Murder in the Rose Garden: A Scent with Love Cozy Mystery (Scent with Love Cozy Mysteries) (3 page)

It was
ten past
nine and Beth was waiting impatiently for Hannah to get in. A beautiful floral
arrangement was standing on the work table, six yellow long-stemmed roses
surrounded by green leafy foliage and the most beautiful deep blue flowers she
had ever seen. The familiar chime of the doorbell sounded, the door swung open
and Hannah hurried into the shop.

Beth looked
up at the pretty young woman. Her curly hair, which was still wet, had started
to frizz. Hannah was wearing a pair of black linen pants and a light blue
cotton shirt. The top two buttons on her shirt were undone and Beth could tell
that she had not had the time to put on any makeup.

“Looks like
you had a rough morning,” Beth said as Hannah walked in and hung up her handbag.

Hannah let
out a sigh. “Yes, getting two toddlers to school on your own is a lot harder
than it looks. Sorry I’m late again.”

Beth smiled.
“Don’t worry about it, I can open the shop while I am in town—should give you a
bit of extra time in the morning. I know how tough it can be when you are a
single parent. My best friend back in Boston, Claire, she just went through a
nasty divorce, spent six months at my place with the kids. The two of us barely
managed to keep it all together. Coffee?”

Hannah
smiled. “That would be great, thanks.”

Beth went to
the tiny kitchen at the back of the shop and put the kettle on. The kitchen was
next to the stock room. She peeped inside and noticed that it was full of shop
merchandise. She would need to go through all of it and include it in the shop
inventory list she had started to compile. The room was full of neatly packed
shelves containing green floral foam, bright patterned ribbons, cards,
envelopes, baskets and vases. The vases were pretty and many of them looked more
expensive than the ceramic vases Beth had received the handful of times someone
had sent her flowers. Andrew had sent her flowers twice during the course of
their relationship, a bouquet of hydrangeas when they were courting and a very
expensive arrangement containing twenty-four long-stemmed red roses set among
six white lilies the day after she had found out about his affair and cancelled
the wedding. In the very back corner of the stock room there was a shelf filled
with large porcelain pots and vases which were stored separate from the rest;
they looked old. Beth counted them: twenty pots and vases in various sizes and
patterns, mostly blue and white.

Beth handed
Hannah a cup of coffee and gestured to the floral arrangement she had been
admiring earlier. “That is really beautiful, is that your handiwork?”

“Yes, I put
it together yesterday for Mrs. Blackwood; she is having a very big dinner party
tonight. She ordered three floral arrangements; I still need to finish the
other two. Allison at the diner has it on good authority that the mayor will be
there. I was planning to deliver it this afternoon. I was hoping I could drive
out to Lavender Hill. Mrs. Blackwood lives in a sprawling mansion with
panoramic ocean views and a lovely landscaped garden. Your mother always raved
about it. I was hoping to see it for myself. Learnt everything I know from your
mom; she was great with flowers, had a good eye for color.”

“Sure, I
have to tend to some private business this afternoon, so I won’t have time for
deliveries. The blue flowers go really well with the yellow roses, great color
combination.”

“Great, I’ll
close up at four then and do the deliveries before I have to pick up the kids
from daycare.” Hannah looked over at the blue and yellow arrangement on the
worktop. “Yes, Mrs. Blackwood loves blue irises, they really do have a fabulous
blue color, goes really well with yellow roses. The green foliage adds just the
right amount of drama, don’t you think?”

 “It is just
the right amount of drama, goes really nicely with the vase. Do we always put
our arrangements in such lovely vases?” asked Beth. Beth noticed every little
detail when it came to expenses. A vase like that looked far too expensive—surely
there were cheaper options.

“Pretty
sharp you are; those vases are nicer than the ones you get at your average
flower store but your mother was a smart lady. She bought them second-hand, had
a new one delivered to the shop every few months by express courier. Seemed a
bit odd, all that expense for a courier service, but I figured it was her
hobby. She was always scouring second-hand shops and auction houses for pretty
porcelain pots and vases for the shop. The trick is she had an agreement with
all our big clients, like the lodge, the hospital, local wedding planners, the
wharf hotel and wealthy socialites like Mrs. Blackwood—they get a one-of-a-kind-floral
arrangement in a pretty porcelain vase provided they return it when we make our
next delivery. Pretty clever if you ask me: the arrangements look fantastic, it
sets us apart from the competition and we are guaranteed return business
because the clients have to return the vase on the next delivery.”

“And what
about those older ones stacked in the back corner of the stock room?” asked
Beth.

Hannah put
her coffee down on the table and leaned in towards Beth. “I was never really
sure what they were for. Those were your mother’s prized possessions; she
dusted them daily. I made the mistake of using one of them for a floral
arrangement for Mrs. Blackwood once; it made her very angry. I had never seen
her so upset. I almost thought she was going to fire me. She made it very clear
that those were not to be used for clients.”

Considering her
mother’s creativity and her flair for business, it seemed so odd that the shop
was in financial difficulty. Beth wondered if her secret life as a pot dealer
to the elderly had anything to do with it.

~

Town was
busy considering that it was eleven a.m. on a Wednesday morning. Beth followed
Hannah’s directions and had walked down the bustling main road to Chase
Crawford’s offices. He ran his private investigation firm from a gray double-story
building with white window frames and shutters originally built in eighteen
fifty-one. A large sign hung above the second floor balcony with the words “Crawford
& Co”
in bold formal black lettering. The building and the name gave
the impression that it was a law practice or perhaps an accounting firm. Beth
would never have guessed that it housed the offices of a busy private
investigator.

Beth walked
up the steps and onto the front porch. She opened the white painted wood door
and walked into Chase Crawford & Co.
She was surprised to find a
modern office layout inside. It wasn’t what she was expecting considering the
nineteenth-century exterior but she liked it. A tall blonde woman in her
mid-thirties greeted her from behind a sleek dark wood reception desk with a
white Perspex floating inlay at the center with the words “Crawford & Co
since 1995”
written in the same formal black lettering as the sign
outside. The woman looked up from her computer keyboard.

“Morning, may
I help you, ma’am?”

“Morning, my
name is Elizabeth Andrews. I would like to see Chase Crawford; his mother
suggested I drop by.”

The woman
smiled sweetly. “Oh…I see.  Please take a seat, I will find out if he has an
opening.” The woman stopped typing, got up and walked down the hall, turning
right at the second door. She was wearing a short black skirt, a pink button-down
shirt with a plunging neckline and shiny black patent leather heels. Her legs
were a lovely shade of brown and her muscular calves bulged in all the right
places. Beth sat down in the reception area chair, looked down at her white
button-down shirt tucked into dark denim jeans and brown leather loafers that
matched the belt of her jeans and wished she had worn something a little more
formal. Beth didn’t mean to be judgmental but she couldn’t help but think that
Chase Crawford’s secretary looked exactly like the type of secretary a man
would hire: tall, blonde and busty. A nice piece of eye candy to drool over at
the office.

A short
while later, the tall blonde beauty came back followed by a handsome man, not
much older than Beth.

“Thank you,
Charity, I will see Mrs. Andrews in my office. Please can you bring us some coffee?”

Beth stood
up and brushed the creases from the front of her shirt. “Um, it’s Ms. Andrews,”
she replied with a high-pitched laugh and followed him to his office.

The office
was large, probably three times the size of her own office back in Boston. Two
black leather chairs stood in front of a large dark wood table that was empty
except for a large Apple computer and a notebook enclosed in a black leather
sleeve. Beth could not remember the last time she had seen the top of her wooden
desk; it was always piled with papers. A large German Shepherd lay asleep on a
soft blue dog bed in the corner of his office. Chase noticed her looking at the
dog.

“That’s Lola;
she used to be a police dog.”

He waved her
towards his desk. “Please take a seat, Ms. Andrews.”

Chase
Crawford was devastatingly handsome. He had black wavy hair lightly peppered
with gray and piercing blue eyes. His face was warm and his smile was framed by
two perfectly dimpled cheeks. The sight of him made her weak at the knees. She
blushed, sat down and started to play with a loose strand of hair.

“Thank you,
but you really should call me Beth.”

“Okay then,
Beth, what can I do for you today?”  Chase sat behind his desk, with his chair
pushed back and one leg casually crossed over the other. Beth felt like a shy
school girl, unsure of where to look or what to say.

 “Well you
probably already know this but I am Mary-Ellen’s daughter. I am in town to
finalize her affairs. I spoke to your mother yesterday; she told me that you
have information from the coroner that proves my mother’s death wasn’t a
suicide. Is that true?”

Charity came
in with a tray and placed two cups of warm coffee on his desk. Chase thanked
her, put two spoons of sugar and milk into the cup closest to him and took a
sip of coffee. Beth watched his face as Charity left the room, expecting his
eyes to be fixed on her as she walked away, but he wasn’t looking at her. His
eyes were focused firmly on Beth.

“Look, I
understand why you came to see me but my suggestion would be not to get
involved. You have no idea what you are getting yourself into. Emily mentioned
her suspicions to Sheriff Hunter, but he was not interested in looking into it.
If there is one thing I do know, once Sheriff Hunter decides on something like
that, there is no going back and he has never been wrong before. He will not be
re-opening the case. My mother shouldn’t have troubled you.”

Beth sipped
from her own cup of coffee and replied, “I can’t just leave things as they
stand. Mom left me with a pile of debt, a struggling flower shop and an
employee who can’t afford to lose her job. I need to prove her death was not a
suicide or I won’t be able to pay off her debts and sell the flower shop for a
good price. I would also like to offer Hannah a decent severance package. This
may seem like nothing to you, but it’s a big deal to that poor woman and her
children. It also means the world to me. I can’t bear the thought of everyone
thinking Mom was a coward who took her own life.”

Chase’s eyes
softened. “I see where you are coming from but I still wouldn’t advise you to
take this on yourself. I don’t know how much Mom told you but the two of them were
involved in things they should not have been involved in. I could look into your
mother’s case for you if you like?”

“Your mother
told me everything, Mr. Crawford. Mom was not perfect but her heart was in the
right place. She did not deserve to die like that. Thank you for your offer but
I couldn’t possibly afford your services.”

Chase placed
his cup down on the table. “You seem determined, Beth. I must warn you that you
are walking into a dangerous situation. The sheriff is busy working on a big
case and you need to be careful not to step into the middle of something that could
end up putting you in danger. I understand that you are under some financial
strain, but please remember that I am always here to talk to. You can call me
if you need any advice or assistance.”

Beth thanked
him, got up and left his office with his business card tucked in her purse.

That was
very strange. What does the sheriff’s big case have to do with Mom’s death? Why
was the Sheriff so determined to close Mom’s case without a full investigation?
Why was Chase so quick to offer to help me?
Beth decided that she needed
to be careful: if the sheriff was involved then Chase may have been in on it
too.

Beth walked
down the main road in the direction of the flower shop. Bartholomew Bay had a
small-town atmosphere with an array of interesting shops and quirky townsfolk
going about their daily routines. Baskets of fresh fruit and vegetables were on
display on the sidewalk in front of the produce shop which stood next to a
novelty seaside curio store. A woman sat at a wrought-iron table on the sidewalk
in front of Connie’s Bakery, enjoying a freshly baked scone. A woman on a
bicycle stopped outside, parked her bike against the window and ran inside for
a loaf of fresh bread. It looked wonderful and Beth could see why her mother
had decided to move to the Bay where life seemed to be lived a little slower
than back in the big city.