Roses and Revenge

by London Lovett

  "Thanks for stopping by, Lacey. After my socks came back with matching soil samples from the murder site, I was starting to really fear for my sanity. I don't know why I didn't think of it."

  I opened the door and smiled back at him. "Because you were tipsy on cold medicine. Lay off that hard stuff. It's ruined plenty of people's lives."

  He laughed as I walked out. I’d always liked his laugh.

  Chapter 35

  Ryder was pouring water into the three Valentine's arrangements in the front, staring absently out the window as I pulled off my coat and put away my things.

  "Everything all right?" I asked.

  I'd pulled him from his thoughts. "Huh?" He gave his head a shake. "Yes, fine. We had another twelve orders."

  "Wonderful. I'll tally them up and make sure we have everything we need." As I spoke, he seemed to have drifted back to his daydream. It seemed to be an unhappy one at that.

  I decided not to pry. But he just didn't seem himself.

  "I broke it off with Cherise," he said suddenly.

  "I'm sorry to hear that, Ryder. What happened?"

  He walked back from the window. "She was trying to control me too much. Telling me when and where and what I should do. I need someone who's a free spirit like me."

  My gaze drifted across the street to Lola's Antiques where Lola was moving antique chairs around in a sidewalk display. She had a black bowler pulled down over her red curls and she was wearing her favorite vintage Led Zeppelin t-shirt. I was still convinced Ryder and Lola were right for each other. But I had promised myself to stay out of it.

  "Well, I'm here now, Ryder. If you need to take the rest of the day off, feel free."

  "I might leave around noon. Some of my friends are heading out on a whale watching cruise. The weather's so nice today, I thought I might join them."

  "Perfect." I picked up the folder that was nearly bursting with Valentine's orders. As I lifted it, one of the order sheets slipped out and drifted to the ground, landing right near the trash can. I leaned over to pick it up and got a strong whiff of sage. Apparently, Ryder had given up on his sage bundles. He'd thrown them all away.

  My nose filled with the scent again. "That's it," I muttered to myself. "That's the earthy smell on the cigarette."

  "Uh oh," Ryder said as I was still kneeled behind the island. "He's back and he still looks upset."

  "Who is that?" I asked as I leaned farther under the island to retrieve the order.

  The goat bell clanged extra loud.

  "She's still not back?" Detective Briggs' urgent, loud voice filled the store.

  I popped up from behind the counter.

  His jaw had been tight with worry, but it slowly relaxed when he saw me. "Lacey." There was a perceptible drop of his shoulders as he said my name. "You're here."

  I looked around. "It is my shop."

  The few seconds of what I could only read as relief on his face morphed to something harsher. "What on earth were you thinking, Lacey?" It was a tone I'd never heard before. He wasn't even trying to call me Miss Pinkerton. And he was using far more arm gestures than usual. In short, Briggs was anything but his usual cool, smooth as cream self. "It was reckless of you. Those small planes are dangerous and then the pilot—" He scoffed. "Don't even get me started on the pilot."

  "I won't because that subject always ends up turning into an argument, and it seems we are about to enter one without even bringing up Dash. How did you know I went on a plane ride?"

  His face turned toward Ryder.

  Ryder hesitantly raised up his hand. "In my defense, I didn't know it was a secret."

  "It wasn't and you're not the one who needs to apologize, Ryder." I turned back to Briggs.

  Briggs tapped his chest. "Who me? I have no apology to offer."

  "Think I'll just head next door for a coffee," Ryder muttered as he hurried out the door.

  "You come barging in here lecturing me and telling me I'm reckless, and you don't feel the slightest bit inclined to apologize?"

  That wonderfully masculine jaw of his shifted side to side, pretending to mull it over. "Nope," he said with a firm shake of the head. "No inclination. You should apologize to me."

  I laughed. "Now that's rich. Why should I apologize?"

  His features softened as he stepped toward the island. His dark gaze held mine for a moment. "Because I've been worried sick. I've hardly gotten a lick of work done all morning. All I could think about was you up there in a rattling old tin can with—never mind."

  I stuck the rogue order back into the folder and smiled at him. "You were worried about me?"

  "I've got more than a few gray hairs, and I could swear they weren't there before you moved into town. I'm just glad your feet are back on solid ground. Now maybe I can get some work done." He turned to leave.

  "Wait. I have some interesting details that I think might help the case."

  "Of course you do. So glad you're steering clear of the whole thing."

  I held up my hands in surrender. "No crime in talking to old friends."

  "And ex-boyfriends," he added.

  "Jeez, when something gets stuck in your craw, you just don't let it go." I came around to his side of the island. "First of all, this might sound like a stretch but Jacob sleepwalks when he's had too much cold medicine. I've witnessed it firsthand. Strike that. That's not altogether true. We were on a vacation in the Bahamas with some of the board members."

  "Nice."

  "Yes, well, Jacob was a catch before he was no longer a catch. But that's not the point. He was sick for most of the vacation."

  "He does seem to be rather delicate."

  "Yes, I see that now that I'm on the outside of his world. It's easy to overlook things when you think you're in love."

  "Think?"

  I huffed in aggravation. "Are you going to heckle me through this entire story?"

  "Nope, I'm done. Go ahead."

  "Jacob was taking a lot of cold medicine, and it made him extra groggy. He woke up one morning and his bed and hotel room were filled with a bunch of unexplained sand. All indications were that he had been sleepwalking out on the beach. Apparently, it was something he did a lot as a kid."

  "I suppose that's what the lawyer is coming to see me about today."

  "I'm sure of it. Oh, and I nearly forgot, because of the way you entered the store ranting and raving."

  "I don't rant and I hardly ever rave." He had returned to the calm, cool detective I knew so well.

  "Right. Anyhow, when I did the second smell check on the cigarette and the pillow I smelled a faint earthy scent. I didn't bring it up because I couldn't really tell what it was. I figured it might have been a natural scent from the cigarette. But now I know it was sage, dried sage to be exact."

  He waited for a longer explanation to go with it.

  "Ryder was trying to sell bunches of dried sage. It's supposed to have a calming effect on nerves. He probably should've handed you a bundle this morning," I interjected and continued quickly before he could respond. "I've got a wild theory about how the smell got on the cigarette and pillow, but I don't want to share it quite yet. I need to pull together a few more details."

  "All right, just as long as you stay out of the investigation." Sarcasm dripped from his words.

  "I'm staying on the outside. You stay on the inside. And maybe we'll meet in the middle."

  He seemed amused by my plan, but he didn't oppose it. "I'm waiting on some lab results that I think might lead to a charge today."

  "Oh really?"

  "And I have you to thank for that."

  "Oh dear, what have I done now?" I asked.

  "Your last inspection of the cigarette got me thinking. We'd found it in Mr. Georgio's trailer and just assumed it belonged to him. But when you mentioned the absence of menthol, I decided to have it checked for DNA. His employees, who are anxious to get back to the city now, were all very willing to have their cheek's swabbed in case his didn't match. All of them exc
ept one, that is."

  "Let me guess, Hazel Bancroft?"

  His eyes widened. "Yes, how did you know?"

  "Lucky hunch."

  Briggs shook his head. "Your hunches are never just hunches, but as you said, hopefully we'll meet peacefully in the middle on this one." He cast me a more stern look. "Just remember what happened the last time you approached the murderer on your own."

  A tiny shiver ran through me as it always did when I thought about the last case we worked on where I nearly became a victim. "I will tread carefully this time. Trust me, I never want a repeat of that horrifying scenario."

  Chapter 36

  I had the shop to myself. Because of my early morning adventure with Dash, I had left Kingston at home, something I was regretting now. I could have used the support of a trusted buddy. I had paced the shop floor at least a dozen times, trying to organize the thoughts in my head.

  I had invited Hazel to visit the shop so we could see each other before she left town. I decided not to bring up the new job or the embarrassing photo on Instagram. I didn't want to scare her off. I just wanted to gently nudge some information out of her. When my mind had finally settled on the possibility that Hazel had killed Jasper, I'd set right to work talking myself out of the hideous notion. Hazel was one of the sweetest people I knew. There just wasn't any way the woman who always met everyone early Monday morning with a smile and a box of donuts, donuts that she hand selected to make sure everyone had their favorite, had killed someone. Unfortunately, it seemed things had gone somewhat awry for her in the time since I'd left the company. I was more than shocked to hear Jacob criticize her work. I wondered if the terrible picture had thrown her life into disarray more than I'd even considered.

  I'd been so deep in thought, I hadn't seen Hazel walk past the window and was startled when the shop bell rang. She looked much cheerier than the last time I'd seen her, which helped ease some of the tension in my shoulders. She seemed like her old self.

  "It's so much warmer today." She was still wearing the bright blue sweater. She pushed up the sleeves and held up her arm to display a big chunky, white and blue bracelet. "Look at this. I love that Mod Frock. And the owner is very knowledgeable and stylish. I told her she should pick up and move to the city with her shop."

  I ignored the backhanded dig at our small town and walked over to show interest in her newest purchase. The sleeves of the sweater fell down again, and she brusquely pushed them back. In that second, all of the earlier tension returned. As Hazel shoved the fabric of the sweater back, I caught a scent, a very distinctive scent. It was Jacob's cologne.

  Up until then, I'd had many links, but they hadn't formed a real chain until now.

  "The bracelet goes nicely with the sweater." My voice sounded strained to my ears, but Hazel didn't seem to notice. "You look much happier than the last time I saw you," I noted. "What's changed?"

  "We finally get to go back home. Lydia got word that we'd be given the green light to leave tomorrow." Hazel walked over to smell some of the flowers sitting around the shop. "Everyone except Jacob," she said. And then I heard it, the fake sympathy. I hadn't been looking for it before because I never, in a million years, would have thought the spry, smiling woman in front of me, who I'd shared hundreds of coffee breaks with, could be a cold-blooded murderer. Her flippant remark and the knowledge that she had not only killed Jasper but had framed Jacob for the crime boiled my blood just enough to start asking questions.

  "I guess it's good that you're moving on to that new job. You can put this whole mess behind you."

  Hazel breathed in the scent of a potted lavender plant. "That's true."

  I walked to the shelf of potted herbs where she was standing and picked up a few of the dried leaves that had fallen off the plants. "I had a confusing conversation with Jacob this morning."

  Hazel seemed more than surprised that I had talked to Jacob. "Oh?" Some of the breezy smile faded.

  "He said you didn't get the job at Tremaine's. I just assumed you hadn't told him."

  She hadn't let go of the stem of lavender yet, and the light purple stock pinched off between her fingers. "Yes, well no. It's none of his business," she said tersely. "It's no one's business. I'll be just as happy to never see any of them again." I'd unleashed someone who was far removed from the Hazel I knew. Her face tightened with anger as she spoke about her coworkers. "They are a snooty, selfish bunch of dimwits. Including Jacob. But I guess he won't have to worry about replacing me when he's behind bars for murder."

  "You mean for the murder you committed?"

  Her blue eyes bulged behind her glasses. "Never thought you would turn on me. I guess I even misjudged you." She turned, and I was sure she would rush from the store. But she took three steps and planted her face in her hands. Her shoulders shook. I walked to the work island to get her a tissue and reached it just as my phone buzzed with a new text.

  I glanced at it. It was from Briggs. "Do you know where I can find Hazel Bancroft?"

  I quickly sent back a reply. "Yes, she's in my shop, and you might want to hurry."

  I walked over to Hazel. She grabbed the tissue from my hand and wiped her eyes but refused to look at me. "He was a cruel, awful person and he deserved to die." She stared out the front window as she spoke. "This whole last year I have lived with the humiliation of that picture. People snickering behind my back. Extra boxes of tissue on my desk. " She held up the one I'd given her. "I had to leave the company. Then Jacob—" She sobbed into the tissue. I felt genuinely bad for the woman. It was strange feeling so much empathy for a murderer, but I could feel her pain as she spoke. "I worked tirelessly for that man for years. The only thanks I got was a mediocre letter of recommendation."

  My throat was dry from the shock of it all. "How long have you been planning this?"

  She turned to me with a dark scowl. "I'd thought up so many scenarios of how I might take Jasper's life. I hated him that much. But when Jacob betrayed me, I decided to take them both. When the trip to Port Danby was planned, I knew my chance had come. And after I'd read that you had used your sense of smell to help the police solve murders—"

  "You decided to frame Jacob by planting scented clues around the crime scene that would all lead back to one person."

  A weak, sad laugh fell from her mouth. "You've still got a super nose. In my job, I learned a lot about people. I knew Jasper had an insomnia problem. He took a lot of naps in the day to make up for not sleeping at night, and he used sleeping pills, even for those naps. When the weather forecast showed rain, I knew everyone would just be lounging in their trailers waiting for the weather to clear. Jacob left for the morning, so I used that time to go into his trailer and put some of his cologne on my hands. The clove cigarette was a last second idea. I lit it and waved the smoke around to cover my clothes with the scent. Then I put it out and stuck it in an ashtray. When I saw Autumn leaving Jasper's trailer, I asked what Jasper was doing. She told me he was going to take a nap."

  "One thing I don't understand," I said. "How did you know that Jacob would sleep walk right at the time of the murder?"

  "That incriminating piece of evidence was a gift, a well timed coincidence. I didn't know—"

  Her confession was interrupted when Detective Briggs raced into the shop looking as distraught as he'd been earlier in the day when he thought I was still on the plane. He saw me and the worry in his brow faded.

  "Detective Briggs?" I made sure to say it as a question.

  "Your text," he started. "Never mind." Without delay, he walked over to Hazel. "Hazel Bancroft, you are under arrest for the murder of Jasper Edmonton."

  Officer Chinmoor lumbered into the shop with Hilda to finish the arrest.

  Briggs saw me standing in the background watching the entire surreal event with shock. He joined me. "I'm sorry. I know she was a friend of yours."

  "I still can't believe it. I have to hand it to her. She had things pretty well covered. Jacob's cologne, the clove cigarette."

>   Briggs nodded. "The DNA sample on the end of the clove cigarette was Hazel's. She lit the cigarette and picked up enough of the scent from the smoke to leave traces on the pillow. A pillow she knew would eventually pass by her friend with the million dollar nose."

  I crossed my arms for comfort. "We were friends but she had no problem using me for her sordid scheme. I feel duped."

  "No, she just had a good plan. She knew all her coworkers very well, it seems. Including all their habits."

  "Hazel ran herself ragged making sure to take care of everyone's needs at Georgio's, and she was repaid with a cruel joke."

  "Oh?"

  "You need to check out Jasper Edmonton's Instagram account. And there are some other details I know that I'll explain later once the shock has worn off. It seems that this was pure and simple—a case of revenge."

  Chapter 37

  Elsie had not only saved herself from a Valentine's Day fiasco, she had turned her bakery date with Mr. Darcy into a triumph. Bright red and pink balloon bouquets floated up from the chairs and tables, and customers mingled with free caramel kiss cookies and tea while waiting for their turn to take a picture with the cardboard cutout.

  Elsie spotted me on my way to my shop and slipped through her customers to hand me a free cookie. "Happy Valentine's Day, Pink, and thank you for keeping this day from complete chaos."

  I glanced around at the happy faces. "Looks like everything turned out well then."

  "It did. Turned out everyone was rather excited to take a picture with Mr. Darcy, even if he was made of cardboard. I've got my laptop open in the shop with the series playing. So some people are sitting inside watching Pride and Prejudice as they sip tea."

  "Almost as good as being right there at Pemberley. Well, I better get into the shop. Ryder has some deliveries to make." I held up the cookie. "Thanks for the caramel kiss."