Sorrel quickly nodded and went toward the front, where a couple of customers were making their way toward the register to pay. Penelope eyed her cousin for a moment and then turned around to Tom with a smile. “I heard Leo gave you a bit of a hard time,” Penelope said with regret. “He’s just really protective of us. It’s not anything personal, Tom.”
“Oh, I know. It’s never personal with cops,” Tom said with a shrug. “I’d rather he pin it on me than on Sorrel.”
Penelope shook her head. “The only person it is going to get pinned on is the killer. That much I am going to make certain of, even if I have to interrogate everyone in this damn county.”
“I somehow believe you.” Tom chuckled and eyed Penelope with admiration. “I just want to say thanks for having my back with that detective.”
Penelope eyed the man curiously. “Who told you that?”
“Sorrel and even the detective said you were sure it wasn’t me. It means a lot to someone like me that you have that much faith in me.” Tom seemed genuinely touched by Penelope’s efforts to keep his name clean.
She nodded and gave the man a bright smile. “Well, I don’t like seeing nice guys take the fall for something they didn’t do.” Penelope asked out of curiosity, “Did you tell him where you were the night of the murder?”
“Yes.” Tom looked embarrassed. “I take night classes at the local college.” Tom cleared his throat. “But he won’t believe me until he gets the class roster.”
Penelope gave the man a look of approval. “I think that’s a great thing, Tom. I’m sure once Leo gets that roster for his file, he’ll let you be. He’s a reasonable guy.”
“If you say so,” Tom said uncertainly.
Sorrel yelled across the yard of the parking lot. “Margie!”
Penelope and Tom looked around to see Margaret coming in through the trellis gateway from the main parking lot. The woman lifted her bangle-clad arm and waved vigorously at Sorrel, then over to where Penelope looked on. Penelope and Tom lifted their hands.
Margaret made her way over to Penelope and Tom as Sorrel was quickly bamboozled into helping Jackie and Scott Morrison pick out flowers for their garden. Margaret gave Penelope a concerned look. “Is everything okay?”
“Am I really that obvious?” Penelope sighed and shook her head. “It has been a long couple of days.”
Margaret put her hand on Penelope’s shoulder. “What’s going on?”
“They found Elizabeth Rhodes dead in Greenhouse #3.” Penelope raised her hands helplessly. “They called Sorrel and Sorrel called me. We came down here, and well, we’ve just been dealing with it ever since.”
Margaret stared at Penelope for a moment as if she had not quite heard her right. “Elizabeth? Like from the art gallery? I was supposed to go see her tomorrow. That’s why I came back. She wanted to talk to me about my registration for the art show.”
“Leo said she hit her head on one of the planting tables,” Penelope said with a shake of her head.
Margaret’s hand left Penelope’s shoulder and covered her mouth. “She fell?”
“Leo seems to think someone else was with her. He seems to think the evidence points to it being someone who has their own key and access to the gardening center.” Penelope sighed. “That pretty much put Sorrel and me as suspects. They are working from all angles, but here we are.”
Margaret huffed. “That’s ridiculous. You and Sorrel couldn’t hurt a fly. I’ve known you for years. I’ll tell Leo exactly where he can go with his theories.”
Penelope gave the woman a smile. She told Margaret, “As much as I appreciate it, I get where he is coming from. It’s pretty hard to imagine how she got in there with no forced entry unless someone let her in.”
“I guess,” Margaret said in dissatisfaction, “but Leo knows you two well enough to know that it is complete horse hockey.”
There was a pause before Tom said, “Looks like Sorrel is going to need help loading up that guy’s truck. Back to work for me.”
“Have fun.” Penelope chuckled as the man hurried over to help the customer wheel the large cart full of saplings out to a waiting trailer.
Margaret whispered, “Anybody thought that maybe Elizabeth was here to see someone like Tom? He’s not bad to look at, and she did have an eye for the young ones.”
“Leo actually is of the same mind, but more for Tom’s past legal woes. I don’t buy it, though.” Penelope shrugged. “Besides, Tom doesn’t have a key of his own,” Penelope reminded Margaret.
The woman patted her neatly curled locks that hung just to her ears in an artsy bob. Margaret hummed as if she was dissatisfied. “Keys can be copied or borrowed,” she said as she eyed Tom suspiciously.
“It’s going to be next to impossible to narrow down who actually did it if everyone just keeps throwing random theories around. Although I suppose someone could have stolen and copied a key.” Penelope crossed her arms as if she very much disliked the idea. “Why anyone would want to get in here after hours is beyond me. It isn’t like we hide money in the daffodils.”
Margaret nodded her agreement. Penelope gave the woman’s hand a squeeze. “What are you doing back from your trip so soon?”
“Oh, Teddy came down with a stomach bug. My sister was going to have to head back, so I just came on in. Not much of a vacation without the whole family.” Margaret heaved a sigh. “I didn’t expect to come back to all of this, mind you, or I might have stayed on in Florida.”
“I wouldn’t blame you if you had,” Penelope said with a smile. “Tell Rita that I hope Teddy gets to feeling better, won’t you?”
Margaret nodded. “Sure thing.” She laughed and pointed to Sorrel, who was wrestling with a heavy pot while Tom tried in vain to get the woman to let him do it for her. “I think we should probably go intervene.” Penelope followed Margaret’s gaze and agreed with a laugh of her own.
Chapter 3
The next day, Penelope had the day off, which she had decided meant she was going to do a bit of digging. She straightened her azure button-up shirt that made her hazel eyes take on a lovely blue hue. The door to the art gallery opened just as Penelope reached it. Matt Davison, Elizabeth’s assistant, came out with a dolly full of old file boxes.
“Whoa,” Penelope said as she stepped to the side. “Do you need some help with that?”
The man chuckled. “Maybe so. Were you coming to see me?”
“Lucky guess,” Penelope told the man as she reached over to help him pull the dolly along toward the man’s waiting SUV.
He shrugged. “Not much of a guess, as I’m about the only person working here, what with…” His voice trailed off, and he sighed. “I get that a lot of people didn’t like Beth, but to just kill her is so cold.”
“Killers are a different breed, Matt,” Penelope assured the man. He had been a jock in high school. Matt was a few years older than Penelope, so they had never really mingled much in school, but her memories of him were as a gentle soul.
Matt nodded. His neat brown locks looked like they were due for a trim. “True words,” he said as he stopped next to the SUV and opened the door. “You here to ask about Beth?” He let the dolly come to rest on the ground as he eyed Penelope.
Penelope nodded. “I guess you heard that the cops think it was someone at the gardening center.”
“I don’t think anyone believes it was you or Sorrel,” Matt spoke earnestly, and Penelope gave the man a smile. He continued, “So, you want to know what Beth might have been into to get herself killed, then?”
Penelope gave the man a helpless shrug. “Anything would help. I can’t just let someone get away with putting Greene Fields in the middle of this. Plus, no one deserves to be killed, not even Elizabeth.”
“Several people would disagree about Elizabeth deserving what she got,” Matt said levelly. “There have always been rumors that Beth had dirt on people and that she used it to make her life a bit comfier. I can’t say there’s any truth to that, but she was
a very busy and very influential woman who moved in circles with a lot of people who had quite a bit to lose if she did have something on them.”
Penelope listened to what Matt was not saying as well as the way he said what he did. He gave her a meaningful look as he finished talking. Penelope leaned her head to the side curiously. “If she did have anything on people, what do you think she would do with it?”
“Maybe that’s why the mayor wants all these papers,” Matt said with a grin. “Yesterday the mayor called and asked for everything related to his office to be sent over. Well, Beth was on a lot of committees, so that’s a lot of material.”
Penelope whistled. “You really think she might have had something on the mayor?”
Matt shrugged. “There have always been rumors about it. I never saw anything out of the ordinary while I was file-keeping for her. She did have a day book, though, that I can’t account for.”
“Oh?” Penelope was interested now.
Matt leaned his elbow against the dolly as he spoke. “Yeah. It’s the damnedest thing, too. She always had this big black day planner book with her. Only it wasn’t here at the office or with any of the effects the police had. Leo even came by looking for it.”
“Leo is actually looking for this book?” It was the first Penelope had heard of it. Leo was probably following some lead he’d picked up while out questioning people. Matt nodded, and Penelope patted the man on the arm. “Thanks for your help, Matt. If you think of anything else, would you give me a call?”
The man assured her, “Of course I will. You be careful, now. If someone didn’t like Beth enough to hurt her, they might not think twice about hurting someone else.”
“I’ll be careful,” Penelope told the man as she left him to his file boxes.
Penelope approached her truck, where Bramble sat with his head sticking out the passenger-side window. She gave the dog’s head a scratch as she went by, and he wagged his tail lazily. Once she was in the driver’s seat, she stopped and thought about what Matt had said. Nothing seemed to tie any of it to Greene Fields. So, what if Elizabeth had dirt on the mayor? The mayor was not a big gardener, and he had no connection to their gardening center.
“It’s interesting, but it doesn’t clear us,” Penelope mumbled to Bramble, who huffed out a puff of air as if in agreement.
“I’m telling you, she wrote about everyone in that book. I sometimes wondered if I was in there. You know, just out of curiosity,” Dorothy Peterson said as she stood near the roses talking to Sorrel and Penelope.
Penelope asked, “It was a black book?”
“Oh, yes. It was a big thing. One of those large planner-type books that have the leather covers; you know what I mean?” Dorothy seemed sure that Penelope understood what she meant. She nodded as if Penelope had agreed and continued, “They say she had dirt on the council and the mayor.”
Mabel walked up and chuckled. “Everyone knows about that book. They say she never let it out of her sight. I hear the mayor is tearing Elizabeth’s office apart looking for it.”
“My money is on the fact that whoever killed her took it. They probably won’t find that book anytime soon,” Dorothy said sagely as she nodded over at Mabel.
Mabel agreed. “Probably burned it or chucked it into the river. I never had much of an interest in what she said about me, but it would have been amusing to see what all she had in there.”
“I bet half the marriages in this town would be over.” Dorothy giggled and shook her head.
Sorrel shook her head at the ladies. “You two should be ashamed of yourselves. Whoever did this put Penelope and me in quite the spot, and I can’t believe that any of the people I know in this town would do such a thing. I can’t even stand the thought.” Sorrel turned and fled toward the greenhouses.
“Oh dear,” Dorothy said fretfully as she watched Sorrel leave.
Penelope sighed. “She’s been under a lot of stress. I do hate to think that someone could have done this on purpose to throw suspicion off themselves and onto us. I can’t think of anyone who would do that.”
“What about that new fella who’s been working with you girls?” Mabel asked with piqued interest. “I heard he has a criminal record.” Dorothy looked at Penelope upon hearing Mabel’s words. The woman’s eyes were so intensely curious that Penelope fought the urge to roll her eyes at the both of them.
Penelope shook her head. “He had one offense when he was a teenager. It hardly makes him a murderer.” She shrugged. “Besides, he doesn’t have a key or access to one.”
Mabel hummed in dissatisfaction. “Well, someone did.” Mabel did not look convinced that it was not Tom, and she eyed the man suspiciously as he walked toward the office where his locker was located.
“As much as everyone would love to pin it on Tom,” Penelope chided, “I just don’t think it was him. He didn’t even know Elizabeth. He hadn’t been in town long enough to even have any dirt.”
Dot clasped her hands in front of her chest. “Unless Elizabeth found out about his past and threatened to tell the whole town.”
Penelope looked at both women. Apparently, Elizabeth was in good company with her busybody ways. “Why would it matter? We already knew, and he wasn’t going to lose his job over it. He never made any attempt to hide his past, so I think you two are way off base here.”
“Fancy the boy, do you?” Mabel’s eyes gleamed with interest.
Penelope laughed. “Not even a little. I gotta get back to work, ladies. Let me know if I can help you find anything.” As Penelope turned to walk away from the two of them, she just shook her head in disbelief. People really would spread rumors and believe anything. She frowned as she walked toward the main building. Most of the plants were outside or in greenhouses, but they had a building that housed the offices, the employee break room, and a small place where they sold all manner of seeds.
She walked through the doors that were propped open and gave Mr. Griffin a wave as the man looked up from a packet of squash seeds. “Finding everything?”
“Yep,” Mr. Griffin said distractedly as he bent back over to root through the seed bins again.
Penelope pushed open the door that led into the office. Two desks, three filing cabinets, and a table filled the room. A large window on the side reminded Penelope of her days in elementary school. The windows were pushed open, and the breeze made a paper on her desk flutter.
Sitting down at the desk, Penelope flipped through the paperwork there. She took care of most of the business end while Sorrel concerned herself with the more creative side of advertising and community outreach. Sorrel loved people, and Penelope left her to it. Penelope signed a form authorizing a payment to the electric company.
Penelope mumbled, “Maybe I should let Sorrel put in those solar panels.”
“Hey, Boss,” Tom said from the open office door, causing Penelope to look up. “It’s about time for me to cut out.”
Penelope lifted a hand. “Have a good afternoon, Tom.”
The man disappeared, and Penelope went back to balancing the books, writing down the amounts in her accounts ledger. She had just finished when she heard a commotion outside. Penelope frowned as she made her way out of the office.
Sorrel ran up to Penelope with a bewildered look on her face. “Leo is arresting Tom!”
Penelope followed her cousin back toward the parking lot. A small group of customers had gathered by the fence dividing the parking lot from the grounds. As the women made their way through the gates and out into the parking lot, Penelope gasped. She and Sorrel rushed over to where Leo was holding Tom by the arm as if he expected the man to make a dash for it. For his part, Tom looked aggravated and confused.
The men looked up as Penelope and Sorrel approached them. Penelope looked at Leo. “What are you doing?”
“I’m just taking him in for questioning,” Leo told her. As he spoke, he held up a purse. “I found this on him.”
Tom protested, “I just found that in the bushes
in front of my truck. I was bringing it back inside. I thought someone had lost it.”
“This purse,” Leo said as he looked back at Penelope, “belonged to Elizabeth Rhodes. We’ve been hunting for it since we found her body.”
Penelope frowned. “That doesn’t mean Tom did it. Why would he be bringing it to me if he did it?”
“I’m not having this conversation, especially not in front of the public,” Leo said firmly as he nodded toward the curious heads looking over the fence line. “I’m not arresting anyone. I just need to question him and get his story on file.”
Tom sighed. “It’s not a story. It’s the truth.”
“Got it,” Leo said as he escorted the man over to his tan-and-black patrol car.
Penelope and Sorrel looked at each other as Leo drove Tom away toward the police station. Sorrel shook her head. “What was her purse doing in the bushes?”
“I don’t know,” Penelope said softly as she walked toward Tom’s truck. She looked at the truck and walked up beside the driver’s-side door. “If the purse was lying right there, where the bushes are all disturbed, then Tom would have seen it plain as day when he went to get in his truck.”
Sorrel took a deep breath. “So, he could have just found it like he said.”
“He probably did, but Leo is already gunning for him. The problem is that none of these clues make sense. Why leave the purse here at all? Why not take it like they did that book?” Penelope frowned and leaned against Tom’s truck.
Sorrel’s forehead furrowed. “What book?”
“Elizabeth apparently had a big black leather day planner that everyone is convinced she wrote about people in. Specifically people she was blackmailing.” Penelope shrugged. “I don’t know about that, but she would probably use it to write down everyone she was in contact with at the time. That would be a mighty incriminating piece of evidence.”
Narcissist in the Daffodils Page 2
