A Corpse for Yew

by Joyce; Jim Lavene

  Peggy laughed. “Not for some reason. I like you, Mai, and we don’t spend enough time together.”

  “Great! In other words, you want to snoop on Paul and me.”

  “I wouldn’t dream of it. The two of you are coming for dinner on Tuesday, right?”

  “Short of an emergency. Or if you keep dragging me off on weird field trips and I never finish my work.”

  “You’ll finish,” Peggy assured her. “Paul told me you’ve decided to paint the house.”

  “We did. Why is that kind of thing always my decision?”

  “Did I say you decided? I meant both of you. What color are you doing the dining room?”

  “Is this some kind of test? Our house isn’t as big as yours, Peggy, so what looks good at your place won’t necessarily look good at our place.”

  “I don’t know why you’re so upset.” Peggy pointed out the turn to Lake Whitley. “I only asked what color you’re doing the dining room.”

  “Rose.” Mai looked at her with a belligerent gleam in her dark eyes. “Go ahead. Say it. Paul has said it often enough. Rose isn’t a good color for a dining room. A bedroom maybe, but not a dining room.”

  “I think it’s a lovely color for a dining room. Especially since you have those beautiful rose pattern dishes.”

  “Really? I think it’s going to look great. I’m doing the kitchen Sunday Sand and the living room Torrid Taupe.”

  “That sounds wonderful! I hope Paul’s helping you paint.”

  Mai pulled the ME’s van into a spot beside the line of crime scene tape. “Oh, he’s helping, or it’ll get ugly really fast. We went furniture shopping last week. He didn’t want to do that, either. He’s such a man! Next I think he might want a La-z-Boy and a big-screen TV.”

  “You mean he doesn’t already?”

  “Probably. He hasn’t said so.” Mai’s pretty face grew serious. “He said something to me about you and Steve. He’s worried about you. He likes Steve. He’s just not sure about your relationship.”

  “I’ll tell him when I think he’s ready,” Peggy said. “It’s been only three years since his father died. I don’t want him to think I’d forget John because I love Steve.”

  “I think he can handle it better than speculating on what’s happening at your house. He’s not a little kid anymore. And he’s not stupid. If you don’t tell him soon, he’ll catch you guys and confront you. I know you don’t want that.”

  A knock at Mai’s window drew their attention. She opened it and smiled at the officer on the other side. “We’re going to take another look around.”

  “Sure thing, ma’am,” the officer replied. “Just thought you should know someone has been out here playing with our crime scene. We caught this guy a little while ago.”

  The officer pulled Jonathon closer to the van. The museum director smiled and adjusted his glasses. “Peggy? Maybe you could tell this man that I wasn’t here to disturb the crime scene.”

  Peggy thought about what Geneva had said in regard to his relationship with Lois. “What were you doing out here, Jonathon?”

  7

  Yew

  Botanical: Taxus baccata

  The yew was the first Christmas plant to be used in Europe, even though its name means sorrow. Sprigs were cut for decoration as we cut holly now, and the tree was the original Christmas tree, brought to England by Queen Charlotte of Germany. Yew has been used as a medicinal plant for centuries and is still in use today. An oil, Taxol, is taken from yew and used for treating breast and ovarian cancer.

  PEGGY VOUCHED FOR JONATHON, THOUGH she was reluctant to do so. It seemed odd to her that he’d be out there, apparently alone. Of course she could be allowing Geneva’s doubts to cloud her judgment. “What were you doing out here?” she asked him again as he accompanied her and Mai to the area where they’d found Lois.

  “I didn’t realize this was considered a crime scene.” Jonathon held back a blackberry bush for the two women. “Why are the police investigating Lois’s death? I thought it was obvious she’d died from natural causes.”

  Mai’s dark eyes narrowed. “And what made you think that was obvious, sir?”

  “No one would want to hurt Lois. She was the backbone of the group. Besides, those things happen only on TV.”

  “Not quite,” Peggy answered. “Even if there were no suspicious aspects of this death, the ME is required to take a look at anything that’s out of the ordinary. Lois may have had a heart attack while she was waiting for the group, but she wasn’t exactly at home in her bed.”

  “I didn’t realize. I thought she’d just died, and we’d go on with the excavation.” He smiled at Peggy and Mai. “Time nor tide waits for no man. We’ll have rain eventually, and everything you see here will be under forty feet of water again.”

  “I understand your dedication, Dr. Underwood,” Mai began, “but we have to clear anyone before they can come into the crime scene. Nothing else can be disturbed until we know for sure what happened here.”

  “I’m sorry.” His large hands went up to his sun-reddened face. “I didn’t take much out today. Everything I found is under the tarp over there. I won’t touch anything else until you tell me.”

  Just for the sake of asking the question, Peggy wondered, “Where were you before you picked up the ladies and brought them out here?”

  Mai gave her a strange look but didn’t comment.

  “Am I under investigation? Is there something I should know?” Jonathon glanced nervously back and forth between the two women.

  “It’s just routine,” Mai backed Peggy. “Please answer the question.”

  “Well, as you know, we got out here quite early. I got up at six, showered, dressed, and grabbed a few protein bars before I left my house to pick up the ladies. I believe I was at Dorothy’s house a little before six-thirty, and we were all out here by seven. We picked up Mrs. Waynewright last, didn’t we, Peggy?”

  She nodded. “My mom and I were together at my house. You were there a little before seven.”

  “What about before six?” Mai asked.

  “I was sleeping.” Jonathon shrugged after swatting at a fly. “I slept all night.”

  “Is there someone who can corroborate your story?” Mai got out her notepad and put on her glasses.

  “No. I live alone. I sleep alone. My cats were there with me.” He looked at Peggy. “Do I need a lawyer?”

  “Not if you haven’t done anything wrong,” Mai responded. “I’m afraid I’m going to have to ask you to go back to your vehicle and wait.”

  “Just one more thing,” Peggy said. “The ladies said there were some hard feelings between you and Lois. What was that all about?”

  “It was something silly. Someone took some artifacts from the museum. I was blamed for leaving the door open, but it isn’t true.”

  “And you think Lois took them?” Peggy found that hard to believe.

  “I’d rather not say.” He frowned. “It’s not good to speak ill of the dead.”

  Peggy didn’t press the point since she wasn’t really sure why the ladies found Jonathon suspicious. If he’d accused Lois of stealing something from the museum, she could see where that could cause hard feelings on her side, but not on his. She needed to know more before she could make sense of it.

  Jonathon glanced back a few times as he left them, before turning the curve in the path, which led to the dry lake.

  “Now would you like to tell me what that was all about?” Mai asked Peggy.

  “I don’t know. A few of the women in the historical society say he and Lois were having some problems. They think he drove her out here before he picked up the group, and killed her.”

  Mai’s eyes widened dramatically as her pencil scribbled on the pad of paper she held. “Why didn’t you say so before? He could be a suspect if what you’re thinking about the yew berries proves to be true.”

  “I thought of that.” Peggy skirted around the edge of where the lake had been. “But I really think
it’s more likely that Lois got out here and saw the berries, then ate them. It happens all the time. People can’t tell the difference between the poisonous berries and the nonpoisonous berries, but they eat them anyway. Thousands of people are poisoned every year that way.”

  “Why did you question Dr. Underwood if you don’t think he had anything to do with it?”

  “I guess so I could try to put the ladies’ minds at ease. They see murder in this, but I think it’s less likely than a tragic mistake.”

  Mai followed Peggy past the tarp under which the group was preserving what they could find in the thick mud. She looked at the human remains around them and shook her head. “This place could be a nightmare if you’re trying to put together any kind of case! Where did all those bones come from?”

  Peggy explained about Whitley Village and why the group was out there trying to preserve what they could. “They plan to bury whatever remains they find and keep the artifacts in the museum. You see what Jonathon meant about time being valuable. It won’t take a lot to ruin the site for another hundred years.”

  “Let’s take a look at the spot where you found Mrs. Mullis,” Mai suggested. “I’d like to get out of here. This place gives me the creeps.”

  Peggy laughed. “How can it bother you, with everything you’ve seen?”

  “This is different. I see them before they get buried. All these coffin parts sticking up, it’s like a bad horror movie.”

  Peggy took Mai to the old post office, explaining they knew the landmarks by the map Jonathon had of the village. “I actually wasn’t the first one to see Lois. Geneva Curtis found her, and then we all came over. The mud is a few feet thick in there, and she kept rolling over. Not on her own, mind you. I think she was in the less solid area. There’s a small creek running under the mud.”

  “Have you seen any yew bushes yet?” Mai glanced around her. “I wouldn’t know one if it slapped me in the face.”

  “I’ve seen a few bushes, but no berries.”

  “Maybe she ate them all.”

  “Maybe. They aren’t loaded with them, like blackberries or blueberries. Sometimes they don’t have any at all. Like any other plant, they have to be mature enough to grow them.” Peggy knelt beside the area where Lois’s ghastly face had appeared to her.

  “So you and this other lady, Geneva, found Lois here.” Mai looked at the thick brown mud around what was left of the old post office. “What happened then?”

  “We called 911. She looked like she was dressed to be here. I noticed her tennis shoes and jeans. I could tell she was wearing makeup, but the red on her lips was probably berry stains instead of lipstick.”

  Mai walked carefully along the edge of the shore, looking for anything the police might have missed. Peggy checked the surrounding area for yew bushes. There were several, but none of them had berries. She snipped and saved a few branches. They appeared to have had berries and seeds, which were missing. It might be possible to match the seed to the plant if not the berry.

  “I don’t see any red berry blotches,” Mai told her. “Though I can see where your theory about her eating them could come from.”

  “The only thing that doesn’t make any sense is how she got out here.” Peggy sat down on a large rock beside the dry lake and looked across at the small hill that was visible in the middle of where the lake had been. “According to her friends, the taxi idea was out of the question, and none of her other friends or relatives drove her here. Her cars were still at her home.”

  Mai sat down beside her. “I’d say that doesn’t make any sense either, but that’s not part of our job, remember? We’re just here to speculate on the cause of death. If Mrs. Mullis died from yew poisoning, we can’t rule that a natural cause. Then we have to find out if she mistook the plant, as you said, or if someone gave it to her.”

  “How will we know the difference? It’s not like you can examine her and make that decision.”

  “We’ll look again for signs of struggle or bruises that could have come from her being held down and force-fed the berries.”

  “I’ll try to match those seeds to the bushes close by.” Peggy glanced at her. “What if we decide she wasn’t force-fed the berries? That still leaves the problem of how she got out here.”

  “We’ll file the car information with the detective on the case.” Mai shrugged, then stood up slowly, her gaze focused on something in the mud. “Do you see that?”

  Peggy looked where Mai pointed. Something gleamed dully in the spotty sunshine. “It looks like metal, but I should warn you, we found lots of bits and pieces of things out here. They have a whole miniwarehouse full of them. Still . . .”

  “And maybe it’s nothing.”

  Peggy took off her shoes and rolled up her pants legs. “But it’s close to where we found the body. We have to check it out.”

  “We don’t have to do it right now.” Mai winced as Peggy stuck her feet in the mud. “We could call a hazmat crew and let them get in there.”

  “Those little currents of water running through the mud could be a problem,” Peggy explained, to keep her mind from wondering what was touching her feet and legs where she couldn’t see them. “If we don’t grab this now, it could be gone. We’d never find it at the bottom of the mud.”

  “Is that safe?” Mai asked. “I hope you don’t step on something and cut yourself. Dr. Ramsey would kill me if we have to file an OSHA form.”

  “Thanks for your concern.”

  “You know what I mean. Just hurry and get out of there. You’re making me super nervous, and I’m feeling a little queasy just watching you.”

  Peggy reached forward and snatched up the gleaming bit of metal. “Got it!” She wiped away some of the mud and looked at her treasure. It was a ring. Hard to tell when it was made. Was it modern enough to be Lois’s or one of the other ladies’? Or was it something that belonged to one of the villagers who were long gone?

  Not wanting to be in the mud one moment more than she had to be, Peggy held the ring tightly in her hand and waded back to the shore. She let Mai take a look at it as she did what she could to clean up. “What do you think?”

  Mai took out an evidence bag. “I think it bears further study.” She looked at Peggy. “Now how are we going to get you back to town without having the inside of the van cleaned?”

  AFTER A QUICK SHOWER AND a change of clothes, Peggy met Sam, Keeley, and Jasper Wheeler at the Potting Shed. She and Sam had hired Jasper over the summer, before the drought had set in, to work with Sam creating landscape water features. At the time, water features were the hot ticket. As the land dried up, so did landscape ponds and fountains. Mecklenburg County and the counties surrounding it had passed resolutions to do without anything that required extra water.

  Peggy had regretted laying off Jasper. He was a nice young man, and they had all worked well together creating the water feature in the shop. But she had to keep the Potting Shed going. She’d also laid off her part-time weekend assistants, Dawn and Brenda.

  Now she smiled and waved when she saw the three young people waiting for her on the wrought iron benches in Brevard Court. “Hello, Jasper! It’s good to see you again. How’s Christie?”

  “She’s fine,” he replied with a ready smile. “She’s back in school. Still hanging out with those extreme pollution fighters, but she learned a lot from working with you.”

  “I’m glad. I’d hoped she wouldn’t be angry about everything that happened.”

  He shrugged. “She’s not the kind of person to hold a grudge. Besides, she doesn’t blame you for any of it. She blames Sam.”

  “Me?” Sam jumped a little. “Why me?”

  “Because she thinks you were responsible for ratting out the group to the police.” Jasper laughed. “Cheer up, Sam. She still wants to go out with you. Who can understand the way a sister’s mind works?”

  “Hey!” Keeley shoved him. “I’m someone’s sister. Don’t act like we’re all blond.”

  “Hey!”
Sam took issue with that remark. “Let’s not get on that ‘blonds are dumb’ thing, or I’ll have to prove they aren’t.”

  “I think we’d better go to lunch,” Peggy intervened. “It sounds like all of you have low blood sugar. How about Anthony’s? My treat.”

  They all agreed quickly, and Peggy sent them to the Caribbean restaurant next door while she went to check in with Selena. She was pleased to find her shop assistant taking a Visa card for a few purchases from an urban dweller who had moved into one of the new condos in Center City Charlotte. It wasn’t a large purchase, just a few indoor plants, but it made her feel better. They needed much more to stay alive. Rent wasn’t cheap in Brevard Court, or anywhere else in Center City.

  When the customer was gone, Peggy asked Selena how the morning had been. “I’ve seen better,” Selena told her. “What does it take, anyway? Maybe I should dress up like a plant and parade around on Tryon Street to drag in some customers.”

  “How about we close up the shop for an hour and I buy you lunch next door instead?”

  Selena’s eyes lit up. “I could go for that. But what if someone comes in and we miss them?”

  “They’ll come back. Let’s go.”

  Sam saw them come through the restaurant door and waved them toward the table they’d picked out. Peggy wasn’t happy to see that Anthony’s business was down as well. Normally his café was packed with hungry business-people who spilled out from the banks and other corporate centers. Today, most of the tables in the splashy, colorful restaurant were empty. Maybe it was more than just the drought keeping people out of the Potting Shed.

  Before the waiter could reach them, Anthony bounced out of the kitchen. “Never mind,” he told the man. “I’ll take care of my friends.”

  “It’s good to see you!” Peggy stood up and hugged him. “I haven’t been here in a while.”

  “So that’s what’s happened to all my customers,” he said in his liquid Jamaican accent. “I’m glad there’s someone to blame!” He hugged Sam, Keeley, and Selena while they introduced Jasper. “I know you! You put that pretty pond in Peggy’s shop. I wish I could afford to have you do that here.”