by Joyce Lavene
Peggy didn’t know what else to say. She glanced around until she saw what she needed, then handed Jane a little plant. “Here you go. Snowdrops are for hope. That’s what we need right now. Plus a little faith. People don’t change. Your father is a good man underneath everything that’s happened to him. We have to find out who did this terrible thing before the system runs over him.”
“What can we do?” Jane looked at the plant in confusion. “They told me they have an airtight case against him.”
“We’ll see about that! You go and find out when the arraignment is. I found a lawyer for your father, but it would be nice for him to see a friendly face in the courtroom. I wish I could be there, too. Just remember he was there for you when you were a child. Do you have children, Jane?”
“Yes. Two. A boy and a girl. They don’t even remember their grandfather.”
“He’s confused and frightened. He needs you now. Wouldn’t you like to think, despite any disagreement, your children would be there for you when you really need them?”
Jane nodded and took Peggy’s hand. “Yes, I would. Thank you, Mrs. Lee. I almost let my embarrassment overshadow the fact that I love him.”
“Call me Peggy. Let me know what you find out. Give me your phone number, and I’ll keep you posted if I learn anything else.”
Selena came in as Jane was leaving. She started to walk behind the counter and stopped dead. “Whoa! Where’d the horse come from?”
Peggy explained the situation with the dog as she continued to set things up in the shop. Emil brought some of his new brew for them to taste. “I call it Holiday Cheer. What do you think?”
“It’s good!” Selena said, staying carefully away from the dog. “How’d you get it to taste like gingerbread?”
“That’s my secret!” He smiled at her. “I worked all summer on it.”
“It’s very good,” Peggy added. “I like the name, too. Maybe you could serve it at my holiday open house in the beginning of December.”
He considered the idea and agreed. “I could give samples with little name tags on the cups. What a great idea! What day are you having this?”
“The first Tuesday of the month. You know how slow Tuesdays are around here. I’m sending out invitations to all my customers.”
“Are we serving food?” Selena was excited by the prospect. “If we serve food, all the college kids will come. We’re always looking for free food.”
Emil shook his head. “What good are they? Always trying to get something for free. Peggy needs paying customers. So do I.”
“But you could invite your friends,” Peggy consoled her. “And I plan to have some food, too.”
“Sounds great!” Selena smiled at her and refused to look at Emil. As he was leaving, she stuck her tongue out at him. “He’s no fun.”
“We are running a business,” Peggy reminded her.
“Yeah, I know. Bottom line. Gains and losses. I hear it every day.”
Sam came in with a worried look on his face. “Where’s Keeley? She was supposed to help me with the plants at Bank of America. I tried to call her, but her roommate says she’s been gone since Saturday. Did you talk to her about the key, Peggy?”
“Yes. I talked with her Saturday afternoon. She seemed a little . . . disoriented.”
“What’s up with the key?” Selena glanced between them.
Peggy explained briefly. “Keeley seems to be the only one who’s missing hers.”
“What does that mean?” Selena asked. “Are you saying Keeley let Mark Warner and his girlfriend into the shop?”
“I don’t know.” Peggy told her what Mr. Cheever said about seeing a woman run out of the shop that night. “It could have been Keeley.”
Selena groaned. “Are you kidding me? You think Keeley and Warner . . . yuck!”
Sam laughed at her. “He had money. Chicks like money. They don’t care what the dude looks like who’s got it. Or how old he is.”
“We don’t know why the woman was running out of the shop,” Peggy reminded them. “If the woman was Keeley, maybe she found Mark and panicked.”
“We have to find her.” Sam got out his Palm Pilot. “This is no good. I only have her number at the apartment. I already called there. They don’t know where she is.”
Peggy took out her cell phone. “Keeley’s mother is one of my best friends. Maybe she knows what’s going on.”
There was no answer at Lenore Prinz’s home or from her cell phone. Peggy left her a message and put away her phone. “I guess I’ll give you a hand with that delivery, Sam. Can you keep an eye on the shop, Selena? It’s Monday. It shouldn’t be very busy.”
Selena agreed. “But you’re taking the dog with you, right?”
“You brought the dog?” Sam went around the counter and crouched down beside the Great Dane. “I love this guy! What are you gonna name him?”
“It doesn’t matter,” Peggy said. “I’m not keeping him. Just looking for his owner. He’s friendly, Selena. He looks like a horse, but he won’t hurt you. Unless he knocks you down.”
Sam was rolling on the floor with the big dog licking him on the face. “You should keep him. He’s awesome. And you could use the company. Your house is big enough for him.”
“Maybe you should call him Horse, since he’s big like one,” Selena suggested, still keeping her distance from the dog.
“You can tell you’re a city girl,” Sam teased her. “A horse is much bigger than this. This is more like a pony. Maybe you should call him Magic Pony.”
“No, no! My Little Pony,” Selena added. “You could get him a pink sweater and booties. Man, I used to love those little ponies.”
“Thanks for the suggestions.” Peggy laughed. “If I name him, it’s only so I can communicate with him. I’m not going to keep him. I don’t have time for a dog. This one howls at night unless I let him sleep in my bed. He follows me all over the house. And he eats a bag of dog food a day.”
“He loves you,” Sam explained. “He slept in your bed?”
Selena couldn’t believe it. “Sounds to me like you must get along pretty well. Maybe you should keep him. Just don’t bring him here anymore.”
Peggy pulled on the gloves and work jacket she kept in the shop. “I think we should go now, Sam. We need to take care of those plants at Bank of America.”
He followed her out of the shop, suggesting different names for the dog. Peggy sighed. It was going to be a long day.
THE POTTING SHED HAD A contract to maintain the plants on the executive floors of the Bank of America Corporate Center. This meant replacing dead plants, pruning back leggy ones, misting, repotting, and fertilizing. It wasn’t a difficult job because the office workers were happy with whatever bit of greenery they could get in the sterile work environment.
Peggy specially chose plants that were hardy and easily maintained: philodendron, a few ficus, and diffenbachia. Even so, she never thought about people pouring their coffee into the pots or shredding the leaves walking by them. The shop made money on the contract, but she hated to see the plants abused that way.
Armed with a small cart that contained everything she needed, Peggy took the elevator to the next floor after dropping Sam off to take care of his part. Fortunately, she kept her pass from her first meeting there. She couldn’t get in with Keeley’s pass. Security was tight in the bank building.
She tsked when she saw the philodendron that Keeley put in less than a month before. The leaves were torn and yellow. Some of the plants had been moved away from the sunlight. They’d become smaller and had less growth to adjust to the change in light.
Carefully, she put the pots back where they belonged. She pruned and fertilized some of the yellowed plants. One was nearly dead. It smelled like an old coffeepot. She transplanted it into a new pot with fresh soil.
Glancing up from her task, she caught a glimpse of Ronda McGee disappearing behind a set of file cabinets. There was only one way to find out what the wife of the senior execu
tive vice president was doing when her lover was murdered. Peggy put down her mister and went to ask her. “Excuse me, Ronda?”
The woman turned around sharply. “No. Is there something I can do for you?”
Peggy couldn’t believe how much the two women looked alike. She recalled the housekeeper’s words about Mark’s secretary. “Oh, I’m sorry. My mistake. You were Mark Warner’s personal assistant, right?”
The woman shrugged. She wore an elegant pink silk blouse and expensive burgundy wool skirt. Her narrow feet were encased in worn but fashionable Gucci shoes. Her shoulder-length brown hair gleamed like sable in the overhead light. “That’s right.” Honey-colored eyes narrowed as she looked at Peggy suspiciously. “Do I know you?”
“Actually, I only saw you from behind,” Peggy confessed. “You look a great deal like Ronda McGee, Bob McGee’s wife.”
She smiled slowly, showing even, pearly teeth. “I suppose we do look a little alike. Especially from behind.”
“I’m Peggy Lee. I own the Potting Shed over in Brevard Court. We do the plant maintenance on this floor.”
“Angela Martin.” The tawny eyes were still uncertain about the connection. “I don’t quite see how you guessed I was Mark’s PA. Did that have something to do with my looking like Ronda?”
Peggy laughed, denying the truth. “Of course not! I think I saw you with him once. You made a very striking couple.”
Angela’s pretty face grew more anxious. She put a manicured hand with long, lacquered red nails on Peggy’s arm. “Let’s step in here.”
Mark Warner’s name was still on the embossed brass plate outside the door. But inside the office, the desk and credenza were bare except for the computer. Boxes stacked along the wall were filled with personal possessions, making way for the new senior executive vice president who would take his place.
Angela’s hand was strong and insistent on Peggy’s arm. The PA closed the oak door and faced her. “I don’t know who sent you, but it was over between Mark and me last year. He kept me on because I have seniority and I’m bitch enough to take him to court if he tried to get rid of me.”
The ending of the affair between Mark and Angela would coincide with what Emma told Peggy. But as long as she had the other woman’s attention, Peggy thought she might as well dig for more information. “Ronda McGee took your place with him, didn’t she?”
“If you want to call the revolving door of women in Mark’s life taking my place, then yes. She started seeing him a few days after we broke up. But I don’t flatter myself that I was the only woman he was seeing. Mark got bored easily. He and I were over before his wife threatened him. Not that he cared about her threats.”
“He was seeing someone else as well as Ronda?”
Angela smoothed her hand down the sleek side of her hair. “You’ll have to ask him that. I only know he’s been with a lot of women. Julie reacts when something comes up that might embarrass her. Otherwise, she lets him do what he wants. She knows one woman isn’t enough for him.”
Peggy decided to go for broke. “Where were you the night Mark was killed?”
“Are you with the police? I thought they already arrested the man who killed Mark.”
“A suspect is in custody,” Peggy repeated the phrase she often heard on the police scanner when John was alive. “That doesn’t mean the investigation is over.”
“In that case, I was washing my hair. I decided to stay in that night. I watched Sleepless in Seattle on HBO. Then I went to bed. I ate a pint of chocolate chip cookie dough—Ben and Jerry’s, in case you have some way of testing for that. I’ve seen CSI.”
“Was anyone there with you?” Peggy continued, letting Angela think she was with the police. “Can anyone back up your story?”
“No. I was alone all night. I didn’t know I needed an alibi. What possible reason would I have to kill Mark? He owed me. We had an understanding. Now I have to start all over with a new executive VP. Mark being dead isn’t good for me at all.”
“Thank you. I appreciate you talking with me.”
“Do I need a lawyer?”
“No. We just needed a few answers.” Peggy opened the office door. “But don’t leave town until the investigation is over.”
The sultry brunette frowned. “Not like I can go anywhere. At least not until I know if I can keep my job. This new VP is coming in from Ohio. I hope to God I don’t have to sleep with him to have some influence again.”
Peggy finished up her plant care with a nervous eye on the elevators. If Angela decided to call the police, she’d be in trouble. Not that she actually told the woman she was with the police. But she’d allowed her to think it. Al and Jonas wouldn’t like her talking to Angela.
But no officers came up to the floors where she was working. She met Sam at the truck outside in the parking lot when she was finished. He smiled at her and asked, “How’d it go?”
“The plants were in pretty good shape,” she told him. “How about you?”
He pulled two pieces of pink memo paper from his jeans pockets. “Two phone numbers. Stockbrokers like college men.”
She understood. “I always wondered what kept you working for me.”
“Not the guaranteed dates, sweet as that may be. Do you know what it costs to become a doctor these days? Do you know how much Home Depot pays? I was lucky you didn’t have any idea what you were doing when you got started. You pay me way too much for what I do.”
“Aren’t you worried about telling me that?”
“Nah. You need me now. You couldn’t do it without me.”
Peggy’s cell phone rang while she was laughing at him. It was Lenore Prinz. She wanted to know if Peggy could meet her at the hospital. “I’ll be there as soon as I can. What’s wrong?”
“Who was that?” Sam asked as she closed her cell phone.
“It was Lenore. Keeley’s in the hospital.”
SAM DROPPED PEGGY OFF at Presbyterian Hospital. “I’ll be back in about an hour. I’m going to drop these plants off at CPCC. Will you be all right?”
“I’ll be fine. I’ll see you then.” She got out of the truck and walked up the long, narrow sidewalk into the large brick building. The sound of ambulance sirens filled the morning air. She hadn’t been to this place since John died. They’d brought him here after the shooting.
Peggy sighed and tried to put it behind her. She’d held a grudge against the hospital for too long. John was dead before they brought him in. Al told her there was nothing they could do. She believed him. To go on feeling there was some kind of dark cloud hanging over the place was ridiculous. Still, she had to swallow hard as the revolving door closed behind her, pushing back the sunshine.
She asked the receptionist at the front desk for Keeley’s room number. With her own doubts and memories tucked firmly away, she took the elevator to the second floor.
Lenore met her in the lounge. Her usually placid face was agitated. Thick, dark hair sprang up around her head like a lion’s mane. She’d never found a way to tame her coarse, curly hair. She reached for Peggy’s hands and squeezed them. “Thanks for coming.”
“Of course.” Peggy sat down beside her friend on the green plastic chair. She and Lenore grew up next door to each other. Lenore’s parents owned the tobacco farm that bordered her parents’ farm outside Charleston. They went to school together and dreamed of where their lives would take them. Somehow, they both ended up in Charlotte. “What happened?”
Lenore looked away. Her dark eyes, so like Keeley’s, closed. “She was pregnant, Peggy. She never even told me. Something happened. She lost the baby.”
“How is she?”
“She’s okay. She was only about ten weeks. The doctor said the baby wasn’t viable.”
“I’m so sorry,” Peggy said. “I didn’t know Keeley had a serious boyfriend.”
“I didn’t either. Apparently, he wasn’t someone she was very proud of. Probably one of those tattooed, pierced types. I don’t know what young people are c
oming to these days.”
“Keeley’s a good person and a hard worker. Even if she wasn’t sure about introducing him to her family and friends, it doesn’t mean she was ashamed of him. Sometimes you just want to make sure. Can we see her?”
Lenore sighed. “I could’ve seen her an hour ago. I don’t know what to say to her. I was hoping you could talk to her. She thinks so much of you. Sometimes I think you should’ve been her mother. She and I have always had problems communicating.”
