Fixing to Die: Josie Marcus, Mystery Shopper (Josie, Marcus Mystery Shopper) by Viets Elaine

Author:Viets, Elaine [Viets, Elaine]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Group US
Published: 2013-11-05T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 18

Josie was encouraged by the construction chaos at her Fresno Court home. She’d escaped Judson’s Tavern at eleven thirty that morning. Jeanne’s pickup, Bud Vey’s truck, a flatbed, and a dented blue van took up most of the circle.

Josie could hear the roar of a Bobcat, a miniexcavator, tearing into her backyard. She raced around to the back, and watched the operator move the sharp-bladed shovel with delicate precision. The rumbling machine swiveled on its base and bit into chunks of green grass and yellowish clay soil, drowning out Betty’s barking dogs.

Bud was leaning on a long-handled rake. “Hey, Josie,” he said, wiping his sweating forehead with a blue bandanna. “That sun’s hot. We’re preparing the base for your concrete. See those lines? We’ve sprayed them where your deck is going to be.”

“Looks good already,” Josie said. Rain’s unmarked grave was now level with the rest of the deck area.

“Where’s your sidekick, Ranger?” she asked.

“At home,” he said. “I don’t bring him on jobs, especially where there’s going to be concrete—not after he stuck his big paws in some cement.

“It’s gonna be noisy here for a few days. Once the digging is done, we’ll have to compact and level the dirt base with another loud machine, then put down the aggregate—that’s crushed rock—and start pouring your deck footings. If you think the Bobcat makes noise, wait till you hear the cement truck.”

Bud looked happy as a boy playing with grown-up toys. The Bobcat’s racket stopped for a moment and the driver waved him over.

That’s when Josie heard an unhappy Jeanne in her kitchen. “Hey, Newt, do I look like an idiot?” she asked. “Of course I mind if that cabinet is installed upside down.”

“Aw, Jeanne, you said this lady isn’t much of a cook,” Newt whined. “Will she even notice?”

“You don’t have to cook to know a cabinet door’s on backward,” Jeanne said. “Fix it right and fix it now.”

“All those mothering little screws,” he grumbled. “Take forever. If I have to rehang this cabinet, it might mess up my paint job.”

“Then you’ll have to repaint, won’t you?” Jeanne said.

Josie gave a warning knock on the kitchen door, and found a red-faced Jeanne confronting a skinny guy in paint-spotted overalls. Newt looked like a long, skinny reptile with an underslung jaw.

“All right,” he said, pulling out his cordless screwdriver. He went back to work on the freshly painted cabinet above the counter.

Josie barely recognized her kitchen. The worn black-and-white-checked floor was gone, replaced by a raw plywood subfloor. Only one white cabinet remained in place next to the stove. Most of the metal and wooden cabinets now leaned against the walls, dirty and rusty.

Will they ever be usable? she wondered.

Jeanne must have read her expression. “They look bad now,” she said, “but once Newt works his magic, you’ll be amazed. He’s the best.”

Newt grinned, his grousing forgotten.

“Newt got rid of that broken one,” she said, “and he’s hauling the rest of these off to his workshop in Maryland Heights today.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.