Evidence in the Echinacea

by Dale Mayer

  Doreen took off her dirty shoes, left them on the deck, and called out, “Scott, you here?” Of course there was just silence. She pulled out her phone and dialed him. “Hey, I’m sorry I missed you.”

  “Not to worry,” he said. “We’ve left you boxes and boxes of stuff to go through, and I’ve taken pictures of the china. I’m not sure if it’s worth selling or not, but I do have somebody I can ask. It was a very long day. We got your bed, the dining room set, and the hutch. I’m pretty sure you’ll probably find more, and, if you do, please let me know. I did take a quick glance around. I didn’t snoop, and I didn’t see anything at first glance, not like when I saw the dining room table,” he said warmly. “But I know you said there’s a basement and a garage too.”

  “Yes,” she said, walking through to the dining room. “I’m in the dining room right now, and I can’t believe how big it is without that table here.”

  “Having a hutch on either side and the table really took up a lot of space,” he said. “You’ll see we left the sideboard and lots and lots of boxes for you.”

  Indeed, at least eight boxes were on the floor. “Thank you,” she said. “I should decide if I want to keep the china or let it go too. If keeping it, I need a place for it.” In her mind, she added, hence the hutches. He had left her one, but she wasn’t sure if it was big enough to hold all this.

  “Like I said, it might be valuable. Well, I know it is valuable,” he corrected himself. “But I don’t know if it’s valuable enough that you want to part with it.”

  “What value are you thinking?” she asked.

  “Probably three to four thousand. Potentially more but I can’t be certain yet.”

  She looked down at the dishes and said, “Absolutely I want to sell them.”

  “Okay,” he said. “When you have a moment, put all of the set off to one side and let me know exactly what you have for inventory, and I’ll confirm with my specialist. I saw a bunch of extra serving dishes and platters, and that all helps with the value too. And, like I said, if you have any other questions or if you find any other pieces, let me know. It’s been lovely dealing with you, Doreen.”

  She smiled and said, “Don’t forget. You owe me a ton of paperwork too.”

  He chuckled. “Check your email. There are receipts for everything we’ve picked up yesterday and today, and I left paper copies of everything for you as well. And, if you get a chance, it’s really important before the auction that we find any provenance dealing with these pieces.”

  She groaned. “I know. I just haven’t had a chance.”

  “Or space apparently, but I feel like I almost emptied your house. I was feeling pretty bad when we took out the dining room table because, with the empty master bedroom, the empty living room, and now the empty dining room, you look like you have no furniture at all.”

  “That’s just fine,” she said firmly. “I still have an old kitchen table and chairs, and I have a couple chairs in the living room that will do until I figure out what I’m up to. Besides, I needed to clear everything out in order to fix the living room floor.” Suddenly remembering what that was all about, she walked back over to the living room and stared down at the wood. “I’ll call you as soon as I know anything more.”

  She thanked him and hung up. She stood here, rubbing her face, wondering how her calm, boring life had become so cluttered. She really hadn’t needed Penny’s added job, but she knew her friend needed help, and Doreen really did need the money. Plus she potentially got a garage full of tools to boot. But now she was exhausted. She walked back to the kitchen, put on the coffeepot, and sagged in a chair. Immediately the animals came toward her, hollering, and she realized they were hungry too.

  As she finished feeding the last one, she heard a vehicle on the driveway. She walked out to the front to see Mack. She opened the door and smiled at him. When he hopped out with a large pizza box in his hand, she cried out in joy. “I sure hope you plan on sharing that,” she said.

  He grinned at her. “Hey, you probably have enough food in there that I could make another big pasta dish, and chances are you haven’t touched all that pasta sauce either, have you?”

  She nodded. “I didn’t know what to do with it,” she said. “I ate the leftover spaghetti salad, but the rest of the food is still here.”

  “We’ll cook tomorrow,” he said. “But tonight I’m too damn tired, and you look terrible.”

  “Thanks,” she said bluntly. “I just came back from working on Penny’s garden. I haven’t even had a chance for a shower. I completely missed Scott leaving.”

  That’s when Mack stepped into the living room. “Wow, does this room ever look different.”

  “Yeah, what about this one?” she asked, and she led him through the door into the dining room.

  Mack whistled. “This is a huge room.”

  “I know,” she said, “but all the dishes are on the floor, and now Scott tells me those are valuable too.”

  Mack chuckled. “You sound so despondent, and yet, this house has been such a gold mine.”

  “I know,” she said, “and now I worry that somebody’ll come and steal the china.”

  He nodded solemnly. “Go get a quick shower, and I’ll set up the pizza on the kitchen table.”

  She shook her head. “I don’t think I can. I need food. I’ll just wash up in the sink, and then we’ll eat.”

  And that’s what she did. So, even though her hair was dusty and dirty, and her bones were so sore and her muscles so fatigued, like warm melted butter, she sat down at the kitchen table and reached for the biggest slice. The funny thing was, he let her.

  As soon as she had her piece, he picked up the second biggest. She ate slowly, savoring it with her eyes closed.

  “You realize it’s almost seven, right?”

  She nodded. “Penny had promised me coffee and a doughnut this afternoon, and I got the coffee but no doughnut, and I had only taken a couple apples with me. I had planned to pick up soil and my lunch at the same time, but Penny surprised me by making the soil run. I did make an omelet before I left, but I was late leaving this morning. Scott was here with extra men to take the dining room stuff. It was just chaos. And then I got to Penny’s place and had so much work to do there before the deadline,” she said, her voice gaining a little strength as she explained.

  Mack asked exactly what she was doing for Penny, so Doreen told him. And then she said, “She also said I could have anything I wanted out of the garage because, if she sells the house and she’s moving back East, she’d just get rid of it at Goodwill.”

  “Is there anything you want?”

  “You know,” she said, tilting her head and looking at him thoughtfully, “I think I do. She has a lot of tools there. I used a bunch to get her a garden lamp set up in a block of cement. Obviously it already had predrilled holes, but she had a good drill and several circular saws, even hand saws, and I don’t have any of that.”

  He looked at her and asked, “Do you know what to do with them?”

  “No, not really, but I found bolts and got them on using a wrench,” she stated firmly. “And what I don’t know I can learn.”

  “Exactly,” he said. “I’m quite happy about this.”

  The thing was, he hesitated. She looked over at him curiously as she took another bite of dripping hot melted cheese and closed her eyes again in joy. When he didn’t speak, her eyes flew open, and she said, “What?”

  He frowned, but a glint of humor was in his gaze as he said, “Where will you put it all?”

  She snorted. “I did think about that, and, of course, the answer is, in my garage. Except that my garage is full.”

  “Maybe this weekend we’ll tackle it,” he said. “Can you still find time to work on my mother’s garden?”

  She barely held back the groan because that was the last thing she wanted to do, but it was her weekly job, so it was what she did. She nodded. “I have to finish Penny’s tomorrow by noon. The photographer is coming ear
ly afternoon, so I’m just cleaning up the brick, cleaning up the yard, making sure it all looks pretty, and then I’ll fix up the backyard from where I pulled the flowers and the extra dirt. But I should be done by twelve. I’ll take Thursday off and will go over to your mom’s Friday before noon as usual.”

  “So maybe Saturday we should take a look in your garage.”

  “That would be very nice. I’d love to get that door open and to figure out if the contents are garbage or valuable.”

  “From what I saw, it was garbage,” he said bluntly.

  “I know. That’s what I saw too. But I was hoping maybe something of a useful nature was in there.”

  “Once you figure out how much other stuff here is valuable, maybe hold a garage sale for what’s left.”

  “That’s a great idea. I’m just not sure how to do one. I haven’t been to one myself.”

  He slowly lowered the piece of pizza in his hand and said, “What?”

  “That was far too beneath my husband’s stature,” she said, mimicking her ex. “And I haven’t had a chance to do anything here,” she complained good-naturedly. “Apparently something and some people have been keeping me busy.”

  At that, he chuckled. “Okay, definitely Saturday,” he said. “I’ll pick you up, and we will go garage sale shopping. There are always lots of garage sales in town during the spring and summer.”

  “Maybe we should do that, then come back and take a look at the garage,” she said thoughtfully. “And can the sauce hold until then? If tomorrow doesn’t work out?”

  “If we freeze it, it could,” he said. “I’ll warm it up again, but you don’t want to let food sit for more than five days in the fridge.”

  She nodded. “Five days, got it.” But she wondered if she actually did. It seemed like the days were running past her so fast that she didn’t have a clue if she was coming or going.

  Chapter 17

  Wednesday Morning …

  Wednesday morning, Doreen woke up, her body protesting as she forced herself out of bed and into a hot shower. Today she had to be finished for Penny’s sake, and then she wanted to come home and just settle into her own space. It felt odd right now, as if all the men had left some sort of foreign energy behind. Not that the place was full of testosterone or anything, but it just felt like it wasn’t her own. Of course the fact that so much of the furniture had been stripped out also made it feel unusual.

  When she was finally dressed, she couldn’t find any more energy to dance down the stairs. Instead, she dragged her sorry butt all the way down, one step at a time. She was saddened to see Mugs looked exhausted too. “Hey, Mugs, we’ll only be there for a few hours today.” Goliath was lying at the bottom step and refused to move.

  Using the banister, she hopped over him, wincing as she landed on her feet, the motion jarring up her legs and back. That wheelbarrow and she had not gotten along very well yesterday. This was the most physical work she could remember ever doing in her life. And she needed food, as in a decent amount of food. But she also felt very short on time.

  She slapped together a large sandwich and sat down with that and a fresh cup of coffee. She’d fed the animals, so they would be good for the trip too. She kept her phone on Silent, not wanting to be disturbed with anything else that she had to get done. She needed to focus on Penny’s place, and then she wanted to do nothing more than come home and collapse. She’d have said collapse on the couch, but she no longer owned one. She gave herself a head shake and said, “Hey, this is huge for you, so let’s just get this job done and move on.”

  She made herself another sandwich to bring with her because yesterday she hadn’t had anywhere near enough food. And then, with her coffee in her travel mug, she opened the door, and amazingly all the animals perked up.

  “Come on, guys.”

  Thaddeus, however, was looking for a ride. He walked up her arm to her shoulder and tucked in close. She chuckled, and then she thought about whether she needed to reset the alarm and decided that being tired was no excuse. Still a lot of china and other items were inside that she had no idea how valuable they were. She also needed to ask Nan if more valuable stuff was around and get a real answer this time. Particularly among the mess in the garage.

  She reset the alarms and then led everybody out the kitchen door. The trip was slow, even though she was trying to push it to get there, but she found it hard to force her legs to move with any kind of enthusiasm.

  Once there, she put her sandwich and coffee mug down and started in on the bricks. She needed a steel brush, the hose, and a rake, and it took two hours to get all the bricks cleaned up and nicely set. She was happy to see the tall lamp in the middle, standing straight and true. The good-size cement block gave the lamp a secure base.

  Finally she was done. She stepped back, wiping her face. She was now covered in mud from the water used to clean up the bricks. She shut off the water and reached for her coffee cup and then took several steps back to look. So far, she had seen absolutely no sign of Penny.

  Or of the animals. They’d all hidden in the shade at the side of the house. It seemed like they wanted her to finish this job too. It was nowhere near as much fun as solving cold cases.

  As she stood here, wondering if the bed was good enough, Penny drove up behind her.

  She hopped out and said, “Wow, that looks lovely. I noticed this morning just how much that lamp sets it all off.” She pointed at the bricks. “I don’t know how you got them so nice and shiny. I had no idea they could look like that.”

  “They’ll darken once they’re dry,” Doreen said, “but they’re looking pretty good. I’ll tidy up the backyard for pictures.”

  On that note, she picked up half her sandwich, munched through it for energy, and, when she was done, with Penny having long since disappeared into the house, Doreen grabbed the rake and carefully covered her tracks. In the backyard, she started at the first clump she had removed and carefully moved dirt and some of the rocks around to hide that she’d just stolen parts and pieces. Then she took the rake and carefully gave the space between some of the larger open areas a bit of a rake to make it look better. When she was done, she could feel her shoulders sagging again. She walked the wheelbarrow back to the garage, putting it where it belonged, and hung up the rake. Then she took pictures of the garage and everything that was in it.

  Penny came out just then, holding two one-hundred-dollar bills in her hand. “As much as I can’t afford it, you did such a phenomenal job that I’m delighted. Here.”

  Doreen thanked her and pocketed the money. She knew all about offering and not affording. She pointed to the garage and said, “Are you serious about letting me have this stuff?”

  “Absolutely,” Penny said. “And probably the sooner, the better. It’s fine for showings, but I’m sure the Realtor would say it would be better if the garage were empty too.”

  “Right,” Doreen said. “The question is whether the workbenches are attached or not.” She lifted the edge of the first one and nodded. “So these can leave too.”

  “It would make a lot more space in here for whoever buys the house,” Penny exclaimed. “So the sooner …” And she cocked an eyebrow at Doreen.

  Doreen chuckled. “Yep. I have to go home and try to sort out my house, and then I’ll get into my garage. I presume you’re okay if I have a week or two to get George’s stuff cleaned out?”

  “Sooner would be better. If you need some tools, like right away, feel free to come back. I don’t lock the garage, so anytime you want, come on in. Open up that big door and start moving stuff.”

  Doreen smiled in delight. “Thank you,” she said sincerely. “That’s a huge help.”

  The two women waved at each other as Penny said, “I’ve got to go,” and headed to her car again. “Apparently there’s more paperwork for the Realtor to sign.”

  “There’s always paperwork for that stuff, but you’re good to go for the pictures now.” Doreen picked up Mugs’s leash, hooked him on
, grabbed her travel mug, and said, “I’ve got to head home myself.”

  “And I’ve got to be back for the photographer in an hour.”

  The two women separated with Doreen heading toward the creek, the animals finally moving with some energy as they realized she was done and they were heading home. She was fascinated that she had been gifted an entire tool shop. She could already hear her husband’s disparaging remarks as to why she’d want it since she didn’t know how to use anything. But maybe it would help a lot if she could have the tools for somebody else to use while working on her house.

  And she hated to say it, but a part of her thought maybe she could sell some of it and get more money. It made her sound greedy, and that wasn’t how she wanted to be viewed. She wondered how to move the entire workshop to her place, including the workbenches and all those boards with the hooks. She should talk to Mack about that. At least she’d taken a ton of photos, so she could put it up in her garage the same way.

  When she finally got back home again, she propped open the kitchen door for some fresh air and put on more coffee. She washed up, made herself another sandwich, and then slowly walked through her living room and dining room. It really would be nice if she could take out the wall between the two rooms. It depended on how they’d built it though. She didn’t know if a retaining beam was up there, if that wall was structural, and she wasn’t even sure how to find out. She opened the door to the dining room and walked through. She still had all the dishes to deal with and the sideboard Scott hadn’t taken. Yet some of the clutter was gone.

  She opened the door and walked through to the kitchen. She had a complete circle layout with the laundry room right beside the kitchen. She walked in and opened up the door to the garage. She flicked on the light switch and just stared, groaning. “It would be easier to look at this,” she said out loud, “if we could open the big doors.” But she would wait for Mack for that.

  Speaking of which, she heard a vehicle coming up the driveway. She walked out to the front to see Mack parking in her driveway. He hopped out, and he held two items that she could identify through the clear Bubble Wrap, the snow globe and the vase that Darth had stolen from her place. She smiled. “You guys don’t need them anymore?”