6 A Thyme to Die

by Joyce Lavene

  “What kind of evidence did you find on the plane?” she asked impatiently.

  “That’s why we’re having the meeting. So everyone is updated at the same time.”

  “Tease,” she scolded.

  “So the skunk is in the library at home. I thought Shakespeare was going to knock me down trying to get at it.”

  Peggy wasn’t expecting that. “In the library?”

  “She needed to be in a room with a sturdy door. The library seemed like the best place.”

  “You could’ve put her in a spare room.” She sighed. “Never mind. We’ll take care of it when we get home.” She filled him in on her agreement with Ken about Matilda.

  “I guess that means he’ll be staying at the house too.” Steve glanced at his watch.

  “No. He’s coming over each day to take care of her.”

  “Yeah. Right.”

  Sam laughed. “You know her too well.”

  “Or well enough,” Paul added.

  “If you’re done ganging up on me, I think I’m going to go. With traffic, and grabbing a quick bite for dinner, we’ll barely make the meeting at six.” She glanced at Steve.

  “That works for me,” he said.

  Walter Bellows appeared out of the crowd that was mostly making for the front entrance now. “I assume we’re about ready to depart. What a fascinating show. I’m so glad I came. Did you see the escaped skunk earlier? Maybe not as exciting as a murder, but entertaining nonetheless.”

  Steve snorted. “I saw the skunk. She’s living at our house now.”

  Walter was further amazed by this unexpected revelation and continued talking about it as Peggy said goodbye to Sam and Selena.

  “I can handle taking a shift on watching your mother if you want to go home,” Steve suggested to Paul.

  “Okay. I’d like to have dinner with Mai. I haven’t looked at my email recently either. Captain Sedgwick might want me to be at the meeting. Or he might want me to take the nightshift at the house.”

  “Thanks again for what you did today.” Steve shook his hand.

  “She’s not just another case, you know,” Paul reminded him. “Not that I wouldn’t have done the same thing for anyone. You don’t have to thank me.”

  “Sorry. How about I buy you a beer sometime, no women?”

  “Sounds good,” Paul said. “I’ve got some Mom stories that will make you laugh.”

  Peggy ignored them, starting toward the door with Walter chatting continuously about the flower show and the skunk. Steve was with them by the time they’d reached the guard shack. Pete was still on duty. He waved them through.

  Steve’s car was parked by the gate. He opened the front door for Peggy. Walter slid inside with a quick, “Thank you, my good man.”

  Peggy laughed and got in the back seat. “How do you rate parking up here in the No Parking Zone?”

  “I’m with the FBI. We always get the best parking places.”

  “I won’t tell Paul you said that since he had to park in the lot.”

  “So you say the skunk is staying at your house for the remainder of the week?” Walter asked.

  Steve grudgingly started the car and went out into the long line of traffic waiting to exit the flower show. Bellows might be in the front seat on the way home, he decided, but he wasn’t going out to dinner with them.

  Shakespeare was happy to see them when they got back to the house. Steve said goodnight to Walter and let the dog out while Peggy went to check on Matilda.

  The little skunk was very well-mannered. She peered back at Peggy through the cage bars with curious black eyes.

  “I’m not sure if I’m supposed to do something for you,” Peggy told her. “Ken will be here later. Don’t worry. It looks like you have enough water. You should be fine.”

  The skunk sniffed Peggy’s nose then lay down on the straw bedding in the cage. Peggy laughed. If only Shakespeare was as quiet and gentle as Matilda.

  She and Steve met in the kitchen. Shakespeare was eating and Steve had taken off his jacket. He was rolling up his sleeves and seemed to be getting ready to cook something.

  “I thought we were going out to eat?”

  “Maybe we should stay here. We’re close to the ME’s office and I don’t really want to share you with all the people you know who can’t help stopping by our table when we’re out. We have cheese and vegetables for omelets.”

  “That’s fine with me.”

  Peggy sliced some sourdough bread they had left over from their last trip to the bakery. She poured some Muscadine wine for both of them. She’d been dying to try the new blackberry wine from their favorite local spot, Rocky River Vineyards.

  “I’m glad the flower show went better today, even though you were almost killed in the street.” Steve whipped the eggs with a little extra force than was necessary.

  “It really wasn’t that close.” Her memory of that moment when the car plunged past them still made her heart beat faster.

  “I think Dabney Wilder is involved.” Steve put the egg into the omelet pan. It sizzled and immediately started to cook. “I’ve been looking into his background. He owns the plane that brought Dr. Abutto to Charlotte. I haven’t found any reason for him to need extra cash. I don’t like that this incident happened right after you talked to him.”

  “I thought we weren’t talking about evidence before the meeting.” She pointed the bread knife at him as she got out the butter.

  “I thought you wanted to know what I was thinking.”

  She walked up behind him and put her arms around him, resting her head against his back. “I did. I do! Thanks for being so good-natured about Matilda.”

  “I can handle anything you throw at me.”

  “Good. I hope that’s all it takes.”

  Steve turned around and started to kiss her when a loud rap at the kitchen door drew growls and barking from Shakespeare.

  “You hold him,” Peggy said. “I’ll answer the door.”

  “I don’t think so,” Steve argued. “I’m not the one in protective surveillance. You hold the dog and I’ll answer the door. If it’s Bellows, I’m not inviting him in for dinner.”

  She laughed and went to sit down, calling Shakespeare to her. She put both arms around his chest and held him as he sat down, snuffling her ear and whacking his tail on the wood floor. “Okay. We’re ready.”

  It was no mean feat to hold the hundred-and-forty pound dog in place when he was excited to see who was at the door.

  Steve took his revolver out of the holster that had been under his jacket. He opened the door a crack and peered outside. “Yes?”

  “Sorry to bother you. I’ve come to look after Matilda. This is Peggy Lee’s place, right?”

  “That’s Ken,” Peggy told Steve. “Let him in. He needs to take care of the skunk.”

  Reluctantly, Steve put away his gun and let Ken inside. It looked like he was doomed to share his wife during dinner that night, no matter how hard he tried not to.

  Ken eyed Steve and the gun in his holster very carefully as he went inside. As soon as he saw Peggy, his gaze latched on to her.

  “I’m so sorry. I was thinking about Matilda all afternoon. I hope she hasn’t been any trouble. Could I see her now?”

  Peggy offered to show him the way to the library while Steve started working on an extra omelette.

  “This is a great place you have.” Ken’s dark eyes moved over every detail as they walked through the house. “Have you lived here long?”

  “Most of my life.”

  They walked past the blue spruce towering through the middle of the house.

  He whistled in admiration as he looked up to the top of the tree. “Wow! Did you plant it? That’s amazing.”

  Peggy opened the library door. She felt Shakespeare’s interest as he sniffed at Ken’s heels. Smelling the skunk, as the door opened, got his full attention. It took both hands to hold him back from entering the room.

  Ken crouched down and rubbed Sh
akespeare’s neck. “You’re a big boy, aren’t you? Having a dog here should make Matilda feel right at home. We have a St. Bernard back in Hibbing. The two of them are best friends.”

  Peggy let Shakespeare go. The dog rubbed noses with the skunk through the cage bars. He whined a little and jumped around. Matilda settled back down to sleep.

  “I brought her some food. She eats dry food but I try to dress it up some with vegetables and plants. She loves rose petals.” Ken smiled at Peggy as he took out a handful of pink rose petals from his pocket. “They were on the floor. I didn’t think it would matter if I brought them to her.”

  Matilda gobbled up the rose petals and Ken stroked her fur.

  “I’ll be here for you every day, little girl,” he promised. “It’s only a few days. Better for you to be somewhere safe than picked up by the wildlife people.”

  Peggy agreed with that. She’d lied to animal control when they’d come to the flower show after Matilda’s escape. She thought there was no point in making a big deal out of a problem that had already been solved.

  “We were about to eat dinner,” she said to Ken. “Why don’t you join us?”

  Peggy took Shakespeare back into the kitchen. Ken followed after he’d finished feeding Matilda. Steve was laying out three plates with bread, eggs, and strawberries on them.

  They sat at the old wood table in the kitchen. Peggy had allowed Paul’s initials to stay carved in the underside of the table, despite John’s wishes to the contrary. There were times, after John had passed and Paul had moved out on his own, that she’d reached down to feel the carving. Somehow it had made her feel less alone.

  “So this house is in your husband’s family.” Ken grinned at Steve.

  “Not me,” Steve denied as he poured himself more wine.

  “My first husband,” Peggy clarified after sharing the story about the house with their guest. “She’s a grand old lady. I hope I never have to leave her.”

  Ken agreed. “If I had a place like this, I wouldn’t leave either. I built my own place up in Minnesota. Last summer, I replaced the tar paper on the walls with vinyl siding. It looks real good.”

  “More wine?” Peggy asked him as Steve glanced significantly at his watch. It was five forty-five.

  “Yeah. I don’t mind if I do.” Ken dared a peek at Steve’s revolver. “You must be a cop.”

  “Yes,” Steve agreed, not wanting to go into the details of his career.

  “He’s actually a federal agent,” Peggy clarified.

  “Oh.” Ken looked at the revolver again and took another sip of wine. “I guess that’s why they call this show international, huh? Federal agents onsite, and that customs guy who was there after that orchid man was murdered.”

  Peggy exchanged glances with Steve. “What customs guy?”

  Chapter Fifteen

  Marijuana

  Cannabis Sativa, marijuana, has been cultivated for thousands of years as everything from food to paper, cloth and rope. It was used by the Chinese a thousand years ago to ease pain and for spiritual enlightenment. Marijuana is still a popular recreational drug for more than 25 million Americans, despite legal penalties.

  “There were no customs officials scheduled to be at the convention center.”

  Steve got off the phone with his information officer as he and Peggy were driving to the meeting at the medical examiner’s office. “We have video surveillance from that whole timeframe.”

  “Maybe Ken thought there was a customs official.” Peggy shrugged. “I hated that we had to run him off that way. My father would’ve killed me for being so inhospitable.”

  “But why would Ken think he saw a customs official? They may have told Ken they were customs officials to make it all right for them to snoop through Dr. Abutto’s exhibit.”

  Peggy didn’t want to point out that Ken had been a little difficult getting set up at the show. If anything, it would seem he’d be worried about ATF agents confiscating his marijuana plants.

  “I don’t know if I’d make too much of it,” she said as they reached the office. “Ken is a little flamboyant. People tend to get imaginative when they know a murder has taken place.”

  Steve pulled the car into an open space. “You have a good grasp of the situation.”

  She frowned. “Is that like saying I have a smart mouth?”

  “Not at all. If you say Ken is imaginative, I believe you. But I still think it’s worthwhile mentioning at the meeting. It may have some bearing on the case.”

  They went inside together. Al and Dorothy were already there. A few federal agents and some Charlotte PD officers were on hand as well. The men and women threw uneasy glances at one another.

  “Let’s go into the conference room,” Dorothy suggested.

  Everyone followed her down the main hall. There was no security guard to get by. Peggy also was surprised that Paul wasn’t there.

  Everyone was seated, Charlotte officers on one side—federal agents on the other side of the long wood table. Dorothy took the chair at one end and Peggy sat in the other.

  “Thanks to Dr. Lee for giving me a little nudge this afternoon,” Dorothy began with a nod in Peggy’s direction, “I had some dust that we found tested today. We learned that it was diamond dust.”

  There were a few murmurs from the Charlotte police side of the table. The FBI side looked smug.

  “Our lab also verified some white powder we found on the plane that had transported Dr. Abutto from Capetown. It was diamond dust.”

  Peggy had come to recognize, and dislike, Steve’s right hand man, Norris Rankin. She hoped he’d grow on her after a while.

  Had Steve known about the diamond dust from the plane? From the look on his face, she’d say he knew and was surprised that Norris had blurted it out to one-up the police findings.

  “I guess we can assume Dr. Abutto was smuggling diamonds with him when he came from his home,” Al said. “Establishing that fact can make a big difference to our investigation. If he’d been trying to sell drugs of some kind, we’d be looking for other dealers.”

  “Knowing we’re dealing with diamonds means we can look for people in this area who could facilitate that,” Steve said. “I’m sure the police can be a big help in that endeavor.”

  “Do we know if the diamonds have been cut?” a young Charlotte officer Peggy didn’t recognize asked, voice quivering a little.

  “There wouldn’t be any dust if the diamonds weren’t cut.” Norris cut him down.

  “The dust was the only thing we found, besides a nine millimeter slug in his chest. He would’ve bled out very quickly but, as I’ve told a few of you, Dr. Abutto wasn’t dead when he was buried in that pile of dirt.” Dorothy passed around pictures of the corpse and the bullet that had killed him.

  “Dr. Lee.” Norris leaned forward at the table. “Any botanical information that was found on or around the body that would suggest a lead we should follow up on?”

  Peggy sat forward. “The only botanical effects that were found with Dr. Abutto were from the exhibit, except for the large amount of thyme. We don’t know yet where that came from.”

  “So, no help there.” Norris studied the folder in front of him with a disappointed look on his face.

  “We’ve had another breakthrough thanks to our friends at Scotland Yard.” Steve made the announcement. “Lieutenant McDonald, would you like to fill us in?”

  Peggy was very proud of Steve. He was obviously willing to share credit where it was due.

  Al stood up, grabbing his folder and hitching up his pants. “I got a tip today and followed through on information regarding Tanya Abutto.” He nodded to Peggy but didn’t mention her. That was fine.

  “Scotland Yard thought they had located Miss Abutto at a university in London. They reported back, after I’d questioned them about the validity of the girl’s identity. The woman in question wasn’t Miss Abutto. As of our last conversation, Scotland Yard has advised that they believe Miss Abutto has been kidnapped
.”

  Peggy’s mind raced with that information. This is exactly what Nightflyer had been talking about—this and the diamond dust as a product of South Africa.

  She doodled in her notebook as various officers and agents made their reports.

  This might prove that she’d been right about Aris not being the type of person to smuggle anything. When a person was pushed, such as threatening his daughter, anything was possible.

  As her mind followed the evidence, it seemed to her that someone from this area— probably someone who was part of the flower show—had managed to force Aris to smuggle diamonds. He’d been killed, possibly to keep him quiet. That probably meant Tanya would be eliminated as well.

  Was the girl somewhere in the Charlotte area too? Or had she been taken in London and kept there?

  Peggy thought Tanya’s life was the most important matter in front of them. Finding Aris’s killer was important too, but there was nothing else they could do for him right now. It was possible Tanya could be saved.

  “Dr. Lee,” Dorothy addressed her. “Do you have anything else you’d like to add to the conversation?”

  All eyes fixed on her. Peggy blinked. “I’d like to see us concentrate on finding Tanya. She may not have been killed, as her father was. Her time might be limited.”

  “Scotland Yard is handling that aspect of the investigation,” Norris told her in a not-so friendly voice. “Let’s stay on target here, Dr. Lee.”

  Peggy felt properly chastised. She wasn’t giving up on the idea.

  “Do we have any proof that she’s still in England? She may have come here with her father. It would be easier to control him that way and possibly easier for the killer to get rid of her.”

  Everyone looked at their folders.

  One of the agents spoke up. “We saw signs that Dr. Abutto wasn’t alone on the private jet, Director Newsome. We don’t know who was with him, but the passenger list does have a female on it.”

  “The chances are better that the female listed was a flight attendant.” Norris shot down the other agent’s idea too. “We need to concentrate on finding those diamonds. They’ll lead us to the killer.”