by Raven Snow
“I don’t know,” Rowen admitted. “Was she?”
“I don’t know,” Veronica echoed right back. “Isn’t everyone allergic to something? Are you suggesting that Dimitri somehow murdered my mother with flowers?”
“No,” Rowen said quickly, though she had been entertaining that thought. She felt like there was a connection, but maybe she had just been around flowers quite a bit lately, what with the wedding and all. “I imagine you would actually have to ingest a flower to be killed by it.”
“I don’t think my mother was one to eat flowers,” Veronica said, an eyebrow still raised. She was probably having second thoughts about coming here with Rowen. In all fairness, there really wasn’t a whole lot to see.
“Do you know what your mother’s favorite flower was?” asked Rowen.
Veronica shrugged. “I don’t remember the name of it.”
“Do you think you could point it out to me?”
Veronica looked around the room at the withering plants. She moved closer to them to get a better look. “I’ve never really had a thing for flowers. I don’t think Mom did either. She had a garden when we were kids, though. I think this might have been her favorite. I think I remember it.” She pointed to a flower with bright yellow petals.
Rowen nodded. She didn’t have much of a green thumb, but her Grammy and her own mother had taught her a bit about the world of flowers. “That’s a kind of orchid.” She didn’t quite know what kind, but that was certainly what it was. Was there a connection there? Rowen felt like she was close to something. She walked back to Dina’s bedroom. “Did your mother like the scent of orchids?”
“I don’t know,” Veronica admitted. “She brought them in sometimes when we grew them in the garden. I never did see her bring in much else. I guess she liked it. Why?”
Rowen went to a vanity in the center of the room. The top of it had been cleared off, so she started opening drawers. It seemed the drawers had been emptied out as well.
“What are you doing?” asked Veronica. “Hey!” she snapped when Rowen started opening a nearby box. “I just packed that up.”
“Did your mother keep any perfumes? Did you see any when you were putting everything in boxes?”
“Maybe.” Veronica pointed to a box adjacent to the one Rowen was going through. “Check that one. It’s got fragile stuff in it.”
“Sorry,” Rowen said as she began to make a mess of things, unwrapping newspaper to reveal what was gently packed inside. She had unwrapped at least five unrelated things before she found what she was looking for. “Do you recognize this?” Rowen held up a perfume bottle.
“Can I see it?” Veronica held out her hand. Rowen gave it to her and Veronica examined it.
“Did your mother wear perfume often?” asked Rowen.
“I don’t know,” Veronica admitted. “I don’t really pick up on stuff like that, to be honest. Maybe she did. I don’t know. I guess I’d have to smell it.” At that point, she depressed the nozzle on top, releasing a fine mist.
Rowen scrambled to her feet. “I was only asking because I thought it might be poisoned.”
“What!” Veronica dropped the perfume to the floor and ran from the room, Rowen on her heels. “You could have said something before you handed it to me.”
“Yeah, yeah. My bad.” Rowen stood in the den, looking back dubiously at the bedroom. “I don’t think it should hurt us. I mean, it wouldn’t hurt us that fast anyway.”
“You mean it could hurt us, like, what? A few hours from now?” Veronica’s eyes were wide.
“What I mean is, I don’t think it’s going to kill us just from that… Though, you might want to take a shower as soon as you get home.” Rowen was already aching to get back to her own bathroom. Maybe she would wash the clothes she was wearing for good measure. “It probably would need to be worn directly on the skin and over a long period of time. Maybe it even built up in her system. That would be a clever way to deliver poison to someone. Perfume is another one of those cliché gifts, isn’t it? Did you recognize the perfume?”
“I guess maybe I recognized the scent a bit.” Veronica didn’t look so sure about that. Her mind was probably elsewhere. There was a lot to process with this. “So, you’re telling me that Dimitri Harris poisoned my mother? Why?”
“He wanted the land,” Rowen said simply. “He wanted to build a new store here in Lainswich. He couldn’t get Dina to sell. She loved this place. That’s when he looked to you and your brother. One of you would inherit this place when she passed. He could buy it from one of you.”
One of Veronica’s hands flew to her mouth. “He talked about wanting to open a shop here. He talked about a lot of things with me. Why… Why didn’t I notice he was up to something?”
“It’s not your fault,” Rowen said quickly. “He seemed like a perfectly nice guy to a lot of people.”
“That’s why he tried to sneak back in here then?” Veronica was putting it all together like Rowen had now. “He was trying to retrieve the evidence before anyone found out.”
“I doubt he’d murdered anyone before. He was probably on his own when he planned it. Maybe he planned to leave the perfume bottle at one point, but nerves probably got the better of him.”
Veronica opened her mouth to say something in response, but she was silenced as Rowen’s phone vibrated in her pocket. She froze as Rowen checked her phone. Sure enough, it was Eric calling. “A car just pulled up,” he hissed as soon as Rowen had answered.
Rowen hung up the phone. “We’ve gotta go.” She hurried toward the back of the house.
“Isn’t a poison cloud still hanging back there?” hissed Veronica, hesitant.
“It’ll be fine.” Rowen took a few steps back to grab her by the wrist and drag her along. She hurried through the doorway to the bedroom just as the front door opened. A couple of men were talking quietly. There was the smell of orchids in the air. Rowen pushed herself through the window head first. She toppled into the grass and into an ungraceful heap. She climbed to her knees and was ready to break into a jog when she realized Veronica was still inside. “Come on,” she urged, turning back to find Veronica lingering at the window.
“That’s Richard,” she whispered. “I don’t know who he’s with, but that’s definitely Richard.”
“We need to get out of here.” Rowen motioned Veronica along. As interesting as that bit of information was, there wasn’t anything they could do about it right now. If Richard had come in through the front, he likely had an officer’s permission to do so. It was entirely likely that an officer was with him right now. “We’ll figure all this out later.”
Veronica finally looked away. She climbed through the window, doing a more efficient job of it than Rowen had. She turned and quietly closed the window before jogging away from the house with Rowen.
It didn’t take long for Rowen to spot her husband. He was still parked on the corner where she had left him. He looked visibly relieved when he noticed them. Rowen climbed in on the passenger side. “Thanks for the head’s up.”
“Did you see who it was going in?” Veronica asked, getting into the back.
“It was hard to tell,” Eric said, already pulling onto the street now that both women were in the car. “There were two guys I didn’t recognize. There was a third too, though. I think that might have been Richard. I think that’s the SUV we saw at his house.”
Veronica looked through the back windshield as they drove away. “That’s his car,” she confirmed. “He’s definitely there.” She pulled her own phone out and checked it like she was hoping to see some kind of message from him. “Why didn’t he call me?”
“There’s no telling. Let’s just try to solve one thing at a time.” Rowen had plenty to figure out already without adding more to the list. “We may very well have discovered the murder weapon.”
Eric glanced at his wife. He raised an eyebrow. “Did you bring it with you?”
“No, better that it stays where it is.”
“What i
s it?”
“A perfume bottle.”
“Perfume? Seriously?”
Rowen nodded. “I’ll explain later. Let’s just all go home for now. I’d, uh… I’d like to take a shower just in case.”
Chapter Thirteen
It was in the shower that Rowen weighed her options. She needed to involve the police in this. As much as she hated the thought, there was really no way around it. What else could she do? There was Veronica to think of, obviously. Seeing as she was the one still alive, her fate seemed like the most important thing in all of this. Rowen felt obligated to find a way for her to come forward without ruining her life. Dimitri had been the real murderer here after all. As far as Rowen was concerned, he had gotten what he deserved. Maybe that was a cold way to think, but she had never had a particular fondness for murderers who killed others for their own personal gain.
After that, there was the matter of the perfume bottle. Rowen needed a way for the police to come across that on their own. She wasn’t involved in the case anymore, after all. She wasn’t supposed to be breaking into the crime scene and feeling around for answers. Rowen supposed she could always ask Ben. Just the thought made her bristle. She was still unhappy with him. Granted, she hadn’t talked to him or Rose since the wedding earlier. She didn’t exactly know what was going on there.
The door to the bathroom opened. “We have to get in touch with the police,” said Eric.
Rowen rolled her eyes. She knew that. He knew she knew that. “Obviously.”
“We need to get in touch with them soon,” Eric rephrased.
“I’m going to,” Rowen swore, even though she didn’t know precisely how she was going to go about that yet. “I just… I’m trying to figure out what I’m going to do about Veronica exactly.”
“The longer you put that off, the worse it’s going to get.”
“Thanks for that.” Rowen was already stressed out enough about this. She really didn’t need the extra pressure.
“I’m not trying to rush you— Well, maybe I am trying to rush you.” Eric took a deep breath. “The longer we go without her coming forward about what happened, the worse this looks for her. This is something we need to get done today.”
Eric was right, but Rowen didn’t want to admit that. She closed her eyes and stepped directly under the spray of the shower. She tried to clear her mind. What was her gut telling her to do? Call Ben, her instincts seemed to be saying. It was the most obvious next step. It might not be a solution, but it was the closest thing she had to one.
Rowen got out of the shower and pulled on a robe. She told Eric what she was doing. “I guess I’m calling Ben.”
Eric grimaced. “I guess there’s no one else to call, huh?”
“Not unless you think one of the many officers who hate us and our family down there that can help.”
“What are you going to tell him?” asked Eric, watching his wife as she sat down on the edge of the bed.
“I’m not sure,” Rowen admitted. Given all that had happened this morning, now probably wasn’t the best time for this sort of thing. Rowen wasn’t even certain he would answer the phone. “Wish me luck,” she muttered before picking his name out from her contacts.
The phone rang several times. Rowen was fully expecting it to go to voicemail when someone finally answered. “What is it?”
Rowen knew he must have seen her name on the caller id. She was a little offended by his tone but did her best to just roll with it. “Hey, I know this probably isn’t a good time, but I was wondering if we could meet up. There’s something I think we should talk about.”
There was silence on the other end of the phone, like Ben was internally debating whether he wanted to cooperate with Rowen or not. “What’s it about?” he asked, finally.
“I’d rather we talk about it in person.” This wasn’t the sort of thing Rowen felt comfortable saying over the phone. She didn’t want Ben hanging up on her halfway through and going off to arrest Veronica. “Can we do that?”
Ben sighed. “It’s my day off, you know.”
Rowen hadn’t expected to hear that. After all that had happened at the wedding, she had sort of expected him to go right back to work. That’s likely what Rose had done. Staying busy kept her mind off things. Ben was a workaholic, so it stood to reason that’s what he was doing as well. “Well, I… I guess we could meet up tomorrow.”
“I have tomorrow and the next day off, too,” Ben said without hesitation.
Now Rowen knew something was strange. “Come on. Can’t we meet in some kind of unofficial capacity? I can’t just sit on what I found out.”
“You can call the police,” Ben said. “That’s what they’re there for.”
“I’m calling the police right now. As much as you annoy me - which you’re doing right now, by the way - you’re the only one at that station I trust.” Rowen took a deep breath. “Look, you hired my husband and I to look into this once. I think we’ve put something together, and I think you’re going to want to hear it. It’s important and it’s time sensitive. Please, Ben.”
Ben didn’t say anything for several long moments. Finally, he sighed again. “Fine,” he relented. “We can talk.”
“Good.” Rowen felt a weight lift from her chest. “I’ll meet you at your place in a few.”
“No,” Ben said quickly, before she could hang up. He gave her a place and a time and wasn’t open to negotiating it.
Rowen figured it was the best she was going to get. She thanked him and hung up. “Well, that takes care of that, I guess.”
“What time are you meeting him?” asked Eric.
“Like, nine.” Rowen glanced at the clock. That was still a ways off from now. Suddenly, she realized something. “Hang on.” She looked back at her husband. “What do you mean by, me meeting him? You’re coming too.”
Eric shook his head. “No way. You’re closer to him than I am. Plus there’s all that drama with Rose. It’s just going to be weird if we show up to talk to him as this well-adjusted and happily married couple.”
“Darn. You’re right. We’re too perfect.” Rowen was pretty sure Eric was overthinking this, but he might also be onto something. If Rowen had just had the day Ben and Rose had, she probably wouldn’t feel like talking to any happily married couples either. “All right, fine. I’ll go talk to him alone.”
“Keep me updated about what’s happening.”
“Are you going to tail me from a safe distance again?”
“Sure. He’ll never see me. I’ll be here on the sofa watching ghost hunting marathons.”
Rowen laughed and gave her husband a playful shove. “Okay, fine, but you’re cooking dinner.”
“Sounds fair enough.” Eric planted a kiss on the top of his wife’s head. “Seriously, though. Be careful. Ben probably won’t be in the best of moods.”
“I wouldn’t be either with the day he’s had.” Rowen didn’t feel much like giving Ben any sympathy, but it was difficult not to. “Noted, though. I’ll be careful.”
***
Eric had a chance to cook dinner before Rowen left. It was tasty, at least. There was no denying that. She ate some stir fry while watching reality television with him. “Save some for me when I get home.” She wasn’t sure how long it would take for her to get back from talking to Ben, but it seemed like it would be hungry work. She threw on a t-shirt and jeans. There was no point in dressing up. She’d spent most of the day in dressy wedding clothes and having sneakers on felt nice.
Rowen nearly plugged the address Ben had given her into her GPS, but her finger hovered over the buttons on her phone when she realized she didn’t have to. She knew the place where he wanted to meet. It was a spot they had gone to when they were both kids. It was back in high school, when they were dating. They’d spent a lot of late nights there, making out. Why did he want to meet there again now? Say what you would about Ben, he didn’t strike Rowen as the cheating sort or someone who was quick to rebound after a failed relatio
nship.
Rowen considered double checking the location, but she was already running late. Knowing Ben, he would be there already. She started to drive.
***
The place Rowen and Ben were meeting was just outside of downtown. It was along a country hill, out where the streets were lined by trees. A little side road led into the woods. Rowen nearly missed it. She had to slam on her brakes to make the turn. She bounced along the uneven terrain until her headlights fell upon a car she recognized as Ben’s. Rowen parked just behind him. There was no room to go around. Besides, it wasn’t like they would be blocking anyone. This road didn’t actually go anywhere. At its end, it just began to taper into a steep hill from which you could see almost all of downtown Lainswich.
Rowen could clearly remember all the times they had driven up here together as kids. A lot of making out had been done in the backseat of his old four door. It hadn’t gone any further than that. Ben had always been a real stickler for the rules. He was always back home in plenty of time for curfew.
Rowen got out of her own car and walked to the front of his. He was half seated on the hood, his eyes on the horizon as he passed a bottle from one hand to another. He was still wearing the same clothes from this morning. They were considerably more disheveled. The top few buttons of his shirt were undone, and his tie was off. Rowen raised her eyebrows. “Look at you.” She wasn’t sure she had ever seen Ben quite like this. “Have you been drinking?”
“Huh?” Ben looked up at Rowen and then at the bottle in his hands. “Oh, no, this is just flavored seltzer water.”
“Oh.”
“It’s mango… Do you want some? I bought one of each flavor from the gas station to see if I liked it, but… I don’t think I do really.”
Rowen opened her mouth to tell him to just get to the point. Giving it some thought, she did find she was fairly thirsty, though. “Actually, yeah, I’ll take one.”
“It’s in the passenger seat,” said Ben. Rowen went around to the passenger side of the car. She retrieved a bottle from the bag there. She took a sip and went around to rejoin Ben. “What kind did you get?”
