A VENEER OF MURDER (Mrs. Fix It Mysteries Book 3) (11 page)

Kate rose. She wanted to say one last good-bye. “I’ll be right back.”

She stood by Meghan’s coffin. “Good-bye, my friend. I promise I’ll find out who killed you.”

She patted the coffin then went back to where Scott was standing. She went into his arms for a hug. After a moment’s hesitation, probably because he was surprised, he hugged her back. When she let him go, she glanced back at Clem. Kendall had a hand on his shoulder. They were talking quietly. Clearly they knew each other. Why had Kendall denied it?

“Come on. Let’s go get some coffee. I’ve been with you for almost an hour and you haven’t had any. You must be jonesing for it.”

“Chief York, are you contributing to my addiction?”

“Yes, I am. I’m hoping that it’ll score points with you.”

She smiled up at him. “I am jonesing for it.”

“Then let’s go.”

They’d reached his truck. She stopped to look at it. “You aren’t here on official business?”

“No. I’m here for you. I didn’t really know Meghan, and I had to make an appearance, but it was more important that I was here for you.”

The idea warmed her. “Thanks.”

The cops were on the move now, so Kate watched them. They walked up to Clem and put handcuffs on him. He didn’t resist.

“What’s going on, Scott?”

“Let’s move along and I’ll tell you.”

She climbed into his truck. He closed the door. She stared at him as he climbed in the driver’s side.

“He’s been linked to that group out of town. They’ve made terroristic threats. We’ve traced them to him.”

Kate gasped. “So you arrest him on the day he’s burying his sister?”

“We had no choice. We only confirmed the connection this morning. We were waiting on some more information.”

“You were here as backup?”

“Yes and no. I was still here for you.”

She didn’t feel betrayed, but a lesser woman might have felt that way. She looked out the window as the cops walked Clem to a patrol car. Her heart went out to him even if he’d been part of the threats. He was still burying his sister. She didn’t know how close they were since Meghan had never mentioned him.

And what had Kendall known of Meghan? Or Clem, for that matter? She’d disappeared not long after talking to Clem.

“I hate to tell you this, but Meghan was involved in that group in college,” Scott said. He started his truck. “We could find no record of her being a part of it after that.”

At the moment, Kate’s thoughts were on Kendall.

Chapter Nine

With a few hours to kill since she’d taken the day off for Meghan’s funeral, Kate spent another hour cleaning out Greg’s office. She had moved five boxes to the basement and five more would be donated. The man had kept too many things in his office.

Now that the desk was cleared off, she put her laptop on it so she could work. Before she could start, her chair needed to be oiled. Once that was done, she did a search online for Kendall Stuart. Well, Kendall Tully Stuart, as she found out. Somehow Kendall was related to Meghan and Clem.

“Interesting.”

This type of search Kate would have gone to the library for. Meghan would have thought of other ways to look for information on people. She had a good research brain. Kate searched her memory to see if she could come up with other ways to find things out about Kendall.

Her phone rang. Scott. Maybe she could get information out of him.

“Hey,” she said.

“Hi, Katydid. I wanted to check in on you and see how you’re doing.”

“I’m okay. I’m just doing a search on Kendall and Clem.”

“Why?”

“Because some part of me thinks they’re more connected than Kendall lets on.”

Scott cleared his throat. “Haven’t I asked you to stay out of this more than once?”

He wasn’t mad, but there was that sternness to his voice. He might get mad, but she wasn’t going to back down. She had to find out who killed Meghan. The woman had been her friend.

“You know something.”

“I know lots of things, Kate. I know that we are doing everything possible to solve Meghan’s murder. I also know that I don’t like you interfering with a murder investigation.”

Well. He put her in her place. “That’s not stopping me.”

“Please, Katydid. Please don’t. All I’ll say is this is bigger than you think.”

That made her think of the anarchist group camped outside of town. “It has something to do with the group Clem was involved in.”

She’d been looking at the wrong person. Was Meghan killed as a warning to Clem? Was he not towing the line?

“I’m going to go now, Scott.”

“Stop snooping, Kate. Come out to lunch with me at noon.”

“We’ll see.”

She disconnected then turned off her phone so he couldn’t call her back. Sneaky, she knew, but she had to find out about the group. Maybe it wasn’t a coincidence that Meghan was killed while they were in town.

Searching her memory, she came up with the name Scott had told her. Anarchist Freedom Network. She typed that into her search engine. She clicked on the first entry and came to the organization’s website. Wow. At first it looked like a normal business website. That must be the legitimate arm that Scott had talked about. There were pictures of them building homes for the poor and collecting items for disaster relief.

On the surface it all seemed so good. Then she found the other part of the website. The one that espoused their beliefs. This was a group that wanted to overthrow the government. Not for themselves, but to cause anarchy. Hence the name. They didn’t use government handouts…they made loans among themselves.

Except for the violence, they sounded Amish.

Their symbol looked familiar. She had no idea where she’d seen it before. Maybe at Greg’s work. College students tended to be drawn to these radical groups. They wanted to pretend that they were anti-establishment. Meanwhile, they were attending established colleges.

The website made Kate more puzzled. So Clem was part of this. They’d made threats against Founder’s Day. Why Rock Ridge? More importantly, why Meghan?

The key had to be Clem, so Kate looked into his background more. He hadn’t gone to college, but she found a picture of him being arrested for a protest in another part of the state.  How had he gotten involved with them if he wasn’t in college? Seemed to be where they recruited new members.

Kate turned her chair to look out the window at the woods. She didn’t go in them much anymore. She should. They were probably soothing. Her mind needed to sort all of this out. She still thought the group had something to do with Meghan’s death.

Kate had to go talk to Clem. Would Scott let her? Or would Kendall know? She had some link to the anarchist group. Kate had seen the woman with a member, and Kendall had clearly been talking to Clem before his arrest. Could she talk to Kendall about this?

Would Kendall explain things? Or was Kendall part of the problem? Did she know Meghan’s killer?

Kate turned her phone back on. Scott hadn’t left any messages. Good. He wouldn’t be mad. Probably frustrated with her, but not mad.

Her phone rang. It wasn’t Scott, so she answered it.

***

Kate parked her truck at a house that was probably right next to Kendall’s. Both properties had woods behind them and the driveways were near each other, but out in the country the boundaries were less clear.

Kate had driven past where the anarchists were camping. For a second, Kate thought about driving in, but then decided she wasn’t that stupid. No one knew where she was, and if something happened, how quickly would anyone get there? What would she say anyway?

Besides, this new customer had an emergency. Kate knocked on the door of the cute little cottage in the woods. If Kate had picked a house for herself, it would be just like this. Part of her expected a hobbit to answer the door.

Instead, a woman in her thirties opened the door. She was dressed to stay home in sweatpants and a shirt sporting a local baseball team.

“Jenna?”

The woman opened the door wider. “Yes, I’m Jenna. You must be Kate.”

“I am.”

They shook hands. The woman let her inside, closing the door behind her. “My neighbor, Kendall, gave me your number. I hadn’t expected to use you so soon.”

“I didn’t have anything going on this afternoon.”

“Lucky me, then.”

“You want to show me the problem?”

“Well, my washer died and it leaked. I didn’t find it right away, because I just came back from vacation,” Jenna said.

The laundry room was right off the tiny kitchen. Okay, maybe this house was too small for Kate. She liked her kitchen, and it was much bigger than this.

In the laundry room, the washer was gone, but the floor had the remains of the leak. The tile had been pulled off the floor and the subfloor was warped.

“Do you have more tile?” Kate said.

“I do. “She left then brought back a stack. “It was on sale, so we bought a bunch just in case this would happen.”

“I need to tear up the subfloor and then put new plywood down. This stuff is warped. I can give you a price beforehand.”

“Whatever the price is, we’ll pay it. The new washer is coming tomorrow. I need it done.”

“Okay.”

Kate returned with the piece of plywood she’d had in her truck. She’d cut it to the size she needed. She tore up the warped one then put a new one in. Jenna hovered, but Kate pretended not to mind.

“So you’re friends with Kendall?”

She glanced up to see Jenna grimace. “I wouldn’t call us friends. We’re neighbors. Cordial. We don’t run in the same social circles.”

“I see.”

Based on her house and clothing, this woman had taste. Not high-end, but good taste. Kendall was more of a freak show in how she dressed. Kate wasn’t going to say that out loud.

“Kendall has some odd friends.”

“Oh?”

Maybe this woman had information that might be useful.

“Yes, she had people at her house. Didn’t sound like a party, because I can hear when she and her husband have parties. The music goes all night.”

“Not fun.”

“No, it’s not. At least I don’t have kids. Anyway, this wasn’t a party. There were lots of motorcycles and odd people. I think they came from that group that’s camping out this way.”

“I see.”

“And that woman who was just killed was there.”

How did Jenna see all of this? The houses weren’t that close.

“Meghan?”

“Yes, that librarian. She’d been to Kendall’s house, but I don’t think they got along. I once asked Kendall about her. I’m nosy. I’ll admit it. Kendall told me they were cousins.”

“That would explain why she was at the funeral.”

“I didn’t think she liked the woman. Why would she attend her funeral?”

Bad blood between Kendall and Meghan?

“What about Kendall’s brother?”

Might as well ask since the woman was talking.

“Oh, that low life. He scares me. He looks at you as if he knows all of your secrets.”

Kate could agree with that. She suppressed a shudder. “I’m going to make some noise.”

She had to screw in the plywood. Then she laid the tile. “It should be dry by the time the washer gets here tomorrow.”

“Looks like new, or at least like the surrounding tile. Thank you so much.”

Kate gave her a number. Jenna left to write a check. She came back and handed it to Kate. “If you have a few minutes, I have a project I want you to give me an estimate on.”

“I have a few minutes.”

Lunch was still an hour away. She still hadn’t decided if she was eating with Scott or not.

Jenna showed her a picture of a fire pit. It was made with stones and dug into the ground. The paper had all of the supplies she would need. She’d never done stonework, but she’d bet she could do it. She could read up on it first.

Her heart hurt because this was something she would have asked Meghan about. She swallowed the tears that threatened to leak out.

“Can you do it?”

“Yes. I’ll have to do some research and get back to you on the price. I don’t have any idea what the materials will cost.”

“That’s fine. I’m not in a hurry. It’s just something I always wanted and never did anything about. Now that I know someone who can do this stuff, I remembered it.”

“Okay. It’ll take me a day or so.”

“Not a problem.”

Kate headed to Grayson’s Hardware Store. Larry had a few customers, so Kate found her way to what she needed. She tallied what the fire pit would cost her to make. She estimated her time then had a pretty good idea what she wanted to charge Jenna for it.

This was going to take her most of the day to do this project. She’d have to make sure she didn’t schedule anything else, and the payoff had to be worth it.

“A fire pit?” Larry said over her shoulder.

“Yep. New client. She had directions. And she knows what stone she wants.”

“Nice. You are getting very busy, aren’t you?”

“I am.”

“I’m so happy for you, Kate.”

“Hey, I hear you and Carly are doing well.”

“She’s a great lady, Kate. I’m nuts about her.”

“Good. I’m glad. I’m happy for both of you.”

Larry looked at his feet for a moment, blushing. Then he was all business. “I might have a book about fire pits you can borrow.”

“Since the library is closed, I will take you up on that offer. Might be something I can do for other people. Put it on my website.” She had just recently created one.

“I saw your website. Moving up in the world.”

“Yes, I guess I am.”

The front door jangled. Larry left to attend to the customer. Kate double-checked her numbers then took off.

She decided to have lunch with Scott.

“I’ve seen you a lot today,” Scott said. “That isn’t a complaint.”

“I guess you have. You’re my only friend free for lunch.”

“Ouch.”

She laughed. “I did some snooping. I know you don’t want me to, but I think Kendall and Clem are involved in Meghan’s death.”

“Kate.”

She shrugged. “Okay I’ll pretend I didn’t snoop.”

Chapter Ten