Where Secrets Sleep. Marta Perry

and Leslie was a glutton for details. She’d want to know the assessed value of the property, the taxes, the expenses and the amount of rent that came in each month before venturing an opinion as to the best course of action for Allison. The logical place to look for those answers was in the office her grandmother had maintained upstairs.

      Early spring daffodils curtsied in the cool breeze that swept across the lawn in front of Blackburn House. Care of the grounds was undoubtedly her responsibility. She could only hope her grandmother had a service in place to deal with such things.

      The stained-glass detail in the transom pane above the front door glowed as a slant of sunlight hit it, and the brass door handle echoed with a gleam of its own. The meticulous care that had been taken of the building seemed to indicate that Evelyn Standish had been fond of the place. Odd, surely, that it didn’t bear her family’s name.

      Allison went inside, the cat carrier dangling from one hand, and nearly ran into Nick, who was just turning away from the door to his showroom, keys in his hand.

      He smiled, eyes crinkling, and nodded toward the cat carrier. “You’re not going to attack me with that again, are you?”

      She couldn’t seem to stop herself from responding to that smile. “I was just defending myself, remember?”

      “True enough.” He reached out to test the cat carrier door, earning a hiss from Hector. “Is it holding together all right?”

      “Fine, thanks.” She glanced at the door to his showroom. It bore a hand-lettered placard. Out now. Leave a note or try the workshop in back. That reminded her of her disapproval.

      “Closing early today?”

      Nick blinked, as if not understanding her for a moment. Then he shrugged. “I can’t waste time sitting there hoping someone will come in. If anybody does, they know to look for us back in the shop.”

      She couldn’t help frowning a little as she glanced at the shop door. “Wouldn’t you get more business if you kept the showroom open?”

      His brow lifted in that infuriating manner. “Know a lot about cabinetmaking, do you?”

      “No, but—”

      “Then maybe you ought to let me run my own business while you tend to yours.” He strode off toward the back of the building, obviously having had enough of her.

      She clutched the cat carrier and stalked to the stairs. All right, fine. She’d take care of her own business. That’s what she planned to do right now. Avoiding the gaze of the bookstore proprietor, who had come hopefully to the entrance to his shop, Allison hurried upstairs toward her grandmother’s office, heels clicking on the marble stairs.

      * * *

      NICK, PROPELLED BY what he considered righteous indignation, stormed to the back door, but before he could reach it Ralph Mitchell darted out of the bookstore and intercepted him. Ralph’s thin pale face was anxious, his nose twitching so that he looked like an elderly rabbit.

      “You were talking to her. What’s she like? What’s she going to do? Did she tell you?”

      Nick curbed his annoyance with Allison and tried to look reassuring. “I don’t know. I don’t think she’s decided yet what her plans are for the building.”

      It was on the tip of his tongue to tell Ralph about the restrictions to Allison’s ownership, but he held back. Ralph’s reputation as a gossip was well deserved. He talked to everyone who visited Blackburn House, to say nothing of all the people he encountered on his daily trips to the post office and the bank. He collected tidbits of information everywhere he went, sometimes sewing them into a fantastic array of speculation, but more often than not into something very close to the truth.

      Ralph would undoubtedly find out about Allison’s provisional ownership from someone, but it didn’t have to be him.

      “But how can you be sure? If she sells, what’s going to happen to us?” Ralph was close to wringing his hands. “You know Evelyn hasn’t raised our rents in years. How could we find comparable places for our businesses at those prices?”

      “We probably couldn’t.” That was the truth, and Ralph knew it as well as he did, but it was hardly reassuring. “Look, we don’t know anything yet. For all I’ve heard, Ms. Standish may intend to just turn the business over to a property manager to handle and head back to her job in the city. That would be the easiest thing she could do.”

      “True.” Ralph pushed his glasses back up on his nose with a characteristic gesture. Usually they clung to the end of his nose and he peered over them nearsightedly. “Still, I don’t understand why she hasn’t come to talk to me yet. It makes me nervous.”

      That was a good question. As far as Nick could tell, Allison seemed inclined to avoid her responsibilities here.

      “I’m sure she’ll be around to see you soon.” He patted Ralph’s slumped shoulder. “No need to start worrying before you have to, right?”

      “I suppose you’re right.” Ralph sounded reluctant. “But do you think—”

      “Gotta go. Dad’s expecting me, and I’m late.” He moved as he spoke, knowing if he didn’t, Ralph was capable of keeping him there talking and speculating all afternoon.

      In a couple of minutes he was clear of the building, and he blew out a breath of exasperation. He felt sorry for Ralph, but the man’s timidity and gossipy nature about drove him crazy.

      Dad, on the other hand, was so calm that Nick sometimes wondered if he caught all that was going on around him. When he reached the workshop he found his father already well into the next job they had on hand, humming tunelessly while he worked. He was what Nick would be in another thirty years, he supposed—lean, leathery, with tanned skin, wrinkles around his eyes, going a little gray at the temples.

      Nick tossed his jacket in the general direction of the hook on the wall and joined him. The new cabinets were cherry, and the wood a challenge but a joy to work with. He smoothed his hand down the fine grain.

      “Sorry I’m late.”

      Dad shrugged. “No problem. Somebody come in the showroom?”

      “Nothing like that. I had another little run-in with Allison Standish.”

      “Was that a good idea?” His father’s voice was mild.

      “I didn’t start it.” Nick wished the words back the minute they were out of his mouth. It sounded like what he and Mac used to say when they’d been squabbling. “Anyway, the woman is being unreasonable. She hasn’t even talked to the rest of the tenants in the building yet. Ralph is in a state about it.”

      “Ralph’s always in a state.”

      True enough. “I couldn’t blame him this time. Seems to me she’s trying to impose her big-city standards on Laurel Ridge, and that’s not how things are done here. The least she could do is to talk to everyone and let them know what’s happening instead of standing back looking down her nose at us.” He frowned down at the screwdriver in his hand and wondered what he’d picked it up for.

      “Hmm.” Dad took a careful measurement, wrote it down and then measured again. Only then did he glance at Nick. “So, besides being obnoxious and superior, what’s Allison Standish like?”

      He shrugged, for all the world as if he hadn’t paid attention. “Red hair. Well, more coppery-colored, I guess you’d say. Green eyes. Sort of a heart-shaped face and fair skin. She’s got a way of looking up at you that...” Never mind about his reactions. He certainly didn’t want to discuss them with his father. “Not much like her grandmother, that’s for sure.”

      “You hardly noticed her, right?” Dad’s eyes were twinkling.

      “It’s not like that,” he said with as much dignity as he could manage. “I’m just concerned about all of us. She could do a lot of damage through not understanding how small