by Joyce Lavene
“I’m glad you were there. I was calling for help, but Al was unavailable, and I didn’t know how to explain the situation to a 911 operator.”
“You could’ve called Steve,” he reminded her.
“I didn’t want to get him involved. He has enough on his plate with this big burglary ring he’s been chasing. Besides, he might get in trouble coming out for a local issue.”
Paul looked skeptical. “Come on, Mom. You know he would’ve dropped everything to get over here. What’s the real story?”
She knew he was right. “He can be a little overprotective. I was afraid he might get paranoid about me coming to the shop.”
“That’s even crazier.” Paul leaned against the car. “I came by to tell you that everything is back at the storage place. I have no idea how you can get your friend to check it out again without giving it away.”
“Don’t worry.” She smiled at him. “I’ll think of something. Don’t ever do anything like that again. Leave that kind of stuff to private investigators. Police officers don’t do that kind of thing.”
“Maybe I should become a PI. They get to do all the fun stuff.”
Sirens and flashing blue lights heralded a police car sent to pick up Ray. Paul told the officers what had happened and handed him over to them. The officers left with Ray, and Paul walked Peggy back to her bike as he put his belt back on.
“Are you sure you don’t want me to put the bike in the car and take you home?” he asked.
“It’s not like Ray did anything to me. I’m sure he was just trying to scare me again.” She pulled the shoulder strap for her bag across her chest. “I’m going straight home. It shouldn’t take more than a few minutes.”
“Okay. It suddenly occurs to me how stubborn you are, Mom.” He grinned.
“That must be where you get it from.” She kissed his cheek and climbed on the bike. “It probably comes as a package deal with the temper and red hair. Love you, sweetie. I’ll talk to you later. Say hello to Mai for me.”
Peggy rode out into the moderate traffic toward Queens Road. The warm weather was wonderful as the breeze blew through her hair. The ride was mostly uneventful, except for a man in a yellow sports car who cut her off.
She turned into her driveway at home, and a car slowly passed her. Paul smiled and waved. She hadn’t realized that he’d followed her home. She knew she should probably be happy that he cared enough to want to make sure she was safe.
Of course, Paul had also called Steve. He was waiting in the yard with Shakespeare after she’d put away her bike. “Nice night,” he said.
Shakespeare was subdued in his eagerness to see Peggy. She patted his head and smiled. “Very nice. It was a good ride back from Brevard Court.”
“And a good garden club meeting?”
“Stop pretending you don’t already know. Paul followed me home. I’m sure he told you all about it.” She removed her bag from her shoulder.
“Sounds like you have a stalker.”
“Probably not anymore. I plan to press charges against him in the morning. I don’t care that he was at the garden club, but he can’t go around assaulting people in parking lots.”
“I hope Al can get something out of him about this whole situation with Harry Fletcher and his wife. I was thinking about it today while we were on a stakeout for the burglary ring. These people seem really interested in a twenty-year-old death that hasn’t even been ruled a murder.”
She held the kitchen door open for him. “I know. I think it’s fairly conclusive that poison was involved in the death of the woman whose body was autopsied by the hospital. But that body isn’t Ann Fletcher. Dorothy found that out today after the body was exhumed.”
“Who is it?” Steve took the leash off Shakespeare, and closed the kitchen door.
“We don’t know yet. Maybe tomorrow.” Peggy sniffed the fragrant air in the kitchen. “You made food. Great. I’m starving.”
“I’m glad I’m good for something,” he remarked. “Since I’m not good at coming to your rescue because you won’t call me when you need help.”
“Most women don’t call their husbands in that kind of situation,” she apprised him. “They call the police.”
“If I quit the FBI and become a police officer—you’ll call?” Steve took out two bowls and filled them with the aromatic rosemary vegetable stew he’d made.
Peggy poured them each a glass of iced tea. She put lemon in Steve’s glass since he preferred it that way—he was raised in the North. “Don’t even joke about it. At least you’re more administrative in your job. I don’t want to think that you’re out there facing people with guns and bad attitudes everyday.”
“Okay. I don’t want to think about you in that position either. That man tonight could’ve had a gun. We could be talking about this in the hospital right now.”
“All right. I’m sorry. Next time I’m scared, I’ll call you. Okay?” She raggedly cut two slices of bakery bread. “Does that work?”
She put the bread on the table beside their bowls, and Steve took her in his arms. “I love you Peggy. I don’t want anything to happen to you. Let me help when I can.”
Peggy kissed him. “I will. I promise.”
Red Maple
The most common tree in North America. Red maple is polygamo-dioecious, which means some trees bear only male or female flowers. On trees with both male and female flowers, the two are on separate branches. Flowers appear in March through May.
Chapter Twenty
The next morning, Peggy got up, showered, and put on a dark suit. It wasn’t one of her favorites. She’d come to think of it as her professional costume. She only wore it when she planned to do a lecture at the university. It gave a certain serious element to her dark subject matter.
The suit fit her well, but she’d worn black for so long after John’s death. She preferred lighter colors now, especially during the hot summer months.
Steve was up and dressing at the same time. He looked so handsome, freshly shaved, his damp brown hair brushed back from his face. She leaned close and kissed him, feeling his arms tighten around her.
“What was that for?” he asked as he stopped tying his blue tie.
“Because I love you. Where are you off to this morning?”
“My team and I are going to a lecture by a brilliant forensic botanist at a local university.” He grinned at her in the mirror. “I hear she’s not only well-versed in the subject of poison plants, she’s kind of sexy too.”
“You’d better be talking about my lecture.” She smacked his butt.
“Who else?”
“I didn’t know you’d be there. Norris and Millie too?”
“Yes. You can’t get too much information on this kind of subject. We’re all looking forward to it.”
Peggy didn’t think Norris would be looking forward to it, but she didn’t say so. She went downstairs when she was dressed and let Shakespeare run in the backyard while she checked on her plants in the basement.
The little watermelons she was working on making larger were doing well. The growth pattern was the same, which was unfortunate. The new melons would never be accepted by the other members of the group fighting against world hunger.
She sighed. So far, she hadn’t been able to keep all the nutrition that she’d built into the small melon in a larger version. It was discouraging.
Walter knocked on the open glass door. “I saw Shakespeare outside. I knew you must be down here. How is the work going?”
“Everything works, except for my melon. It doesn’t want to be as big as everyone else wants it to be.”
He put on his glasses and looked over her notes, a well-thought-of botanist in his own right. “I don’t understand why they are insisting on size when they can have quantity.”
“It’s just part of the hunger pact we signed.” She glanced at her watch. “I have to go. I have that lecture today at the university.”
“I’m going to be there too.” He l
ooked at her over the top of his glasses. “I wouldn’t miss it. Maybe we could ride together. You could update me on your police case.”
“That works for me. Can you drive?”
“How about if I drive?” Steve was on the stairs. “You can both ride with me.”
Peggy was about to turn him down. She thought about sitting shoulder-to-shoulder with Norris.
“Norris and Millie are coming together. We’ll meet them there.” Steve smiled. “No excuses.”
“That sounds good. I wasn’t trying to make up excuses not to ride with Norris and Millie,” she refuted.
“Sure. Oh, right—just Norris. Let’s go.”
Peggy called Shakespeare into the house and left him in the basement again to keep him from getting over-excited about the roofers.
Her phone rang as she was grabbing her handbag and laptop to head out the door. It was Arnie.
“You’re not going to believe what happened,” he enthused. “I went to the storage place again today to fill out some forms. I thought I’d sweep up in there a little. A few pieces of paper were left behind by the thieves. I wanted to make sure I got my security deposit back. I opened the door to Unit 34, and it was all back.”
Peggy smiled. “All of it?”
“As far as I can tell. It’s a miracle. I think the thief felt guilty when he realized there was nothing of real value in there. I’m still shocked. Can you come over, and we’ll go through everything?”
“I’d love to, Arnie, but I have a lecture in about thirty minutes. As soon as I can get away, I’ll meet you there. That’s wonderful about it all being returned.”
“I know. I’m excited about it. I can’t wait for you to get here.”
“Me too. See you later.” She let a long breath go, feeling as though she’d been holding it since Paul had told her what happened.
Steve held the door for Peggy as she started out. “You have a smug smile on your face. What’s up?”
“Whoever took everything out of Arnie’s storage unit returned it.”
“That’s unusual.”
“Maybe it was a guilty conscience.”
“Or maybe somebody looked through everything and decided there wasn’t anything they wanted.”
“You have a suspicious mind,” she told him.
“It matches yours. That must be why we’re so good together.”
* * *
In the car on the way to the university, Walter asked Steve about the progress of his burglary investigation. “I read about it online. I have an interest in antique jewelry. That’s what the ring is stealing, correct?”
Steve frowned at him in the rearview mirror. “Where did you read that?”
“I follow a blog that takes an interest in such things. They know all about your investigation.”
“Interesting.” Steve stopped at a traffic light. “We expect to make an arrest in that case soon.”
“Really?” Walter leaned his head between the front seats. “The blog said you had no real leads.”
“How does the blog writer know that?”
“The people who write the blog have inside sources on these cases,” Walter explained. “Like they know these are the same thieves who struck this area a while back. That’s their MO, right? They swoop in like birds of prey, grab all the sparklies they can, and fly back out again before anyone can catch them.”
“I think it’s fair to describe it that way. Your blog writer is very well informed. Maybe he’d like to come to work for me.”
Walter thought that was really funny. “These people are the watchdogs of groups like the FBI and the CIA. They would never join up with them.”
“Send me the link for that blog, will you?” Steve said. “I’d like to read it.”
Walter scowled, not committing to helping the FBI by giving Steve the blog address.
The university was only a short distance from the house. They were parking in the crowded parking lot in no time. Steve took the laptop for Peggy as they went inside the lecture hall.
Already, a good-sized crowd had assembled. Peggy’s poison plant lectures were well known in the Charlotte area. There seemed to be a more than average crowd of people in police uniforms. They weren’t only from Charlotte either. Peggy recognized a few South Carolina uniforms and the sheriff of Stanly County.
“Good morning, Peggy.” Eldon Brown worked for the university as a public relations expert. He was responsible for setting up this lecture and others that she’d given. “It looks like a good crowd today. I’m sure they’re prepared to be amazed by what you have to say, as I am.”
“Thank you, Eldon. I’m looking forward to it, as always.”
Steve kissed her lightly on the lips. “I’m going to sit down before all the seats are taken.”
Walter kissed her once on each cheek. “I’ll see you after the program, Peggy.”
Steve grinned at her after Walter walked away. “He’s only a friend, right?”
“Go and find your seat.” She laughed at his fake jealousy. She enjoyed his teasing.
Peggy gave her laptop to the student who would be setting up her PowerPoint presentation, and projecting it on the big screen while she was speaking. She thanked him for his help and walked to the podium.
After welcoming her audience, Peggy talked about past cases she’d worked with the Charlotte/Mecklenburg police. Her presentation included newspaper articles and information she’d collected during the cases. This information explained from the beginning how the cases were determined to be botanical poisonings, how evidence was collected, how she came to conclusions about the types of poison used, and how it was administered.
She had twelve cases on the PowerPoint presentation. She could see Steve and Al nodding as the information was given out. Al had worked with her on some of the cases. In most of them, Steve had only participated in his attempts to keep her safe.
After she had laid out her past cases involving botanical poisons, she took questions from the audience.
Walter’s hand was the first one up. “What about the case you’re working on now?”
Peggy was a little annoyed that he’d asked that question, knowing she couldn’t talk about most of the information on that case. “I am presently working on what appears to be a botanical poisoning, but it’s too early in the investigation to be certain of that—or to discuss it in an open forum.”
The sheriff of Stanly County asked a few questions about toxins in water. His county contained a large man-made lake that had at least a few drownings each year. Peggy had worked with him on a previous case in which a poisoning had been made to appear to be a drowning.
There were several botany students who had questions about how to get into Peggy’s very specific field. She answered as openly as she could, explaining the six-week course she had to take in Raleigh to become a forensic botanist.
“You have to understand that there isn’t a huge call for forensic botanists—but when you need one, nothing else will do.” Everyone laughed at that. “The state can’t afford to keep botanists on staff for this task, so most counties have a botanist they work with. You can’t have my job in Mecklenburg County, but there are ninety-nine other counties that could be looking for a botanist in this field.”
A master gardening group from the city of Concord had dozens of questions about poisonous plants they should tell people to stay away from. The group fielded thousands of questions from gardeners every year. One of the biggest questions pertained to plants that were poisonous to animals.
Peggy smiled as she leaned on the podium. “You know, I always think it’s amazing how much more interested people are in protecting children and pets from poisonous plants than they are themselves. Last year, more adults died from ingesting poisonous plants than any other group. Mostly, this is because adults see themselves as being too smart to be poisoned. And yet, a relatively intelligent person will eat a poisonous plant just to see what it does.”
The group laughed and talked amongst
themselves for a moment, and then Peggy launched into a quick review of plants that were poisonous to horses, dogs, and cats. “A single red maple leaf can kill an adult horse.”
She talked about specific plants that were deadly poisonous to humans as well, including azaleas, vinca, potato plants, and heartleaf philodendron.
As always during this type of presentation, there were the myths of what was, and what wasn’t, poisonous. She suggested never inviting a plant into a home or garden without knowing them properly. That included knowing if they were toxic, and if so, what to do if they were accidentally ingested.
When the presentation was over, everyone got to their feet and applauded. A dozen people made for the podium area to ask Peggy personal questions. Those were the questions she hated most because invariably someone would ask how much poison it would take to kill an adult male or female. What is the best poison to use so you don’t get caught?
For years, she’d refused to answer. She never wanted to worry about what the outcome could be from a small speck of information. She didn’t change her response after this lecture. If someone was serious about harming another person, they’d have to do it without her.
She was surprised to see Paul’s face there among the attendees greeting her. He brought bad news with him.
“Al has been trying to call you all morning,” he said. “They had to let Ray Quick go. He has an airtight alibi for the time you were attacked at the hospital.”
Bougainvillea
Beautiful bougainvillea is native to South America. It has many different names in that area of the world. It is Spanish papelillo, primavera, três-marias, sempre-lustrosa, santa-rita, ceboleiro, roseiro, roseta, riso, pataguinha, pau-de-roseira, and flor-de-papel in Brazilian Portuguese.
Chapter Twenty-one
“How is that possible?” She raised a brow at him as several other people thanked her for her lecture. “I was there. It was definitely Ray Quick.”
Paul frowned. “The parking lot video didn’t pick up his face. He has three people who swear he was on the other side of town. One of them is a minister who works with parolees. Right now, it’s your word against all of theirs.”