Save Me - Lisa Scottoline [103]
“Maybe, but murder?”
“I’m just saying it smells, don’t you agree? That guy on the tape doesn’t sound like Kurt after only two beers, does he?”
“It doesn’t but I still don’t get why Hank got into the car with him.”
“Maybe Hank couldn’t tell. What if Kurt wasn’t that talkative? What if Hank saw Kurt drink only two beers and figured he was fine to drive, even if he did slur a little?” Rose put her phone away. “Something’s wrong with this picture, and two men are dead. And I think it’s connected with the fire.”
Warren frowned. “We should go to the police.”
“With what? What do we say? A buzzed guy got in a truck, drove, and had an accident? That’s not suspicious.”
“True.”
“And they think that the fire was accidental. Besides, I’m the last person who they’d believe, since I’m involved.”
“That’s true, too.” Warren sighed, a huge exhale from his barrel chest. “But if someone murdered Kurt and Hank, I want to be the first to know about it.”
“Then maybe you can help,” Rose said, with hope.
Chapter Fifty-six
Rose hit the gas, with Warren in the passenger seat. He’d changed into slacks and a fresh polo shirt, which he’d had with him for night school, and he’d shaved in the school’s men’s room. She could see, in the light, that he was older than she’d thought, maybe thirty-five. Or maybe it was the grim set to his jaw, as if he were gearing up for the task ahead. They were in rush-hour traffic on the bucolic back roads out of Reesburgh, heading to Campanile’s headquarters, near West Chester.
“Okay, so what’s the plan?” Warren asked, looking over.
“Let’s review, okay?” Rose wasn’t sure what to do next. “We can’t know where we’re going if we don’t know where we’ve been.”
“That’s deep.”
“You’re telling me. I just learned it.” Rose smiled. “Now, Kurt thought that polyurethane left in the teachers’ lounge contributed to the explosion, but he was killed before I could ask him how. So far I’ve heard a few different reasons for the explosion, like faulty wiring, a gas leak, and a punch list not done. What have you heard?”
“The same thing, except for the punch list. Punch lists never get done, and nothing explodes.”
“So what caused the explosion?”
Warren shrugged. “The fire marshals’ report won’t come out for weeks, and that’s what the lawsuits will be about, and all that.”
“So let’s try to figure it out, ourselves. You’re an expert, and I’m a … mom.”
Warren smiled crookedly. “You’re kinda nutty, lady.”
Rose smiled back. She slowed, passing an Amish man driving a buggy, his head tilted down and only his beard visible under the brim of his straw hat. “We have an advantage. They think it’s accidental, and we don’t.”
“Okay.”
“So how exactly do you make an explosion with gas, loose wires, and cans of polyurethane?”
Warren looked over. “Where did you say the poly was?”
“The polyurethane? In the teachers’ lounge.” Rose thought back to her conversation with Kristen. “Somebody shellacked the cabinets on Thursday, the day before the explosion, and left it there. That seems odd to me.”
“Why?”
“Shellacking cabinets is the kind of thing they do before you move in, that’s what we did at my new house, and it was already done in the lounge, I saw a photo. Why do the cabinets need a second coat, all of a sudden? It was a month after school opened.”
Warren nodded slowly. “The teachers eat in there?”
“Some, yes.”
Warren wrinkled his nose. “That would stink.”
“It did, and that’s what I thought.” Rose thought again of Kristen. They whizzed by horse pastures with run-in sheds, and hand-painted signs advertising Halloween hay rides and corn mazes. “The lounge reeked of it, and there were WET PAINT signs everywhere.”
“That’s interesting.”
“Why?”
“The poly would have hidden any gas smell.”
Rose looked over, her ears pricking up. “So if a bad guy knew he was going to make a gas leak, he might shellac some cabinets