“Yes. And I’ve been helping the Shamrock Historical Society out at Lake Whitley. I was there when they found your aunt. I’m very sorry for your loss.”
He snapped his fingers. “You’re John Lee’s widow, Paul’s mother. You were at the house when those crazy ladies broke in.”
It wasn’t the way she wanted him to remember her, but she had to acknowledge her involvement. “Yes, I was.”
He smiled and sat back again. “John was a good man and a good officer. We worked together several times, coming up through the ranks.”
“Thank you.” Peggy wanted to change the subject to the reason they were there before Mai fell apart. “I’m also working as a contractor for the ME’s office. That’s why I’m here.”
“That’s right! You’re the plant person. I can understand why they called you in on this one, although I might question your objectivity, since you’re a member of the group and you were on the scene when they found Aunt Lois.”
“I can assure you that Dr. Lee is extremely objective,” Mai said. “She’s worked with us on several cases and her work has always been exemplary.”
“That’s fine.” The chief picked up a manila file folder on his desk. “I said someone could think that, not that they did. I don’t have a problem with the situation or Dr. Lee, Ms. Sato. My problem seems to revolve around you.”
“M-me?”
“That’s right. I’ve been looking through your notes, and I don’t see any mention of bruising around my aunt’s mouth that might be consistent with someone forcing her to eat poison berries.”
Mai frowned as she sat forward. “Those are my notes. I haven’t released them yet.”
“I’m the chief of police. The notes don’t have to be released for me to see them. Dr. Ramsey was kind enough to bring me everything on this case.”
“But we’re not finished yet—”
“Unless you have something more than I see in this file, I think you’re finished. I see no evidence of foul play. Aunt Lois had a bad heart. She had another heart attack. It’s a terrible thing that she had to die out there alone, when she had so many people who loved her.” He closed the file and tossed it in Mai’s direction. “But sometimes that’s the way it is.”
“What about the man she helped get arrested?” Peggy jumped in. “How do we know where he is right now?”
“I really don’t see any reason to ask where he is,” Chief Mullis said. “Unless you’re suggesting he was somehow responsible for her having a heart attack, I’d say it’s irrelevant to what happened.”
“I think there’s more to this,” Peggy added. “All we’re asking for is a few more days. What harm can that do?”
“The harm, Dr. Lee, is delaying Aunt Lois’s burial and memorial service. Plus many of those people I mentioned who loved her are concerned about the police holding on to her body. They think there’s something wrong, and we can all clearly see there isn’t.”
“How did it happen that you dropped her off at the lake that morning?” Peggy really didn’t mean to ask that question. It just sort of slipped out.
“Excuse me? Are you suggesting I’m somehow involved with what happened to my aunt?” Chief Mullis moved forward in his chair to glare at her. “I think you should leave that kind of conjecture to the professionals. The police department appreciates your help, Dr. Lee. You provide a necessary service. But you’re not a police detective.”
Peggy felt her temper begin to rise. Why wouldn’t the man answer the question if he had nothing to hide? She started to ask him exactly that when Mai put her hand on her arm. “Thank you, Chief Mullis.” Mai abruptly got to her feet. “I’ll release your aunt’s body to the funeral home. I’m sorry for the delay.”
Peggy fumed as she followed Mai into the hall. The satisfied look on the chief’s face made her even angrier. “What was that all about?”
“I’ve worked really hard to get here,” Mai answered. “I’m not letting something like this knock me back down. I mean, really, Peggy, do you honestly think the chief killed his aunt or was involved in any way?”
They’d stopped walking and confronted each other in the hall, ignoring the people who passed them. “I think your integrity is more important than backing down because the chief doesn’t agree with you.”
“I asked you not to say that to him.” Mai started walking quickly toward the elevator. “I care about what happened to Mrs. Mullis, but he’s right. I looked for bruises anywhere on her body that would tell us she’d been physically coerced in some way. There was nothing.”
“But we know she chewed on some yew berries,” Peggy argued.
“That’s true. And it may or may not have caused her to have a fatal heart attack. I don’t know if we’ll ever be able to say one way or another. But without some reason to suspect that someone forced her to eat the berries, we’d have to conjecture she saw them and wanted to eat them. You said yourself people are poisoned every year by eating something they shouldn’t eat. As far as I’ve heard, Mrs. Mullis wasn’t a nature specialist who could identify poisonous berries.”
They got in the elevator together. “So that’s it?” Peggy asked.
“Unless one of Mrs. Mullis’s friends comes up with something else that makes sense.” Mai shrugged her thin shoulders. “I can’t see anything else to do.”
“What about the blood work you sent to Raleigh?”
Mai swallowed hard. “When we get that back, we’ll deal with it. I’m not antagonizing the chief about this.”
Peggy didn’t agree with her, but her arguments were pointless without evidence to back them up. She could only hope Merton came up with something conclusive from the seeds.
They drove back in silence that was neither agreeable nor friendly. Peggy said good night, but there was no response from Mai. She called Steve as she left the lab. She’d already fielded a call from Selena asking if she could close the shop early. There had been only two customers since lunchtime. The rain usually slowed things down, but not so dramatically.
Steve’s voice mail picked up. She started to leave a message, then decided against it and went home. When she saw Steve’s SUV wasn’t in her drive, she parked her truck and plugged it in, then walked to his house. He lived only a few doors down, in another turn-of-the-century house on Queens Road. It wasn’t as large or grand as the house that she was fortunate enough to live in, but it was a good, solid redbrick house that would probably stand for another hundred years.
Peggy peeked through the window in the kitchen door. There was no sign of Steve even though it was dinnertime. His Saturn was in the drive, though, so she knew he was here somewhere. She started thinking about his difficult surgery and took out the key to the house that he’d had made for her.
It was still shiny and a little stiff in the lock. She hadn’t used it many times. When she stayed with him, she was barraged with phone calls. It always seemed easier for him to stay with her.
She walked through the kitchen and living room. It looked as though no one lived here. Not a thing was out of place, but it was appallingly dusty. A little shaft of sunlight that had dared show itself between the raindrops pointed out a long cobweb that stretched from his TV to the ceiling.
“Steve? Are you here?” she called out as she tried to keep from feeling guilty about being in his house. Her mother would be proud of her. Guilt was an important part of any Southern girl’s upbringing. The fact that Peggy could feel guilty about being in a deserted house meant she was in good standing. The irony of why his house was left alone so often wasn’t lost on her. She didn’t think her mother would appreciate that fact.
“Peggy?” Steve came up the basement stairs. “I thought I heard you up here. I guess I had my cell phone turned off. I’m down here with my patient. She’s not doing so well.”
She went downstairs with him to where he was keeping a small, white dog company. The dog lifted her head at Peggy’s approach and whined a little, but she was too sick to make any other effort. “The poor
thing. Is this the one you operated on this morning?”
“Yeah. She’s had cancer a few times. This time it was in one of her kidneys. But she’s a trouper, aren’t you, Daisy?” Steve ran his hand down the dog’s fur. “I just don’t know if she’s going to make it this time.”
Peggy pulled a chair beside Steve’s. “I’ll get us something to eat.”
“I don’t want to leave the house.”
“Of course not. But I don’t see why we can’t eat together anyway. Unless you think Daisy would mind.”
“I don’t think so.” He kissed her. “Thanks.”
Peggy smiled, but she knew, as she was going upstairs to order Chinese food, that she’d have to do more than call for take-out. She could give the old house a good dusting while she was at it. Maybe run the vacuum over the carpets. She’d seen a few red roses still blooming at a corner of the house. They were a little leggy, but she could cut a few of them for a vase, if Steve had a vase. It was terrible. He knew her house so well, but she knew very little about his home. That was about to change.
10
Black-eyed Susan
Botanical: Rudbeckia hirta
This flower has been the state flower of Maryland since 1918. It was named for Olav Rudbeck and his son by the Swedish naturalist Linnaeus in 1753, and coupled with hirta, meaning rough and hairy. It is native to the eastern United States.
PEGGY TIED A KITCHEN TOWEL around her hair after she’d called in the order for Chinese. No telling how long those cobwebs had been there or what was living inside them. She couldn’t find a feather duster, so she took out a few more towels and went to work.
The ceiling fans were the worst. It was like gray snow falling on her. She sneezed as the dust came down and wished she had a mask to protect her nose, but kept going. Steve was going to be so surprised when he saw the house!
There was no vacuum. She searched all the closets, but could find only an old carpet sweeper. It would have to do, she decided. The cloud of dust she raised from the carpets made her resolve to buy him a vacuum. Or maybe hire a maid service for him once a week.
The three main rooms were clean, furniture gleaming with polish, when the doorbell rang. She paid the delivery boy, then set the food on the kitchen table. She was going to have to clean herself up before she could eat.
“Is that dinner?” Steve called from the basement stairs. “I’m starving.”
“I’ll have it set up in a minute.”
“Let me give you a hand.”
“No! I’ll be fine. You stay down there with Daisy.”
Steve agreed, though he sounded a little suspicious. He knew her too well. Peggy bustled into the bathroom, the only one she could recall, in his bedroom. Steve had converted what should’ve been a den or library into a bedroom. He said he didn’t want to use the second floor of the house because it would take too long to get downstairs to his patients.
Peggy had never had the opportunity to look through his personal effects before. She’d always been there with him. Now she forgot about washing up as she looked at the photos on his dresser. They were older pictures, probably his parents. It looked as though he had a younger sister as well. Funny, he’d never mentioned her.
There was a mystery novel with a toothpick used as a bookmark on top of a textbook on canine eating habits after surgery. There was also a small pistol. That surprised her. She didn’t think of Steve as the gun-toting type.
Cautiously, she opened the closet door and turned on the light. There were several good suits, all black, and a few pairs of shoes. She hadn’t realized how few clothes he had. Biting her lip, she opened a green duffel bag she found on the floor. Inside were muddy clothes and boots.
“Peggy? Are you in the kitchen?”
Quickly she closed the duffel bag, turned out the light, and backed out of the closet. She was already in the bathroom by the time he reached the bedroom.
“What are you doing up here? Are you cleaning?”
She laughed, feeling awkward. “It was so dusty. I know I’m not much for cooking or cleaning. It was a mercy clean.”
“You didn’t have to do that.”
“I know. I was too dusty to eat. I think you need a maid service.”
He put his arms around her and looked at her in the mirror. “One of those provocative ladies in short black dresses with the frilly white aprons?” He kissed the side of her neck.
Peggy looked at him in the mirror. His face was so familiar, so dear. Yet she had known him only a short time. She knew only what he’d told her about himself. She’d taken him on face value. He’d won her heart almost from the first moment she’d run her bicycle into his SUV.
But looking through his things had made her realize how little she really knew about him. The photo of his parents, for instance. Were they still alive? What about his sister? Her curiosity almost got the better of her, but asking about it would be admitting she’d snooped in his bedroom.
“Are you okay?” His dark brows drew together as he questioned her.
“I’m fine. Just dusty. Since you’re up here, maybe you could get the food. I’ll get something to drink.” The man was too in tune with her. It didn’t help that she was the worst secret keeper in the world.
“Let’s just eat up here,” he suggested. “That way I’ll make sure you’re not polishing the silver on the way downstairs. Daisy is asleep for now.”
They ate in the kitchen. Steve took out two china plates and put the chicken and vegetables on his plate; the broccoli and mushrooms on hers. “What did you get into today?”
Peggy dropped the broccoli she’d speared on her plate. “What do you mean?”
“You’re always into something.” He shrugged. “I know you’re looking into Mrs. Mullis’s death. Anything happen with that?”
She took a deep breath. “Not really.” She told him about her meeting with Chief Mullis. “I’m sure no one else would ask him to explain himself.”
Steve laughed. “I’m sure you’re right. Are you satisfied with his answers?”
“I guess I’ll have to be.” She glanced at him, wishing she’d never looked in his room. Now she felt out of sorts being with him. Was he hiding something important from her? She was going to have to find a way to ask him about his family. Nothing as blunt as her question to Chief Mullis. Why didn’t he want to talk about them?
“My days are never as exciting as yours.” He put more soy sauce on his chicken. “The horse farm called today. I hope Daisy is doing better tomorrow, so I can go out there. A few of the horses are sick. It’s a big account, and I don’t want to lose them.”
“How many horses do they have?”
“Probably a hundred. Skipper’s a friend of mine and a serious horse nut. I think he’d have more if he had more land.”
“What kind of horses does he have?” This was as good a place to start as any. She obviously needed to know more about Steve’s life. He told her all about the horse farm and what he suspected was wrong with the horses. All the time she was wondering what he was holding back. Why hadn’t he introduced her to his friend by now? She wanted to kick herself for questioning what he said, but once she’d started, she couldn’t seem to stop. It was driving her crazy.
When they were done eating, they went back downstairs and Steve checked Daisy’s vital signs. “No change,” he muttered. “Of course, in this case, no change is probably good. Poor old girl.” He stroked her fur. “You’ve really had a rough time.”
Peggy watched him. He was so gentle and patient. Not just with the dog but with everyone and everything. She felt secure with that knowledge about him. As far as the little pistol on his nightstand, maybe he was nervous. She looked at the basement door, where pet owners went in and out on a regular basis. It had made her nervous when she’d first opened the Potting Shed. That could be enough to make him want to protect himself.
“You’re very quiet.” He sat beside her on the old sofa he slept on when his patients needed constant attention. “It
’s making me nervous.”
“Why? Are you saying I talk too much?”
“Not at all. I like how you talk and what you say. But I know that when you’re quiet, you’re working on some scheme I’m probably not going to like.”
She laughed, but it died quickly. “I don’t work on schemes.”
He traced the side of her face with his finger. “Yes, you do. What is it this time? Are you planning on running away with Mrs. Mullis’s body until you can prove what killed her? Or are you thinking about kidnapping her nephew and getting the truth out of him with some botanical truth serum?”
“I can’t believe you’re saying those things to me!” She forgot about the photo and her doubts for a moment as she defended herself. “I only do things that are necessary. And it’s not like those are bad things. I’ve helped a few people.”
“And almost gotten yourself killed in the process more than once.”
She wanted to wipe that tender smile from his handsome face. “At least I don’t keep secrets.” As soon as the words were out of her mouth, she regretted them. The bad thing about words was that you couldn’t call them back.
“What are you talking about?”
Peggy got to her feet and paced the limited area in the surgery room. “I’m talking about keeping secrets from each other. I’m sure you have some secrets I don’t know about.”
It sounded lame to her, but she wasn’t really prepared to confront him. Her temper had gotten the best of her, as always. Now she had to try to find a way out of it.
“You keep more secrets than me,” he said. “I’m pretty much what you see.”
“Everyone has secrets,” she persisted. “Like your little sister. Why haven’t you ever mentioned her?”
He sat forward on the sofa. “My sister? What makes you think I have a sister?”
A Corpse for Yew Page 11
