide it.

  “No, he didn’t,” Rushton said, her tone lowering, becoming more controlled as she seemed to finally take a good look at Kate. She kept shooting glances at the house, as if to make sure it was still there. “Why didn’t you wait until the lane was cleared?”

  Kate shrugged. “My vehicle is capable of going most places,” she said in a carefully calculated tone of boredom. “I had the time free to look at it today, which wouldn’t be the case Monday. James couldn’t arrange for the plow this quickly.”

  “Didn’t Stanton come out here with you?”

  “I don’t require assistance,” Kate responded with a touch of patronizing aplomb. “After all, I was married to the owner of Shannon Realties for ten years, so there’s very little that I can’t figure out for myself when assessing a property.”