“Demise?”
“You know what I mean.”
“Daisy.”
“I don’t go to the library every day,” I reminded him. “She couldn’t have known I’d be there. So she had to have followed me there.”
“Daisy,” he repeated, firmer this time.
“Which means she was probably watching me for, I don’t know, a week,” I said. “Maybe a month. Who knows how long?”
Jake clamped a hand over my mouth. I shifted my eyes so I could see him.
“Stop,” he said, his eyes widening. “I know that getting carried away is your thing, but don’t do it. We don’t know anything and before you let this thing snowball, think about how the kids will react if they start hearing talk like that. They’ll freak.” He gave me a stern look. “So stop.”
I lifted his hand off my mouth. “I almost bit you.”
He snuggled up next to me and nuzzled my ear. “Keep talking dirty to me.”
I made a face and tried to be mad at him, but failed. “You are very lucky.”
“Why’s that?” he asked, his hand trailing lightly across my stomach.
I sucked in my breath and pressed into his touch. “Because even when I’m sure I’m being stalked by a psychopath, I will still have sex with you.”
FIFTEEN
“Body’s not still here, is it?” Rex the Inspector asked the next morning, chuckling. “Never found one of those during an inspection and I’d like to keep my record intact.”
I’d woken early, sleep coming in fits and starts as I thought about Olaf and Helen. I couldn’t clear my head and the minute it was six o’clock, I stumbled downstairs for coffee. Emily’s alarm went off a half hour later and I visited with her while she bustled in the kitchen, getting her breakfast and making her lunch before darting out the door for school. I’d hopped in the shower shortly afterward so that I’d be ready for my day and for our early morning meeting with Rex Freeman.
He’d shown up promptly at eight and, after shaking hands with Jake, immediately started making dead body jokes that weren’t very funny.
“It’s gone,” Jake assured him.
He held up his to-go mug in my direction. “Hello, Daisy.”
I nodded at him.
“Yeah, I drove by yesterday and saw all the commotion,” Rex said, leaning against the kitchen counter. “I’d heard about it the day before.” He took a sip from the coffee and then wiped at his bristly mustache. “You all are pretty popular in town right about now, don’t you know.”
“Oh, we know,” Jake said, glancing at me. “We know.”
Rex shrugged off his heavy work jacket and stood on the toes of his work boots to hang it on the coat rack. He was a short, compact man with coppery colored hair and a mustache that was big enough to sweep the kitchen floor. And I’d never seen him without coffee.
“They tell you anything about the guy they found?” Rex asked, raising a bushy eyebrow.
Jake shook his head. “Nothing, really. I think they were just as stumped as we were.”
Rex glanced in my direction. I thought he was going to say something, but he seemed to bite off his words. Maybe it was because of the death glare I shot at him. I don’t know.
“Can’t wait to take a look at that chute,” he said, downing another mouthful of coffee. “It’s a chute, right? That’s what I heard.”
Jake nodded. “Yep.”
Rex’s mouth twisted. “Can’t believe I missed that.” He shook his head in disbelief.
“Me, either,” I mumbled.
“It was hard to see,” Jake said, cutting his eyes in my direction, a silent signal to tell me to behave.
“How big is it?” Rex asked.
Jake described it for him.
Rex’s mouth twisted a little more and his mustache quivered. “I just normally look for areas that might be a problem and that crawl space…I remember shining my light in there, but there was no electrical or anything to be concerned about. If I’d seen anything like that or moisture from the outside wall, I’d have gone up in there.”
I wanted to ask about the pipe located up there, the one that had frozen and been the catalyst for finding the coal chute and the body stuffed inside of it. Why hadn’t he looked at that? He’d been pretty thorough in the other areas of the house. Or at least I thought he had, considering the length of the inspection report.
“Anyway, I was more worried about your attic, which is why I went up there.” He shook his head. “I’m real sorry about that.”
And now I felt bad for my comment. He’d heard some squeaking noises on the day of the inspection and had lifted the access panel to the attic to investigate. He’d hoisted himself up there and had found a massive squirrel’s nest tucked in the corner of the eaves. But he’d also put his foot through the ceiling, raining down a mess of plaster and dust into the girls’ bedroom and spraining his ankle. Jake had practically carried him to his truck afterward.
“Don’t sweat it,” Jake said, shrugging. “We didn’t know it was there, either. But I am worried about the pipes down there. Can we take a look?”
Rex nodded and followed Jake down the narrow stairs into the basement. I thought for a moment about following them, but decided against it. I needed to get my mind off Olaf, the coal chute and all of the havoc it had brought to our lives over the last few days.
So I roused the kids from bed, made them a quick breakfast and sent them back upstairs to make their beds and get dressed when Jake and Rex returned to the kitchen.
“And what do we know now?” I asked, sticking the dishes in the sink.
“Well, it’s gonna be hard to get heat in that space,” Rex said, scratching his head. “And that’s what you need to keep those pipes from freezing. That outside wall?” He let out a low whistle. “Cold as ice. Told your husband, about the only way to keep that area warm is to install some ductwork.”
“Okay,” I said.
Jake sighed. “Which is expensive.”
“Like college-for-all-four-kids expensive?”
“Not quite,” he said, a small smile forming on his lips. “But close.”
“Ah.”
Rex nodded in agreement. “It is. Unfortunately, it would probably mean some structural work, too. Would be fairly involved. But I’m not sure how else to warm that space. Other fixes are only gonna be temporary.”
I turned the tap on and adjusted it so the water ran hot. “So I guess the hairdryer is out?”
Rex laughed. “Well, it’ll work in a pinch, but, no, I’m afraid you might need to do something else to permanently fix it.” He set his coffee down and pulled his phone out of the pocket of his jeans. “Told Jake I’d give you the name of an HVAC guy I know who can help you out if you decide to go that route. He and I work together quite a bit.” He tapped the screen on his phone. “Text it to you?”
Jake nodded. “Sure.”
Rex tapped a couple more times, then nodded and put the phone back in his pocket. “Sent. Sorry I don’t have better news. And maybe he’ll tell you something different or have a better idea.”
Jake waved a hand in the air. “Not your fault. I appreciate you coming out.”
“Anytime,” he said. He reached for his coat and shrugged it on to his shoulders. “And I just want to apologize again about the chute. I should’ve spotted that the first time I was here. I’m sorry.”
“Don’t worry about it,” Jake said, offering his hand.
“Just feel like maybe I could’ve saved you some of this trouble,” he said, shaking Jake’s hand.
I wanted to ask how. Like, if we’d known about the chute, maybe a dead body wouldn’t have mysteriously appeared in it?
We said goodbye and I watched him trudge out into the snow.
“It’s not his fault,” Jake said. He grabbed his travel mug out of the cupboard and poured creamer into it.
“What part? The not knowing about the coal chute or the dead body?”
“Both.”
“Jake, he was supposed to inspect the house. How does a home inspector miss the fact that we have an 8x15 foot coal chute in our basement?”