Nantucket Sawbuck Read Online Free

One more little piece of information. Even if he had to make it up on the spot.”
    â€œSo who was he fighting with?”
    â€œLately it was mostly the tradespeople. Pat Folger? Do you know him?”
    I knew Pat, and I’d seen him rip into Lomax at the same Christmas party. That was one argument the tycoon didn’t win. I nodded, scribbled the name. The notes made some people nervous and I used them that way when I needed to. But they were calming Kathleen down. She needed to know what she said was important.
    â€œPat has to pay all his sub-contractors, so I guess money is pretty tight for him right now. But some of the worker people are independent. Mike Henderson, and the plumber, and the electrician. They had to go to Dad directly. He was bragging about it at dinner one night—not having to pay Pat Folger his percentage, cutting out the middleman. Dad hates the middleman. I feel bad for those guys, asking him for money directly. I could barely get my allowance out of him. The electrician, Tom Danziger? He’s a total sweetheart, despite the ‘I stand with Arizona’ bumper sticker and all his second amendment blah blah. It just goes to show—politics don’t mean anything. Some of the ickiest people I know are Democrats, sorry. Anyway, Tom helped me change a flat tire one day, in the rain no less, and the next time he saw me he said ‘you’ve cut your hair’. I took like two inches off. No one else even noticed.”
    â€œHe sounds like a good egg.”
    â€œHe told me, ‘If I don’t get paid soon your Dad’s going to own my company.’”
    â€œDid he seem angry?”
    â€œHe seemed sad. He said people do this stuff all the time, they brag about not paying the final bill. I guess the idea is, like, all the tradesmen are ripping them off and over-charging, and the final bill is pure profit.”
    â€œRight. Can’t have mere tradesmen making a profit.”
    That earned a quick brittle laugh. “Exactly. The plumber was really mad one day. I saw him slam the door on the way out but I don’t even know his name. He’s kind of scary, though. Can you tell who might have committed murder by things like that?”
    â€œNot really. I wish we could.” There was a pause, then. She squinted in thought, like she was trying to remember a line from a movie or the tune of a song. “What?” I said.
    â€œSpeaking of scary guys …”
    â€œGo on.”
    â€œA big mean-looking guy came to the house last week and then drove off in this big black pick-up truck. I’d never seen him before.”
    â€œHe wasn’t working on the house.”
    â€œNo,”
    â€œWould you recognize him? Pick him out of a lineup?
    â€œOh yeah. Totally.”
    â€œI may ask you to do that later. He won’t be able to see you.”
    â€œOkay.”
    I was done. I closed the notebook. Charlie Boyce hoisted his phone and said. “Fraker’s ten minutes out, Chief. More like five minutes, now.”
    â€œI think I need a glass of water, or an aspirin or something,” Kathleen said. “Percocet would be good. No, seriously. Would that be all right? My Mom has some in her medicine chest.”
    â€œThat’s fine. But I’d go easy on the Percocet, if you’ve been drinking.”
    â€œI had like one glass of wine. And that was hours ago. I wish I had been drinking. I could use a drink right now.”
    â€œThat’s probably not the best idea.”
    â€œI know. I’m just going to get the stuff, okay?”
    â€œSure. But I’m going to send one of the officers up with you. If that’s all right.”
    â€œSure, fine. Whatever.”
    She pushed herself off the couch. I nodded to Charlie and he started upstairs behind Kathleen.
    Kyle Donnelly came inside and walked over to a hutch with beveled glass doors. Various pieces of silver were displayed inside. “You’d think a