Concrete Evidence: A Fixer Upper Mystery

Shannon Hughes of Hughes Restoration in Lighthouse Cove, Oregon, has begun her largest project to date, to renovate the Craddock house for its new owner, Mac Sullivan, a former investigative reporter turned crime novelist. For the duration of the restoration, Mac has taken residence in Shannon's small guest house where he will do his writing. During the early stages of the renovation, Shannon discovers a human skeleton lodged in the dumbwaiter of the Craddock house, the evidence being that the body was purposefully placed there to prevent its discovery. Early indication points to the victim being Lily Brograns, the medical examiner who is eventually able to identify the skeleton as indeed being her. Lily was a high school classmate of Shannon, her long time best friend, B&B owner Jennifer Hennessey, and Tommy Sloane, a local police officer. Lily is also the brother of Shannon's chief foreman, Sean Brogans. Lily was a popular and bright girl, which belies her and Sean's unhappy home life, the empty Craddock house a frequent refuge for them both. The belief was that Lily left town immediately after high school graduation to pursue her dream of being an actress in Hollywood, she last being seen at an unofficial graduation party at the Craddock house. Although the police have not ruled out Sean as being involved in Lily's death, three people seem to be the leading suspects and/or hiding things related to the death: Cliff Hogarth, Lily's boyfriend of the time who was the school's star quarterback, and who now owns/operates his own contracting company in competition to Shannon, his company "QB" referencing his high school glory days; Denise Jones, Lily's best friend and now the high school's drama teacher; and Brad Jones, another classmate and now Denise's husband, who is the high school's athletics director. Brad coaches the high school football team, which has continued its winning tradition since Cliff's time on the gridiron. Outside of the official police investigation, Shannon and Jennifer, along with Mac - who is procrastinating on his writing - do their own unofficial investigation to help Sean learn what happened to his sister. The keys seem to be finding Lily's series of journals, which are most-likely hidden in the Craddock house, and tying what she wrote to the events of the party when she was last seen.