Marriages and Murders

by Raven Snow

  “Sorry.” Peony didn’t really sound like she meant it. If anything, she sounded more tired than Rowen did. “So, bad news.”

  “What?” Rowen found her heart beating faster. How could it not? Suddenly she was terrified something awful had happened. Why else would Peony be calling her so late?

  “Mom hates the flowers.”

  Rowen released the breath she had been holding waiting for an answer. “Seriously? That’s it?”

  “Well, yeah. But that’s not a good thing. It means we have to start all over with the arrangements.”

  “Nadine really said she didn’t like the silk flowers?” Rowen couldn’t picture that. Nadine was about twice as nice as Rose was, which was saying something. Rowen had never known a person more meek or kindhearted than her Aunt Nadine.

  “She didn’t say it exactly. Aunt Lydia said it. Nadine just kept saying it was fine while getting all misty eyed.”

  Rowen groaned. “Yeah, I guess that does sound like she hates them. Why call me now, though?”

  “Because I don’t have the money for a florist, but there’s that open-air market downtown, you know? If we get there early, I bet we can get some nice flowers. They open at, like, five-thirty. I’m already dressed.”

  “And I was your first choice for this?”

  “Actually, you were my third choice. My first choice was Margo, but she didn’t answer. Willow didn’t answer either.”

  “And you can’t go alone?”

  “No way. I’m not going to suffer by myself.”

  “Fair enough,” Rowen supposed it wasn’t fair of her to insist Peony go by herself. “I’ll go suffer with you.”

  “Thanks, Rowen.” Peony sounded relieved. Rowen wasn’t much surprised. She would prefer to have company for something like this as well. Besides, Peony really didn’t have an eye for flowers from the looks of things yesterday. “I’ll pick you up in a few, okay?”

  “All right,” Rowen hung up and headed back to her room. She opened the door to the closet and pulled out a pair of jeans and a t-shirt. Both swallowed up her curvy, petite frame, but there was no point in getting all dolled up for something like this. She just threw on the clothes and pulled her hair back into a ponytail.

  “What are you up to?” asked Eric, staring at her blearily from the bed.

  “Peony called. We have to go shopping for more flowers,” said Rowen, slipping on her sneakers. “Go back to sleep. With any luck I’ll be back before you even wake up.”

  She didn’t have to tell him twice, it seemed. He rolled onto his side and threw his pillow over his own head. “All right,” he said, his voice muffled. “Just be careful.”

  “Can do,” Rowen headed downstairs to wait for Peony. She didn’t have to wait long. Peony pulled up in less than ten minutes. To be fair, the Greensmith household wasn’t all that far from Rowen’s place. She headed to the car and got in on the passenger side. “Hey,” she said, moments before being horribly disappointed by Peony’s attire. Despite the short notice, her cousin had somehow found the time to apply makeup and put on a cute pink skirt and blouse. “You’re a little overdressed, aren’t you?”

  “Am I?” Peony looked down at what she was wearing. “I’m meeting Tina for lunch later. I wanted to go straight to work with the flowers. No point in heading back home with them.”

  “Well, you look nice,” said Rowen, even though she rather wished she didn’t. She was feeling horribly drab in comparison.

  “Thanks.” Peony put the car in drive and pulled out onto the road.

  “If you knew we were going to be doing this last night, why didn’t you call me and ask me then?”

  Peony shrugged. “I dunno. I guess I was hoping Margo or Willow would call me back.”

  Rowen sighed. “Fair enough.” She looked out the window and at the passing scenery. “So what are we going to do with all those silk flowers?”

  “Dunno,” Peony admitted. “They can’t stay in the house. You’d think they were toxic or something according to Lydia and Mom.”

  “Maybe we can use them to brighten up the Lainswich Inquirer office,” Rowen suggested.

  “Maybe.”

  ***

  The drive didn’t take too long. The open-air market was located in an empty lot. Tables were set up there and once a week anyone could stroll through and find just about anything you could ever hope to buy. Mostly it was just junk that was sold there. A lot of times, it acted like it was part farmer’s market. You could find fresh fruits and veggies and recently butchered meats. Rowen remembered going there a lot in her childhood. Her aunts, mother, and even her late Grammy had all much preferred shopping there than at a shopping center. They said the food was fresher and the prices were better. Granted, all of them but Nadine liked to haggle. Rowen had never had it in her to haggle.

  There were already quite a few cars in the parking lot. Peony found a place to park between a pickup and a muddy van. “Here we are!” she sang, hopping from the car.

  “Do you know what kind of flowers we’re looking for?” asked Rowen, following her cousin.

  “I guess ones that are kind of the same colors as the silk ones we got.” Peony shrugged. “I dunno. I guess we won’t really know for sure until we see the flowers they’ve got.”

  “Should we make a new bouquet for Rose?” Rowen asked.

  Again, Peony shrugged. “I dunno. We can, I guess. Is she even getting married, though? I’m getting mixed signals.”

  “Yeah,” Rowen sighed, thinking back to the last time she had spoken with Rose. “So am I.”

  ***

  There were a lot of nice flowers out on display. It was a little overwhelming, to be honest. Making it even more difficult to choose were the hovering people who manned the booth. The kept suggesting their priciest flowers and boldly hinting about how quickly they sold. Rowen did her best to just smile and nod and make her own judgments.

  It didn’t take long for Rowen and Peony to come up with a selection of flowers that they were relatively pleased with. What they had looked a great deal like the silk flowers they had worked with the day before. “Do you have cash?” asked Peony as a man went through their flowers and punched numbers into a calculator.

  “Seriously? This was your idea and you didn’t even bring cash?” Rowen reluctantly pulled her wallet from her purse. She always carried some cash on her just in case. She hoped it was enough to cover this. As she was counting her bills, her phone rang in her purse. Rowen fished it from a side pocket, wondering if it was Eric. Maybe he had woken up and forgotten all about her having to go that morning. But no. It wasn’t Eric. The call looked to be coming from Ben. Curious, Rowen answered the phone. “What’s up?”

  “I need your services again,” said Ben, cutting right to the chase.

  Vindication swept through Rowen’s chest like a cold and painful thing. It seemed that the other shoe had dropped after all. She hadn’t wanted to be right about that. “Is it about Dina Drew?” she asked.

  “Something like that,” said Ben. “Not exactly though. It seems that Dimitri Harris has been killed.”

  “What?” Rowen hadn’t expected that. “What? How? Killed? As in, murdered? Are you sure?”

  “I’m looking at the body right now. There hasn’t been time for an autopsy, but I’ve seen this sort of thing before enough times to know that someone else killed this guy.”

  “You’re with the body?” Rowen thought back to the first and last time she had spoken with Dimitri. “Wait, isn’t this in Tarricville’s jurisdiction?”

  “You’ll see when you get here. Come to Dina Drew’s home as soon as you’re able. Bring Eric along.”

  “Will do,” Rowen assured him. He hung up the phone before she could say any goodbyes.

  “What was that about?” asked Peony.

  “Another murder from the sound of it.” Rowen took a deep breath. She went through her contacts and started to call Eric.

  “A murder?” Peony sounded positively intrigued. “I can
drive you there.”

  Rowen considered the offer. Even if she called Eric now, it would be at least thirty minutes out of their way. It sounded like Ben needed them there soon. She went ahead and called Eric.

  “Yeah?” answered Eric with a huge yawn.

  “Hey, Honey. Someone else got murdered. We’re needed back at Dina’s house.”

  “What?” Eric suddenly sounded much more awake. “It wasn’t one of her kids, was it?”

  “No, believe it or not, it was Dimitri Harris.”

  “You’re kidding me.” There was some shuffling around. It sounded like Eric was already getting out of bed. “Where are you right now?”

  “I’m still out getting flowers with Peony. She said she’ll give me a ride, so I’m gonna go on ahead. Just meet me there, okay?”

  “All right. I’ll see you in a bit.” Eric hung up the phone.

  Rowen did the same. Afterward, she turned to the man behind the tables full of flowers. “One twenty,” he said.

  “Dollars?” Rowen groaned. She really wished she was one for haggling right about then.

  ***

  Peony seemed a little too excited to be at a crime scene. “Can I go in with you?” she asked when they parked on the road.

  Rowen looked at her cousin. “Is that the only reason you offered to drive me? You know Eric is going to be getting here not too long from now. You can take those flowers straight to work. For what I paid for them, you ought to be getting them into water soon.”

  “Come on,” Peony urged. “Let me go in. I can help. You know I can help.”

  “Ben didn’t call you in for this. He called me.” Truth be told, Rowen wasn’t actually sure that Peony would be much help in there. She didn’t mention that, though.

  Peony frowned. She clearly didn’t like what she was hearing. “You know I’d be just as much help as you are. I’m just as much a witch as you.”

  “I know,” Rowen said quickly. “Ben still didn’t call you, though. I’m sorry. This is just the way it has to be.”

  Peony watched Rowen leave the car with a sulky expression on her face. She tried her best to ignore it as she headed for the front door. A policeman was stationed just outside. “Ben called me here,” she said when he stopped her.

  The policeman raised an eyebrow. He gave Rowen a slow look up and down even though he had to recognize her. She certainly recognized him. “Fine,” he said, motioning her in. “He’s just inside.”

  “Thanks.” Rowen entered. It really was simple to spot Ben. He was crouched over a body on the floor. It was in the center of the den, sightless eyes staring up at the ceiling. “Geez, what happened here?” As Rowen got closer, she saw what looked like a struggle. Furniture had been toppled. There were bruises on Dimitri’s face. It looked like his nose had even been broken.

  Ben glanced over his shoulder. “We’re not sure yet. That’s partly why you’re here.”

  “Do you have any suspects in custody?” asked Rowen.

  Ben shook his head. “Not yet. Soon we hope. It’s pretty clear that there was a fight.”

  Rowen nodded in agreement. It would be hard to deny. There had been a fight here, no doubt about that. “Did he break in?”

  “There’s no sign of forced entry, but Dina did have a hider key near her door. We found one of those hollow rocks sitting on the doorstep.”

  “Do you think he was here to meet someone?”

  “We’re still looking at all the angles.”

  Rowen was starting to think he didn’t actually mean that. She wondered if that was always just his default response to shut her up. She moved a little closer to the body, careful to keep her distance just in case. There was some blood on the carpet. She didn’t want to disturb it before forensics had a chance to look over everything. She crouched down. “Who found the body?”

  “Richard,” said Ben. “He and his sister have been coming by here to pack up. He got here first this morning and, well…” Ben motioned to the body.

  “Did he say anything about what it was like when he got here? Was the front door unlocked?”

  Ben nodded. “It looks like whoever killed the poor guy got out of here in a hurry.”

  “So maybe it wasn’t planned?”

  “Maybe.”

  Rowen pondered that. It had to be one of two things. Either he was here to meet with someone or he was breaking in. Except, what would he be breaking in for? Or who would he be meeting? “You know, Eric and I talked to this guy not long ago.” Rowen wasn’t sure she should admit that, but she felt obligated to.

  Ben turned. He didn’t look mad, just annoyed and unsurprised. “Why did you go talk to him? How did you even hear about this guy?”

  “We talked to Richard and Veronica. You remember. They told us about him. I just… I sort of had this feeling that we should go check him out. Plus, Eric wanted hummus from that shop of his.”

  “And?”

  “And the hummus was good. I wish we’d bought more,” said Rowen with a shrug. Ben didn’t even say anything back. He just rolled his eyes. “Seriously, though. It felt like he was hiding something. Eric and I couldn’t be sure what, but it definitely felt that way.”

  “Eric’s getting gut feelings like yours now?” asked Ben.

  “Something like that.”

  “I’ve got a gut feeling that this guy’s spirit is still hanging around,” said a new voice.

  Ben and Rowen both turned to find Peony standing nearby. “I told you to wait in the car!” snapped Rowen.

  “How did you even get in here?” asked Ben.

  “I just walked inside.” Peony shrugged. “I told them I was Rowen’s cousin.”

  Ben shook his head in disapproval. “I really need to have a chat with my men about following orders.” Despite those words, he went along without immediately telling Peony to leave. “So you think his spirit is still around here?”

  Peony looked around the room. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “It sure feels like it. I’m not as good with this spirit stuff as Rowen is, but I still know the basics. There’s a ghost around, and I heard Dina already moved on, so…”

  Rowen looked around the room. She cleared her mind and attempted to keep herself open for messages. Peony wasn’t wrong, she realized. There was something heavy hanging over this room. Someone else was here with them. The energy itself was volatile. If it was Dimitri, he was upset. Rowen supposed he had good reason for being upset. Rowen would feel similarly if she had been murdered. Granted the difference here was that Dimitri was likely unaware that he was dead. That was the case with most spirits that lingered on.

  Ben looked around the room. There were some officers milling about. They were all discreetly glancing over every few seconds, like they all wanted to see a ghost or make fun of the Greensmiths for believing one was there. “Can you try to contact him in the back bedroom or something?” asked Ben.

  Rowen shrugged. She didn’t much care about how she and her family came off to people, but Ben seemed to. It was his job to be the Chief of Police after all. He was put on a pedestal, the example all those who worked under him were meant to follow. Hiring the Greensmiths and dating one already cast some suspicion on how qualified he was for the job.

  “We can try,” offered Rowen. She would much rather call upon the spirit where they were. That was where the spirit seemed to be emanating from. “Come on.” She led Peony down the hall and into the bedroom she had searched last time with Eric. “Let’s see if we can lure Dimitri in here.”

  Peony didn’t have to be told twice. She knew the drill. She stood up straight and closed her eyes. Rowen did the same. She pictured Dimitri in her mind’s eye and called out to him. Dimitri, she thought. Dimitri come here. Remember me? I’m Rowen. I talked to you in your grocery store. My colleague Eric was with me. You should come to the bedroom. We should talk.

  No one came at first. Peony was starting to make small, impatient noises. Rowen was about to open her eyes and call it quits herself when the
energy of the room swelled suddenly. Someone was in there with them. Rowen stopped thinking her messages and just said them aloud so Peony could be part of the conversation as well. “Dimitri? Mr. Harris? Is that you?”

  Yes. The reply was loud and clear. It didn’t make a physical sound, however. It more or less just echoed in Rowen’s mind. Rowen was relieved. She enjoyed it when things worked out this way. Usually, she had to head back to the Lainswich Inquirer or her home and pull out the old Ouija board. It was always nice to happen across a spirit powerful enough to communicate like this… Well. It was usually nice. It was all well and good as long as the spirit didn’t turn violent. Rowen had run into one or two of those during her lifetime. She’d sooner not experience that again.

  Rowen turned her gaze to Peony. Peony nodded, indicating that she could hear Dimitri as well. “Hi, Mr… Hamper?”

  “Harris,” Rowen corrected quickly.”

  “Mr. Harris, you’ve never met me, but I’m Peony. Rowen and I are cousins.” Peony scanned the room as she spoke, like she might be able to see him. Sometimes you could see the faint outline of a spirit, but it wasn’t typical. Full physical manifestation was even less common.

  “We’re here to help.” Rowen picked up when Peony stopped speaking. “Do you know where you are?”

  There was silence. Rowen was beginning to get nervous that Dimitri had drifted away from them. I don’t know, he finally admitted. I don’t think I feel so well, though. Everything looks… strange.

  “You’re in Dina’s house,” Rowen told him. “Do you remember coming here?”

  No, Dimitri answered immediately. After a pause, he seemed to rethink that answer. Yes… Yes, I suppose I do. This isn’t her house, though.

  “It is. You’re just viewing it from a different angle.” Rowen considered her words carefully. This was always her least favorite part.

  “You’re dead,” Peony blurted. “Someone killed you.”

  What? asked Dimitri. What are you talking about? I’m not dead. I’m fine. I’m right here.