Hard Hat Man by Edna Curry Page B

coffeemaker. “Nancy was killed fifteen years ago. Why would that make me in danger now?”
    He shrugged. “Well, you know, all the stuff that’s been happening out here. The whole town’s talking about bad luck following Kyle’s project.”
    She frowned at him. “You told Mom about those things? Why?”
    He flushed and fidgeted on the wooden chair. “Well, you know, she asked how things were going, so I told her.”
    Jan gaped at him. “You had no business telling her that stuff. I didn’t tell her about it ‘cause she fusses. And she can’t do anything about it from London, can she?”
    He shrugged. “I guess not.”
    She shot him a frustrated frown. “So, you can just call her back and tell her everything’s fine here, okay?”
    “Uh, sure. I can do that,” he said with a sheepish look on his face.
    The doorbell rang again. With a sigh, she went to answer it. This time, Louise Robards stood on the doorstep. Her heavy-set body filled out a blue business suit and her face wore and eager smile.
    “Hi. I was in the neighborhood and thought I’d see if you’ve found anything you wish to donate to the Historical Society,” she said.
    “Come on in. Mr. Andrews is here and I’m making some coffee. I’ve got several boxes of books and some furniture for you to look at.”
    Erick seemed embarrassed to be caught at the farm and after hurriedly drinking his coffee and making small talk for a few minutes, took his leave.
    Jan was happy to have him go. Louise’s arrival had forestalled any attempt he might have made to ask her out. She was sure Laura ’s phone call had been prompted as much by a match-making attempt as by worry for her daughter’s safety. Laura never tired of trying to marry her off.
    Louise looked up as Jan came back from seeing Erick to the door. “I don’t like that man,” she commented. “Be careful around him.”
    “ I will. ”
    Louise set her cup on the table and rose to her feet. “Let’s see what you’ve found for me here.”
    Jan took her through the various rooms, showing her the few pieces of furniture she thought might be antiques. “Whatever you’d like is fine with me and Mom,” she told Louise. “We’re just giving the rest to Goodwill. And what they don’t want will go into the dumpster outside.”
    “Oh, we’ll be happy to take some of these chests of drawers,” Louise said. “And Horace’s desk, too, if you don’t mind. I always admired that piece. ”
    “Kyle thought you might want some of these history books,” Jan said, opening a box and pointing to its contents. There are lots of old Bible s and Bible reference books too.”
    Louise began picking up and glancing through some of the Bible s. “No, I don’t think we’ll want these. Nothing special about them that I can see,” she said. “ But I’m sure his church will want them. They always hand out free Bibles to people. I’ll take them and drop them off to them.”
    “Fine. Less stuff for me to sort through.”
    “ Oh, but you may want to keep this one. ” She held out a note book to Jan. “ It’s a collection of Horace’s personal sermons.”
    Jan took the large loose-leaf notebook and paged through it. “Really? Horace wrote sermons?” They were all neatly handwritten, with many sentences underlined for emphasis.
    “Sure. That small church he belonged to didn’t have a regular pastor. So the members took turns leading the service themselves. Not all of them would do it, of course, but I heard Horace did it quite often.”
    Jan put it aside, saying, “I’ll look at it later.”
    Louise nodded. “When would you like me to take the stuff?”
    “As soon as is convenient for you,” Jan said.
    Louise smiled. “Then how about right now? I’ll call a couple of my assistants and they’ll bring a truck . ”
    “Fine,” Jan agreed. “I’ll just empty Horace’s desk into a box to sort later and you can take that, too. Same with the dressers. Just put the clothes and stuff into a