Read Online Grime and Punishment by Jill Churchill - Free Book Online
Authors: Jill Churchill
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to do,“ he’d say as she snatched the newspaper away from him to dispose of it the moment he was through.
“Men just don’t understand. I’m paying her to do the real cleaning, the stuff I hate,“ she’d explained repeatedly. “The icky corners of the bathroom, the windowsill dusting, the serious clear-to-the-corner vacuuming, scrubbing the stains out of the sink. But a cleaning lady can’t get to that unless everything is picked up.”
As she passed the door to her bedroom, she heard her alarm buzzing and realized she’d forgotten the time in her frantic haste to prepare for Edith. She roused the boys without much sympathy for their sleepy pleas for another five minutes. Katie was already up, doing her hair. “Put away all those bottles and tubes and cans, Katie. I’m having a new cleaning lady today and I don’t want—“
“Mother! You’re having a cleaning lady? What if she gets killed too?“
“Katie, don’t be ridiculous!”
Jane said it with a conviction she didn’t feel. Lightning doesn’t strike twice in the same place, she’d been telling herself, but that didn’t necessarily apply to murder. At least, she supposed it didn’t. Still, she went back and gave Katie a hug that both pleased and embarrassed her. “Don’t worry, kiddo.”
As she headed out later with her first car pool, she noticed the red MG back in front of the Nowacks’. Now that Paul was back, VanDyne was probably questioning him. Did Paul Nowack have enemies who might have had something to do with the murder? Jane wondered. Who could guess? For, as much as she and Shelley saw of each other, Jane never felt she knew Paul at all. He traveled a great deal, and Jane had few opportunities to make her own assessment of him. As a neighbor, he was nice in a quiet way. But it wasn’t any sort of shyness—more a sense of a powerful personality that was at rest. It had to be. How else would a Polish steelworker’s boy turn into the man who owned a nationwide chain of Greek fast-food restaurants? That sort of thing didn’t happen to wimpy men.
Questions started popping into her mind. Some pertinent, some idiotic. Why not Polish fast food, at least? Even if he were involved in something unsavory—which was highly unlikely—a disgruntled business enemy would hardly think killing his wife’s cleaning lady would intimidate him.
Besides everything else, very few people had any idea where he lived. Shelley had said many times that he felt business was business and home was home. They even had an unlisted phone number, because he didn’t want his franchisees being able to call him at home. In fact, his office staff didn’t know how to find him; only his private secretary knew their home number. “The franchisees will call him in the middle of the night to ask how the dishwasher works otherwise,“ Shelley had said once when Jane asked about it.
That in itself was odd, now that she was thinking about it, in the light of a recent murder in the Nowack home. Was that really the reason for the unlisted number? Or was there a more sinister reason for keeping their number and address secret from the outside world? That is ridiculous! Jane told herself. Suspecting Paul of dark secrets was as insane as suspecting Shelley.
...suspecting Shelley?...
“No!“ she said out loud.
“No what?“ Mike asked.
She’d forgotten Mike and Katie were in the car. “Nothing. Just a crazy thought I had.“
“You know what they say about people who talk to themselves,“ Katie said meaningfully.
“No, and I don’t want to know,“ she said.
Jane dropped Katie off at the junior high and Mike and his group at the high school. Mike had the wisdom to refrain from asking to drive this morning, which she thought showed a nice sense of maturity. When she got back home, Todd was sitting on the front porch, playing with a neighborhood cat.
“Todd, I told you to stay inside with the house locked until Mrs. Wallenberg got here,“ Jane said. She
“Men just don’t understand. I’m paying her to do the real cleaning, the stuff I hate,“ she’d explained repeatedly. “The icky corners of the bathroom, the windowsill dusting, the serious clear-to-the-corner vacuuming, scrubbing the stains out of the sink. But a cleaning lady can’t get to that unless everything is picked up.”
As she passed the door to her bedroom, she heard her alarm buzzing and realized she’d forgotten the time in her frantic haste to prepare for Edith. She roused the boys without much sympathy for their sleepy pleas for another five minutes. Katie was already up, doing her hair. “Put away all those bottles and tubes and cans, Katie. I’m having a new cleaning lady today and I don’t want—“
“Mother! You’re having a cleaning lady? What if she gets killed too?“
“Katie, don’t be ridiculous!”
Jane said it with a conviction she didn’t feel. Lightning doesn’t strike twice in the same place, she’d been telling herself, but that didn’t necessarily apply to murder. At least, she supposed it didn’t. Still, she went back and gave Katie a hug that both pleased and embarrassed her. “Don’t worry, kiddo.”
As she headed out later with her first car pool, she noticed the red MG back in front of the Nowacks’. Now that Paul was back, VanDyne was probably questioning him. Did Paul Nowack have enemies who might have had something to do with the murder? Jane wondered. Who could guess? For, as much as she and Shelley saw of each other, Jane never felt she knew Paul at all. He traveled a great deal, and Jane had few opportunities to make her own assessment of him. As a neighbor, he was nice in a quiet way. But it wasn’t any sort of shyness—more a sense of a powerful personality that was at rest. It had to be. How else would a Polish steelworker’s boy turn into the man who owned a nationwide chain of Greek fast-food restaurants? That sort of thing didn’t happen to wimpy men.
Questions started popping into her mind. Some pertinent, some idiotic. Why not Polish fast food, at least? Even if he were involved in something unsavory—which was highly unlikely—a disgruntled business enemy would hardly think killing his wife’s cleaning lady would intimidate him.
Besides everything else, very few people had any idea where he lived. Shelley had said many times that he felt business was business and home was home. They even had an unlisted phone number, because he didn’t want his franchisees being able to call him at home. In fact, his office staff didn’t know how to find him; only his private secretary knew their home number. “The franchisees will call him in the middle of the night to ask how the dishwasher works otherwise,“ Shelley had said once when Jane asked about it.
That in itself was odd, now that she was thinking about it, in the light of a recent murder in the Nowack home. Was that really the reason for the unlisted number? Or was there a more sinister reason for keeping their number and address secret from the outside world? That is ridiculous! Jane told herself. Suspecting Paul of dark secrets was as insane as suspecting Shelley.
...suspecting Shelley?...
“No!“ she said out loud.
“No what?“ Mike asked.
She’d forgotten Mike and Katie were in the car. “Nothing. Just a crazy thought I had.“
“You know what they say about people who talk to themselves,“ Katie said meaningfully.
“No, and I don’t want to know,“ she said.
Jane dropped Katie off at the junior high and Mike and his group at the high school. Mike had the wisdom to refrain from asking to drive this morning, which she thought showed a nice sense of maturity. When she got back home, Todd was sitting on the front porch, playing with a neighborhood cat.
“Todd, I told you to stay inside with the house locked until Mrs. Wallenberg got here,“ Jane said. She
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