Killing Weeds (17 page)

Dorothy was a tall, thin woman whose white lab coat always seemed to hang on her. She was in her fifties and wore large glasses over her attractive brown eyes.

“I’m sorry your conference had to be interrupted,” Peggy said as they walked back to the area where the bodies were kept in cold storage. “Did you have a good time while you were there?”

“I only went because it was being held in Key West. It was beautiful there.”

“Have you done the autopsy on this man yet?” Peggy asked.

“I started it. We’re a little shorthanded.” She looked at the clipboard in her hands over the top of her glasses. “The police said Mr. Joseph hanged himself, but there is bruising around his wrists and contusions on his face and head. If the killer wanted us to think it was suicide, they should’ve been more careful. I’m calling it murder.”

“I see.”

“And the police let you make that call?” Ranson asked.

“That’s my job.” Dorothy smiled at him. “Unless someone else is here to disagree with me. That’s been one nice thing about you being gone, Peggy!”

They donned masks, gloves, and boots to go into the autopsy room. Dorothy asked Ranson if he was sure he wanted to go in. His reply had something to do with butchering animals on the farm when he was a child.

But when Dorothy pulled back the sheet that had been covering Mr. Joseph, Ranson blanched and walked quickly out of the room.

“I guess he wasn’t as prepared as he thought,” Dorothy remarked.

Peggy’s eyes stayed on the dead man’s face, her heart beating double time in her chest.

“Do you recognize him?” Dorothy asked.

“Yes. That’s my insurance adjuster, Bobby. He said his name was Robert Dean.”

“I don’t see that name on the list.”

Mai came into the autopsy room. “Peggy, I think your Dad is sick.” She looked at the corpse. “I don’t know this man. Do you?”

“Only for a few days. He’s been coming to the shop representing Gromer’s Insurance.”

“Is that a good thing?” Mai asked. “Does this mean he was part of what happened at The Potting Shed?”

“Probably so. He might be responsible for my tree dying too since he could keep an eye on the house.”

Dorothy asked about the house, and Peggy explained about her tree.

“We need to talk to Al,” Mai said. “Now that we know that this man was going by another name, maybe the police will look at him instead of Paul.”

Peggy frowned as she stared at the man’s dead face. “Let’s hope so. I’m not sure what role he played in all this, but it’s possible it was all him.” Peggy thought again about the woman who met with Paul and Sam but didn’t mention it.

Mai took out her cell phone to call Hunter. It rang in her hand, startling her.

Peggy’s cell phone rang too. Both women stepped outside the autopsy room to answer.

“Paul made bail,” Steve said to Peggy. “He had a high-powered lawyer in court with him. I could see he didn’t know the man, but I guess it doesn’t matter. He’s free for now.”

Al was on the phone with Mai giving her the same information. Mai started crying and had to hang up.

Peggy told Steve about the new development. “I was thinking last night. Suppose Ruth Sargent is dead, but before she died she met someone—someone who was willing to get revenge on me for putting her in prison. What if that person was William Joseph?”

“I’ll check it out,” Steve said. “What was the name he used pretending to be with the insurance company?”

“Robert Dean. Let me know what you find. Mai and I are at the morgue right now, but we’ll be leaving soon.”

“This is it, Peggy,” Steve said. “Ask Mai to find out about this lawyer who got Paul out on bail.”

“I’m sure I speak for both of us when I say that I don’t care who he is as long as he got Paul out of jail. Was he all right?”

“He had a few bruises on his face, but otherwise, he looked okay. I’ll see you later.”

Peggy and Mai hugged each other and told Dorothy the good news. Peggy had to look for her father who’d had to wait outside after his encounter with the corpse.

“How the hell do you two do that job?” Ranson demanded. “Excuse my French.”

Mai was still wiping tears from her eyes. “It wasn’t easy at first, but I do it for these moments when it all comes together. I help people find out what happened to their loved ones and put bad guys in jail. It’s worth a little smell and blood to me.”

Peggy agreed.

“The two of you have stronger stomachs than me. I take my hat off to both of you.”

After a short discussion in the parking lot, Mai went to get Rosie from the babysitter, and Peggy went home. She felt like holding her cell phone, anxiously waiting to hear from Paul.

It didn’t happen that way. Paul was at the house with Steve and Al. Peggy immediately called Mai to let her know.

She hugged her son as though she’d never let him go again.

“Are you okay?” She cried as she put her hand on his chest and caressed his face. He was dirty and tousled but seemed to be unhurt.

“I’m fine, Mom. I had a little run-in with one of the men in lockup when the guards’ backs were turned, but it was only a few punches and a scuffle. I get that most days on patrol.”

They all heard Mai’s car come screeching off Queens Road, almost hitting a large redbud tree as she entered the driveway. Paul ran out to meet her. Shakespeare barked joyously until Steve had to take him out for a walk to save everyone’s frazzled nerves.

The couple walked inside together. Mai hadn’t had time to get Rosie after Peggy’s call. She’d come straight to the house to see Paul.

“How did you get out? They said they couldn’t take our house for bail,” Mai said. “How did you get a lawyer who wasn’t a public defender?”

Paul smiled and handed Peggy a business card. “Because my mother has some unusual friends.”

Peggy looked at the card with a black chess knight on it and realized that the bail money and the lawyer were a gift from Nightflyer.

Daylily

Daylilies are not actually of the lily family. True lilies grow on tall stems with flowers at the top. Daylily flower stems are called scapes. They are shorter and grow from a fountain of grass-like foliage at ground level.

Chapter Twenty-five

“How did Nightflyer know about what was happening?” Steve asked when he came inside with Shakespeare.

“I told him.” Peggy hoped they wouldn’t have this discussion in front of everyone.

“I thought you didn’t talk to him anymore?” Steve pursued the subject.

“He knew what was going on and got in touch with me. I wouldn’t turn down anyone’s help in this case.” She burned to yell at him about his hypocrisy. He dared to question her about Nightflyer knowing he’d gotten rid of her documents about John?

As if Steve saw the challenging, angry expression in her green eyes, he backed off.

“Well, at least Paul is free, and we have a new lead to pursue. Millie is already looking up information on this man.”

Lilla finally got out of bed and was thrilled to see her grandson there. “This is cause for celebration. I want to take everyone out for lunch.”

After the past night’s fiasco, no one wanted to go along with that suggestion. Ranson and Lilla left a little while later with her being none the wiser of her husband’s morning activities—or eating habits.

Steve got a phone call after Paul and Mai went to pick up Rosie and go home.

Al asked Peggy if she and Steve were having problems with all the stress they’d been under.

She stared at him. “Really? I can’t believe you’re asking me if we’re okay after you and Steve collaborated to get rid of the files Harry gave Paul last year. Did you think I wasn’t going to find out?”

Al didn’t look away from her accusatory stare. “We did what was best for you and Paul. You didn’t realize it at the time, but I buried that information so that the cover-up for John’s death would stay intact. You can’t help him now, Peggy. You have a new life. Don’t dredge up the past.”

“You had no right to do that. Paul and I deserve to know the truth. All of this happened to Paul because the police and the FBI didn’t want him to know.”

“Peggy.” Al sighed and shook his head.

“What he’s telling you is the truth.” Steve put away his phone as he came back into the kitchen. “How did you find out?”

“Paul and I knew the documents were gone from the box we got from Harry. We didn’t know what had happened to them, until I found the phone in the desk drawer last night. You didn’t do a very good job hiding the evidence of the crime.”

“I didn’t think I had to.” Steve put his hand on her shoulder.

She shrugged it off and got to her feet.

“There isn’t enough information in any file about John to go after the people who killed him,” Steve told her. “The case isn’t closed, but there are no answers either. If you start poking around in it, you could be hurt. Or worse. These people don’t play around, Peggy. Leave it alone. Time has a way of working these things out.”

“Not that I’ll know if it happens since the two of you plan to keep me out of it. Maybe I should get a private detective license too.”

“You’re upset,” Al said. “Don’t do anything foolish right now when we haven’t even solved this homicide Paul is charged with.”

Logically, Peggy agreed with him, but emotionally, she still felt as though they had betrayed her.

Her phone rang. It was Sam. He needed the rest of the daylilies that were outside the house. Mrs. Schaefer, a longtime client, had agreed to take them off his hands if he’d plant them right away.

“I’m going to help Sam,” she told both men. “Let me know if there are any updates.”

She went upstairs to change out of her green dress and put on something that didn’t matter if it got dirty. It would be good to get her hands in some dirt and try to forget about everything for a while.

Steve followed her with Shakespeare behind him. Peggy could hear Al’s car leaving the drive.

 “I wouldn’t hurt you for anything,” he said. “But I don’t want to see anyone else hurt you either.”

“You lied to me,” she accused him as she removed her dress, replacing it with jeans and a T-shirt. “You destroyed information that was mine to deal with.”

“I know. I’m sorry. I was trying to protect you and Paul.”

She gazed at him as she sat on the bed to put on her mud boots. “Don’t ever do that again. I can’t trust you if you won’t tell me the truth.”

“Promise me that you won’t go off halfcocked on some wild scheme to catch John’s killer by yourself, or with Paul, and I’ll make sure you get updates when I do. Can you do that?”

“I know you mean well.” She got to her feet. “But I was surviving just fine without your protection, Steve. Just tell me the truth, and know that I can handle it. Can you do
that
?”

“Sure. Okay?”

“Okay. Then I promise to tell you before I go after John’s killer.” She hugged him.

He kissed her and held her close for a few minutes. “I love you, Peggy.”

“I love you too, Steve.” She glanced at her watch. “I have to run. I’ll be with Sam so I should be okay, right—the two person rule?”

“Right. I’ll call if I hear anything about Ruth Sargent or William Joseph.”

“Great.”

Peggy left with a smile. She hadn’t told Steve that Paul still had copies of those documents. At that moment, she didn’t have plans to either.

She put the last twenty daylilies in her backseat and trunk. She kept tarps in the car to protect the seats when she needed to. The planters were messy, but this way Sam didn’t have to come back for them.

The Schaefer estate was on Sharon Road. It dwarfed Peggy’s house. She’d never been inside, but the property was at least ten acres with a sprawling three-story antebellum home.

Emily Schaefer was a nice person too. The estate belonged to her family that had lived in the house since the early 1800s and had lived on that land since the 1700s. Her great-grandfather was one of the signers of the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence which preceded the federal document by a few weeks. He had also lost his life to a British musket ball during that war.

Needless to say, the house and yard—not to mention Mrs. Schaefer—were steeped in history. One of the rose arbors that Sam cared for had been the first rose arbor in Charlotte.

Peggy pulled into the expansive drive that circled the huge house. Sam was working in the back, the sun shining on his blond hair and tanned back. He waved when he saw her and walked to her car.

“Thanks for bringing these over,” he said. “I’m working on the daylily bed anyway today. She said if I could get the new ones in, she’d take them.”

Peggy smiled. “Because once the work on the daylily bed is done for the month, she can’t do anything there again until next month. I know about her exacting schedule.”

“Yeah.” He grinned. “But she’s a good customer. And I love working here. I talked her into planting some grapevines next month. I’m going to have Tucker put in a new arbor to the right of the carriage house. It will also be her first water feature. She’s excited about it—and we’ll make money to help get us through the deficit we’ll have this month after not being open for a while.”

“Did I mention what a great partner you are?”

“Yeah. I know. You’re a good partner too. Anything new on the murder front?”

Peggy told him everything that had happened as she helped him make room in the lily bed for the new plants.

If she was looking for therapy, this was it. The sun was hot on their heads, but a cool breeze blew steadily through the city. Peach trees were beginning to blossom along with apple and pear trees. Emily Schaefer had allowed Sam to keep one small wisteria that they’d estimated had been growing there for at least a hundred years. There were pictures of it from the early 1900s.

Sam had carefully trimmed the plant back. Its trunk was almost a foot around. As the wisteria had grown, it had been all over the place with no tending, even reaching into the nearby oak tree.

Now, after careful pruning and a watchful eye on its growth, the wisteria was barely three-feet-tall and shaped like an umbrella with the large, heavy purple blossoms hanging down almost to the velvet green grass.