Death in the Garden

by Kathleen Suzette

  The planters, soil, and water were provided by the city recreation center in exchange for a small fee that each of the gardeners paid each month. The two raised beds Amelia had chosen were side by side and she had planted tomatoes, zucchini, cucumbers, radishes, and carrots. The second planter held marigolds, spinach, lettuce, and an assortment of herbs. But in the ground plot, she had planted corn and potatoes.

  “Does anyone ever come over and snitch any of your produce?” Joanne asked, looking over the planters.

  “I don’t know. None of my produce is ripe yet, but it was something I wondered about.” Amelia squinted at her zucchini plants. Exactly how would she know when they were ripe? They didn’t change color.

  Joanne nodded and looked at the parking lot. A red BMW sat in the far corner. “Tell me, does Patty Manning still run the show down here?”

  Amelia glanced in the direction she was looking. “She does.” The woman’s name made her grimace. Patty hadn’t been the most helpful person with her constant looking down her nose at Amelia’s plants. Apparently, Amelia didn’t know enough about gardening to satisfy Patty.

  “I bet she’s a pill to deal with, isn’t she? I knew her in high school, and she hasn’t changed a bit.” Joanne chuckled. “She reminds me an awful lot of Maggie.”

  “I hadn’t thought about it, but you’re exactly right. She does remind me of Maggie. She’s constantly coming over and looking at my plants and telling me how I should tend to them.” She wondered where Patty was now.

  “Sounds like her. Just tell her to mind her own business,” Joanne said, and when they got to Amelia’s planters they stopped and looked them over. “These look really healthy. You should be proud of yourself.”

  “Thanks, I am proud of them. I’ve never done much gardening, and I’m surprised they’re all doing as well as they are.”

  Most of the other gardeners had gotten an earlier start than Amelia had and many of their plants were already producing vegetables and flowers. Gardening had been another one of those items on her wish list of things she wanted to do when she retired. In her mind’s eye, she saw bountiful harvests of the fruits and vegetables she grew, but the reality was that her plants weren’t doing nearly as well as the other gardeners’ plants were. Sure, they had a head start on her since she hadn’t retired until March and she hadn’t time to get the plants started earlier, but even the people that had begun their gardens later than she had, had larger, healthier looking plants.

  “You don’t have planters at your house?” Joanne asked, looking over the raised beds she had planted her vegetables in.

  She smiled at her. “Actually, I do. But for some reason I thought it would be a lot more fun to do my gardening down here. I thought other people would be around working on their plots, but it seems I tend to miss them for the most part. And the ones I do run into, don’t seem to want to talk about their plants. Except for Patty. All she wants to do is talk about everything I’m doing wrong.” She chuckled.

  Joanne nodded and laughed. “I hate when other gardeners won’t confide in me about their aphid problems.”

  Amelia looked at her to see if she was making fun of her, but her face was open, and she was smiling. She smiled back. “Right? We’re gardeners. We need to be discussing important things like aphids.”

  Joanne laughed again and began strolling down the path between the raised beds. “Oh look at these,” she said and stopped by another bed three rows down. “Strawberries! I love strawberries. I suppose if I snitched one, the owner wouldn’t be very happy about it though.” She turned and looked at Amelia with a wicked grin.

  Amelia joined her and looked at the strawberry plants. The plants were weighed down by the bounty of red strawberries. “Those are June Smith’s, and it probably isn’t a good idea to take any of hers. I think she has them numbered and probably has a hidden camera in the plants, just in case someone had the idea to snitch a berry or two. She’d come looking for you.”

  She chuckled. “I believe it. She’s not a very friendly person, is she?”

  Amelia shook her head. “Not a bit. It’s fine though, it’s just the way she is. I wish I had thought to plant some strawberries because they look really good.”

  The two women moved along the raised beds and Amelia spotted what looked like shoes near the corner of one of the wooden planters. “Look, someone left their gardening clogs behind,” Amelia pointed out.

  “That’s what I need. A pair of gardening clogs,” Joanne teased. “They’re quite fashionable.”

  “I bought some and I keep forgetting to bring them when I come down here,” Amelia said with a shrug. She had bought some gardening tools and special plant food as well, and an apron to wear. The apron and clogs had yet to make an appearance at the community gardens. Mostly it was because she felt silly wearing them. That in itself was silly because when she came down here, there was rarely anyone around. Or at least, rarely anyone that took any notice of her. She could wear her clogs, apron, and a floppy hat with mouse ears and no one would pay her any mind. Except for when Patty wanted to make her feel insecure about her gardening abilities.

  As they walked on, Amelia suddenly stopped. The bottoms of the gardening clogs could be seen and now it looked as if there was some sort of fabric near the tops of them.

  Joanne turned to look at her when she stopped. “What is it?”

  Amelia’s eyes were on the clogs and she took three steps forward and hesitated. She had a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach, and she moved closer. That was when she realized there was someone still in the clogs.

  Chapter Three

  “Is that what I think it is?” Joanne asked, her eyes riveted to the garden clogs.

  Amelia swallowed. “I think it might be. What do you think it is?”

  They had stopped in their tracks, staring at the gardening clogs that were clearly still attached to their owner. Amelia blinked, trying not to look any further than the bottoms of the shoes.

  “I think it’s someone that’s either passed out, or something much worse,” Joanne said nervously.

  “I’m afraid you may be right,” Amelia agreed. Against her better judgment, she slowly moved forward toward the garden clogs.

  “What are you doing?” Joanne asked from behind her.

  “I want to make sure,” she said as she peered around the corner of the raised garden bed. The person’s upper torso was wrapped around the other corner of the wooden garden bed as if they were hugging the corner of the box. Their feet were at the nearest corner, closest to where Amelia now stood. Amelia’s eyes went wide. “Oh no. Oh, no.”

  “Oh no, what?” Joanne asked, joining her friend. And then she saw. “Oh no. Oh, no.”

  The two ladies stared at Patty Manning as she lay unmoving on the ground.

  “I suppose somebody should take her pulse. To make sure she isn’t still alive,” Amelia suggested, knowing what she should do, but she didn’t make a move. There was a thin stream of blood coming from Patty’s head that Amelia was trying to pretend wasn't there.

  Joanne nodded, her eyes on Patty. “Yes, somebody should take her pulse. But to be honest, I don’t think she’s with us anymore.”

  Amelia thought the same thing, but she couldn’t just leave her lying there on the ground without checking to make sure. Her purse was slung over her shoulder and she reached into it for her phone, but then stopped and glanced around the gardening area. They were the only two people there unless of course, someone was crouching behind one of the raised bed planters. She tiptoed closer to Patty and crouched down, reaching slowly toward her wrist. She could see Patty’s skin was unusually pale, so she looked away as she reached her hand out to touch her wrist. She was cold. She looked back at Joanne. “She’s gone.”

  Joanne nodded. “I was afraid of that. We need to call the police.”

  Amelia nodded and stood up, looking around the gardening area again. “I just hope the killer isn’t hiding around here someplace,” she whispered.

&
nbsp; Joanne glanced around. “Let’s go back to your car. We can sit inside and call the police and if the killer is still around, you can drive us away.”

  Amelia agreed, and they headed back toward her car as she dialed 911. “I don’t know what could have happened to Patty,” she said. When the 911 operator answered the phone, she gave her the details of what they had found, and they waited in the parking lot near her car for the police to arrive.

  “Did you happen to see how she died?” Joanne asked as they waited on the police.

  “I saw some blood near her head,” Amelia said folding her arms across her chest. She tried her husband’s number, but it went to voicemail. Out golfing. She left a message asking him to call her as soon as possible and clicked end.

  “I don’t know what’s taking the police so long,” Joanne said, looking off into the distance. As soon as it was out of her mouth, they faintly heard the sound of sirens in the distance.

  Gabardine, Iowa was a small town with a population of fewer than fifteen thousand people. Amelia thought it shouldn’t have taken the police nearly as long as it did to get to them.

  "My husband is a retired police officer," Amelia said idly. "I wish he was still on the force now. He’d know what to do and he’d make sure the investigation went smoothly."

  Joanne looked at her. "I bet you’ve always felt safe being married to a police officer, haven’t you?"

  She nodded. "I've always felt safe with him around. But even if he weren't a former police officer, I'm sure I would feel the same way." She glanced at Joanne. "Are you married?" She realized she didn't know very much about her new friend. They hadn’t had time to get to know one another yet.

  She nodded. “Yes, Frank works at the post office. We’ve been married thirty-four years.”

  “I thought retirement was going to be boring,” Amelia said watching as the first police car sped into the parking lot. “But I might have been wrong.”

  Joanne chuckled. “Up until now, it has been kind of boring. But we might be in for a little excitement now that Patty’s dead.”

  Amelia glanced at her. Neither she nor Joanne liked Patty, and as far as she knew, not many others did, either.

  The officer parked the car in front of the garden gate and jumped out. He looked at Amelia and Joanne and hurried over to them. “Ladies, I’m Officer Stevens. Did you call in about a dead body?” His hand was on the butt of his gun and Amelia hoped he wasn’t the nervous sort. He was young and fresh-faced, and she didn’t think he had been on the police force for long.

  Amelia nodded. “Yes, Patty Manning is lying over there by a planter,” she said, pointing in the direction of where they had found her. “I saw some blood on the ground, but I’m not sure what happened to her.”

  The officer nodded. “Did you see anyone else around here?”

  “No, we thought the community gardens were empty of people until we found Patty,” Joanne nodded.

  “The gate was left unlocked,” Amelia added. “But then, that’s not uncommon.”

  The officer nodded. “You two stay right here and I’m going to go have a look,” he said, his hand still on the butt of his gun.

  Amelia and Joanne looked at one another as the officer hurried inside the garden gate.

  “I wonder if Patty might have just fallen down and hit her head?” Joanne mused. “Maybe she was wrapped around the planter like that because she was trying to get herself back on her feet.”

  “I think that’s a good possibility,” Amelia said, and the thought of it helped her to relax. That was probably what it was, she thought. Patty had lost her balance, hit her head, and became confused. Then maybe she had tried to use the side of the planter to get to her feet. It was a shame, if another gardener had been around at the time, they would have been able to help her and call an ambulance. She might still be alive now.

  Another police officer pulled into the parking lot and jumped out of his car. “What are you two doing here?” This one looked younger than the first.

  “I came to water my plants,” Amelia said, glancing at Joanne. “We found Patty Manning lying beside the planter over there. She’s dead.”

  He nodded. “You two stay right here.”

  Joanne looked at her wide-eyed and shrugged.

  He headed to where the other officer was kneeling down next to Patty. After a few minutes, the second officer came back to Amelia and Joanne. He looked at Joanne. “I’m Officer Ramirez. Do you have a garden here, too?”

  “No, I came with Amelia. We were just going to water her plants before getting a coffee.”

  “Was anyone else here when you got here?”

  Amelia shook her head. “No, no one at all. What happened to her? Can you tell?”

  “It looks like she was hit in the head with an object. Possibly a gardening hoe.”

  Amelia stared at him. “A gardening hoe? So it wasn’t an accident? She didn’t just fall and hit her head?” As soon as it was out of her mouth, she felt silly for saying it. For a few moments, she was sure it had been an accident, but if there was a garden hoe laying nearby, then it was fairly clear what happened. She’d been so shaken up at seeing her dead, she hadn’t noticed the hoe.

  “It doesn’t appear to be an accident,” he said, shaking his head. “I’m going to need to get your information. How well did you know the victim?”

  Amelia was speechless for a moment as she pulled her thoughts together. “She manages the community garden. I saw her here occasionally when I came to water my plants, but most of the time there aren’t many people here. It seems that people just take care of their plants and then leave. I thought they might hang around and talk about their plants, but there isn’t much of that going on here.” She was rambling now, but hearing that Patty had been murdered sent shock waves through her mind.

  Officer Ramirez looked at her, then pulled out a notebook and took down both of their names, phone numbers, and addresses. He looked at Joanne. “And you? You don’t have a garden plot here?”

  She shook her head. “No, like I said, I was just assisting Amelia here. We were going to get coffee afterward.”

  “Well, I hate to put a damper on your plans,” he said dryly. “The hoe has the name Amelia Crum on it. Would it happen to be your hoe?” he asked, looking at Amelia.

  Amelia’s eyes went wide. “Yes, that would be my hoe. I don’t understand what it would be doing out here though. We have lockers in that gardening shed over there, and we keep our supplies and tools in it.” She pointed at the shed. “I always keep my tools locked up.”

  “Did you have any issues with the victim?” he asked, without looking to where she pointed.

  She shook her head. “No, I didn’t have a problem with her. I mean, Patty was the pushy, controlling type. And she was annoying, but that doesn’t mean I had a problem with her. Why do you ask?”

  He narrowed his eyes at her. “Because your garden hoe was used to kill someone. Why wouldn’t I ask?”

  Amelia shrank back. He was right of course, why wouldn’t he ask her that? “I didn’t have any issues with her. Honestly, we got along fine.”

  “Patty Manning had an issue with everyone she met,” Amelia said. “I’m sure as far as suspects go, the field is going to be wide open.”

  Amelia glanced at her. She didn’t need her adding anything to make the officer suspect her more than he apparently already did.

  Officer Ramirez turned to her, his pen suspended over the notepad. “So you had a problem with her as well?”

  Joanne rolled her eyes. “No, I didn’t have a problem with her. At least, not any more of a problem than anybody else has with her. Honestly, you start asking around and everybody will tell you that she was a pain to deal with. She thought she knew everything and thought she was the most important person on the face of the earth.”

  He sighed. “So, I think it’s safe to note that you had a problem with her as well.”

  “Wait a minute,” Amelia protested. “Neither of us had a prob
lem with her. Honestly, we just got here a few minutes ago. We were at our book club meeting before this, so it’s not like we had time to kill her. Her body is cold, after all.”

  He looked at her with renewed interest. “How do you know her body’s cold?”

  “Because I checked for a pulse,” Amelia said. She was getting irritated with the officer’s questions and she wished her husband, Walter, would call her back.

  He nodded slowly, keeping his eye on her. “So did you note anything suspicious when you got here?”

  “No, other than the gate was unlocked, but like I said, that isn’t suspicious. People are always forgetting to lock up after they leave.”

  “Anything else you can think of?”

  Now he sounded bored and Amelia took a deep breath to keep from saying something she would regret. Didn’t a murder deserve to be taken seriously? “No, I can’t think of anything,” Amelia said. She was afraid to add anything else that might make him suspicious of her.

  He sighed. “All right. I’ll be in touch.” He headed back over to where the other officer stood near Patty’s body.

  Amelia and Joanne looked at one another.

  “Like I said, the field is wide open,” Joanne said.

  Chapter Four

  When Amelia pulled into her driveway, she saw her husband’s car and she sighed in relief. He would know what to do. She jumped out of the car and ran into the house. He was sitting at the dining room table with a sandwich in his hand, raised halfway to his mouth. He stopped and looked up at her.

  “Amelia, what’s going on? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

  She stared at him open-mouthed for a moment. When she pulled herself together, she said, “I think I have.” She hurried over to the dining room table and pulled out the chair across from him and sat down. “Patty Manning is dead.”

  It was his turn to stare at her open-mouthed. “What do you mean Patty Manning is dead? When?”