Crosspatch, p.2
Crosspatch, page 2
“I guess not. That tells me Summer hasn’t done a good job getting the word out. Maybe she needs to do some advertising or something.”
“Or it tells us that this is perhaps a little early for an exercise class,” murmured Beatrice.
Piper grinned at her. “Did you not get much sleep last night?”
“It’s weird, but it was like all sounds and lights were extra-amplified. I could hear Noo-noo snoring, and she wasn’t even in the same room with us. Then I suppose she got restless later on and I kept hearing her little toenails tapping on the hardwood floor. And of course we had a huge storm last night and I couldn’t sleep during it. I guess sleep just wasn’t on the agenda for me last night. Did you get any?”
“Slept like a dream last night, actually. Storm or no storm.”
Beatrice made a face. “It says something about my sleeping when my daughter, who has a baby, is sleeping better than I am.”
“Well, after we exercise this morning, I bet you’ll sleep great tonight.”
They walked up to the studio behind the large house. The studio was bigger than Beatrice thought it would be—a one-story building that was brightly lit from the inside. There were flower boxes in the windows and landscaping around it. Beatrice was already impressed, and they hadn’t even made it inside yet.
“I guess we just walk right in,” said Piper, sounding a little hesitant. It did feel almost as if they were walking into someone’s house.
Piper opened the door, and they walked in. She called out, “Summer? It’s Piper. I’ve brought my mom with me as a guest.”
There was no response. They were standing in a small coatroom with lots of hooks for hanging sweaters, raincoats, or umbrellas.
“Maybe she has earbuds in and is warming up,” suggested Beatrice.
Piper said, “Or maybe she’s still doing some last-minute tweaks to the studio.” She called Summer’s name again, but they heard nothing.
Beatrice and Piper headed for the large room on the other side of the coatroom. It was clearly the main studio, with equipment lining the walls and mirrors everywhere. And, most surprisingly, the body of a blonde woman in the center of the floor.
Chapter Three
Piper took a deep, gasping breath. “Oh no.”
Beatrice carefully approached the woman, who was lying on her stomach on the floor. With a shaking hand, she felt for a pulse. There wasn’t one.
“I’m afraid she’s gone,” said Beatrice grimly.
Piper pulled her phone out and started dialing Ramsay’s number. Ramsay was the local police chief and Beatrice’s friend, Meadow’s, husband.
While Piper quietly reported the crime, Beatrice glanced around the brand-new studio. It looked as if Summer had been hit from behind with the hot-pink ten-pound hand weight that was next to her.
Piper ended the conversation and said, “Mama, Ramsay asked if we could wait for him outside the studio.”
They quickly moved outside without touching anything but the doorknob, which they used a tissue to grip.
It didn’t take long before Ramsay’s police sedan pulled into the gravel parking lot. Ramsay, a big man with a receding hairline, hurried toward them. He greeted them gruffly, sounding a bit as if he might have just woken up. Then he proceeded cautiously into the studio. A minute later, he came back outside and started stringing up police tape.
“Do either of you know who the woman inside is?” he asked in a somber voice.
Piper nodded. “It’s Summer Cooper. She owns the studio.”
Ramsay nodded, taking out a small notepad and an even smaller stub of a pencil. He looked at the large home behind them. “Is that her residence?”
Piper cleared her throat. “It is. She lives there with her husband, Harlowe.”
“I’m sorry you two had to come across her this way. Can you fill me in a little as to who Summer is and what your morning looked like so far?”
So Piper did. “Summer used to teach classes in Lenoir for another place, but then she decided to open her own studio. This was actually her grand opening.” Piper swallowed, thinking of it. “I got a free trial and asked Mama if she wanted to try out a group class with me.”
Ramsay raised his eyebrows. “A group class? Where is everyone else?”
Beatrice said, “Piper and I were just talking about that before we walked in and saw Summer. Piper was saying Summer needed to advertise some more.”
Ramsay continued, “So the two of you walked into the studio and what did you see?”
“We were a little surprised that Summer didn’t come right out and greet us,” said Piper slowly. “We thought maybe she had her earbuds in and was warming up or getting ready for the class or something.”
“We put our bags down and walked in and saw Summer on the floor—exactly as we left her,” said Beatrice. “I checked for a pulse but, aside from that, we didn’t touch anything.”
“You did great,” said Ramsay in a gentle voice.
They heard someone call down to them from outside the house.
Ramsay said in a grim voice, “Is that Harlowe? Summer’s husband?”
“I’m afraid so,” answered Piper.
Harlowe was a tall, thin man, handsome in a subtle way. He had thinning blond hair and something of a weak mouth. He came up to them with a concerned look on his face. “Did something happen?” he asked.
Ramsay seemed to want to wait to answer the question. Instead, he asked, “Are you Harlowe Cooper?”
The man nodded. “I am.”
Ramsay said, “I’m Ramsay Downey.”
“The police chief?” Harlowe’s face looked baffled. “What’s going on here?”
“Have you been in the house for the last couple of hours?” asked Ramsay.
Harlowe nodded again, this time more impatiently. “I’ve been asleep. I just woke up at the sound of your car pulling in. Where’s Summer?”
Ramsay said slowly, “I’m very sorry to have to tell you this, but your wife is dead.”
Harlowe staggered back a step, his eyes huge. “What? No. Summer’s fine—I saw her this morning when she got up. Have you been in the studio? Her opening day is today.”
He took a couple of steps toward the studio before Ramsay stopped him. “I’m sorry, but the studio is off-limits right now.”
Now Harlowe’s voice sounded panicked. “How do you know it’s Summer? It could be someone else. Maybe one of her clients had a heart attack or something. It could be someone else.”
Ramsay shook his head and gently said, “Is there a place we can sit you down?”
Harlowe plopped himself down immediately at the suggestion, practically falling on the stone steps leading from the house down to the studio.
“Is there anyone I can call to be with you?” asked Ramsay.
Harlowe shook his head, his teeth chattering slightly.
“I’ve got blankets in my car,” said Piper, looking glad for something to do.
Beatrice gingerly sat down next to Harlowe on the stone step and put a hand on his knee. “It’ll be all right. It’s just the shock.”
Piper returned quickly with a pile of baby quilts and blankets, which she proceeded to put over Harlowe. She also found an unopened plastic water bottle, which she offered him. He accepted it gratefully, draining half of it in a few gulps.
“What happened?” asked Harlowe finally, in a dull voice.
“That’s what I was hoping you could help me with,” said Ramsay. “All I know right now is your wife was murdered with a blunt object. She was discovered by Piper and Beatrice, who arrived to take advantage of a group class.”
Harlowe looked vaguely at Piper and Beatrice as if having a hard time making connections. “You were clients.”
Piper said, “We were planning on trying out the class. We’re so sorry, Harlowe.”
Harlowe rubbed his eyes.
Ramsay said, “Did you see or hear anything this morning that might help give us an idea as to what happened?”
In a muted voice that Beatrice had to strain to hear, Harlowe said, “I didn’t hear a thing. I registered when Summer got up for the day, but then I fell back asleep. I was pretty worn out with the storm last night keeping me up for a while. I think I heard a tree fall on the property, too, at some point. We have a white noise machine in our bedroom because I’m usually a light sleeper and sounds like dogs barking will keep me up for hours. I never fall back asleep.” He added bitterly. “Except for this morning. Except for when Summer needed me.”
“Can you tell me a little about Summer?” asked Ramsay. “Give me a little background on the two of you?”
Harlowe took a deep, shaky breath. In that same quiet voice, he said, “We met back in college. Summer was just so pretty and so impressive. She had a lot of drive . . . with everything. She made dean’s list, was in a sorority, and even played club sports for the school.”
“Did she? Which sports?” asked Piper.
Beatrice could tell Piper was encouraging Harlowe to speak about Summer, because it seemed to be helping him with the shock. She saw a smile hovering around Harlowe’s lips as he remembered.
“The sports? Oh, there were lots of them. Everything from soccer to kickball. Plus, she’d gotten a scholarship to the school because of women’s softball. I was never athletic, and I was shy about approaching Summer because I didn’t feel like much of a catch. She always seemed to be in the middle of a group of friends, too. But she was just so amazing that I somehow managed to summon the courage to approach her when I spotted her on her own for a few minutes.”
Beatrice thought he was selling himself short. Harlowe was handsome in a quiet way.
“I wasn’t ever sure really what she saw in me.” He shrugged a shoulder and looked blankly at the crime tape surrounding the studio, as if he couldn’t quite figure out how he’d gotten from happy college memories to a crime scene.
Ramsay said, “How did the two you end up in Dappled Hills? Did your work bring you here?”
Harlowe looked at him, almost as if he’d forgotten he was there. “The house had been in my family—it was a vacation home for my grandmother. She lived in Florida most of the year, but would come to Dappled Hills in the summers to get some relief from the heat.”
Ramsay nodded. “I think I remember meeting her a few times.”
“She left it to me in her will when I was still in school. Summer and I thought it was the perfect place to move after we graduated from college and got married. It would mean we wouldn’t have a mortgage payment. The house needed a little work, for sure. My grandmother hadn’t neglected it, but she hadn’t been here most of the year to take care of regular maintenance. Summer had money and was able to fix it up.”
“Summer was wealthy, even back then?” Ramsay was eyeing the expensive new studio as if it was all coming together.
Harlowe nodded. “She had family money to start out with, but then she made her own on top of that.” He added proudly, “She was a whiz at the stock market. I mean, she did have money to invest, which helps, but then she grew it. She had a real knack for investing and loved reading up on stocks and figuring out what the market might do. Anyway, she fixed up the house with some of her earnings and made it look amazing. It hadn’t been much before she got her hands on it.”
Ramsay said, “Thinking back on what happened this morning. Is there anyone you can come up with who might have had cause to harm Summer? Was there anybody she mentioned who she’d been arguing with? Any tension with someone?”
Harlowe was silent for a few moments to consider this. “There was some sort of conflict between Summer and the contractor who was helping us build the studio. What was his name? Oh, that’s right—Dan.”
Beatrice winced. Dan Whitner was dating fellow quilter Tiggy and was considered a friend of the group. He was a quiet man who’d done a lot of work for the church.
Ramsay took out a small notebook. “So Dan was helping you out with the construction. That seems like a major project.”
Harlowe said, “He was, but he wasn’t the only one. I was sort of overseeing the whole project for Summer.” He gave a short laugh. “Well, I was supposed to be. Summer was something of a perfectionist and she had a hard time delegating tasks to other people. Often, she was down at the studio herself, taking stock of how it was going. Technically, though, that was my job.”
Ramsay jotted that down. “I guess the grocery store was being flexible with your hours. You’re the manager there, aren’t you?”
Harlowe said, “Well, I was. I quit my job there just a couple of months ago.” He sighed, rubbing his eyes. “I guess I’m going to have to ask to be rehired now. But I think they filled my old job.”
Ramsay quirked an eyebrow. “You quit? Problems at the store?”
Harlowe shook his head. “Nothing like that. Summer had asked if I would work for her instead. I resigned and immediately started helping her out.”
Beatrice frowned. Harlowe didn’t quite seem to fit the mold of a fitness instructor. He was certainly thin enough, but he didn’t look remotely athletic. And he’d admitted the same thing himself just minutes ago.
Harlowe elaborated, seeing their confused expressions. “Sorry. I mean, I was working for Summer in the office. I wasn’t planning on teaching classes or anything. I was managing the books and that sort of thing. And, like I mentioned, overseeing the construction work. The next step was advertising, which I was just getting started on.”
Ramsay said, “And you weren’t happy with Dan’s work.”
“Well, it was more that Summer wasn’t. But if Summer wasn’t happy, nobody was happy.” He teared up for a second and paused for a moment to get control of himself again. He finally said, “She was quite a businesswoman. Summer liked things to run on schedule.”
“And the construction of the studio wasn’t going according to plan?”
Harlowe shrugged. “Not up to Summer’s standards, anyway. She wasn’t happy with the rate of progress. Naturally, she wanted to have the studio ready to go so she could start her classes. She wasn’t happy with the fact that Dan had other projects he was juggling at the same time. What’s more, she didn’t think he’d done a good job with the plumbing work.”
“Was he fired from the job?” asked Ramsay.
Harlowe nodded unhappily. “Like I said, Summer was something of a perfectionist. She wasn’t happy with Dan’s pace or his work, so she decided she had to let him go. The only problem was that Dappled Hills isn’t very big and there aren’t a lot of general contractors here. We had a delay while we found somebody. Plus, we had to get on their calendar. Summer opened the studio as early as she could, but it was much later than she expected. And not everything is completed.” He rubbed his face and muttered, “And now, it never will be.”
“What are your plans now?” asked Ramsay, looking curiously at him. “Are you planning on continuing with the studio?”
Harlowe gave a short laugh. “How can I?”
Piper said, “You could always hire instructors to work here. Then you could still manage the business side of things.”
Harlowe sighed. “That makes the most sense, of course. But it’s so hard to imagine my life here in Dappled Hills without Summer. She was the whole reason I was here to begin with. She was the one who thought my grandmother’s place could be made into a wonderful home. I’m going to have a lot of memories to sort through. Besides, I’m not even sure if I can find work. They found somebody for my job at the grocery, like I was saying.”
There was the sound of cars pulling into the gravel parking lot above and Ramsay said, “That’ll be the state police. Harlowe, if you could stick around in case they’d like to speak with you, I would appreciate it.”
“Should we wait, too?” asked Piper.
Ramsay shook his head. “I think I’ve gotten enough of a statement from you two. You’ve probably got to get back to Will so Ash can go to work. If any more questions come up, I’ll reach out to you.”
And so, Beatrice and Piper headed back to their cars.
Chapter Four
“This was not exactly what I planned for this morning,” said Piper, making a face. “I’m sorry to drag you into this, Mama.”
“Oh, I’m glad to have been here with you. It would have been awful for you to face that on your own.”
Piper gave a little shudder at the thought of going solo into the studio and finding Summer there in that silent place. “Poor Summer.”
Beatrice looked at her curiously. “What did you think of her?”
Piper sighed. “Well, I hate speaking ill of the dead, but I honestly had a tough time warming up to Summer. I always felt sort of overwhelmed by her.”
“She had a big personality?”
Piper nodded. “That, and the fact she was totally passionate about what she was doing. I mean, she lived, breathed, and ate fitness. She really walked the walk. Whenever I saw her at the store, she was buying superfoods. She kept trying to get me to come to one of her classes when she was working in Lenoir. But I never made it over there.”
“Because of your schedule?”
“That was part of it. Mornings are a little tight at our house and driving all the way to Lenoir wasn’t really going to fit in. But part of the reason might be because I liked Danica a lot better. If I did drive to Lenoir, I would want to go to Danica’s classes, not Summer’s. And I’m sure that would really have irritated Summer.”
Beatrice frowned. “Danica. I’m not sure if I know her.”
“She’s great, actually. Always really approachable about health and fitness. With Summer, I kind of felt overwhelmed when she’d talk about it—it was like it was the end-all and be-all for her. Danica seems to have a more moderate approach to it. She’d talk about taking baby steps toward a healthier body.”
“Is Danica teaching locally?” asked Beatrice.
Piper shook her head. “Actually, I haven’t seen her around much at all lately. But the last I heard, she was teaching classes in Lenoir with Summer. Anyway, with Summer’s studio the only real place to go here in Dappled Hills, I figured I’d try it out.” She glanced at her watch. “Sorry, Mama, but I’ve got to head out. Ash needs to go to work and I’ve got to get Will to preschool so I can run over to the school.”
