Free Over Troubled Water: A Hunter Jones Mystery by Charlotte Moore

be caring about making a living by Monday,” Rondelle said matter-of-factly, “Because I’ve made appointments for you, and you’re going to start losing customers if you don’t. Once we get past the funeral on Saturday, and you rest on Sunday, it’ll do you good to be working.”
    At Clearview Circle, the locksmith barely glanced at the copy of the will, which Sunshine had ready for him to see. The sheriff’s being there was sufficient for him. When she had called him and mentioned getting in through a window, he had assured her that he could pick the lock. So, first he was to get them into the house, and then he was to change the new locks on the back and front doors to still newer locks.
    He got out a set of small tools and had the back lock open in less than a minute. Then he set about making more money from the Chapman family while Sam, Bub Williston, and Sunshine went into the kitchen.
    “Isn’t this retro?” Sunshine asked Sam. “Last remodeled in the 1970s, I think.”
    Sam noticed that it was big and sunny.
    Sunshine opened the refrigerator door.
    “Root vegetables,” she said, her voice sounding tender. “Tofu. Lentils. Kale. That’s my mom. Oh, and all these casseroles. Looks like Andy’s been eating them right out of the pans.”
    “As long as we’re here, we’d like to see the rooms your brother’s using,” Sam said when they reached the front hall.
    “You’re not investigating him, are you?” she asked, almost as if it were a joke.
    “We have to rule him out,” Sam said. “And once we get him settled down, we’ll be getting a statement from him.”
    “I suppose you have to,” she said with a sigh, “But Andy’s just all mouth, Sheriff. He’d never hurt anybody. Certainly not Mom.”
    Sam barely heard her. He was looking at the way the light poured through the stained glass transom over the front door. He was seeing how beautifully made the staircase was, with wide safe steps and a banister that a child could slide down.
    “I’ll show you his rooms,” she said, as they started upstairs, “And then I’m going to make sure I’ve got the clothes for Mom in my car in case Andy turns around for some reason.”
    Upstairs, in the big central hall, she pointed the way to two doors on one side.
    “He was pretty much living in those two rooms the last time I was here,” she said. “Mom let him have the master bedroom after our father died. It’s got its own bathroom. The room next to it was the nursery when we were babies.”
    The big bedroom, to Sam’s surprise, was meticulously neat. Andy Chapman had even made his bed before locking everybody out. Everything was in order, including the shoes in his closet. He had a large TV screen in one corner, set up so that he could watch from his bed and an air conditioning unit in one of the tall windows. It was a big corner room with dark woodwork and heavy drapes.
    “Looks like he’s neat. Was he in the military?” Bub asked, sliding open one dresser drawer after another, only to see more neatly folded clothes.
    “Don’t think so,” Sam said, doubting that Andy Chapman would have been accepted if he’d tried. He opened the bathroom door to see more meticulous order. “Let’s check the other room.”
    “Uh Oh!” Bub said when he got there first. “He’s got an outside lock on this one. Guess he didn’t want his mommy coming in.”
    “Sunshine,” Sam called out. “Is it all right with you if we get into this room? He’s locked it from the outside for some reason.”
    “Go ahead,” she said. “I’m trying to pick something out for Mom.”
    Sam called down to the locksmith.
    “I put this one in two or three months ago,” he said when he saw it. “There wasn’t anybody here but him when I did it.”
    “Why’d he want it locked up,” Bub asked, “What’s in here?”
    “Wasn’t anything but a computer set-up when I put this lock on,” he said, “You sure it’s OK for me to do this?”
    “It’s no problem,”