by Dale Mayer
“How did she end up coming to live with you?”
“Well, I’m not too proud to admit that I could use the money, and Aretha wasn’t doing so well at Rosemoor. She was looking for something more private.”
“So, she’s like a boarder?”
Heidi nodded. “Yes. This is my home, and she stays here with me. It’s nice to have the companionship, honestly,” she said, “and she’s a decent cook too. So it’s kind of nice. Between the two of us, we manage quite well together.”
“I’m delighted to hear that,” Doreen said with a smile. “I’d hate to think of her being all alone and unhappy.”
“Exactly,” Heidi said. “And she doesn’t have as much money as she wants everybody to believe. In fact, I don’t think she has very much at all. But, as long as she’s still paying me, I can keep the bills paid here.”
“Is that why you’re doing your own gardening?”
“My ability to keep the team of gardeners around is long gone,” Heidi said. “Times have been tough, and my husband is long gone too. I diversified and made a few difficult judgment decisions on the investments that may not have done me any good. The fact of the matter is, Aretha filled a necessary void for me.”
“There’s nothing wrong with that,” Doreen said.
“You don’t have a job either, do you?” Heidi asked curiously, as she looked at the animals. “My understanding is that Nan gave you the house.”
“She sure did,” Doreen said with a laugh. “I inherited the ancient plumbing, the roof that needs fixing, and the antique furniture crammed from floor to ceiling.”
“Oh, no.” Heidi laughed. “Isn’t that the truth? We get these theoretical gold mines, but it’s up to us to figure out how to get through it all and how to turn the detritus into gold.”
“Exactly,” Doreen said. “But honestly, despite the challenges, I’m having a great time dealing with it.”
“Perfect,” Heidi said. “Anyway, if you ever want any more, just come on back and let me know.”
“If you’re ever dividing more, let me know.”
“It sure looks great right now though.” Heidi motioned around.
“Thank you again, Heidi.” Doreen walked over to the car, calling out to the animals.
Mugs came, and she had to rearrange things to fit him into the car because just so many plants were there now. But, with Mugs on the floor, Goliath on the seat, and Thaddeus on her shoulder, she finally had everything in the car.
At that, Heidi headed up to the front door. Doreen had gotten into the car and started it when Aretha was suddenly at her side.
“You stay away from here now,” she said, leaning into the car.
Doreen settled back and looked up at the old woman. “Aretha, I’m sorry you’re so unhappy,” she said. “Heidi is a lovely person. Make sure you’re nice enough to her that you get to stay here when your money runs out.”
Instantly the woman stiffened, and she hissed, “I’m totally fine financially, and what do you know about it?”
“I know a lot more than you think,” Doreen said sadly. “And I also know what it’s like to have had money and then to find yourself without it. If you ever want to talk, you know where I live.”
And, with that, she drove away, leaving the older woman standing with her jaw open. As she headed back home, she smiled. “Take that, universe. You don’t have to lower yourself to being who everybody around you is or thinks you are.”
As she drove in, she saw Mack’s truck in the driveway and realized how late it was. Instead of pulling into the garage with the car so full, she just drove up beside him and parked. Mack wasn’t in the truck. She let the animals out and started unloading the bags onto the driveway. Mugs hit the pavement and raced around back, woofing and woofing. She could hear Mack talking to him and suddenly he was here beside her, looking at her in surprise. She smiled and explained what happened.
“And this was Aretha?”
“No, it’s where Aretha is staying. She’s a boarder at Heidi’s place.”
“Oh,” he said. “Heidi is a lovely lady.”
“I know, and look at all the plants she gave me. I’m absolutely thrilled.”
Mack looked at them in surprise and picked up the bags she had already unloaded. “I’ll take these and come back.”
She smiled up at him and, in a teasing voice, said, “Perfect timing. Who knew I would need your muscles?”
“Ha,” he said. “I figured you did it on purpose.”
“No,” she said. “I forgot you were coming.”
“Ouch,” he winced. “That bites.”
“Oops,” she said to his retreating back. That wasn’t very diplomatic of her.
She unloaded the rest, piling the bags all around her, and then, when she could, she closed the door. She grabbed a couple of the larger plants in the bags, just when he came back and snagged up all the rest.
“You’re right. A lot is here,” he said.
“There is. But, by the time I get them in the garden, it won’t look like much. The garden needs to be replenished so much.”
“I got a quote for you on the guy who brings in the topsoil bags too,” he said. “One of my coworkers just had it done. It cost $110.”
“I wonder how big the bag is?” she murmured.
“I think a pickup load size,” he said. “Which we could do instead. We could just dump it in front, if you want, or he might be able to swing it around and put it on the side.”
“So it would be a bag by the garage maybe,” she said.
He nodded. “I kind of like that idea myself. Then you could unload it as it’s needed.”
“I know. But, at the same time, it’s $110.” She wrinkled up her face at that.
“But you just got a whole pile of free plants,” he pointed out. “And they need to be looked after, so they’ll really need that quality soil.”
“I know,” she said.
“And, by the way,” he dug his hand into his pocket, “I didn’t pay you for doing Mom’s garden.” He handed her the forty dollars she’d come to expect.
She grinned at it. “You know, if I save this for three weeks …”
He nodded. “It would pay for one bag. Or we could just do the truckload.”
“But how do we get it off your truck?”
He gave her an evil smile. “You shovel it.”
She stared at him aghast. “Your truck doesn’t just lift and dump?”
“Seriously?” He looked at her and chuckled.
She glared at him. “It would make sense, you know? Otherwise you have to fill it and then empty it.”
“Not only fill and empty it”—he appeared as if he wasn’t looking forward to the work—“you’ve got to wheel it all the way around to the back.”
“You know what? That $110 isn’t sounding too bad right now,” she said a little more brightly.
“I figured you’d see it that way pretty quickly,” he said.
“I wonder how long it would take.”
“You could probably get it tomorrow. But I doubt you could get it today.”
“Good point,” she said. “But that is something we could do tomorrow.”
“Not we,” he said. “I’ve got to work. Remember?”
She raised her hands in surrender. “It was just a figure of speech. So maybe next week I’ll get one then.”
“Uh-huh,” he said, as if not believing her.
She just glared at him. “Honest.”
Now around in the backyard, she took one look at all the bags and plants.
“I really need to get these into the ground.”
“I highly suggest you water the bags to keep them alive and maybe call in an order of topsoil first thing in the morning and get started. By the time you’re done with one, then you can order another one.”
She winced at that too. “I wonder if there’s a price break for ordering in multiples.”
“Maybe, but chances are you have to do a lot more than one or two,” he said.
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“Maybe. I don’t know. I’m parking that idea for a bit.” She walked around a little farther, studying the big gardens she still hadn’t finished weeding and groaned. “This is where I’d like to have my team of gardeners because I’ve still got this to finish.” She pointed at the garden where at least twelve feet back there still needed to be weeded before she could put new plants in, and then she looked at the deck. “Not to mention this to finish.” When she realized that the one-quarter she had done was now well over half done, she looked at him in shock. “Did you do that?”
He nodded. “I was expecting you to be here, and, when you weren’t, I just started working.”
“Your mama trained you well,” she said with a laugh.
“Unfortunately, yes,” he said with a grin. “So tell me. Did you find out any more about the jewels?”
“Nothing except that, according to Nan, the business burned down. And our Aretha remarried after her husband’s death. Oddly enough, she married the insurance guy who had insured her business. And, after they sold the insurance business to a much bigger insurance company, he passed on. This according to Nan and the internet.”
“It’s still interesting though,” he said. “Is that pointing you in any direction?”
“Yeah, the husband,” she said. “The first one. He appears to have been a complete mess and made bad business decisions.”
“Do you think it was insurance fraud?”
“I don’t know,” she said, “but I want to talk to the company.”
“Just because they bought the company doesn’t mean they’ll have the records. A lot of years have passed.”
“I know,” she said. “I suspect the answers I need are all in Aretha’s head. But she’s a very unhappy woman.”
“And nobody else is left, is there?”
At that, she snapped her fingers. “Yes, there is,” she said. “Mangus, that’s her husband’s brother. The second husband. He’s having some procedure done this weekend, so I can’t talk to him until Monday.”
“Interesting,” he said. “In other words, the case is still ongoing.”
“Not only ongoing,” she said, “I’m really wondering if those jewels are rightfully Aretha’s or not.”
“What will you do if they are?”
She shook her head. “I’m not sure. The woman definitely needs money. I just don’t know how badly.” She looked at Mack. “And your mother gave them to me. What do you want to do with the jewels?”
He shrugged. “They don’t feel like mine,” he said.
She smiled up at him. “I know what you mean,” she said, “because they don’t feel like they are mine either.” She turned and looked at the dirt behind him. “You know what? I really need to get digging, don’t I?”
“If you want a deck, you sure do,” he said.
She groaned, then grabbed her digging fork. “Did you at least put on coffee?”
“No,” he said. “You put the security system on, so I left it as is.”
She looked up and smiled a genuine smile. “You’re right,” she said. “I almost forgot to do it when I left. But now that I have these jewels …”
“Let’s not forget you also have the other jewels.”
“What other jewels?” She frowned up at him.
“The emerald necklace and earrings from your grandmother, the pearls?”
Her face softened. “You’re right,” she said. “I’m really hoping not to have to sell those, but I guess I should get them appraised.”
“You should,” he said. “But maybe not from that same jeweler.”
“No.” She laughed. “I don’t intend to go back there.”
“Do you really think something was odd about that one appraiser?”
“Definitely something was odd about him and I don’t know what to think about that Mindy person,” she said. “But I just don’t know how odd.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“He didn’t want to let the jewels go,” she said slowly. “So I don’t know if he recognized them somehow, but he wanted to buy them off me right then. Maybe he was just the kind of guy who saw something of good quality that then slipped through his fingers when I took them back, and he couldn’t reconcile himself with the fact he couldn’t have them.”
“Do you think he’s dangerous?”
She looked at him, smiled, and said, “Honestly, Mack, that’s something you’ve been pounding into me since we first met. Everybody under the right circumstances is dangerous. If you’re asking if this guy is dangerous to me, I’ll have to say I believe he is.”
As she said it, she realized inside it really was true. Something was off about that guy. He had really wanted those jewels, and that made him dangerous.
She just didn’t know how bad it would get.
Chapter 12
Sunday Early Afternoon …
It was amazing how much work could be accomplished with the two of them working together. Doreen wasn’t sure if Mack had planned to be here all afternoon helping her out, but he’d done so much already, and then he just put his shoulder to it and kept on working. And she, for one, really appreciated it.
“Thank you for all this,” she murmured, looking at him.
“Not a problem. I wasn’t planning on coming over quite so early,” he muttered, as he dug the shovel yet again. “Considering we’ll do dinner tonight.”
“And I have an awful lot of gardening to do.” Looking down at her watch, she groaned. “It’s well past lunchtime too.”
“Yeah. I didn’t get here until twelve o’clock,” he said, “And you were hours down with Heidi.”
“More than I expected,” she admitted. “It was nice to have somebody of a like mind and a shared hobby to visit with.”
“Have you managed to make any friends since you moved in?”
“No,” she said with a bite to her tone. “It seems like the only women I ever meet get embroiled in one of the cases, and they don’t have the same view of me by the end of it all.”
Mack laughed at that. “Can’t really blame them,” he said. “Look at Penny. You’re putting her in jail for years.”
“That is not my fault,” Doreen said. “That woman attacked me.”
“And that’s not all she did,” Mack said. He brought over the wheelbarrow and filled it with another load of compost material. “I’ll take this out front.”
She nodded and bent again, tossing in a few more clumps. “Do you think we’ll get much farther on this?”
“You’re getting a little bit done every time. I do need to go shopping, but that won’t take long. I’ll come back later for dinner.”
“While you’re gone,” she said, “I’ll eat some food. I only had toast for breakfast.”
He stopped, turned, and glared at her.
She glared right back. “I did go shopping yesterday,” she said. “So I can make a sandwich.”
He rolled his eyes. “Are you eating anything other than sandwiches?”
“I made an omelet yesterday,” she said. “I even added mushrooms.”
A pleased smile played at the corner of his lips. “How about you do some more pasta?”
“I’d love to,” she said. “I was thinking maybe you could cook some while you’re here.”
“How about I watch while you cook some?” he asked.
She gave a decisive nod. “That’s probably better. Do you know I can’t remember what we’re supposed to have for dinner?” Worried, she chewed on her bottom lip. “Did we ever decide?”
“That’s why I’m going shopping,” he said. “We had talked about lamb chops, but I have a craving for salmon.”
She stared at him. “Can we afford that?”
“I can,” he said cheerfully. “So, if I pick up salmon for tonight, do you have any vegetables?”
She shrugged. “I have fresh vegetables for a salad. Nan sent them home with me.”
“Any rice?”
“Still got that partial bag from when you
cooked it last time.”
“So how about we just keep it simple then. Salmon and a salad with some steamed rice.”
“That works,” she said. Then she looked at him again. “Or we could have pasta on the side.”
He chuckled. “Or maybe we can cook pasta along with the salmon,” he said.
“Sounds good,” she said. “We could put the salmon in the pasta?”
He looked at her, frowning. “Like in a cream sauce with a bit of dill?”
Her face lit up. “Yes,” she said. “Fettuccine with a salmon dill sauce. Yum.” She rubbed her hands together.
He chuckled. “We’ll see. Listen. I’ll take this out front and dump it. Then I’ll leave you for a couple hours. I’ll come back at five o’clock this afternoon.”
Doreen checked her watch and said, “It’s three already.”
“I know,” he said. “That’s why I’ve got to go. Oh, somebody could be coming along with more materials for the deck.”
She beamed. “Now that would be huge.”
“It could be huge,” he said. “I don’t know that it’s very much though. We’ll have to see.”
“Good enough,” she said. She watched as he disappeared with the wheelbarrow, hoping he would bring it back, knowing she had to get the bulk of this done before he got home.
She worked away for the next hour until her growling stomach couldn’t be ignored anymore. With the wheelbarrow full yet again, she took it out front to the compost bin, which was pretty darn full now. It would sink a little bit over time, but it was heaped. She would have to make a pile somewhere, then load it in the bin after it was emptied on Monday.
With that in mind, she headed back inside. The animals followed, going into the cooler house, where she scrubbed her hands and face free of dirt, and then sat down to make a sandwich. Being so hungry, she made two big ones and then cut them in half and sat outside on the small deck. Thaddeus sat beside her, munching away on little bits of greens she had put out for him. She had brought treats for Mugs and Goliath, not wanting to give them parts of her sandwich, which just went to show how hungry she was.
As she sat here, her phone rang. She looked down and didn’t recognize the number. She answered, “Hello.”
“Doreen,” a man said with a far too cheerful outlook.
