Free A VENEER OF MURDER (Mrs. Fix It Mysteries Book 3) by Belle Knudson

deal with these things every day. She couldn’t imagine that. A nail was a nail. Sheetrock was sheetrock. It was a simple life in many ways.
    “Something like that. Most of the time they are harmless. We’ve had some indirect threats. Nothing that my office can track down or trace to this group.”
    “Then what kind of threats?”
    “Just chatter and increased activity in the groups that the state cops are watching. They’ve kept me in the loop, and today I had to inform the mayor of these threats. I’d like to cancel the whole thing, but he wants nothing to do with that.”
    “So you have to protect against some nebulous threat with no budget.”
    “Sweetie, you just summed up my day.”
    She laughed, but there was no humor in it. She’d never seen him this stressed, and her heart went out to him. He rubbed a hand down his face.
    “I’m sorry.”
    “Not your fault, and sorry for venting to you. I wish I could go for a run. To the Ohio border.”
    She laughed. That was a long way. “Would that get the stress out?”
    “Yes, it would.” He finally looked at her. “I’m sure you didn’t come here to listen to me belly ache.”
    “I didn’t, but that’s okay. You listen to me a lot of the time.”
    “So what did you come here for?”
    She pulled out the receipt. “I found this in Jessica’s house in the room that had been Dudley’s office.”
    He took it from her. “It’s a receipt for coffee. So?”
    “Jessica doesn’t go out for coffee. She prefers her own. Clara even confirmed that Jessica is never in her shop buying coffee,” Kate said.
    “So she ran out once.”
    “No, Clara said that she came in before the dedication of the community center, but only Dean bought coffee. Jessica and Dean left for their getaway right from the ceremony. It could not have been either of them in her house.”
    “You’re sure that you heard a door close?”
    “Yes, I did, Scott. I’m sure.”
    She wished he would just believe her. Sometimes his skepticism was hard not to take personally. Frustration had her fisting her hands. She took a few deep breaths to try to let it go.
    “I’ll talk to Clara, but I’m not doing anything until Jessica gets back.”
    She couldn’t blame him for that. It was still Jessica’s house. “Did you contact her?”
    “I did, and she said that if you didn’t notice anything missing then it wasn’t an emergency. The woman is on her honeymoon. I don’t think she wanted to come back, and I don’t blame her.”
    It was not her real honeymoon, but certainly a getaway with her new husband. Must be nice to be in love again.
    “What’s next?”
    “I’ll talk to Clara.”
    “I did already.”
    Kate put a hand over her mouth. She hadn’t intended to blurt it out like that.
    “I wish you wouldn’t interfere with police business.”
    “You and the cop acted like I was nuts for thinking that someone had been in there. I don’t appreciate being treated that way, and I’m not going to go meekly into the night just because a man questions me.”
    Scott licked his lips. She’d raised her voice when she hadn’t meant to. Then he smiled. “Okay. What did Clara say?”
    She gave him the list of people who Clara remembered being in the café.
    “Why would any of these people want to be in Jessica’s house?”
    “Only Kendall, but I can’t see her breaking and entering.”
    Scott put up his hand. “There was no breaking. No sign of forced entry. No one else but Jessica and the agent had a key. Jessica has an alibi, and she had no reason to hide from you. It’s her house. The agent wouldn’t have hidden either.”
    “I had a key and lost it. No idea where it went. Someone could have found it.”
    “Did it say it was Jessica’s key?”
    “Yes. I labeled it before I put it in my purse.”
    “Yikes. Well, maybe you lost it in your truck.”
    She shrugged. “I looked, but didn’t find it.”
    “Still. It could be in there.”
    She was too tired to argue with Scott