Hard Hat Man (12 page)

“
Then it must be electric. We’d have had to
light the pilot light
before it would start
if it
wa
s gas.”

“
Good.
At least the
burglar
didn’t
dump everything out in
the kitchen.”

“Maybe whatever they were looking for wasn’t likely to be in the kitchen.”

“Yeah
,” Jan nodded, thinking
.
“S
ince Horace’s office
is
the worst mess,
I wonder if
it had something to do with him,
rather
than Nancy or her disappearance.”

She
opened some drawers, finding them still full of Esther’s dishcloths and towels. She
filled the sink
, found dish soap and began washing the counters.

“Hey, you’re not going to start cleaning, are you?” Kyle asked behind her. “I mean, we’re just going to tear everything down anyway.”

“I’m just going to clean what I need. Right now, I want some coffee.
”

“
Okay.
Have you seen the basement yet?”

“No, we were waiting for lights.”

“Maybe you’d rather not see it, then.”

“I think I’ll wait.
First
, I’m trying to deal with the main floor.” She didn’t mention not wanting to go back upstairs right away
either
. She hadn’t told Kyle about seeing Esther’s ghost. Would he think she was nuts?

“Do you mind if I take a quick peek? I’d like an idea of the scope of this job.”

“Be my guest,” she said.

“Thanks
.
”
He headed for the basement stairs, snapped on the light and disappeared.

After a minute, she heard muffled cursing, then nothing. Then Kyle reappeared at the top of the stairs and closed the basement door behind him.

“I had to shut the water off at the main entrance to the well,” he said. “Sorry, but apparently the pipes froze this past winter. You have water running all over the floor. Lots of boxes of stuff down there now are very wet. Sorry. I should have checked that before having them turn on the power.”

“Good thing I brought
a few
gallons of
spring
water
from town
, then.”

She plugged in the coffeemaker and found the filters from a drawer. Thank goodness she’d bought a fresh can of coffee. Who knew how long Horace had had the one in the cupboard open even before he’d passed away?

While the coffee
dripp
ed, she washed a couple of mugs, rinsed them in hot water and then filled them with the fragrant brew.

“Thanks,
I really needed this,
” Kyle said, taking his mug and sitting at the table. She took a sip of her coffee and sat opposite him.

“Oh? Busy morning already? It’s only ten o’clock.”

He made a face
, and lowered his gaze to his coffee
.
“Yeah, I know. But two of my men quit and I had to find replacements. Luckily, a couple of guys I interviewed a few weeks ago were still available. Who knows what will happen next?” He sighed and sipped his coffee.

Jan chewed her lip. “Because some people don’t want you to build here?”

Kyle nodded.

“Why not? I’d think more homes and businesses would be good for this little town.”

“I thought so, too. I have no idea why there’s so much opposition. It seems to be mainly the farmer on the next place and Mr. Andrews. But they have the ear of the county commissioners who okayed the project in the first place. Now there’s talk they may change their mind.”

Jan frowned. “
Erick
Andrews? Mom’s lawyer?”

“Yeah, that’s the guy.”

“But he arranged the sale in the first place, didn’t he?”

“I know. Now he’s decided to take the farmer
who is against me
as a client.”

“
First he’s on one side, then the other?
Is that ethical?”

Kyle laughed derisively. “I don’t think ethics and Mr. Andrews
fit into the same sentence.”

“I’m sorry.” Jan swallowed more coffee, feeling guilty, as though somehow her mother’s lawyer’s actions were her fault. “Maybe if I talked to him…”

“Don’t waste your breath. Money is the only language that man understands. Well, best I get back to work.
I’ll send over Harry
,
who knows plumbing
,
to see if he can temporarily fix your water pipes so you can have some water up here
again
.
He can replace the lock, too.
I’ll stop back later to make sure everything is working okay for you.”

“That’s not necessary,” she protested as they walked to the door.

He opened the door, turned and gave her a grin. “Humor me. Besides, I like checking up on a pretty girl. It brightens up my day.”

For a long second, their gazes locked. Jan drew a breath, sure he was going to kiss her, hoping he would.

Then he stepped away. “See you around six,” he said and ducked out the door.

She closed the door behind him, disappointed.
He called me pretty!
Does that mean he
’
s
interested
?

“Don’t be silly,” she scolded herself. “
You will be back in Chicago, swimming in the pool at this time next week. You can’t get involved with a
rugged
construction worker who wears a hard hat.
Sure he’s attractive and interesting and the first man in a long time to light your fire. But y
ou’re a teacher who lives in a city
and neither of you is about to change
.”

So why
were her panties wet
with desire
and
her heart still pounding?

Chapter 4

With the power on, she decided to empty her ice chest into the refrigerator. But when she opened the door, a foul odor met her nose. Spoiled and moldy food lay on the shelves.

Good gravy,
had
no one even come to Uncle Horace’s house to do the basics after he died? Surely a neighbor or friend would have cared enough to
clean out the perishable food? Hadn’t anyone, like Horace’s lawyer, thought to hire someone to close up the house? Obviously not.

Jan swallowed and
rummaged in the cupboards for
some
large
garbage bags. She emptied everything from the refrigerator into
one
. Several casseroles that were probably gifts from neighbors were so encrusted with moldy, rotted food that she tossed the dishes along with the rotted food. She
carried t
he bag
outside to the garbage can, but found it already overflowing with the bags she and
Laura
had taken there yesterday.

She called Kyle. “Can you give me the
phone
number of the garbage company? I think we need a dumpster instead of a can.”

“I’ll call them,” Kyle said. “We’ll need several dumpsters
anyway,
when we begin demolishing the house.”

“Don’t you use your own trucks for that? I mean, I saw trucks with your logo working on taking down the barn yesterday.”

“For some things, yes. Depending on the material, some of it goes to a different site for construction material, not to the regular garbage dump.”

“I see. Okay.”

She scrubbed down the ref
rigerator
,
but no amount of scrubbing got rid of the smell. Setting a dish of baking soda inside, she closed it, giving up. Her ice chest would have to do.

Then she began going through the cupboards, throwing all the food that wasn’t canned. She hesitated over Esther’s large collection of spices, deciding to keep them for now, along with a few cans of food that she decided would be okay.

Her cell phone rang and her caller ID said it was Mr. Andrews.

“Hello,” Jan said. “You’re just the man I wanted to talk to.”

“Oh? I hope that means you’ll have dinner with me tonight,” he said,
sounding
pleased.

“No thanks
, I have other plans
. What I wanted to ask you is, why wasn’t this house properly closed after Uncle Horace died?”

“Huh? What do you mean, properly closed? I called the utilities and had them shut off. My assistant stopped there a couple times to be sure the house was locked and nothing taken.”

“Oh, right. How about emptying the refrigerator? Draining the water pipes properly so they didn’t freeze?
Putting out insect repellant and mouse poison?
”

“But…well, I
’m a lawyer. I
don’t know about stuff like that,” Mr. Andrews s
puttered
. “And you know it was weeks after Horace died before we were sure what would become of the property, so no one really knew who was in charge.”

“You wrote his will, didn’t you?” The weasel was trying to pass the buck. Jan’s throat tightened in fury. And he thought she’d want to date him? No way!

“Well, yes,” he admitted. “But that was ten years before he died and we couldn’t be sure it was his last will, you know?”

Jan swallowed, trying her best to keep her voice even and polite. “Shouldn’t you have assumed it was
,
unless and until it was proved otherwise?”

Mr. Andrews sighed. “In hindsight, yes, I believe you’re right.
Has there been a problem?
”