Death in the Garden

by Kathleen Suzette

  Amelia shook her head, staring at her wide-eyed. “I’m not trying to find anyone’s killer. I just was walking past her car and stopped to look. I was headed to the grocery store.” She was aware that her voice came out sounding panicked, but she was having a hard time gathering her thoughts.

  Nora nodded slowly. “I thought we were trying to find her killer?”

  “Oh? Oh, yes, I’m sorry. I guess I’m just not thinking.” Amelia smiled at her. “Hopefully the police will find her killer soon.”

  She nodded, her brow furrowed. “I’m going to pick up snacks for the next book club meeting. I know it’s a little early, but I think I’m just going to make some cookies. How do you like snickerdoodles?”

  “Snickerdoodles? I like them. They’re very tasty. I thought Sue was going to make snacks?”

  She nodded. “She is, but I’m going to get the ingredients to make snickerdoodles and some milk.”

  Amelia thought it was odd that she was going to bring milk to the book club meeting, but she didn’t say so. They both looked up as someone approach them.

  “Hello Amelia, hello Nora,” Ruth Shore said, pushing her shopping cart toward them. “How are you two ladies today?” She looked from one to the other expectantly.

  “We’re fine,” Amelia said weakly. How was it that at the moment she decided to do something risky, people she knew started showing up? “How are you?”

  She nodded. “Just getting my shopping done.” Her eyes went to the red car. “That car looks familiar. Who does it belong to?” She looked at them.

  “It’s Patty Manning’s,” Nora whispered. “Can you believe it? It’s her car! She’s dead, you know.”

  Amelia glanced at her. “I bet Gary’s driving it.” As soon as she said it, she knew how dumb that sounded. Who else would be driving it?

  Ruth nodded. “No use letting it sit and go to waste. If it were me, I’d sell it. I know that’s an expensive car and he can get a lot of money out of it to help pay for the funeral expenses.”

  Amelia narrowed her eyes at her. That was an odd thing to say. “I suppose he could.”

  She nodded. “You know Amelia, the more I think about it, the more I think that Susan Potts had to have killed Patty. It’s the only thing that makes sense.”

  “Oh? Why do you say that?” Amelia asked.

  Ruth looked behind her and then turned back to Amelia and Nora, pushing her shopping cart a few inches closer. “Because she and Patty had a terrible argument not two weeks ago. And the more I think about it, the more I think she’s the one.”

  “What was the argument about?” Amelia asked, taking a step closer.

  “Well it started out with Susan telling her she wanted more gardening space, and Patty told her she had to pay for the spot. Before I knew it, Susan told her she was cheap and that was why she wouldn’t let her have that space for free. Then Patty told her it was her that was cheap. But here’s the thing, I think Susan was jealous that Patty seemed to have it all. This nice, expensive car, a husband that makes a lot of money, and the fact that Patty never had to work.” She nodded.

  “Patty never worked? Like, ever?” Amelia asked.

  “She never did. She stayed home and raised her kids, and even after they were gone, her husband made more than enough that she didn’t have to work. Running the community gardens was a volunteer project.”

  “I didn’t know that,” Amelia said. Gary had worked in investments before retiring and Patty had told her he still worked part-time from home.

  Ruth nodded. “Have you seen Patty and Gary’s house? It’s one of the biggest houses in Gabardine. You know that must have cost a pretty penny, and Susan knows it, too.”

  Amelia took this in. “So you think Susan killed her because she was jealous?” She wondered if Jealousy would make Susan angry enough to kill Patty. She’d thought that it had to be Gary that killed her, but what if she was wrong? And she still didn’t know why Patty’s car key was in her gardening bed. Clearly someone was trying to set her up, but who? And why?

  “Do you know for sure that Susan was jealous of her?” Amelia asked.

  “One day She told me that she thought Patty was a spoiled, rich woman, and that she was selfish. Susan said that if she had as much money as Patty did, she would give it to charities instead of spending it on herself, getting her hair and nails done, and driving a fancy car. She sneered when she said it and I could tell she really envied her.”

  “I vote Susan did it then.” Nora nodded, looking first at Amelia and then Ruth. “She clearly had motive, and since she had a key to the community garden, she had opportunity as well. I used to play the Clue game when I was a kid and I remember you had to have means, motive, and opportunity. She had the means because Patty was killed with a gardening tool. I think we need to talk to the police and tell them exactly what we know.”

  “A lot of people would have had all of those things available to them,” Amelia pointed out, namely herself. She didn’t like Patty, and couldn’t someone argue that she disliked her more than she actually did? The thought sent a cold chill down her spine. Especially since it was her gardening tool that had been used to kill her, and now Patty’s car key was found in her own planter.

  “I’m with you, Nora,” Ruth said, nodding. “It’s clear what happened, and the police need to know. It seems like every time I run into Susan, she complains about Patty and how well-off she was.”

  “I don’t think we can jump to conclusions,” Amelia said quickly. “We don’t really know what happened. Just because a person has the means, motive, and opportunity doesn’t mean they would actually carry out a murder. We have to keep that in mind, you know. It could have been anyone.”

  Nora and Ruth stared at her a moment. “I think we have the obligation to go to the police with what we know,” Ruth said.

  “I think we need to wait and see what the police are able to find out on their own,” Amelia protested. “We can’t jump to conclusions. It would be awful if the wrong person were fingered for a murder they didn’t commit.” And by the wrong person, she meant herself.

  “I disagree,” Ruth said. “I think I’m going to stop by the police station and let them know what I’ve come up with. It was Susan in the garden with a hoe.” She laughed at herself. “I love Clue.”

  Amelia took a deep breath. She couldn’t stop Ruth from doing anything, and maybe it was for the best. She was pointing the police in the direction of Susan Potts and maybe they would be too busy looking at Susan to look in her direction.

  “Well, I’ve got to do some grocery shopping,” Amelia said when she looked up and saw Gary Manning pushing a shopping cart out the grocery store door. She didn’t want him to see her standing near his dead wife’s car. He was already mad enough at her and Joanne for what happened at the flower shop.

  Without waiting for the other two ladies to answer her, she headed toward the grocery store door farthest away, hoping Gary didn’t see her as she walked across the parking lot.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Amelia had intended to pick up a few things at the grocery store, but the fact that she now knew for sure that the key she had found in her garden plot belonged to Patty Manning had her rattled. As soon as she was sure Gary had left the parking lot, she left the grocery store without buying anything. She had other errands to run before going home to tell Walter what she had discovered, and one of them included returning a book to the library. She could get her errands run quickly and get home to tell him what she knew.

  She crossed the threshold of the library and felt an immediate sense of peace. Books did that to her. She inhaled deeply and dropped the book she had finished reading off in the return bin and then headed over to the shelf that held mysteries. The book club was still working on the Agatha Christie novel, but she wondered if she might pick up a couple of other mysteries. She realized these books were fiction, but she still had the slightest hope that they might give her an idea of how to find Patty’s killer.

  As s
he looked over the books on the shelf, she picked up a cute one with a kitten and a ball of yarn on it. She smiled. How had cozy mysteries evolved to where cuteness on the covers was expected? She didn’t care; she liked them that way. She also liked when a mystery was humorous.

  “Hi Amelia,” Della McBean, the librarian said as she walked up to the shelf with an armload of books. “Looking for a new book?”

  Amelia smiled and nodded. “Yes, I’m thinking about getting another mystery. You look like you’ve got your arms full there.”

  She nodded. “It never ends. And that’s the way I like it. Lots of books to put away.”

  “Do you read a lot?” Amelia asked her. She always wondered about that. Did librarians choose the job because they simply loved books? Or was the pay such that they took the job even though they weren’t much on reading?

  She nodded and chuckled. “Yes. I read and read and read. My husband tells me I’m out of my mind to spend as much time between the covers of a book as I do, but I just tell him it’s research. I’ve got to read the books, so I know what to recommend to our library patrons.”

  “I think I missed my calling, then,” Amelia said. “I should have gone to college to become a librarian and skipped out on the home loans.”

  She turned and looked at her. “Did you enjoy working at the bank?”

  Amelia shrugged. “I guess so. I liked my coworkers,” she said and felt a twinge of loneliness. The fact was that she had enjoyed her coworkers and was still surprised that they seemed to have gone on with their lives without a backward glance when she retired. “It was always fun when we had potlucks and celebrated birthdays. We had a larger office with more than twenty employees, so there was always something going on.” Her eyes moved over the books on the shelf.

  “That does sound like fun. There are only six of us here at the library, so not nearly as many. But we manage to do the occasional potluck and birthday celebration, too.”

  “Can you recommend a good mystery?” she asked, turning to her.

  “Yes, I’ve really enjoyed the Stephanie Plum books by Janet Evanovich,” she said, shelving the book at the top of the stack she carried in her arms.

  Amelia scanned the shelf and pulled one out when she found them. “I haven’t read any of these yet.”

  She nodded. “They’re a lot of fun. How is the book club coming along? I would love to join in on that, but of course, I’m usually working mornings, so I can’t. It’s a bit of a disappointment, to tell you the truth.”

  Amelia considered the question before answering. “Well, I think it’s quite a lot of fun.” Things had livened up since they decided they weren’t going to allow Maggie to pick out all of their books anymore. Plus, there was the added excitement of talking about Patty’s murder case. That might at some point turn into more trouble, but for now, she was willing to entertain other people’s thoughts on who Patty’s killer might be. She just hoped no one acted on anything and got into trouble.

  She nodded. “It does seem like fun. Say Amelia, I heard about Patty Manning being murdered out at the community garden. Isn’t that terrible?”

  “Yes, it is. It’s such a shock.” Amelia flipped through the pages of the book she held and stopped to read a paragraph.

  “I hope the police catch the killer soon,” she said. “I heard she and Ruth Shore couldn’t get along.” She looked sideways at Amelia waiting for her reaction.

  Amelia turned to her, closing the book in her hand. “To be honest, I’ve heard that Patty couldn’t get along with anyone.”

  Della chuckled. “You have a point there,” she said, sliding another book into place. “But I heard four days before Patty ended up dead, Ruth and Patty got into an argument at the post office. Can you believe it? At the post office!”

  “What kind of argument?” Amelia asked while pretending to look over the shelf of mystery books.

  “Patty tried to cut in line. It was a Friday, and the line was nearly to the door, but she slipped right in and headed up front to the counter to speak to the postmaster, Aileen Lopez. Apparently, Ruth was the next person in line, and she had been waiting for quite a while and she told Patty she had better get to the back of the line.”

  Amelia turned to her. “And Ruth just lost her temper over it?”

  She nodded. “Kate Drummond was standing in line at the time, and she saw the whole thing. She came in here and told me about it that Friday, because she stopped and picked up some books. And when she told me, we laughed about it. But we aren’t laughing anymore now that Patty is dead.”

  Amelia thought about this. Ruth had been quick to point a finger at Susan Potts, but maybe it was in an effort to take the attention off of herself. And maybe as she stood here talking to Della, Ruth was talking to someone else somewhere in town and pointing a finger at herself. A murderer would do that, wouldn’t they?

  “Did Kate say that Ruth was very upset over the incident?”

  She nodded and put another book on the shelf. “She said Patty turned around and told Ruth to shut her face. She said she was only going to speak to the postmaster for a moment, and she could just wait her turn.”

  “But Ruth had been waiting her turn, right?” Amelia asked her.

  She chuckled. “Apparently so. But when she said that to Ruth, she became irate. She started yelling at the postmaster, telling her to tell Patty to get to the back of the line. She said she had more important things to do than to wait for Patty to cut in front of everyone and tell the postmaster her problems. Aileen is Patty’s cousin, you know.”

  Amelia nodded slowly. She had forgotten that. “So, did it sound like Patty simply wanted to talk about family things right there in the middle of the business day with all those people in line?”

  “That’s what Kate told me. And Ruth wasn’t having it.” She shook her head and made a tsk-tsk noise. “I can’t imagine what Patty was thinking. Why on earth would she just step in front of that great big long line like that? On a Friday afternoon?”

  “It doesn’t make much sense, does it?” Amelia said thoughtfully. “Do you know if Ruth and Patty had problems before this?” Patty had always felt she was entitled, but this sounded over the top. Susan had said Ruth thought Patty stole her special fertilizer and they’d argued over that, too. Maybe this second argument pushed Ruth over the edge.

  She shrugged. “I don’t know, but you knew Patty. Everyone knows that she caused trouble everywhere she went.”

  “And played the victim when she did it,” Amelia agreed. “But if they argued four days before she died, then there were plenty of witnesses to the fact.” She turned to the shelf and pulled another book off it and flipped through the pages, but her mind was a million miles away. If Ruth really was trying to get people’s attention onto anyone but herself, she might be in more trouble than she thought she was. Rumors traveled in this town, but at least there were witnesses to the argument between Ruth and Patty.

  “Yes, all those witnesses,” Della said and shelved the last two books she held in her arms. “Well, I’m sure the police will find the killer and put them away.”

  Amelia nodded absently. “Of course they will. I just hope they find them soon and get them off the street.”

  “You and me both,” she said, putting a hand on her shoulder and chuckling. “I’ll be at the front desk when you’re ready to check out.”

  Amelia nodded but Della had already turned away and was headed to the desk. She sighed. She needed to find Patty’s killer and find them quickly.

  She gathered up her books and followed Della to the front counter and laid them down on the desk. “Do you think Ruth Shore would be capable of murder?” Amelia asked her and slid her library card across the desk.

  Della looked over the top of her glasses. “Now that’s something I have no idea about. Who in their right mind would just murder someone? Even if they had problems with them, no one deserves to be murdered. Will this do it for you?”

  Amelia nodded. “Yes, that will do it.
”

  Della scanned her library card and then opened the covers of the books to scan the barcode. “I tell you one thing though,” she said without looking at her. “With all the gossip that’s flying around about what happened to Patty, the police are going to have their hands full sorting it all out. Can you imagine what would happen if they arrest the wrong person? We are talking about Gabardine police, after all.” She laughed. “I guess I shouldn’t say that. They are a pretty inept police force though, aren’t they?”

  Amelia nodded and tried to remain calm, but her words had set her heart to pounding in her chest. How would the police sort out all the rumors?

  Chapter Sixteen

  Amelia pulled up to the community gardens and parked. She noted with satisfaction that the community garden was empty. When she had first begun gardening, she had anticipated standing around with other gardeners discussing plants, weeds, and fertilizers. But she was disappointed that people tended to stay to themselves, stopping in, taking care of business, and then leaving. But since Patty’s murder, she found herself smiling when the community gardens were deserted. She now enjoyed the solitude of the empty garden. It was funny how things changed when you least expected it.

  She went to the gardening shed and to her locker. When she reached for the lock, she was dismayed to see that the lock hadn’t caught the last time she had been here. Each locker had a combination lock on it and now the door to her locker opened readily without the combination being used. She crouched down and looked at the mechanism, trying to figure out if something was wrong with it, but she didn’t know what she was looking for. Her hoe hadn’t been returned from the police, and she didn’t want it returned. She made a mental note to pick up another one from the hardware store. And when she did, she wasn’t going to put her name on it like she had the last one. She had learned her lesson. If there was ever another murder, she didn’t want her name attached to it.