Moonlighting in Vermont (2 page)

* * * * *
The sun was shining in the window when I woke to Jim’s cell phone ringing. He reached across me to grab it off the night table. His hand hit the lamp, and the phone was knocked to the floor.

“Shit!” Jim dove across my body, caught the lamp before it toppled off the table, and slid off me onto the floor in a tangle of sheets. He rolled over, handed me the lamp, and felt around under him for his phone. “What? Yeah.” He untangled himself from the sheets and walked into the hall. He closed the door behind him.

Laughing, I put the lamp back on the table and headed for the shower. I needed to be at work early. Housekeeping at Whispering Birches is my second job. By day, I’m a paste-up artist for the
Royalton Star
, the local weekly paper. My best friend, Meg, owns it. Used to be we actually had to paste the ads and articles onto big sheets of grid paper, but these days the work is all done on the computer.

I could hear my cell phone ringing when I walked out of the bathroom. I wrapped my towel tighter around my body and went searching for it. When I got downstairs, Jim was standing in the kitchen holding my phone in his hand. “I’ll give you your phone back if you promise to show me what’s under the towel.”

I rolled my eyes, dropped my towel on the floor, and laughed when his mouth fell open.
“Gimme.” I grabbed the phone from him. Jim slid his arms around my waist as I reached down to pick up my towel.
“No way, I’m not done looking yet.”
I scowled at him and flicked open my phone. “Hello?” I gasped as Jim ran his fingers up my spine.
"What took you so long to answer? Are you out at the barn?" It was my mother.
"No, Mom, I’m dealing with inside animals at the moment.” I shot Jim an elbow in the ribs. "Stop it!” I hissed at him. “Hang on,” I said into the phone. Jim was running his hands down my thighs. I batted him away, grabbed my towel, and scooted into the living room. I put the phone back to my ear. “I’m back.”
"Is that James Fisk? You should be nicer to him. You’ll never get married if you keep bossing your boyfriends around like that."
"I’m not bossing him around, Mom.” I tucked the phone between my ear and shoulder and headed for the bedroom.
"Well, it sounded bossy to me.” She had her resigned, what-am-I-going-to-do-about-my-daughter voice on. "When are you coming to visit? We haven’t seen you since July."
My mom and dad moved to South Carolina a couple of years back. My mom decided she didn’t fancy being old in the snow and bought a condo on the beach with the money her mom had left her. My dad followed along. I think he figured South Carolina with mom was better than Vermont without her. He was still suffering from culture shock.
"I’ll come down at Thanksgiving. And maybe Christmas if I can get someone to take care of the animals.” I rooted around in my closet and shrugged on my robe.
"I guess I’ll have to be content with that. I know it’s hard for you to get away. But when you have children, I’ll expect you to come more often."
Sheesh
. I rolled my eyes as I clicked off the call. When I walked back into the kitchen, Jim was on the phone again. He was scowling and scribbling notes ferociously on a scrap of paper. "I told you earlier.” He had the phone between his shoulder and ear. "I don’t think that’s necessary. Besides, it’s intrusive. My personal life is not their business at this point.” He glanced up at me. "I’ve got to go. I’ll discuss this with you further when I get to the office.”
“Trouble?”
“Just the usual.” He picked up his coffee cup. “I’m going to take this with me. All hell is breaking loose in Hanover today, and I still have to go home to shower and change.” He gave me a quick kiss, took his coffee and left. I was chewing a piece of toast when the phone rang again. A truck rumbled by on the road as I answered, and the dogs all started barking.
“MacGowan?” It was Officer Steve. “You there?”
“Yeah, wait a sec.” I opened the door and let the dogs out.
“Sounds like all hell is breaking loose over there. You need me to come rescue you?”
“Nah. It’s just the dogs warning me that a truck is going by. They feel it’s their duty to protect me from harmless strangers. I suppose you need me to come down to the barracks?”
“Yeah, first thing.”
“Okay. I’ll be there, soonish.”
“Good. I’d hate to have to come up there and arrest you.”
“Very funny. I bet I could get you in trouble for saying stuff like that.”
“Yeah. But you won’t.”
Shit. I was going to be late for work. I headed back upstairs to stand in front of my open closet. What did you wear when you were giving a statement? Would it help if I dressed like a slut? What about a business suit? Should I dress casually and look unconcerned, or should I wear church clothes to make a good impression?
I sat down on my bed without choosing anything from the closet. I felt numb, and my mind refused to focus.
Relax, it doesn’t matter what you wear.
“But it does matter. First impressions are the most important. The credibility of my statement could be determined just by how I look. Oh, shit. Now I’m talking to myself.”
Finally, I grabbed my usual jeans and tee-shirt. I slid a blazer over my top so I wasn’t too casual and pulled on my favorite footwear. Slouchy black cowboy boots that made me feel braver. Just like Calamity Jane.
Calamity Jane? Surely there were some other cowgirls? Cow women? Cattle women? There had to be lots of strong dames in the old West. Running ranches. Holding down the fort.
What was wrong with me? Thinking about cowgirls instead of getting my butt down to the barracks. I went into the bathroom to brush some color on my face.

* * * * *

The state police are housed in a brand new building on Route 107, right on the line between Royalton and Bethel. I pulled into the parking lot and took a couple of breaths. The barracks intimidated me. I gathered myself together, squared my shoulders, and swung out of the car.

“Hey, MacGowan,” Steve called as I walked in. “I saw your car by the side of the road last night.” He walked over to me. “Everything all right?”

“Yeah, I’m fine.” I grimaced. “Just had a little reaction to finding a dead person.”
“Your first time?” He grinned. “Don’t worry, it gets easier.”
“If it’s up to me, that will be the last time. Do you want to take my statement?”
“Not me. Lieutenant Brooks. Like I said yesterday, the V.B.I. pulled this case. I can’t really say anything, but I hope you have a good alibi.” He laughed. “By the way, the inspection sticker on your car has expired. I didn’t want to ticket you, knowing you’d had a bad day and all, but you might want to get that taken care of before someone else does. There are lots of cops around here that would love an excuse to stop you.”
“Give me a break. Most these guys are married. I’m too old for the single guys. Nobody around here would take a second look at me.”
“Not true. Officer Smith’s looking for a companion.” Steve laughed. Officer Smith looked to be about a hundred years old. “You’re not married to the boss, and that’s a plus.” Meg’s husband was in charge of the barracks. Meg had a way of charming the men with cookies and a sympathetic ear. Mostly, they thought of her as a second mother, but it was rumored that a few of the officers wouldn’t mind being in Tom’s shoes.
A uniformed officer stepped into view, and Steve motioned to him. “Looks like Lieutenant Brooks is ready for you. See you later. Don’t forget to get that car inspected.”
I’d never seen Lieutenant Brooks before. It was all I could do to keep my eyeballs in my head. Brooks was dark haired and had clear blue eyes. He had to be over six feet tall and was muscular without being bulky. I guessed him to be in his early thirties. His uniform made him look well put together. It amazed me that women weren’t crashing their cars into the barracks every day just to catch a glimpse of him. But if he was with V.B.I., he was probably based out of Montpelier. Maybe they were crashing into things up there. He’d be the cop I’d most want to be arrested by.
“Ms. MacGowan.” Lieutenant Brooks offered me his hand. “Miles Brooks. In here, please.”
I followed Brooks into a conference room and couldn’t help but notice he had a nice backside too. I wrenched my mind back to the matter at hand. He smiled at me as I sat down, and I hoped like hell he couldn’t tell what was going on in my head.
I ran Brooks through yesterday’s event. I couldn’t think of any new details, and frankly, I wanted to forget what I did remember. At the end of our interview Lieutenant Brooks looked me in the eye. “Did you have reason to dislike Vera?”
“Everyone disliked Vera. Even her sister couldn’t stand to work the same shift with her.”
“Why’s that?”
“Because she liked to make trouble. If two girls weren’t getting along, she’d team them up just watch the fireworks. She lied and spread rumors. And while everyone else was busting their butts getting rooms done, she’d sit on hers and eat. Besides that, if you got on her bad side, you get assigned all the shit jobs to do.” I’d been on the wrong end of that stick a number of times.
“I understand you are employed at the
Royalton Star.
What do you do there?”
“Typesetting and paste-up.”
“Do you like that job?”
“Yeah. I get to work with my best friend. What could be better than that?”
Where was he going with this?
“Why work part time as a housekeeper? It can’t pay all that much.”
“I have a lot of animals. Feed and vet bills ad up after a while.”
“And you’re content to remain as a housekeeper? You aren’t gunning for a management position? To earn more?”
“The general manager is a friend of mine. He needed a couple of housekeepers he could rely on to show up. I needed the extra cash. Management isn’t flexible enough to accommodate my job at the
Star
.”
“Do you usually work in teams at the Inn?” He was making notes on his pad now.
“Yes, we do.”
“Why’s that?”
“To protect the guests from getting their stuff taken and to protect us from being accused of theft.”
“But last night you were working alone?”
“We were short staffed, so I offered to work by myself. Brian trusts me.”
“It was your idea to go off by yourself?”
“Yeah.”
“And why did you go to that particular cottage?”
“I was there because Dotty broke a carafe, and we keep the extras in that closet. I would have eventually been the one to find Vera anyway. That cottage was on my list of rooms to turn down last night.”
“Do you turn down that cottage every night?”
“No. I never know what rooms I’ll be doing on any given night until assignments are made. Why do you want to know this stuff?”
“Someone suggested you might want Vera’s job.”
“Lovely.” My heart sank into my stomach, and I wondered who would tell him that. And why.
“Thank you for the information, Ms. MacGowan. Please let us know if you intend to leave the area.”
I could feel his eyes on my back as I left the room. I wanted to ask Steve what he thought, but he wasn’t at his desk or in the break room. I even took a quick look into the briefing room, but he wasn’t there either. I changed tactics and tracked down Tom in his office.
Tom was on the phone when I peeked in his door. He motioned me in, and I sat on one of the wooden chairs in front of his desk.
“What’s up, Bella? I don’t usually see you down here.”
“I had to come see Lieutenant Brooks about Vera’s death. I’m the one who found her.”
“That’s right. Steve told me he’d seen you there. I wouldn’t worry, Brooks probably just wanted to talk to you in person. That’s pretty standard.”
“Do you know how Vera died?”
“I can’t hand out details about an ongoing case without talking to the O.I.C. first.” Tom smiled. “Especially to a newspaper shark like you.”
“Yeah, right. What’s an O.I.C.?”
“Officer in charge. In this case, Brooks. Not to change the subject, but I haven’t seen John lately. Do you know what he’s been up to?” John, my older brother, had been friends with Tom since pre-school.
“He’s around. I think he’s been hanging out with one of his girlfriends a lot lately.”
“That man needs to settle down. He’s too old to be tomcatting around. Last I talked to him, he had three girls in three different cities.”
“He’s always been like that. Not settling down kind of runs in the family.”
Tom laughed. MacGowans were notorious for not making long-term commitments. The exception was my father, who fell hard for my mom in high school and never looked back. His brothers and sisters had never married. I had plenty of cousins; they just had parents who had never tied the knot.
“I have no doubt that someone will bamboozle you into making a commitment one of these days. In fact, I’d put money on it. I even know who I’d put money on and it ain’t James Fisk.”
“What do you mean you know who you’d put money on? You have no reason to believe that I won’t commit to James Fisk. He’s got as good a chance as anyone.”
“James is too sedate for you.” Tom was enjoying himself a little too much for my comfort. “You need someone with a little spark in them. A touch of the devil. James is a good boy. He’s all about upholding the law. I’ll bet you fifty bucks that when you get caught, it’ll be by a bad boy.”
“And you’ve got someone in mind. Well, that’s just dandy. I hope he’s not sitting somewhere pining away for me, ‘cause he’ll be pining a good long time. I may marry Jim Fisk just to spite you, Thomas Maverick.”
Tom grinned.
“Got you, didn’t I? You jump for the bait every time, Bella. Every single time. Well, not to worry. I’ve got plenty of time to collect on my bet. Speaking of time, aren’t you supposed to be pasting up the paper? I’m not going to be too happy with you if my wife comes home cranky tonight because you couldn’t get the paper done before midnight.”
“Talk to your Lieutenant Brooks. I would have been at work hours ago if I didn’t need to come down here. It took me forty minutes just to figure out what to wear. So if you’re going to blame anyone for Meg’s cranky mood, blame him.”
Two

I zipped down Route 107 to Route 14. I was feeling lucky because I didn’t get stuck behind a tractor, and it only took me ten minutes to get into town. South Royalton is a typical New England village with a big green, two gazebos, two war memorials and a cannon, smack in the middle of town. Chelsea Street runs along the north side of the green, hosting a row of brick buildings. Windsor Street borders the east side, with a few shops and houses. Residences and what used to be the South Royalton Inn sit on Park Street, opposite Chelsea. The bank is housed in a converted train station and sits next to the post office, sandwiched between Railroad Street and the train tracks on the west side of the green.