Lyndsey Cole - Lily Bloom 02 - Queen of Poison

by Lyndsey Cole

“Which is?”

  “She will have final say over who is hired, budget details, that sort of thing.”

  Lily was busy adding more notes to her columns. “What about Evelyn’s kids? Do they fit in at all?”

  Tamara thought for a minute. “That’s a good question. I’m guessing they’ll inherit some of Marion’s wealth.” She looked around the table. “But that’s just a guess. I don’t know the details of her will.”

  “No, I meant are they involved in running the museum at all?”

  “Hmmm, I’ve heard some chatter that Marion’s nephew, Jared, would like to be the director.”

  Iris pumped her fist. “Bingo. He wants Elizabeth’s job. The money isn’t enough for him. And the niece? She seems like a bit of a loser.”

  Tamara paused. “I don’t like to spread gossip but—”

  “But you’d better.” Everyone leaned in to hear what was next.

  “I’ve heard she has a drug problem. She’s always borrowing money from her mother and brother and they are sick of it.”

  Iris was pacing around the table. “I’d love to be a fly on the wall at that meeting tonight and hear everything first hand.”

  Tamara had a devious look on her face. “I found some of those police wire thingies in Tyrone’s stuff that he left after the divorce. If we can figure out how to work it, I could wear it and you could listen in. What do you think?”

  Everyone cracked up. “Tamara, you never cease to amaze me,” Iris shouted. “Get that stuff and we’ll figure it out. This is going to be fun. What time is that meeting?”

  “I have to be at Marion’s house at seven.”

  Iris checked her watch. “Let’s all meet back here at six. That should give us enough time to figure it out. I’ll look on YouTube for instructions. You can find anything there.”

  Lily decided to brave a quick trip back to her shop. With any luck, the media circus would be gone and she could finish up any orders that came in. With her fingers crossed, she turned onto Lupine Lane and was happily met with a deserted, quiet view.

  Hopefully my five minutes of fame are over, she thought to herself.

  Sweet Pea meowed and rubbed on Lily’s leg when she walked in the back door. Lily picked up the little cat. “Are you a little lonely, my little tiger?”

  Someone was knocking on the front door. Lily went to the front of the store to see who was so desperate to get in the shop. Kirk Stevens was waiting patiently for her to open the door.

  “Hello Mr. Stevens. I’m so sorry about your loss.”

  He nodded and walked inside. “Thank you. It’s quite a shock. I don’t think my brain has actually processed what happened to Elizabeth.” He looked around. “You have a nice little shop. I don’t know why I’ve never come in before.”

  Lily put Sweet Pea down and turned her closed sign to open in case there were any other customers in need of flowers. “What can I help you with today?”

  He was looking around, studying the buckets of flowers and premade arrangements. “I, ah, need an arrangement.”

  “Yes?” Lily tried to encourage him to figure out what he wanted.

  “Ms. Barry’s sister, Evelyn—” He looked up at Lily to make sure she knew who he was talking about. “Evelyn contacted me about having a joint memorial gathering for Marion and Elizabeth.”

  Lily nodded. “That sounds lovely. When is the gathering?”

  “We haven’t decided yet. In the next few days I suppose.” He leaned over to smell a container filled with lilac.

  “Are you thinking about any particular flowers?”

  He looked at Lily with eyes filled with tears. “She loved monkshood. Is that something you could get?”

  “Monkshood?” Lily was shaken.

  He tilted his head and looked carefully at Lily. “Is that a problem? A difficult flower to find?”

  She pulled herself together. “It’s unusual but I can get some. It’s not a flower many people request. I saw that Ruth Walsh used it in her Art in Bloom arrangement of Marion Barry’s portrait.”

  He scowled. “Elizabeth did Marion’s portrait arrangement. Ruth was always taking credit for Elizabeth’s work. Ruth wanted Elizabeth’s job, you know. Elizabeth met her at the museum just before she went home last night to discuss who would take over. I guess she’ll get her wish now.”

  Lily was mentally taking notes to add to her list of suspects and clues. “Ruth was at the museum? What time was that?”

  “I’m not sure. I was expecting Elizabeth home around eight so it was sometime before that.”

  She tried to remain calm. I’m sure that will all get sorted out by the board of directors.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Nothing really. I just assumed that in a situation like this, the board of directors will figure out how to move forward.”

  “Yes, I suppose you’re right. I just hate to think that Ruth Walsh might get my Elizabeth’s job.” He sighed. “I’ll let you know when the date is decided.” He headed toward the door but paused and turned back toward Lily. “I’m thinking about having an opening at my antique shop sometime. I’ve acquired a lot of new items and would like to encourage more people to come in. Would you be able to do some arrangements for that?”

  Lily was caught a little off guard by the timing of the request. “Absolutely. I can’t imagine anything nicer than antiques and flowers, except, of course, art and flowers. Bye now.” The door jangled as Kirk Stevens departed.

  Lily quickly finished putting flowers in the cooler, fed Sweet Pea and gave her another cuddle. “Sorry to be leaving so soon. See you tomorrow.”

  She drove back to Iris’s house, excited to share the new clues Kirk Stevens unknowingly gave her. Tamara and Iris were busy looking through the box of recording stuff that Tamara brought.

  “Figure it out yet?”

  Iris looked up. “Should be a piece of cake. She can just put this pager size recording device in her purse and we can sit in your van across the street with the receiver.”

  Lily filled them in about Kirk’s visit and the information about Ruth Walsh. “Will she be at the meeting tonight?”

  Tamara nodded. “She should be. She was always there in the past, sitting right next to Marion and taking notes. If what you just told us is true, I don’t think she’ll miss the meeting for anything.”

  “Who else will be there? I want to make a list so we can figure out the voices.”

  “Hmmm. Evelyn, maybe her kids, Ruth, Kirk and me.”

  “Kirk?” Lily was surprised.

  “Evelyn decided to invite him out of respect for Elizabeth’s death. He doesn’t usually come.”

  Iris was grinning. “Sounds like there might be fireworks with Ruth and Kirk in the same room.” She finished fiddling with the recorder. “There. You should be good to go. We’ll follow a little later in Lily’s van.”

  Tamara carefully put the recorder in a small pocket in her purse. “This is going to be so exciting. I feel like a real undercover cop.” She waddled out the door to her car.

  Lily added all the new information to her list before anything slipped from her mind. “Everybody ready to go?”

  Iris and Marigold nodded. Daisy asked, “What about Rosie?”

  Lily put the leash on Rosie. “She’s coming of course.” Rosie wriggled with delight. She loved to be included in any adventure.

  Lily parked on the street, across and down a bit from Marion’s mansion. Tall iron gates guarded the front entrance. They could see Tamara’s scooter parked on the circular drive with the other cars.

  Iris got the receiver set up and held up the headphones. “All set for the show to start.” She exclaimed with glee.

  Chapter 7

  The ladies sat in the van crowded around the headset. They could hear Tamara’s heels tapping along the floor. A loud bang made them all jump. They heard Tamara’s voice say, “Oh dear. I dropped my bag.” She giggled. “Hope I didn’t break anything. Evelyn, your sister’s home is beautiful.”
<
br />   “Thank you, Tamara.”

  A whiny voice piped in. “It’s our house now, Mom.”

  “Not yet, dear. Nothing is official yet.”

  Iris whispered, “That must be Evelyn’s daughter, Maggie. Sounds like a real brat.”

  Another voice came through the headset. “Let’s call this meeting to order. Everyone is here now that Tamara finally decided to honor us with her presence.”

  Lily looked at the others. “That must be Ruth. I’d remember that nasty voice anywhere.”

  It sounded like someone slammed a hand on the table. A man’s voice said, “Let’s get this out in the open right now: Ruth wants Elizabeth’s job and I’m against it. She doesn’t deserve it after how she treated Elizabeth all these years. And besides, how do we know she didn’t kill Elizabeth to get her out of the way once Marion died?”

  Gasps came through loud and clear, both through the headset and from the ladies in the van.

  “That must be Kirk. He sounds pretty upset,” Iris told the others.

  Maggie was laughing. “Boy, you know how to cut to the chase. I’m glad I came. This is gonna be a knockdown, drag out power struggle.”

  Another male voice came through, “Shut up, Maggie. There’s no power struggle. Mom’s got it all now.”

  Iris looked at the others and deduced, “That must be the son, Jared.”

  Finally, Evelyn took control. “Calm down everyone. I know there’s a lot of emotions running high tonight but we need to all treat each other with respect. I have a couple of announcements to make. First, I was notified that Marion died of natural causes.”

  Kirk interrupted, “Yeah, well, it wasn’t natural causes that killed Elizabeth.”

  “Kirk, if you can’t be respectful, I’m going to ask you to leave.” There were a few seconds of silence. “Okay then. The second item on my agenda is that I would like you, Tamara, to be my interim secretary.”

  A chair or something crashed, followed by an outburst from Ruth. “I don’t believe this. You are all ganging up on me. I dedicated my life to Marion and this museum and this is how you treat me? I don’t need to sit here and listen to any more of this outrage.” Silence before a door slammed.

  The ladies peered out the van window and saw Ruth get into a black sedan and drive like a maniac out of the driveway.

  Kirk’s voice again. “Good riddance to her. Evelyn, I would like to offer my services as director of the museum.”

  Jared yelled, “Mom, you know I want that position. This is all so convenient with your sister keeling over and Elizabeth murdered. I’ve always wanted to be the director. Don’t give it to him just because you feel sorry for him.”

  All the ladies jumped when they heard a rapping on the driver window. Lily rolled down the window. “Yes, Ryan?”

  “What are you doing here parked outside of Marion Barry’s house?”

  Thinking quickly, Iris told him, “We’re waiting for Tamara to finish her meeting.”

  Ryan looked across the street. “It looks like her scooter is there. What’s going on?”

  “Nothing,” came the innocent answer from four mouths.

  He looked at each of them. “Okay then. Get moving.”

  Lily started the van and headed back to Iris’s house. Daisy giggled first. Just a small giggle. But soon they were all laughing uncontrollably. Lily had to pull to the side of the road until she stopped gasping for air. “Did—” Snort. “Did you see—“ Snort, snort. “Did you see his face? Okay. That felt good. Anybody hungry? Take out at the Chinese place?”

  Iris called in an order once they all decided what they wanted. “We’ll pick it up and go back to my house and wait for Tamara.”

  Lily pulled into the Chinese restaurant. Iris offered to go in and pick up the food. While she was inside, Ruth walked out and looked around as if she was waiting for someone. She got into her car but didn’t drive away. Lily was glad she had parked away from Ruth’s car so they could watch her without looking suspicious.

  Lily was tapping on the steering wheel. “I hope Ruth does something before Iris walks out and she sees the rest of us.” Sure enough, Ruth’s car door opened and again she glanced around, then threw a big paper bag in the trash.

  Daisy looked at Lily. “Want me to go get that bag?”

  “Definitely. But wait till she’s out of sight.”

  Just as Iris came out with the food, Daisy ran over to the trash can and grabbed the bag.

  Iris stopped and reprimanded her daughter. “Are you that hungry that you have to go dumpster diving?”

  Daisy pulled Iris to the van. “Ruth just threw this bag away, we want to see what’s in it.”

  “Probably her Chinese food.”

  Marigold pointed her finger toward Iris and Daisy climbing in the minivan. “There’s death in that bag.”

  The others were silent, then Lily spoke in a whisper. “What?”

  “I can smell it. Death.”

  Daisy dropped the bag. Iris grabbed it and looked inside. “All I see are dead flowers.”

  Marigold added. “Monkshood. And something else.”

  Iris tapped Lily’s arm. “Get us back to my house. We’ll take a closer look there.”

  Lily pulled in behind Tamara’s scooter. “Uh oh. She’s gonna wonder where we’ve been.”

  They walked in to find Tamara sitting comfortably on the couch sipping a glass of wine. “Well. Well. Well. You finally made it back.” She sat forward and said angrily, “You abandoned me. Where have you been?”

  “Calm down, Tamara. Lily’s cop friend told us we had to leave.” Iris put the take out bag on the coffee table. “We got some food on the way back.”

  Tamara sniffed the air. “Good idea. I’m starving.” She looked at Lily. “What’s in that bag?”

  Lily glanced down at the bag in her hand. “Oh, Daisy pulled this out of the dumpster.”

  Tamara grimaced. “Dumpster?”

  “We saw Ruth throw it away. She was acting suspicious. We’ll look at it after we eat.” Lily put the bag by the front door and gave her hands a good scrub.

  Iris handed out plates and stuck spoons in all the containers. “Dig in. Fill us in about what happened at the end of the meeting Tamara.”

  She held up her finger and finished swallowing. “How much did you hear?”

  “Jared was yelling at his mother about wanting to be the new director.”

  “It got weird after that. Kirk walked over to comfort Evelyn. I wanted to disappear. I felt like such an odd man out in that group. Jared got disgusted and left. Maggie kept giggling. Kirk tried to console Evelyn who was crying.” Tamara took another bite of food. “No one even seemed to care that I was there. I told Evelyn I would be happy to be her interim secretary.” She looked at everyone. “That will keep me in the loop.” The others all nodded as they stuffed their mouths with food. “Then I picked up my bag and left.”

  Lily put her fork down. “Good work, Tamara. You’ll be able to let us know what’s going on and maybe you can find out about the will too.”

  Rosie woofed at the sound of a knock on the door.

  “Who is it Rosie?” Iris walked over to open the door. “Ryan, nice to see you again. Care to join us for some Chinese takeout?”

  He hesitated. “Yeah. Sure. I am hungry.” Iris led him into the living room and gave him a plate.

  Ryan sat next to Lily and surveyed the group. “This looks interesting.” He turned his head to look directly at Lily. “A special occasion?”

  Iris shot Tamara a keep-your-mouth-shut glare but she was oblivious and blurted out, “We were just discussing the museum board of directors meeting at Marion’s house. Evelyn asked me to be her interim secretary.” She puffed up like a peacock, feeling so important with this appointment.

  Iris changed the subject, trying to steer the conversation away from their activities. “Ryan, anything interesting happening in Misty Valley tonight?”

  “I think so, Iris. That’s why I’m here. I thought you ladi
es might be interested to know the cause of Marion Barry’s death.” Ryan sat back with a satisfied look on his face.

  Tamara piped in. “Oh, we already know. Ouch.” Tamara looked at Iris. “Why did you kick me?”

  Iris rolled her eyes. “Never mind.”

  Tamara turned her attention back to Ryan. “It was from natural causes.”

  Ryan looked puzzled. “Who told you that?”

  “Evelyn told us at the meeting.”

  “That’s interesting. I wonder why she said that.” Ryan looked slowly at all the ladies staring intently at him. “Marion’s death wasn’t from natural causes.”

  Lily gasped first. “It was poison, wasn’t it?”

  “Why do you say that?”

  Lily stood up and paced around the room. “Because of the monkshood—Aconitum—in the arrangement. It’s very poisonous.”

  “It was poison but it hasn’t been determined what type yet. Why would someone use a flower in an arrangement if it’s so poisonous?”

  Lily shrugged. “It’s a beautiful flower. Someone must have put some part of the plant in something Marion ate. Maybe Ruth?” Lily remembered the bag on the floor and brought it over to the table. “Let’s take a look and see what’s in here.”

  Ryan was surprised. “Is that evidence? Where did you find that?”

  Lily put the dead flowers from Ruth’s flower arrangement on the table. “We saw Ruth throw it in the trash at the Chinese restaurant.” She separated the flowers. “Here’s the monkshood.”

  Ryan looked in the bag and pulled out something else. “Gloves?”

  “She probably wore them when she was working with the monkshood.” Lily picked one up. “Look at this. It looks like blood on here.”

  Ryan carefully gathered everything and put it all back in the bag. “I’m going to take this. It could be important.”

  Chapter 8

  Lily decided to visit Kirk’s antique shop before opening Beautiful Blooms the next morning. If he asked her to make arrangements for his opening, she wanted to know what the setting would be like. He was located off Main Street in an old brick building. The big oak front door had an antique iron door knob. She walked in to a light filled interior with exposed beams and wide pine flooring.