“I do. It’s a hobby turned passion.”
“That’s awesome. That’s how I feel about my business. You need to do what you love.”
“Exactly. I used to work a day job, but once I made time to focus on me, I discovered that I loved botany. Plants are fascinating.”
“You work at the conservatory?”
“I do.”
“I love the gardens there. So beautiful, with all the different themes. The orchids are my favorite.” They didn’t usually make me sneeze.
“Which ones? Cymbidiums? Phalaenopsis?”
“Er, the purple ones? Sorry, I’m terrible with names.” And with plants in general. Vicki probably wouldn’t be so nice to me if she knew how many plants I’d killed in my day.
“Hold on.” Vicki ran to her table and rushed back to me. “If you want to learn, I teach a couple classes.” She placed a flier in my hand. The conservatory offered Gardening Basics, Trimming 101, Eat it!, and Poisonous Plants in your Garden.
“Wow, thanks so much. I know I need to learn more, especially in this line of work.” My holistic knowledge was very basic.
“Anytime. Hi, Jeffery.” Vicki turned her attention to whom I gathered was Suzanne’s husband. He looked up and smiled.
“Jeffery, are you done yet?” Suzanne snapped. It was bizarre. I had watched Suzanne all morning. She seemed so nice to everyone, except Jeffery. People seemed to genuinely like her too. She just hated her husband and I wondered why. I couldn’t help it; I was terribly nosey. Maybe I can ask Mrs. J. about it … if she hasn’t fled the country yet.
“I’ll talk to you later,” he said to Vicki.
She nodded. “Hi, Suzanne.”
Suzanne completely ignored her. It was kind of sad, but I let it go.
Even after almost killing the mayor and Mrs. J. running away, my morning had gone well. Serenity Now was officially out in the world and people seemed to love my products as much as I did. I couldn’t wait to tell Finn. I thought about all the ways I could celebrate. Of course, that made me think of Finn again, but since he was gone, mint chocolate chip ice cream would have to do. I was ready to pack it up and call it a success when trouble popped up.
“Ziva, can you look at this?”
“What’s up?” I picked my head up from under the table. I was just gathering my things. One of my first clients from the morning had stopped back over. Her hands and forearms had the lightest red rash.
“It just itches. I have no idea what’s going on.”
“What the…? Are you allergic to honey or orange essential oil?”
“I don’t think so.”
“The only other ingredients are beeswax, shea butter, and coconut oil.”
My client shook her head. “I’ve never had anyone have a reaction before.” No sooner were the words out of my mouth did I notice two more clients headed my way, both scratching their palms and arms. Don’t panic.
But it only got worse.
I started apologizing and handing out refunds left and right. I had no idea what had gone wrong or why so many people were having a negative reaction. Then, I looked over at Justine, laughing her head off. I had no idea what she had done, but I’d guarantee this was her fault and she was going to pay.
Unfortunately, Justine took off before I could have words with her. But I knew where she lived.
7
I spent an extra hour apologizing to everyone and offering to somehow make it right. At that moment, all I could think about was proving Justine’s guilt and having her issue a public apology. I was ready to call the police and have an official investigation launched, but it turned out I didn’t have to.
I had stopped back home to change my clothes and gather my thoughts before heading over to Justine’s. I figured I needed a minute to clear my head before I went and did something stupid, like bash Justine in the head. When I pulled into my spot behind the antiques shop, I saw Detective Roxy waiting for me.
“Long time no see,” I said.
Detective Roxy held out her palms for me to see. They were as pink as the rest of her.
“Son of a—. Not you too.” I closed my eyes and growled inside. Maybe Detective Roxy could go with me to Justine’s … to keep me from murdering her. I invited Detective Roxy up and shared my suspicions on what had happened.
“Do you have any more product left?” she asked.
“I didn’t, but I do now thanks to all the returns.” I handed a box over to her. “Seriously, whatever she did might just have ruined me, my reputation anyway. I’m not sure how I’ll be able to fix this.” Justine had done a lot of horrible things to me over the years, like egging the inside of my locker in middle school, but this ranked right up there as the worst.
“Let me have our guys take a look at this and see what we can find. Honestly, it reminds me of what it was like when I got poison ivy camping a few years ago.”
“Poison ivy? Great. Let me know what type of legal charges I can file because, believe me, I will be filing them.” Not sure it would be enough. I was already going to have to do a whole rebranding strategy and tell Mrs. DeVine what had happened. That wasn’t a phone call I was looking forward to.
I then thought back to this morning with the mayor, and something bothered me about the whole Mrs. J. angle. I finally knew what it was. “Hey, listen, I know Mrs. J.’s on your radar, and I get that, I do; but I forgot to tell you, she baked two cakes on Friday. One for me and one for the competition, and no one else got sick.”
“You’re assuming it was an accident.”
“Well yeah, I mean Mrs. J.’s not one to go around poisoning people. Her baking is legendary, and it’s a point of pride for her. I can’t see her ruining her reputation. Not only that, but what’s her motive? Even if she didn’t like Paulette, why poison the mayor?” If that is in fact what happened.
“I don’t know, but I’m working on it.”
I was afraid of that.
Detective Roxy left and I didn’t have even five minutes to myself before Aria walked in. She was a crying mess. As in mascara running down her face, swollen eyes, runny nose, mess. My usual discomfort set in. Did I mention how much I absolutely hated crying? And Aria had a puppy with her. A poodle. At least I think that’s what it was. The poor pup had been dyed shocking pink, and it looked like someone had colored in black eyebrows on him.
“What in the world is going on, girl?” I took the puppy from her arms and searched frantically for a tissue. Aria plopped down on my couch. Cue the hiccupping. My poor bestie couldn’t even get the words out. I thought for a minute that her wedding had been called off, but that didn’t explain the puppy.
“Here.” I handed the tissue box to her. Worry set in that something serious had happened, like to one of the kids. “Arjun? Amelia?”
“They’re…fine. Well…they hate each…other, but they’re fine.”
Whew. “Vince?”
“Ffff-ine.”
M-kay. I stared at her for a moment. “You’re killing me here. Wait! Someone didn’t die, did they?”
Aria shook her head.
More waiting. I talked to the puppy for a minute, “What’s your name, little guy?” The pink puff ball licked up my neck and tried to nibble at my ears. I held him up in front of me. “This isn’t your fault, is it?”
“I just can’t!” Aria finally said. Cue more crying.
“Honey, you’re going to have to elaborate.”
“The kids, the wedding, it’s all a mess!”
“What did the kids do now?”
“They hate each other so much. Arjun cut off all of Amelia’s doll’s hair.”
“At least it wasn’t Amelia’s. Am I right?”
“Don’t give him any ideas. Then Vince had a puppy delivered for them, thinking it would bring them closer together.”
“And it didn’t?”
“Hardly. Amelia was mad that he’s a boy, so she dyed him pink, and then Arjun was mad that he was pink so he drew on the eyebrows to make him look fi
erce.”
“Oh boy.”
“Meanwhile, Vince never ran any of it by me and I’m terribly allergic.” Aria sneezed right on cue. I could relate to the allergies. Flowers were my usual trigger. Spring time was brutal for me.
“To top it all off, the hotel called this morning and someone pulled the fire alarm at last night’s wedding. The ballroom has water damage, and who knows if it’ll be fixed by Friday.” She sobbed again.
Okay, that was all pretty rough. I tried to decide whose day had been worse—mine or hers?
“But at least you didn’t kill anyone,” I said with a half-smile.
Aria stopped crying. “Wait, What?!”
“Okay, so I didn’t kill anyone, but I may have poisoned the mayor, or make that Mrs. J. did.” I went on to explain the whole cupcake catastrophe.
“After all that, it looks like Justine struck again, with my clients breaking out in horrible rashes. So yeah, that was a disaster. Just wait until my mom hears. She’ll need a Xanax. Dad will be disappointed he missed it all.”
At least Aria had finally stopped crying.
“So, now what are we going to do?” I asked.
Spoke too soon. The tears threatened to spill out of Aria’s eyes again.
“Don’t do it, girl. I’m serious.” I thought we were past the crying.
“I can’t keep Captain Jack,” she said.
“Who?”
Aria pointed to the pink puppy, who had just peed on my floor mat and was now chewing on my Converses.
“I don’t want to take him to the shelter. He’s such a sweetheart. None of this is his fault.”
“Okay, leave the fluff ball with me and I’ll find him a home.” I sounded more confident than I felt. I was getting good at doing that lately. “Don’t worry about your reception yet. Let’s give them a day to clean up, and then we’ll go check it out.”
“Christina already has a list of alternate venues.”
“Of course, she does.” Don’t roll your eyes. I gave my bestie a tight hug and promised her that it would all get sorted out. It might take a family therapist and a trip to Disney World to help with the kids, but in the end, it would all work out. Aria and Vince loved each other too much to not find a way.
Aria left and I looked over at Captain Jack. Poor little guy. He started walking around in a circle and I was a second too late to realize he was about to take a poo. Yuck. Okay, time to reorder my priorities. I picked up the pooch. “First up, find a nice home for you, cutie pie. Then go beat the beans out of Justine.”
Turned out, I didn’t have to reorder my priorities. I hated Justine, but she did love her puppies, and they seemed to love her. I hoped we could make a deal.
Justine Martin had been married too many times to keep count. It was somewhere around six or seven, if I cared to think about it at all. She had made a habit out of marrying well, and therefore, had accumulated enough wealth to be an official royal pain in the butt.
I was big enough to admit that her red brick, colonial, two-story house with its circle driveway and plethora of windows was beautiful, although completely impractical for a single woman living alone. Her kitchen might have more square footage than my entire apartment, but I was betting all those empty bedrooms made it awfully lonely. I’d take my quaint little space any day.
I rang her bell and Captain Jack and I waited for her to answer. Not even two seconds later, a man wearing a tan vest with Bermuda shorts answered the door. I took a step back to look at the address again. I was at the right house. Maybe Justine married again?
“Hi, I’m looking for Justine. Is she home?”
“Miss Justine has requested not to be disturbed this afternoon.”
Miss Justine? I almost snorted. “Who are you?”
“I’m sorry, ma’am. I am Withers. If you’ll so kindly tell me your name, I will let the lady of the house know that you were here.”
Lady of the house? Pshaw. More like lady of the night, and when did Justine get a butler?
“So, what, is your boss lady too scared to come to the door?” I tried to look past him into the house, but didn’t see anything. Withers closed the door and stepped out onto the porch, causing Captain Jack and me to take a step back.
“I’m sorry, ma’am, but you’re going to have to leave.”
“Aw, now don’t be like that. Look, I even brought an adorable little puppy.” I held up Captain Jack. Okay, so he looked a little ridiculous with the pink fur and black eye brows, but under all that, he was a total cutie. Withers didn’t look impressed.
I debated for a second what to do. I could just hand Captain Jack to Withers and jump in my truck and take off. I knew Justine was an animal lover, but I got the feeling Withers wasn’t. For all I knew, he’d call the pound and have them come get Captain Jack without saying a word to Justine, seeing that she didn’t want to be disturbed and all. Or worse, he could just leave Captain Jack on the porch. It would’ve been great if Justine had answered the door and I could’ve made a deal. Something like: you publicly admit your wrongdoing today and apologize to all my customers, and in return I’ll give you this adorable puppy. That was my original plan. Now I was standing in front of Mr. Grumpy Gus, going nowhere fast.
I stared at Withers, trying to get a better read on him. “Any way you can take this little guy to Justine and ask her to come to the door?”
“I’m sorry, ma’am. Not today. Now, if you will...” Withers took another step forward. I took another step back. “Thank you. Have a nice day.” Withers dismissed us and went back inside.
“Well that didn’t work,” I said to Captain Jack.
Now it was on to Plan B.
8
Captain Jack and I did a little shopping before heading to see my parents. I had no idea what type of food he ate or what toys he liked, so we bought an assortment of goodies. Turned out, puppy shopping was kind of fun. It wasn’t the same as shoe shopping, but didn’t cost as much either. Captain Jack even got a peanut butter biscuit for being a good boy, to go with my peanut butter cup. We both deserved a treat. The only thing better than chocolate was peanut butter with chocolate.
My dad was where I knew I’d find him, sitting in his spot, watching “the game” when I walked in. It was the same place you’d find him every Sunday afternoon. My mom met the girls for brunch, and my dad got to veg out in front of the TV in peace and quiet. Talk about relationship goals. Finn was a Sports Center fan himself.
“Hi, Papa.” I greeted my dad with a kiss on the cheek and placed Captain Jack in his lap. He didn’t even flinch, just started petting the pup’s head. Not sure if it was a testament to his laid-back attitude or a lifetime of my shenanigans, but even a pink poodle didn’t faze him.
“Heard you tried to kill the mayor,” my dad said nonchalantly.
“Ah, that was quick. What did Mom say?”
“She went to church.”
“Sounds about right. For the record, I didn’t try to kill him. It was Mrs. J.’s cupcake that did it. By the way, you haven’t seen her, have you? She took off without talking to the police.” My dad laughed. “Dad, seriously, you don’t think Mrs. J. would kill someone, do you?”
“Not on purpose.”
“Not even Paulette?”
“Not even her. Mrs. J.’s bark is worse than her bite. Kind of like this little guy here.”
“Captain Jack,” I stated. “Vince got him for the kids, but Aria’s allergic. I’m looking for a home for him. I was hoping you could puppy sit. I’ve got bingo tonight.” I could’ve totally skipped it, but I was hoping Mrs. J. would show and I could find out what in the world she was thinking.
“You know I don’t mind. Your mom’s going to have a fit though.”
I smiled and inched toward the door. “Which is why I’m outta here. Just tell her I’ll be back in a couple hours. I left a can of food on the counter for him. Oh, and watch out for when he does the circle thing. Love you.”
“Honey!” I heard my dad call as I slipped
out the door.
With Captain Jack taken care of, I was able to run a quick errand before heading over to First Baptist. I couldn’t get Mayor Potts out of my mind, seeing him pass out like that this morning left an icky feeling in my stomach. I was hoping to pop up to the hospital and see how he was doing. Maybe even poke my head in and apologize, even though I did nothing wrong.
I must’ve been awfully worried about the mayor because the only thing I hated worse than crying, was hospitals. Truth be told, it wasn’t just concern that dragged me there, but also the thought that maybe Mrs. J. was somehow responsible. I know I had defended Mrs. J. in public, but truthfully, I was having second thoughts. Was it possible this could all just be a horrible accident? Mrs. J. was getting up there in years. I knew her vision wasn’t as great as it used to be, just watching her squint to read my Beauty Secrets catalogs told me that. Maybe she mistook cyanide for sugar? I had to admit it was a possibility. Her going MIA like this morning wasn’t helping either. She had better show up for bingo.
I was still thinking about Mrs. J. when I walked into the hospital waiting area and saw Suzanne Butterfield sitting there. She paced in front of the fish tank, staring off into space, until she saw me.
“Oh, hi Ziva.”
I stopped, taken back that—one, she knew me; and two, she was being nice.
“Are you here for Mayor Potts?” I asked.
“I am. He and I are good friends. I’ve been worried about him all afternoon. I couldn’t sit around the house waiting any longer.”
“Yeah, I’ve been thinking about him too.”
“What happened? I just saw him on the ground.”
“You know, one minute he was eating and then the next, BAM, passed out.”
“It’s that horrible Birdie Jackson. This is all her fault!” Suzanne started pacing again. “I told the detective how much she hated Paulette, and now she’s gone after the mayor. They need to lock her up before she hurts anyone else.”
I knew Suzanne was no friend of Mrs. J.’s, so it didn’t surprise me that she felt this way. “Have you heard anything? Maybe this has nothing to do with Mrs. J.” Like, maybe the mayor had a bad heart or a heat stroke. The guy was always wearing suits and bow ties in ninety-degree weather. Not the smartest wardrobe choice, in my opinion.
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