by Vikki Walton
***
The next few days seemed to fly by as Anne went to people’s homes for gardening consults. As promised, Carson had taken Spencer up to Denver for some guy time and to buy the growing boy new clothes and shoes. This had allowed Anne time to herself and to plan out the various plants that would be needed for each garden. A knock on the back door surprised her, and she glanced at a young woman standing there. “Hello, can I help you?”
“Don’t you recognize me? I’m Aly.”
Gone were the jet-black hair and harsh makeup. Aly now had a mass of reddish-gold curls, and her nose was dotted with freckles. The only noticeable makeup was a bit of eyeliner and some lip gloss.
“Aly! Wow. You’re right. I didn’t recognize you. Please, come in.”
Anne held back the door for Aly to enter.
“You’re such a pretty girl. Why did you decide to ditch the makeup and the hair color?”
“It wasn’t really me. I was worried others would notice how much I favored Ben, so I thought I’d change my appearance. I feel much lighter now, like I’ve removed a mask.”
Anne wondered if Aly’s soul-baring the other night had also lifted the burden she’d been carrying for so long, along with the overwhelming grief and feelings of abandonment. She smiled at Aly and offered her a place at the table.
“Sorry for the mess. I’m working on some garden plans and it’s easier to make one big list for all the plants I need to purchase.”
Tears sprang to her eyes. “No worries. I came over to, like, apologize for my past behavior. I don’t know what’s come over me. I wanted to push everyone away. I didn’t want to hurt anymore.”
“Oh, sweetie.” She gathered Aly up in an embrace. “It’s okay. Trust me. I was the same way once. I thought that if I kept everyone at arm’s length, I couldn’t get hurt again. But that’s the price of love. And I won’t ever give up love and friends and family ever again.” Anne motioned to a seat. “Want some tea or lemonade?”
“Lemonade sounds good.”
Aly took a seat at the table as Anne placed ice in a glass and poured the homemade lemonade over it.
Aly took a sip out of the tall glass. “Oh, this is fantastic. Kind of like a lemon drop candy—tart and sweet.” She set the drink down on the table. “I’ve come for some advice. I think with everything that’s going on, I should probably leave. Molly’s mom, Sorcha, will be back soon, and I’m not sure about work. With everything happening with Ben and Billie, I don’t see how we can grow our relationship.” She shrugged. “I tried, but I guess it just wasn’t meant to be.”
“Listen, things are so up in the air right now. Ben is hurting, but I think you shouldn’t give up on him yet. Plus, as you know, Autumn is going to be out after she has her baby, and I’m sure Hope is going to need some help at the store.”
Aly laughed. “So funny with the names here. You’ve got a Hope, a Mercy—all you need is a Faith.”
“Yes. Though Hope’s mom is named Faith. She’s in a care facility now.”
Aly wiped the condensation from the glass and plucked a napkin to set underneath the drink. “Oh, that’s sad. Poor Hope.”
“It was hard, yes. But it was for her safety. It’s close, and Hope visits her a lot, and when she can, they go on short trips together. But it’s getting harder for her to do that.” She looked at the woman, and it occurred to her she needed yet another expression to heal. “Aly, tell me about your mother.”
For the next half hour, Aly shared about her life growing up, funny stories of when she was young, and how her mother had been there during the horrible teenage years when everything seemed overwhelming. When she’d finished telling a story about one of the last times with her mom, Aly stopped. She gazed over at Anne. “I realize what you did there. Yes, I was lucky. I had a loving mother and father who would have done anything for me. They loved me and I loved them. In fact, who knows? Maybe someday, I’ll adopt a child who needs a mom. Kandi told me what you did. That she was missing a mother and—”
“Kandi is my sunshine. When I first moved here, things started off a bit crazy.”
Aly laughed. “She told me about that too. Glad you all could come together like you did.”
“Yes. It also taught me an important lesson. You need friends who are like you, but more importantly, you need friends who aren’t like you. Whether that equates to age, socio-economic status, outlook—they will call you out when you need to hear the truth. And if you’re lucky, they cross over from being friends to becoming family.”
“Yep. That’s, like, so true!” Kandi had come in the back while Anne had been speaking. “What’s going on here? Who decided to have a party but forgot to invite me?” She giggled.
“Lemonade?” Anne replied. Kandi bobbed her head, earrings jingling and catching the light. Anne poured another glass of lemonade as Spencer crashed into the house, huffing, and puffing.
“What’s up?”
“I went off to Mercy’s, and she changed up the plants in her greenhouse, so now I have to rework the drip schematic. I have to re-do the entire thing.” He stomped off upstairs.
“Yikes. I’d be upset too if I had to re-do work I’d already completed. I’m surprised Mercy would do that after she already had everything planned out.” Kandi picked up her glass of lemonade and took a swig.
“Who knows with people? I’ve had to re-design or change many things working with clients. It’s just part of the job.”
Anne’s phone vibrated, and she picked it up. It was a number she faintly recognized but couldn’t place. Possibly a new customer. “Hello?”
Her eyes grew wide, and she shook her head as Kandi mimed ‘who is it?’ Her brow furrowed as she listened. “Yes. Okay. Tomorrow. Yes, I’ll be there.” She hung up the phone as Aly and Kandi waited for her to speak.
Finally Kandi spewed out, “So, who was that? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”
“It was Kim. She’s been arrested and wants me to help her. She thinks she knows who really killed Billie.”
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
The next morning, Anne steeled herself for her meeting with Kim. She arrived at the center where Kim was being held. Upon being directed to a chair that sat in front of a plexiglass window, she waited until Kim arrived. The young woman had cut her short bob into a spiky cropped look with purple, and she worn octagonal glasses. She must have worn contact lenses before. Anne motioned to the phone receiver.
Kim cradled her head against the phone. “Thanks for coming. I didn’t know what else to do or who to call.”
“Certainly, but you need to get a lawyer. I’m not sure there is much I can help you with on your case,” Anne replied.
Kim leaned toward the glass and looked around before she whispered into the headset, “I didn’t kill Billie. I loved Billie like a sister.”
“But you were stealing funds from the group. So, why should I believe you?” Anne waited for Kim’s response.
“Yes, that’s true. My mom isn’t doing well. I wanted to help her out, but I couldn’t afford it. I planned on paying the group back. It all started when we got the grant from the foundation. It was so much money just sitting around when it could be helping my mom. She’s been ill and was about to lose her home because she couldn’t work. Her treatments are expensive—” She stared at Anne and sighed. “It doesn’t excuse my behavior or the stealing. I take responsibility, and I’m resigned to pay for what I did. But I swear to you, I didn’t kill Billie.”
“If that’s true, why did we find her headscarf in your firepit?” Anne sat back in the chair, waiting to see Kim’s response.
“Okay. Here’s the truth. I went over there later in the morning. I didn’t realize the glove company would send a receipt with the gloves. I wanted to find it, so I could stop Billie from contacting them. Basically, I’d told her the gloves cost more than they had.” She glanced at Anne before continuing. “Look, I’m ashamed of what I did. It was wrong.”
“We’ve established that you fee
l regret. But that doesn’t answer my question.”
“I went in through the back. I called for Billie, but there was no answer. I went into the living room, and that’s when I saw the bookcase tipped over. I ran over and—” She grimaced. “I knew she was most likely dead, but I had to see, so I picked up the headscarf off her face. Poor Billie. Then it hit me that she could have been murdered and my fingerprints were on the headscarf. So, I found a baggie in the kitchen and put it inside. I thought about calling the police but—I got scared. If they started looking, I would be a prime suspect if Billie had confronted me about the missing funds.”
A strong female voice called out, “Time’s up.”
She struggled to remain composed. “Oh, no. Please, Anne. I have a young public defender. They’re already trying to get me to plead guilty for a lower sentence. I have no one. I think I know—”
“Let’s go.” The officer came over and stood next to Kim.
“Please, water my flowers and give my rosemary lots of water. You know how they need water.”
The officer took the phone away and led Kim out of the room.
What in the world?
Back in her truck, Anne went back over her conversation with Kim. So, if Kim had found Billie, that meant someone had to have been there before her. Ben had left, but as far as she knew, no one had been seen outside of Billie’s house.
Heading out of the Denver Metro, she headed got on the I70 to go home. Something about Kim’s story puzzled her. First, she said she had removed the headscarf not from her head, but from her face. Second, the scarf that they’d found in the baggie was loose and didn’t have the tied part which Billie had done to create a type of turban on her head. So, either Billie hadn’t been wearing the headscarf or someone had untied it and used it to cover her face. But why?
The next thing was Kim’s last words to her. They made no sense because Kim was a knowledgeable gardener and knew that rosemary preferred drier soil. She punched in the phone number for Kandi on the truck’s system.
Kandi cheerfully answered, “How’d it go with Kim?”
“Fine. Listen, do you know if Kim has a rosemary plant in her yard?”
Anne put on her brakes as she prepared to wait for the build-up of vehicles. She’d made a mistake coming at this time of day, but you never knew what to expect on this road. Hopefully, things would open up again once she passed the Eisenhower Tunnel.
“Um, let’s see. Let me think.” Kandi hummed to herself while Anne put on her blinker to move into the other lane because of a wreck. “Yep, I think so. It’s in a big pot right outside her greenhouse. Why?”
“Kim told me to make sure I watered it because it needs lots of water.”
She slowed down behind a travel trailer with Texas plates heading up to the mountains.
Kandi chirped. “Everyone knows rosemary doesn’t like tons of water.”
Anne responded, “Exactly. I think she was trying to tell me something. I don’t know why she just didn’t say it, but she was being escorted back to her cell. I’m kind of at a dead-end where to go from here. Personally, I felt she was being truthful with me, but she could simply be a good liar.”
“How about this? I’m going over to the Brandywine Inn for a bit, and we can go over to her house. I think they’re finished, and we can have a poke around. Plus, I might, like, still have the key.”
“Oh, geez. Don’t you think Kim would have taken everything with her when she left?”
“You’d think so, but who knows. Maybe she kept something at the house in case she got caught. Which, like, she did.”
“Argh. You’ve fallen back into your bad habit.” Anne spied an opening and made it over into the other lane, out from behind the travel trailer. Traffic was picking up, so she expected it to be faster now.
“Like what?” Kandi giggled through the phone.
“Hilarious. Not. I’m going to get off the phone now as traffic is starting to pick up. See you soon.”
After hearing Kandi’s reply, she ended the call and concentrated on the road ahead of her. Before long, she was pulling into the cul-de-sac, and Kandi was sitting on the front porch of Anne’s old Victorian.
Kandi waved and popped up to join Anne in her truck. “Let’s go. I’ve been thinking about what you said. I think she may have been giving you a message.”
“Really? Pray tell, what could that message be?” Anne did a circle with the truck and headed back out toward Kim’s house.
Kandi twisted in her seat to face Anne. “So, what do you do if you want to find out if a plant needs water?”
“The leaves wilt?” Anne watched as Kandi shook her head. “Um, I’m not sure. You usually know which ones require more water, and for those, you don’t, you—I get it. You stick your finger in the soil to determine if it needs water. But I still don’t know what that has to do with anything.”
“Think about it. Kim had to know that she could get caught, and if she did, all of her stuff would be confiscated by the police. What if she decided to hide something, so she could get to it, or it was accessible? If she hid it inside the house, she had to figure they would search the house. But if she had plants outside, they would probably be overlooked. She could easily go there where no one could see her and find whatever it was she’d hidden.”
Anne sped up and moved past a car with its blinker on to turn. “That makes sense. I don’t see what could be hidden in a plant though. I guess we’ll go look, and if we can’t find anything, we’ll need to rethink what she was trying to tell us. But it’s the only thing we have to go on now, so we’ll pursue it.”
Kandi clapped her hands together. “I think I know what it is!”
“What?” Anne signaled that she was turning left onto Billie’s street.
“Pictures.”
“Pictures? Those would get awful wet even if they’re in a plant that doesn’t get a lot of watering.”
“No. Think about it. Kim was our group’s photographer. Remember, you saw her at the park taking pictures of flowers?”
“Oh, right. I thought she was out to blackmail someone. Namely Ben and whoever he was arguing with.”
“True. And who knows? Maybe she even thought about it. But she had to store those pictures somewhere. She could have done it on her computer or in the cloud, but she may have made her own copy as well.”
“Good point. I think you may have something there. Though I’m still not sure how it’s going to help us, but we’ll soon find out.”
Anne pulled up across the street from Billie’s house. “I think it won’t raise any red flags if we go through Billie’s back yard and head over to Kim’s. Everyone knows I’ve been working on Billie’s garden.”
“Okey-dokey.” Kandi undid her seatbelt before sliding out of the truck to the sidewalk. The woman Anne had spoken with the other day was out walking her dog again, and she waved at them as a white van pulled up behind them. Mercy got out of the van holding a package. She waved at the woman and waited until she caught up to her to receive the package. Once the woman had gone inside, Mercy turned toward them.
“Hello. What are you doing in this neighborhood, doing some more gardens?” Mercy wiped her gloved hands on her pants.
“We’re coming to check that everything is still looking good in Billie’s garden. Ben has agreed that he might need some help for a while.”
Mercy harrumphed. “For a while. I’m sure he has someone to help him.”
Kandi squinted at the woman. “I’m not sure why you’re saying that, but Aly will do her best to help him.”
“If that’s what you want to call it. Disgusting is what I call it.”
“Why is it disgusting for a daughter to want to help her father?”
Mercy took a step back as if she’d been slapped. “What—what did you say?”
“Ben is Aly’s father,” Kandi replied, but Mercy had spun around and headed back to her truck. Tires squealed as she sped off down the road.
“Rude.”
“Kandi, it isn’t your place to share that information. As far as I know, Aly only told us, and we don’t know if Ben has shared it with anyone.”
“Oops. Cat. Baggage.” Kandi put her hands over her mouth.
“It’s cat—oh, never mind. Let’s go check out the garden and then head over to Kim’s.” In the back yard, the plants were thriving, and Anne dead-headed a few flowers and ensured the mulch and the soil underneath were holding moisture. Then they headed over to Kim’s yard, hoping the neighbors in between were off at work. Otherwise it could get awkward very quick.
Once in Kim’s back yard, they spotted a shady space with a bench and two chairs that was close to the greenhouse farther back in a sunny space. In front of the greenhouse sat a large pot of rosemary on caster wheels. Kandi bounded over and began sticking her finger into the pot. “Nothing.” She moved toward the back and repeated the process. “Hold on.” She wiggled her finger and then moved the dirt until she pulled out a double ziplocked baggie. Inside it was a computer flash drive.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
There was tape over the door to the house, so they decided against going inside. Instead of going back through the yards, they made their way out to the street and continued to the end of the block before crossing over. As they got into the truck, Kandi’s phone rang.
“Hi, Hope. What’s going on?” There was a sharp intake of breath, causing Anne to keep the vehicle in park. “Hold on.”
Hope spoke to someone else. “You don’t say. Is everything all right? Oh, Aly’s there. Awesome.”
Anne waited with Kandi as they listened.
“Oh, okay. Thanks for letting us know. Bye!” Kandi grinned broadly as she looked at Anne. “Autumn’s having her baby.”
“That’s wonderful. Glad to hear that Hope and Aly are with her until the midwife arrives. I don’t know about you, but I could use something to eat. Lunch kind of got away from me after my trip up to Denver. Do you want to stop at the café for a salad?”
“I’m game,” Kandi replied. “I hope Autumn will be okay. I can’t imagine having a baby. I mean, like, I can imagine it, but—”