Buzzkill (Pecan Bayou Series) (10 page)

“I can’t believe
you did it,” Leo said a few hours later as we drove out to Stokes’s Flower
Farm. With all of the new bills coming in from Mr. Andre’s vendors, we really
needed to get my deposit back. At this rate we might have to hit Zach’s college
fund.

“I’m pretty
amazed by it myself. She was my shadow for the last few days, and then she just
left.”

“I thought you
said we had to be nice to her?” Zach said from the backseat, now reunited with
his future brother, Ty. “She said it, and then she kicked her out.”

“I did not.”

“Well, I’m sorry
I didn’t get to meet her. I hate missing out on surprises,” Leo said with a
wink my way.

As we pulled
into the driveway, I noticed that the white pickup with the rails on the side I
had seen on my last visit was not there today. Maybe that was why Martha hadn’t
picked up the phone when I called. I didn’t look forward to dealing with Lenny.

“Doesn’t look as
if anybody’s home,” Zach said.

“Good, let’s go
get some lunch,” Tyler said, leaning into the front seat.

“No, Ty, your
stomach can wait for another half hour,” said Leo. “Betsy has to get this
straightened out, the sooner the better.” He turned off the motor and pocketed
his keys.

“I’ll see if I
can find somebody.” I exited the car and went up to the front door. After
knocking twice, I gave up and walked toward the long greenhouses next to the
dilapidated home. Maybe they were working and didn’t hear our car. The
greenhouses contained giant fans, and if one of them was on, the rest of world
was put on mute.

The greenhouses
were enclosed in layers of heavy plastic in a tunnel design. Inside the nearest
one were rows of planting boxes all filled with tiny seedlings and flowers.
There was a hose hooked up to the side of the enclosure and a yellow watering
can in the corner. The large metal fans were not running, and Martha and Lenny
Stokes were nowhere to be seen. “Martha?” I called out. “Mr. Stokes? Are you
out here somewhere?” I heard Leo’s footsteps behind me.

“I don’t see
them.” I stopped talking when I noticed Leo’s face was taking on an unhealthy
shade of white.

“Betsy, maybe
you’d better come outside for a minute.”

“Did you find
somebody?”

“Yes, yes I
did,” he said as he put his arm around my shoulder. Against the house were two
large white boxes that I hadn’t noticed when I first came around the corner. On
the ground next to the boxes was the body of Lenny Stokes. He had on overalls
with no shirt. His ancient hands were clutched to his chest. He was curled up
in the fetal position. His face was terribly deformed with raised knots
scattered throughout his cheeks and lips. His scrawny arms where I had seen a
rash on my first visit were now full of little red marks and grotesque bubbles
under the skin. Near his body was a little metal can. Parts of his skull were
also now swelling out through his sparse stringy hair.

“Oh my god, what
happened to him?”

“I don’t know.
I’ll go tell the boys to stay in the car, and you dial 911.”

“Did you see
Martha anywhere?”

“No, you just
call the police,” said Leo. “We can’t let the boys see this. You know, you
always tell me about finding bodies, but this is the first time I’ve been here
when it happened.”

“Sorry,” I said.
“It’s a hazard of spending time with me.”

He grimaced and
headed back around the corner to the boys sitting in the car.

Lenny Stokes
wasn’t going anywhere, and after I had dialed 911, Mrs. Thatcher from the Pecan
Bayou Police Department promised they were on their way. I looked at the white
boxes. Each one had little drawer handles, and there was a board leaned against
them in the front. Were these for small animals? I lifted the lid of the box
and jumped back. Inside were neatly filed square pieces of wood. Crawling up
around the top of one of the squares were hundreds of bees. I quickly slammed
the lid back onto the box, but not before a few rattled bees flew out toward
me. I dodged their advances and screamed. Leo came running around the corner.

“Betsy! Betsy, are
you all right?”

I came out of
the greenhouse. “Those boxes, they’re full of bees.”

“Of course they
are,” said Leo, “they’re beehives. Lenny did grow flowers, after all. He needed
those bees to make his flowers bloom.”

I drew in
breath. “I knew that,” I lied. “Do you think that’s what all those red spots on
Mr. Stokes are? Do you think he was stung to death by bees?”

Leo gazed down
on Lenny Stokes. “I don’t know, maybe. Whatever it was, I’m going to have a
hard time erasing it from my memory.”

Worried the boys
would see the fallen body of Lenny Stokes, Leo and I stood by the car waiting
for the sound of the approaching ambulance. I found a cereal bar in the bottom
of my purse and split that between them. If that didn’t keep Tyler’s stomach
from growling, I could always break out the breath mints.

“Do you think
they found his wife?” Leo said.

I folded my arms
to my chest as a cold breeze hit me. The clouds were beginning to gather above
us, turning our blue sky into patches of gray. “Her car is gone, so maybe she’s
still in town. She’s very active in the community church. It could be she’s
there. She’s seemed so fragile to me through all of this. She told me they were
barely getting by, and now losing Lenny … It’s going to be very tough for her.
So how rare is an attack by bees, anyway?”

“In February? I
wouldn’t think something like that occurs too often. It’s a strange thing. I
always hear about bee attacks in the summertime. You know, some guys mowing the
grass or cleaning out something and hitting a hive. He didn’t even look dressed
to be working with bees.”

“Martha told me
they had just brought in more bees because their bees were dying off,” I said.
“Do you think Lenny bought killer bees?”

“I wouldn’t
think so. People don’t usually order killer bees to pollinate their flowers. I
know they’re a little smaller, but generally they look the same.” Leo was
right, unless the bees Stokes had ordered were killers and he didn’t know it.

“I guess we’ll
have to call in some bee experts,” I said. “What do you call those guys?”

“Entomologists,”
said Leo.

I shivered as I
clutched my arms, thinking of the pain Lenny Stokes must have been in before he
died. He was not Pecan Bayou’s favorite guy, but what a way to go. Did the bee
stings hurt worse because of his aggravated skin?

A squad car
pulled into the driveway.

“Betsy?” My dad
called out as he came around the corner of the house. Elena Morris, the
official crime scene photographer of Pecan Bayou and my maid of honor, walked
behind him.

“I should have
known if there was a body in Pecan Bayou, your daughter would be the first one
to trip over it,” Elena said. Although she could be brusque at times, I really
liked her. She could put up with working with my dad, which showed what a
strong woman she was.

“Oh, and I know
this is probably not an appropriate time,” I said, “but I did need to remind
you to go get fitted for your bridesmaid’s dress.”

Elena sighed.
“You’re getting as hardcore as the cops who talk about day-to-day life with a
dead guy on the ground in front of them.” Elena pulled her camera up to her eye
and took a picture of Lenny.

“I guess I get
that from growing up the daughter of Lieutenant Judd Kelsey,” I said.

“You think?”
Elena said. “As much as I hate the thought of putting on a dreaded bridesmaid
dress, I’ll get over there tomorrow.” I couldn’t believe she hadn’t been to the
dress fitting yet, and my expression didn’t hide it well. “I promise!” she
said, seeing my face. She winced as she drew closer to Lenny. “Man, this guy is
toast.”

Orley Ortiz, the
paramedic, rolled his stretcher in front of us, black body bag on the top. My
dad walked over to the body and knelt down to examine it. I could see his
shoulders stiffen as he observed the grotesquely swollen body of Stokes. He
snapped shut his notebook and placed it back in his pocket. “I think you and
Leo can head on back to the boys. From what I can tell, it was just a terrible
accident.”

“Have you gotten
in contact with Mrs. Stokes yet?”

“Yes, we found
her shopping at the drugstore. George went to get her after he drops off the
boys. Pretty sad situation, but these things do happen. I guess this is just a
hazard when you work with bees.”  George was one of the few other members of
the Pecan Bayou Police Department. He towered over us all and had the high
voice of a mouse.  Criminals were terrified of him until he squeaked out a
command to stop in the name of the law
.

Leo and I rose
from the steps, and I brushed a generous layer of dust off my behind.

“I’m just glad
that your body of the month isn’t another murder for me to solve, darlin’,”
said my dad.

“Me too,” I
said. “I guess we’ll definitely have to switch our order to Baskets of
Bluebonnets. Getting back the deposit, though, may not be a possibility.”

“That’s cold,”
Elena said, snapping a picture of Lenny and the bee stings.

******

Ten minutes
later we stood in the entry hall of Aunt Maggie’s house. Before I had hurt her
so badly we would have gone inside, sat around the kitchen table, maybe eaten
some fresh cheesecake and sorted out the world’s troubles. Tonight I found it
hard to get past the cold ceramic tile in the foyer.

“So sad about
Mr. Stokes. I just thank the Lord the boys didn’t see anything,” Maggie said.

“We are too,”
said Leo. “I was telling Betsy, this is the first time I’ve ever discovered
somebody like that. Not an experience I would want to repeat.”

“You better get
used to it,” she said, pulling her sweater around her shoulders.

“Aunt Maggie,” I
began, “I know it’s been tough for us the last few days, but there’s something
I need …”

A noise rose
from the other room where the boys had joined Danny.

“Let me go check
on that,” Maggie said as she turned to the living room, where Danny and the
boys were playing with Danny’s trains.

“That didn’t go
well,” Leo whispered into my ear.

“No it didn’t,”
I whispered back. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen her so angry.”

“Really?” Leo
was surprised. “Didn’t you say she’d been going along with you and Charlotte to
all these wedding things?”

“That’s the way
she is. She’s angry, but she loves me too much to not be a part of my life.
There was no way she was going to miss out on helping me with my wedding.”

Zach and Tyler
came down the hall with Maggie and Danny following closely. The smell of
freshly cut onions and sizzling ground beef permeated the air. The evening news
played softly in the next room that was warmly lit, reflecting shades of brown,
tan and gold. To me, this was my home. It was part of a set of homes I had
lived in as a child. My father and I had one, but Aunt Maggie’s was the other.
This was the home I came to when my prom date got drunk and threw up on my
dress. This was the home I came to when I had to sort out all my Girl Scout
cookie boxes to deliver to the neighbors. And I remembered rushing through the
cold on a night like this one, when I realized Barry had left me and would not
be returning. Aunt Maggie had seen me through all of it, just like any mother
would. Just like my own mother never did.

I wished I could
erase the days with Charlotte and pretend like she had never come to town and
that Maggie had never been usurped.

“Aunt Maggie,
before you try to run off again. I need to tell you Charlotte has gone back to
California.”

Her lips pressed
together as she tried to form a smile.

“When did she
leave?”

“This morning.
She said she felt bad for coming between the two of us.”

Maggie began
blinking rapidly, holding back a tear.

“She felt like
maybe it had been too long between us. She also said that she was thankful for
all that you’ve done through the years.”

Maggie tried unsuccessfully
to suppress a smile. “She did?”

“Yes,” I said,
“and I feel I owe you an apology.”

“Maybe you do.
Maybe you don’t,” said my aunt. “So does this mean she’s not ridin’ shotgun on
the wedding details?”

“You know, she
was at best, a distant relative,” I said. “She’s not you.”

Maggie’s bottom
lip started to tremble. “Are you hungry?” she said, her voice hoarse with
emotion.

I pulled away
from Leo and reached over to hug my aunt. “I’m starved,” I said.

All was right
with the world again.

That night, as
Leo and I cuddled in front of my fireplace, I sipped a glass of wine while the
boys attempted to settle down in the next room.

“Here’s to Aunt
Maggie. So glad you two made up.” Leo raised his glass in a toast.

“To Aunt
Maggie,” I returned.

“I knew you’d
find a way to make it right with her somehow.”

“I didn’t think
I would.”

“Betsy, you’re a
lot stronger than you think,” he said. “Look at what happened today. We saw a
guy who was swollen up like a tick, and you went into crime scene mode. No
craziness, no screaming, no throwing up.”

My mind shot
back to Lenny Stokes’s misshapen face. One sting below his eye socket raised a
welt that made him look like he had two noses, one normal and one grotesque.

“I say this,”
Leo continued, “because personally I found myself fighting the need to scream
and throw up.”