Plain Jane Mystery Box Set 1 Read online

  “Can you drive? The guys dropped me off last night. We can go get my car and then eat.”

  “You could have just asked. I would have driven you to get your car.”

  He got in the passenger seat. “Whatever. We need to eat anyway.”

  Jane sat in the driver’s seat with her hands on the wheel.

  Jake reclined his seat. He closed his eyes and stretched an arm over his face.

  “And where are we going?” Jane asked.

  Jake lifted his arm an inch. He yawned. “Do you know where corporate offices are?”

  “Aren’t they in Maywood?”

  “Mmm-hmm.”

  She took his mumble as a “yes” and headed for Maywood. It looked like she’d have to wait for him to wake up a little before she asked about getting paid.

  The Crawford Family Restaurant Corporation offices were behind their original restaurant, in downtown Maywood, a small town on the outskirts of Portland. The downtown consisted of Main Street and the streets two blocks to the north and south of Main. It stretched about three miles long and was generally more charming cottage business than financial district, though one or two of those kinds of businesses had survived the generations.

  Roly Burger was just north of Main. Jane parked around back.

  When the car stopped Jake stretched up and yawned again. “Thanks a million Jane. Run upstairs and I’ll bring you some breakfast.”

  Jane let her hand rest on the stick shift. She was tempted to say thanks but no thanks, but the gnawing in her stomach swayed her opinion. She had no confidence in Jake’s ability to or interest in paying her. Or his grasp of the concept that people worked for money.

  She hiked upstairs.

  A receptionist, or admin assistant, or someone along those lines sat behind a small desk in front of the door. Bob Crawford’s sister-in-law Marjory stood beside her.

  Jane slid in and took a seat. The office was warm, and the smell of bacon-breakfast-sandwiches wafted up from the restaurant. Jane took a deep breath. It smelled like home.

  Marjory, six feet tall in heels, was an imposing figure. She looked over the top of her horn rimmed reading glasses at Jane. She narrowed her eyes. “Aren’t you that Adler girl?”

  Jane flinched. “Ummm, yes.”

  “Your parents had a couple of locations of Roly Burgers, right? That one out in the country and the other one on the East side?”

  “Their franchise had three locations. Two outside of town and the one on the Eastside.”

  “Hmmmph.” Marjory turned back to the lady at the desk. “Let’s finish this up later today, all right?”

  The admin frowned at her computer screen. “I need to get the statement off to the franchisers as soon as possible, don’t I?”

  Marjory glanced at Jane and shook her head.

  “What do you need?”

  “I’m waiting for Jake.”

  “Ahhhh.” Marjory let out an annoyed sigh. “You went to Presbyterian Prep with him, didn’t you?”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  Marjory raised an eyebrow. “This is an early date.” Marjory turned her eyes to the front window. “Getting breakfast?”

  Jane didn’t like what Marjory’s tone implied. “Jake needed to pick up his car. I was at the house anyway so I gave him a ride.”

  “Oh?”

  It was getting worse. Jane stammered and closed her mouth.

  “Did you stay over, then? And his parents dead just a few days.”

  “Ma’am. I’m the cleaner. I come Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.”

  Marjory raised an eyebrow. “Oh, yes. I remember Pam saying that the Adler girl cleans houses. You’re not still coming are you?”

  Jane opened her mouth to speak but Marjory didn’t give her a chance.

  “Oh I suppose she set up auto pay. Well you’d better keep coming then until the estate is settled. I don’t want to be paying you for nothing.”

  Jane stood up. “Ma’am, the thing is…”

  Marjory held her hand up, “Not now, please. We are a family in crisis. I really don’t have time for whatever problems the housecleaner has.” She turned from Jane, and let herself into the office marked “Bob Crawford.”

  Jane sat down again.

  Jake burst through the office door. “Aunt.” He kissed Marjory on the cheek.

  Marjory frowned.

  Jake dropped a to-go bag on Jane’s lap. “Thanks, Janey. You’re a real sport.”

  Jane gripped the top of the paper bag in her fist.

  “Whatcha doing tonight?”

  “I’ve got class.” The warm, familiar aroma of the Roly Burger breakfast sandwich sent Jane’s hunger into hyperdrive. All she wanted to do was slip away and eat.

  Jake snorted. “Have fun with that then.” He opened the door and let himself back out again.

  Jane followed him. “Wait a second, Jake.”

  “Yeah?” He smiled, one dimple popping in his cheek.

  “Marjory said something about me cleaning until the estate is sorted out. Because of auto pay—but I’m not on auto pay and I really need my last paycheck. Err, cash. Your mom always paid cash.”

  Jake frowned. He narrowed his eyes. “Is that so? She always paid cash?”

  Jane nodded. “I’m sorry. I don’t mean to be a bother, it’s just that my budget is tight and every little bit makes a big difference.”

  Jake looked at his watch. “Sorry. Auntie Marge is right. You’re just going to have to wait until the estate is sorted out.” He looked up and smiled, but not with his eyes. “I wouldn’t quit cleaning if I were you. It would make your case for another ‘cash’ payment pretty hard.”

  Jane crossed her arms. “And if I quit you’d have to clean up after yourself.”

  Jake’s eyes relaxed a little. “You got it. Listen, you keep coming and I’ll see what I can do about getting you paid. Deal?”

  “What other choice do I have?” Getting a new client sounded like a good choice to her. The idea of serving the family in crisis nagged at the back of her mind. “I’ll do what I can, okay?”

  “You and me both.” Jake opened the door to his Camaro. “See you around.”

  Jane decided to drive back home to eat her free breakfast.

  Sam wasn’t at the apartment, which was a welcome relief. Jane sat on her bed without putting the screen up. Her Roly Breakfast Burger and hash brown sticks were cold, but it still tasted like heaven.

  According to Isaac, God had put her in his class so she could minister to the Crawfords. According to Marjory she was obliged to clean until the estate was sorted out. According to Jake she ought to do the cleaning so he wouldn’t have to.

  According to her budget she needed over $500 if she wanted to keep her place in Sam’s apartment, get her books for class, and continue to eat. She expected $300 from her clients on Monday, but the Crawfords were her big-ticket family. They paid for a month of service all at once and paid much more per hour than the others. The $300 on Monday just wouldn’t cut it.

  Jane created a new flyer for Plain Jane’s Good Clean Houses and printed them out. She’d start soliciting referrals at her next house. She checked her watch—she had just enough time to whip up a batch of cookie dough before she left.

  When Jane had cleaned her way down to the main floor of the Larsen house she spooned the chocolate-chip dough onto the cookie sheets she had brought with her. She would bake them so that when she left the house it would smell like heaven. Several of her fliers would be waiting with a tray of fresh-baked cookies. She would write a little note explaining that she had room in her schedule to add a new client. She closed the oven door and said a little prayer.

  Jane had left a lot of unfinished work at the Crawfords’ because of the little breakfast run. If she went to the Crawfords’ house before she hit the laundry mat she would feel much better about her day. As a bonus, she’d be less likely to run into Sam getting ready for another night of clubbing.

  And she’d leave Jake a batch of cooki
es too. Not that anyone he knew was looking for a housekeeper, but it was a little thing she could do for Jake. And Phoebe, of course.

  Nothing much had changed at the Crawford house since she had been there on Monday, but she decided to complete the usual cleaning tasks. When she got to the bedrooms her heart flipped in her chest. She knew that Bob and Pamela were long gone, but she knocked on their bedroom door first anyway.

  Everything in the room was the way it had been left on Monday. Her mind raced. Was she allowed in her yet? Should she call the cops to find out if she could clean? Call Jake to find out? Just clean anyway and claim ignorance? Maybe Marjory had directions for her. Her phone was in her pocket as always, so she pulled it out again. Her fingers trembled as she held it. She should call the cops first. She began to dial 911, but she didn’t hit send. 911 was the emergency number. What was the regular police number? She tapped her pointer finger on the screen. She should just call Marjory. Marjory would know what to do.

  Jane scrolled through the numbers and pulled up Marjory Crawford. “Hello, Marjory?”

  “Yes?” There was a hint of irritation in Marjory’s voice.

  “This is Jane Adler, the housecleaner. I spoke with you this morning. I was just wondering about the master bedroom. Am I allowed to clean it?”

  “Excuse me?” Her voice was thick with irritation now.

  “I just, I mean it hasn’t been touched since the police were here. Do they want to keep it a crime scene or something?”

  “The room hasn’t been touched, Jane, because you are the housecleaner and you haven’t touched it. In other words, yes. Do your job.”

  Heat rose to Jane’s face. Marjory had hung up on her. Of course. Cleaning this room was her job. And just because it was unusual for both Bob and Pamela to die on the same morning doesn’t mean it was a crime. Jane stuffed the phone in her pocket and stripped the bed. It looked like her quick stop at the Crawfords’ was laundry day as well.

  She knocked on the next bedroom door. There was no reply so she let herself in. She did not use her tricky one-swish bed-stripping maneuver, but pulled the blankets off slowly and carefully. There were six bedrooms in the Crawford house. If she expected a corpse in every bed the laundry would never get started, much less finished, but she knocked on the third bedroom door anyway.

  There were no corpses waiting for her. No cobwebs either. She stripped both single beds as fast as she could, leaving the duvets in a pile on the floor.

  She pushed open the fourth bedroom door.

  “Well, hello there.”

  Jane jumped back and knocked into the door behind her. “I am so sorry.”

  “Doesn’t bother me.” Jake was standing in front of a mirror jelling his hair in nothing but a short towel. “Need something?”

  Jane looked out at the hall. “I’m just stripping the beds. I’ll come back.”

  “Don’t rush out. You can strip with me here.” Jake chuckled.

  “No, I’ll come back.” Jane pulled the door shut behind her. She held on to the doorknob for a moment and tried to compose herself, but she was shaking with embarrassment. The door twisted in her grip.

  “Hey now, don’t lock me in here.”

  Jane dropped the handle and hurried down the hall.

  Jake stepped out. “It’s no biggy. Just grab my sheets when you get a chance. I’ll be downstairs.”

  Jane didn’t turn around. She heard him run down the steps. She was a maid. Seen and not heard. Seen and not heard. She sorely wished she hadn’t been seen or heard.

  At bedroom number five she knocked again. When no one said anything, she let herself in.

  She stared at the bed for a moment, not exactly understanding what she was seeing. She closed her eyes and opened them. Luggage. It was just luggage. Three matching Louis Vuitton suitcases on top of the bed. She hefted them off of the bed and stripped the blankets. Her first guess was that Phoebe had come home, but this wasn’t Phoebe’s usual room.

  Could be Marjory, but Marjory had a house twice as big as this back in Maywood. Why would she move to the second-best guest bedroom at her brother-in-law’s house? When Bob’s brother William had died while Jane was still a kid, Marjory had demanded that everyone leave her alone. Surely she wouldn’t push herself on her niece and nephew right now, but then, who else could it be?

  The question of who this luggage belonged to didn’t matter. What mattered was getting the sheets in the laundry. She added them to the basket and went to the last bedroom.

  Phoebe had moved out at the beginning of the year, but you couldn’t tell it from her room. Jane followed regular procedures and left everything alone except the sheets. These, she pulled off as fast as she could and dumped them in her laundry basket. She turned a blind eye to the dust and clutter. It wasn’t her house so it wasn’t her business.

  She hesitated at the door. Half-naked Jake could be anywhere right now, but she thought she could avoid him if she stuck to the back stairs, the cleaning closets, the laundry room, and the cellar. Basically anywhere work might get done. Too bad she still needed to clean the rest of the house as well.

  She braced herself and shouldered the door open. Eyes firmly ahead she made it to the laundry room without distraction. She popped the door open with her hip and set the basket down.

  “Hey, one more idea.” Jake was sitting on the laundry machine with his bare legs hanging over the round, glass-faced door. He was still in his towel.

  Jane sighed. “Yes?”

  Jake hopped down, to the detriment of the arrangement of his towel. He snatched it up and clutched it in front of him with a chuckle. “I have too much to do around here. I need live-in help.”

  Jane trained her eyes to the ceiling and said nothing.

  “What do you think?”

  “I think you need to get dressed.” Jane held the laundry basket in front of her like a shield.

  “Heh-heh. Yeah, but I also need someone to cook and do the laundry and stuff. Are you interested?”

  “I’m not a live-in maid.”

  “It’s a big house, Jane. Have some sympathy for an orphan.”

  Jane looked up at him. “I think you are in shock, Jake. How are you dealing with losing both of your parents?”

  “Terribly, Jane, just terribly. Won’t you move in and take care of me? I can’t stay here all by myself.”

  “All by yourself? Someone is in the guest bedroom.” She motioned toward the hall with her basket.

  “Never.”

  “No, really. Someone is in the second best—the yellow room.”

  “You’re crazy. What makes you think someone is staying here?” Jake walked over to the door and stood in front of it, one hand holding his towel up, the other resting on the doorjamb.

  “The matching set of Louis Vuitton luggage sitting on the bed makes me think it.”

  “But who is it?”

  “Jake, really? Where is your head?”

  “It’s in mourning, Jane. Have some sympathy. Let’s go see whose luggage is in the yellow room.”

  “Feel free. I have to do the laundry.” She motioned to the machine with her hefty basket of sheets.

  Jake gripped his towel with one hand and grabbed Jane’s elbow with the other. “Come on. Let’s see who horned in on the family riches.”

  Jane set her basket on top of the machine. She let Jake pull her out of the laundry room. She was running out of time to get everything done before school started, but she was curious who was staying at the house.

  In the bedroom Jake popped open the first suitcase. “Cotton nightgown, size huge? Real rabbit fur slippers? Any guesses yet?” He tossed the slipper on the floor. “I have one. Aunt Marjory. Let’s see.” He pulled a smaller case to himself and flipped over the luggage tag. “Mrs. M. Crawford. That would be the lady herself. The Aunt-in-question. But when did she get here?”

  “Sometime after we got breakfast?”

  “Or was it before? We could check the status of her bed if someone hadn’t strippe
d it of its clues.”

  “Sorry.” Jane turned to the door. It wouldn’t be pleasant for her if Marjory were to pop in right now. “Can I get back to the laundry again?”

  Jake tucked the ends of his towel in a little tighter and took Jane by both of her hands, “Not until you promise to move into the third-best guest room. You wouldn’t leave a nice innocent boy like me in a house like this with a woman like that, would you?”

  It was tempting. To not leave him, that is. “I can’t move in here. Marjory wouldn’t like it at all.”

  “Another good reason!”

  “I’m going to do the laundry.”

  “Can I bring you a load? You might have noticed, you might not have, but I have nothing to wear.”

  Jane sighed again. Another hour to wash his clothes too? Why not? “Yes, yes, bring them in. But I do have to get to school today.”

  “Whatever.” Jake dropped her hands and sauntered out of the room, his towel slipping just a little as he went.

  Jane turned away again. She absolutely did not want to be Jake’s live-in maid.

  Chapter 4

  Class time came as a relief after the long day. The musty basement with the flickering fluorescent lights felt like a retreat. Jane sat at her desk next to Sarah. Getting to the end of Jake’s laundry and the rest of the cleaning had taken her to the last minute. She hadn’t had time to run home and change much less get to the laundry mat to do her own clothes. She smelled like a combination of fresh baked cookies, lemon pledge, and hard work, but hoped her friend wouldn’t notice. She thanked the Lord that books for her class hadn’t come in yet, since she still didn’t have money to buy them, much less time to read them.

  Jane typed furiously as Mr. Daniels lectured. Her hand cramped as she hit the keys, but attempting to get down everything she heard helped her stay awake.

  Night class. Jane yawned. She looked at her computer screen. The words “let’s take five” were in front of her blinking cursor. She smiled at them. It was a good thing she was taking notes, since she was clearly not paying attention.

  “Earth to Jane.” Sarah waved her hands in front of Jane’s screen. “Want to run out to the cart and get a coffee?”