The Garage Fridge Situation: Jax of All Trade, #1

By Fallon Brown

Lou Carsley knows what they like. A job well done and a nice cold beer after that job. The once a week meetings with the queer book club they founded with their best friend, Cordelia. Their family…in small doses. Seeing the chance to expand their business, Jax of All Trade. What they don't like can be narrowed down more: bills, bullies, and oh yeah, stumbling over a dead body while on a job. Brenten Olver may have made an art form of bullying even beyond high school, but that didn't mean he'd deserved to have his head bashed in.
Lou is the first one Coalville police officer Matthias Lindert seems to look to when the body turns up. Not only were they the one to discover the body, but everyone knows about the argument the two of them had right there for all to see on Main Street.
Lou needs to prove their innocence if they're going to get him off their back. They'd much rather have him on his back. But, at best, he seems indifferent to them. Of course, at worst, he thinks they're a killer. So, maybe the indifference isn't so bad.
And when a second body turns up, Lou realizes it's not only their innocence they need to worry about. But just who might be next.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Fallon Brown
• Release date: Apr 13, 2022
• ISBN: 9798201182977

Fallon Brown

Fallon Brown was born and raised in a tiny town in the northwestern corner of Pennsylvania. At one time, she dreamed of having a cabin in the woods or mountains where she could be left alone to write. Instead she spent three years studying psychology before realizing that wasn't for her. She now lives outside of a slightly larger small town in the same corner of her home state with her husband, two children, dog, and cat. She spends her days interfering in the lives of fictional characters while trying to keep a semblance of a clean house. Often the clean house bit fails

Book preview

Chapter 1

Swizzle sticks.

I stared at the refrigeration component in my hand. The wrong part. Of course it was the wrong part. Nothing about this job could go right. If I'd known this wasn't the right part, I wouldn't have already torn the fridge apart to replace it. Grabbing my phone, I brought up my ordering app and dropped the no-good part in my toolbox. It might come in handy on another job at least. If my client gave me the right part number when I asked him for it, this wouldn't even be a problem.

The customer is always right, Lou, I reminded myself. The customer is always right.

I rolled my eyes at that. Yeah, sure. Always right. Except for when they were dead wrong and made my job harder.

I got the right part ordered, then dialed the client's number. And got shot right to his voicemail. Didn't surprise me. He barely had time for me when he hired me.

Mr. Olver, I said once the tone sounded, this is Lou Carsley from Jax of All Trade. I won't be able to finish fixing the refrigerator in your garage today. I had the wrong part delivered.

It did no good to blame the client, even if it was their fault. Addressing someone I'd gone to school with, who made my existence hell for most of that time, mostly because they disagreed with me identifying as genderqueer, with such respect grated on me. At the same time, I was trying to grow my business, and I didn't want to do anything to risk that. I've ordered the correct part, and will finish as soon as that comes in.

I ended the call before I let any snark get through. That would not be professional. I clipped the phone back to the holster on my tool belt and packed up my tools. I couldn't do much more here. With a glance at my watch, I saw I could make it to book club tonight and not be late like I thought I was going to be. Though I would still cut it close if I was to get home and clean up before making it to Cordelia's.

Of course, it wouldn't be the first time my best friend, or any of the other members of our book club, had seen me not looking my best. And this wasn't the worst I ever showed up looking.

Still, I'd been excited about discussing this book. It was one of the few I'd seen so much of myself in. I'm not sure how that equaled me needing to look my best, but still. I tossed my toolbox in the back of my truck and climbed into the cab. There wasn't anything else I could do here, so I might as well go now.

As I headed back toward town, I rolled down the window in my truck. The air conditioning had stopped working. Again. Yet another quick fix had not, in fact, fixed the problem. I knew a few things about car maintenance; I took care of the simple issues with my truck as well as my siblings' and Dad's vehicles. Mom said she'd rather take it to the dealer than risk something going wrong.

At least it was still early summer, and not too sweltering hot yet. I could get by with having my window rolled down.

I turned the truck down the hill, going into town, passing the school on my left, figuring it would look deserted. But there seemed to be a couple of kids on the playground behind the elementary school. I had never wanted to be that close to the school when I didn't have to be, but I'd always had enough room to play in our backyard. Not everyone was that lucky.

At the stoplight, I switched on the turn signal and went right onto Main Street. The library sat right on the corner, and I still saw a couple of lights on inside, even though it was just about closing time. Across the street, the bank had already shut everything off.

I drove the rest of the way down Main Street, making it under the next stoplight as it went from green to yellow. I parked in front of my house after turning onto my street.

When I walked inside, a dog's head was sticking over the baby gate across the kitchen doorway. I laughed and hurried over to take down the gate. It never failed that Zio would be waiting for me. Almost before I took the gate down, he was jumping up on me. Okay, okay, I said with a laugh. You can go out now

I opened the back door and watched him run around for a minute before I went into the bathroom to take a quick shower, then change into a pair of jeans and a t-shirt. Book club didn't require anything fancy after all.

I filled Zio's dishes before letting him back in, giving him a few scratches, and heading out again. He whined, but I'd give him a bit more attention when I got home for the night.

For now, it was time to head out to Cordelia's.

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I didn't bother knocking on the front door. Even if Cordelia hadn't been expecting me, her door was always open to me, so I opened it and headed on in. I didn't hear the chatter of voices yet, so I figured I must be the first one here. Hey, Cord, where do you want me?

On your back in my bed would be nice.

I followed her voice to the kitchen and leaned against the doorframe, watching her set out a veggie tray, then head back into the refrigerator. Her almost black hair was cut somewhere between a bob and a wedge. She must have hacked at it herself again. Right now, her brown eyes were sparkling with laughter. I liked that, even if it was at my expense. She moved with an economical grace I'd always admired. At one time, it was what I thought I loved about her. We tried that once, remember? It didn't work out too well.

We were seventeen. Things change.

I laughed and grabbed the cheese tray she pulled out. You don't, though. How long was your last relationship?

"I think my last relationship was with you."

Exactly what I'm talking about. You'd grind my heart into dust, Cord. I think I'd rather just be your friend.

Fine, Cordelia said with an overly put-upon sigh. I guess I can live with that.

With a laugh, I wrapped an arm around her shoulders. I don't know what I'd do without you, Cord.

Same.

There was a knock on the door as she continued to put out snacks. I'll grab that. It was probably one of our newer members. Most of the others walked right in. I headed to the front of Cordelia's house and opened the door. I smiled at Lucie, a young trans woman who recently moved to town. Her red hair swung just below her chin, and her green eyes always seemed so friendly.

I knew many people in town still looked at her sideways, but we welcomed her into the group. I'd liked her from the moment I met her, but the town could be like that with newcomers. Or anyone who was different, which was the reason we formed this club. Not just to discuss books, though we did a lot of that, but so we would have support, and so would others like us.

Come on in. I waved her into the house.

Lucie's smile was hesitant, and she pushed her glasses up farther on her nose even as she stepped into the house. It was only her second meeting. It took some people a bit to warm up to new people. I knew how that could be. I'd needed to get over it to conduct business, but that didn't make it easy to meet new people. At least she would have met everyone who planned to come tonight.

We'd just gotten to the kitchen when there was another knock on the door. I sighed and turned around to go back to it. Lucie stopped, too, but I waved her off. Go on in to the kitchen. Cord was just putting out snacks. I'll act as butler tonight.

I let Deke and Quin in, a couple of friends who lived just outside town. When we first met, I thought they were brothers. Deke was tall but not skinny, and he seemed comfortable with that. His blond hair was almost always in his light blue eyes. I tried to count how many times he brushed it away during one meeting, but I lost track.

Quin was a few inches shorter than Deke, and his hair had more red in it than Deke's, his eyes closer to green. It turned out they met as roommates in college and continued to live together after they both graduated, any similarities were coincidental. Quin and I bonded over not being the girls everyone assumed us to be at birth, but he didn't identify as non-binary.

I need to talk to you later, I told Quin. About getting my truck into your cousin's garage.

Quin nodded, but didn't quite meet my gaze. Just let me know when. I'll fit you in.

They headed toward the living room, and I was about to close the door again when I saw Burdett Sundstrom hurrying down the sidewalk. He was only an inch taller than me, and his strides weren't all that long. As usual, his blond hair was combed perfectly in place.

Oh, great, I muttered. I scolded myself. Everyone was welcome here, but there were attitudes that weren't, and Burdett didn't always leave his at home. At least he hadn't brought his boyfriend this time. That guy was even worse.

I left the door open, called out, Close it behind you, then hurried to the kitchen where Lucie was helping finish putting together the snacks. Burdett's here, I said with a grimace.

Cordelia sighed. We can't kick him out of the club because you two have a mutual dislike of each other.

Well, we could, I muttered. We founded the club. It's not like we have to answer to anyone else.

Cord rolled her eyes. I didn't have to see it. I heard it in her voice. Except he's a lawyer. He'd find a way to make our lives miserable. It's two hours, Lou, less if he holds true to form and stalks out because we don't agree with his opinion about the book.

I smirked. She's got him pinned down with that. Still... He's going to misgender us. I dipped my head to include Lucie in that. He does it every time, and you know it's on purpose, despite that smarmy apology.

Cordelia sighed. I know. If we bar him, how can we say all are welcome? Then, we become like all the other clubs we tried to join that never quite accepted us. We tried it once before, if you'll remember. He made a big stink about it being discrimination. I know Eli said he couldn't do anything, but sometimes it's easier to let things go.

Maybe easier for her. It was hard to let go of someone trying to invalidate your very existence. Why couldn't we have said 'all who aren't assholes are welcome.'?

Lucie laughed at that, and Cordelia grinned at me. There's people who would say I wasn't welcome if that was the case. I rolled my eyes, but she laughed. Speaking of assholes, how'd that job at Olver's place go today?

I don't want to talk about that. He gave me the wrong part number, so I didn't have the right part. Which I, of course, didn't realize until I had the fridge torn apart. Now it's going to be a couple days before I can finish. Of course, that's going to be my fault.

But, you don't want to talk about it, Cordelia said.

I flipped her off, and she laughed before shoving the veggie tray into my hands. Take that into the living room. Let's go talk books.

Chapter 2

I slammed the door of my truck closed then groaned. Why did we have book club in the middle of the week? Why not on a Friday or even Saturday? I wouldn't need to work the next day. Better yet, I could learn to schedule my jobs for not-at-eight in the morning the day after the book club. Yeah, one of these days I'd learn.

Of course, this hadn't been a scheduled job. It was one of those where my phone had rung at six in the morning, and I'd said yes without processing what had been asked of me. That was what I needed to learn to stop doing.

The club itself lasted less than two hours. Along with Lucie and Quin, I had stayed and had maybe just a bit too much to drink. But it had been good to be among friends. Real friends. Not the ones who said the right things, except for the pronouns you've expressed fit you.

I was glad I'd warned Lucie about Burdett. Still, she flinched the first time he did it to her. Cord had warned him he'd be asked to leave if he didn't learn to respect all of us.

He'd blustered a bit about discrimination. It was her house, so she got to say who could and couldn't stay. He hadn't been able to come up with an argument against that, so he'd shut his mouth.

There really is a first time for everything.

I grabbed my toolbox from the back of the truck. I had a job to do now, so I headed to the front of the library. Its days as the old fire station were still clear in the red brick exterior and the large arched doors. It had been more than a decade since the fire department had moved to a more modern building at the other end of Main Street. Even now there was still a large bell over the door, the same one that had been there for generations.

The door opened, and I stepped inside. Thank you for coming over so quickly. The librarian closed the door behind us again. They were shorter than me, with blond hair shaved on the sides, with the rest pulled back into a tail. I came in early because we got in a delivery of new books last night. Otherwise, it would have been a couple more hours before I even spotted it. The storage room shares a wall with that bathroom. If the water had come through...

I understand, uh...

The librarian smiled at me. It pulled up the corners of deep brown eyes. Jody O'Dell. Ze/zir. I've learned it's best to put that out there so there are no misunderstandings.

I grinned at zir. Right. You gave your first name on the phone. New librarian. Sorry. I was still half asleep. I held out my hand. Lou Carsley. They/them.

The librarian's smiled widened even more. I understand. I couldn't wait to unpack those books, or I'd be there myself.

Show me that leak. I'll get it taken care of before more damage is done.

Jody led the way to the bathroom and pushed the door open for me. Ze wrung zir hands together. I thought about shutting the water off, but I wasn't told where that was. I guess they didn't think it would ever be an issue. I didn't expect it to happen in my first week.

I found the shutoff valve under the sink where water was still seeping out. It would have taken more of a gush to go through the wall. I lightly kicked the baseboard at the bottom. It's still good you called me. I'll get this taken care of right away. Don't worry, none of your books will be ruined.

It probably seems silly to you.

Not at all, I told zir. I love books. In fact, I help run a book club. I'll tell you more about it when I'm done with this.

I crouched down in front of the pipes and pulled the toolbox closer. I pushed a few of the tools to the side, looking for my wrench. It should have been right at the top, but maybe some things had shifted around while it was in the truck. It wasn't in here at all. I'd used it at Olver's the day before, so where was it now?

I slammed the heel of my hand against my forehead. Could I have been that stupid? I could have sworn I'd made sure I picked up all my tools before I'd left the garage. It must still be sitting there on the floor. I'd have to find time to run by there and pick it up sometime today. Until then, I'd have to make do with what I had. A quick trip back to my truck for one of my back-ups, and I was able to get started.

I changed a coupling and turned the water back on to make sure no water sprayed out any longer. It looked good, so I gathered up all my tools, checking three times that I left nothing behind this time.

When I left the bathroom, I didn't see Jody, but I heard something in the room next door. I saw zir leaning over a box of books and... chortling with glee? It seemed like the only way to describe the sound. You sure you don't have a chest of gold there?

Jody laughed as ze looked back up at me. Same difference to me. Did you get it fixed?

Yes. It's all good now. I'll send an invoice over when I get a chance. At Jody's wince, I added, "The library's a dedicated client, so I give a discounted rate. And about that book club I mentioned. We just met last night,