by Teresa Trent
CHAPTER 19
On Saturday, when Daisy dropped off Anna to attend her GED class, Coco was over the moon. I had the garden tour coming up and was determined to get out and pull some weeds. There was an especially virulent vine that had come across the yard to jump into my planting box. Right now, it was working its way around my cucumbers. Per Susie’s instructions, I was going to fertilize and put down some snail bait. Now that I was within striking distance of winning this contest, I really wanted to win.
“How are you doing in the class?” I asked Daisy as she watched our girls run off together. It was so nice not to see her in the truck stop waitress uniform. Today she wore a light pink sweatshirt and faded jeans.
“Not bad. I’m surprised it’s so easy. I can even understand the math.”
Even though Daisy was a grieving widow, she was happier than I had ever seen her.
“How long before you take the test?”
“My teacher says I can probably take it in the next month.”
“That’s great.”
“I know, right? The sooner I take the test, the sooner I can start classes at the community college. With a better job, I can move out. Living with my mother can be frustrating at times. Once you’ve been out of your mother’s house, going back to live with her feels so different. She still wants to keep me to her rules. She keeps forgetting that I’m a parent now.”
It was true. Even though my father and I didn’t live under the same roof, he had a tendency to still parent me now and again. It was good that my boys were such a handful. They kept him distracted from any efforts he might have to hover.
After Daisy left, I stretched out a blanket on the grass, so I could keep an eye on the girls. Coco convinced me to bring out her dolls and set up a tea party, complete with a jug of water and some saltines. Butch had been particularly interested in that part of the game.
My tomato stomper had not been active for several days. Most of the time the stomper struck on the night before the next round of judging so that I wouldn’t have a chance to replace the tomato. I planned to mix some plant food with water to fertilize the garden. I grabbed the box of plant food and then picked up the watering can. Underneath the can, there was a sealed envelope with my name on it. The edges were dappled like it had been sitting there overnight. Was this a message from the tomato stomper? I checked on the girls and then ripped open the envelope.
You need to butt out, or someone might find you in the dirt pile one day.
My hands began to shake. My body filled with anxiety and then fear. This had to be a note from the killer. The message was written by hand on a piece of white copy paper, the kind anyone with a printer would have access to in town. I had to ask myself who would have left something like that for me? In all my questioning, I must have touched on something with someone. It was enough that whoever killed Wade Atwood felt threatened.
“Mommy?”
I didn’t realize Coco was standing next to me.
“More water please.”
“Sure.” Anna was sitting on the blanket with two soggy dolls, and Butch was even licking his lips.
Taking the hose, I refilled the girls’ jug. As it flowed into the container, I began to think of what to do next. Whoever had written the note hadn’t worried about handwriting. That might be the mark of a confident killer. My dad could probably get something from the neat lettering. I was a little surprised a murderer would take a chance like leaving a handwriting sample for the police to analyze. I stuffed the note in my pocket and decided as soon as my babysitting duty was over for the day, Coco, and I would take a trip to my father’s house. It was hard to believe a killer would strike in broad daylight, but what if the little girls were in danger? Coco pressed a yellow plastic teacup to her doll’s mouth and then mopped up the water dripping down onto her dress.
“No spill, little Coco,” I realized she was playing mommy, and the voice she was using was mine. I wouldn’t have been upset if she had been pretending to fly a spaceship or operate on Butch, but I guess the mother-daughter thing was strong.
As I stuffed the note into my pocket, a scream emanated from across the yard. Below the wishing well, Anna lay on the ground crying and holding her arm. I flashed back to Zach falling off a wall in front of the old tuberculosis hospital the year I first met Leo. History was repeating itself. I ran to Anna.
Coco stood with her hands folded, looking guilty. “Playing on the well is bad.”
Anna’s face was blotching red and. she screamed and held her arm as if it might fall right out of the socket.
I tried to placate the screaming toddler. “It’s okay. Let’s see what’s happened.” As I examined her arm, it was evident that it was not aligned. It hung in a slight zigzag off her shoulder. It was broken, and it had happened on my watch. I started feeling guilty. Daisy had trusted me to watch her daughter, and one little threatening note so distracted me that I ignored her enough to break her arm.
“Coco. Run to the house and get Mommy’s phone off the counter in the kitchen. Can you do that for me?” Coco’s big brown eyes shown as she nodded, making her ponytails bounce up and down. As Coco fled to the house, I turned my attention back to Anna.
“Do you think you can sit up?”
Anna didn’t look like she planned to cooperate as she continued to cry and scream. Reasoning with a hurt child took major diplomacy and a little bit of luck.
“Just try for me. I’m going to call your mommy. She would want you to sit up so we can take you to the doctor, who will make it all better. Okay?”
Somehow the message got through her pain-infused brain. As Anna slowly sat up, Coco came running back across the yard, waving the phone in the air.
“Found it!”
“Very good. Look how brave Anna is being. Why don’t we call her mom?” I speed dialed Daisy. She picked up on the first ring.
“What’s wrong?” What a way to answer the phone. It was an example of mom-paranoia at its finest.
“Anna fell. She was standing on the old wishing well. I think she might have broken her arm.”
“Okay. I’ll pack up here. We use the Fryer Clinic on the edge of town. I’ll give the doctor a call. Can you get her over there?” I had to hand it to her. In a crisis, she had a plan. Maybe it came from juggling all those plates as a waitress, but she seemed to be taking this in stride.
“You bet.”
Two hours later, Anna was sporting a shiny new cast. If only her friends knew how to write their names.
“I feel so guilty that I wasn’t there,” Daisy had admitted as we waited for the doctor. She felt guilty? I was the one who was responsible for keeping her child safe at that moment.
“You can’t always be there. Don’t feel guilty about being in class. Getting your GED is important, for both you and Anna.”
“If you say so.” She absentmindedly ran her fingers through Anna’s hair.
This was the problem of motherhood. Taking care of a little person consumes so much of you that when you aren’t there, and something happens, it eats you alive with guilt.
That night both Coco and I were exhausted and fell into bed. The next round of judging would be tomorrow, and I hadn’t even finished half the things I intended to do in the garden. I promised myself I would get up early the next day and make sure it was “tour ready.” I would also get the threatening note to my father. Daisy felt guilty for leaving her daughter while she took a class. Just imagine how she would feel if she knew her babysitter was distracted by a death threat?
CHAPTER 20
The next morning when I awoke, everything seemed brighter. I was ready to tackle the garden and get it ready for the judging, which would occur around noon. Rocky decided the judges might like to attend church before traipsing around contestants’ gardens. Leo let me sleep in and took care of Coco and the boys. Between finding Wade Atwood and stressing out about the gardening contest, I hadn’t been sleeping as well as I normally did. Even though I was handling it in the dayti
me, thoughts would creep in at night and ruin my rest. I reminded myself I had a luxury that Daisy and Susie didn’t have. My husband was alive and present and flipping pancakes for the kids. Sometimes it was a good idea to count my blessings, especially on a Sunday morning. I yawned and stretched as I entered the kitchen. The delightful scent of pancakes and bacon still hung in the air. On the table was a short stack of pancakes and a couple of pieces of bacon, as well as some sliced cantaloupe to start my day. I walked to the coffee pot and began to pour myself a cup. Leo sat at the table reading the news on his tablet.
“Thanks for breakfast. How long have you been up?”
“Not long. We all slept in this morning.”
“Where’s Coco?”
“She’s up in her room. She asked for a roll of toilet paper. I think she’s setting all of her doll’s arms.”
I laughed and took a sip of coffee. “She was really good yesterday. I figured I was going to have to drop her off at Aunt Maggie’s, but she wanted to stay with Anna.”
“Maybe my daughter is going to be a doctor,” Leo said, his eyes bright with the dreams of Coco’s potential.
“Maybe.” I looked at the sunburst clock on the kitchen wall. “Judging isn’t until this afternoon. I still have some things to do out there.” I started my mental to-do list. I needed to water before they got here so all the little leaves would perk up.
Leo interrupted my thoughts. “I’m sure the garden is fine.”
Easy for him to say. He hadn’t walked around these other lady’s gardens. Enid’s garden was staged with adorable little gnome people. She had created a world where it looked like the whimsical statues were doing the work. There was even a small brown wooden door attached to the bottom of a tree and a gnome yard lined with stones. It was the Smurf village all over again. Pastor Green had his green beans climbing wooden structures that looked like a miniature church, complete with a cross. How could I compete with something like that?
“I’m heading out to the yard as soon as I finish my pancakes.”
Leo bit his bottom lip and grimaced. “You may want to delay that just a bit. I forgot to tell you that Aunt Maggie called while you were sleeping. She wants you to call her back.”
“Is everything okay?” It was unusual for Aunt Maggie to call me on a Sunday morning. She was a regular attendee at Pastor Green’s church.
“I think so. She wouldn’t tell me why she was calling, just that you needed to call her as soon as you woke up. She wouldn’t let me get you out of bed. Sorry.” That was typical of my aunt, delaying her emergency so I could get that needed sleep.
As I ate my breakfast, I tried to imagine what Aunt Maggie might have to say. My first thought was that something was going on with Danny. Because he had Down syndrome, there were always things that could affect him. When he was born, he had a hole in his heart that had to be repaired. He didn’t get to go home from the hospital for several weeks. Aunt Maggie cried every time another baby went home and Danny stayed. It had to have been so painful to leave him there overnight. If I knew my aunt, she was there if they would let her be. She was that kind of mother. Had something happened with Danny’s heart? He was over thirty now, and I thought his heart was not only strong but exceptionally kind.
Leo left the table, returning to place my phone in front of me. Go ahead and call her. I’m not offended if you eat my pancakes and talk at the same time.”
“Thanks.” I kissed him on the cheek as he returned to his tablet. When Aunt Maggie answered, I could hear the worry in her voice.
“Did you get a good rest? I heard about what happened yesterday. That poor little girl.”
“She’s going to be fine. What’s up?”
“I was out in my yard this morning and was surprised to find a message left for me. Someone put it in an envelope and everything.”
I was almost afraid of what was coming next.
“What did it say?”
“It was about you. It said to tell you to quit asking questions or Danny and I could be next. By next, I’m assuming, the note-writer means dead like Wade Atwood. You sure have riled somebody up. Why would they leave a note for me? I would think they’d go right to the source and leave one for you instead.”
“You weren’t the only one who received a note. I was reading mine right before Anna broke her arm.”
Leo looked away from his tablet, now listening entirely.
Aunt Maggie asked, “Did you take it to your daddy? He needs to know.”
“I intended to tell Dad, but that was when Anna fell off the well. I had to call Daisy and then spent the afternoon at the doctor’s office.”
“So, now we both need to call him.”
“I know.” I went back to thinking of the things I still needed to do in the garden. I promised myself I would get to alerting my father just as soon as I had everything tidied up for the judging.
We were still in the house when we heard the cars pulling up for the latest round of judging. I never had time to get out and clean up and make my boxes “show ready.” How many points would I be docked for leaving my gardening gloves next to the planters? I had intended to be ahead of the game at this point, but life interfered with my plans as usual. The assorted group of hopeful gardeners and judges no longer bothered with ringing my front door bell but came around back to where they knew my garden was situated. Rocky was there with his trusty camera, ready to photograph the green goodness of the earth, and maybe a few weeds along the way.
I hurried to meet them in the backyard. Glory McGiver stood with her hand over her mouth in utter shock. I glanced at the planting box to make sure another body wasn’t sticking up out of the dirt.
“Heaven help us,” echoed one of the gardeners. Enid Sanford stood with her hands on her hips and a smirk on her face. The happiness fairly bubbled out of her. I followed the trail of where the crowd was focused.
The section of the planter box that I had lovingly labeled “tomatoes” no longer held the towering young plants. Instead of being trampled, this time all of the plants had been pulled out and then crushed under foot.
It looked like an inebriated alien had hit my planter box and created the worst crop circle ever made. Only I would get an alien with no sense of style.
“Looks like you have some pretty big critters in your garden, Betsy,” Rocky squatted down to take a close-up shot of the damage.
“Isn’t it interesting that they just went after the tomatoes?”
“Is there such a thing as a tomato devil?” Ruby Green piped up from the back, checking with her brother, the pastor.
I felt the anger rising up in me. This wasn’t a case of a wily night animal scratching his way through my hard work, but a clear and simple act of sabotage. I crossed my arms and tapped my foot, now surveying the crowd in front of me. My gaze landed on Enid Sanford, dream killer. She held my gaze, and both of us attempted not to blink. Oh yeah, she was one tough dirt clod.
“What happened here last night has nothing to do with animals. There is no tomato devil, only vicious, jealous, petty gardeners who can’t stand the idea that someone who is new to gardening could do better than them in this contest.”
Rocky grew closer. “And who do you think the vicious gardener, now nicknamed the ‘tomato devil’ might be?”
“I’m not entirely sure, but I do have a person of interest.”
From the back, I heard Ruby whispering loudly, “Just like her father. She’s on the case. A person of interest ...”
“Betsy,” Glory came closer and spoke in gentle tones as if telling a child it was time to get out of the pool. “I hate to tell you this, dear, but if you don’t have any tomatoes planted at the date of judging, it automatically disqualifies you from our contest. I am so very sorry about this.”
A little squeal went up from Enid, who squirmed in delight as if she could break out in soft shoe where she stood. She had finally done it. Like an annoying little aphid, she had chewed away at me, and now my garden was ruined.
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“You can’t be serious,” I wailed. “It wasn’t as if I did this on purpose. My garden was clearly attacked by somebody who was desperate to get me out of this contest. I would think you would at least give me a little leeway on this.”
Enid stepped forward. “Rules are rules. Just because you work for the paper, our contest sponsor, we can’t bend them for you. How can we have integrity in the competition if we don’t follow the rules?”
Glory was clearly uncomfortable by Enid’s display of righteous indignation. Her hands covered her chest, her thin arms coming up to cover her torso in case Enid decided to swing a few punches to reinforce her point. The judge cleared her throat and lifted her sharp thin nose into the air.
“Once again, I’m sorry, but Enid is right. Rules are important, and we must follow them.” She turned to the crowd, “Everybody, shall we move to the next garden?”
Enid stepped back and high-fived Delta Haney. They had done it. The old-timers had rid themselves of the newbie gardener. I always thought of a gardener as someone who worked with the earth to achieve inner peace and find a balance with nature. I had no idea how cutthroat it was. Those pesky pests seemed to translate to the human species as well.
CHAPTER 21
An hour later, Aunt Maggie sat across the table from me as we shared a cup of tea. How many times had we sat just liked this, teaming up to deal with disappointment? I leaned on my elbow, gazing out the window into my backyard and sighed.
“I never did like that Enid Sanford. You know she gets the botox, don’t you?” Maggie said.
Now that I thought about it, Enid didn’t have a single wrinkle above her brow, and she had to be nearing seventy. Just being around Enid gave me wrinkles and gray hair to boot.