Bones in the Begonias

by Dale Mayer

  Now she could think in relative peace as she returned to the kitchen. This was all so stupid. If only she knew why the woman was so angry at her. It wasn’t like Doreen had asked anybody, other than Nan, about Betty Miles. If the woman was family or friends with the deceased, you would think she’d want closure.

  Doreen’s gaze caught the stove, still sitting here, staring at her—dare she say, mocking her? She shook her head. What she really needed was a good night’s sleep, not one filled with the stranger slapping her over and over.

  Groaning over her cycle of never-ending thoughts with no clear answers, Doreen finally sat down with her laptop as the first coffee dripped for the day. She stared at the clock in horror. Already nine on a Friday morning. It wasn’t like she had anything to do today that made getting up at any particular time important, but somehow it was important.

  She’d had it drilled into her, year after year, that she had to get up early in the morning and be perfectly coifed for the day. Per her controlling ex. And here she sat, in a pair of comfortable plaid cotton pants and a T-shirt haphazardly thrown over her head. She hadn’t even brushed her wet hair.

  She turned to gaze out the window and thought of how far she’d come. She just wasn’t sure if it was in the right direction. Her life was so vastly different than what it had been. However, considering where she’d ended up, she’d take this anytime.

  As she got up and poured her first cup of coffee, her phone rang. She glanced down at it. Seeing it was Mack, the corners of her mouth turned down. She wasn’t sure she wanted to deal with him right away. Still, for him to call at this hour, especially when they had already spoken late last night, maybe he had some news. “Good morning, Mack.”

  “You waited to answer it. I figured you were still sleep.”

  She laughed. “That’s not happening. However, I did sleep in for the first time ever that I can remember.” She waited a minute for him to say what he was calling about. When he didn’t, she nudged him. “Still, it’s a little early for you to be calling.”

  “Did you hear from the stove guy?”

  Startled, she realized she hadn’t. “No, he didn’t call yesterday after he left. Should I give him a call this morning?” She glanced around her kitchen to see where she had dropped his card. There was no sign of it. She frowned. “Now if only I could remember where I put his card.”

  “On the kitchen table most likely,” Mack said with a laugh. “But I know the number by heart. Have you got a pen?”

  “Yes.” She grabbed the nearby pad of paper. He reeled off the number, and she wrote it down. “Okay, got it. Thanks.”

  “And are you still on for nine tomorrow for the begonias?”

  She nodded, realized he couldn’t see her, and said, “Yes, nine is fine.”

  “And you’ll be up and ready on time? A couple cups of coffee in you by then?”

  She snorted. “I think this is the first time in my life I’ve ever slept in,” she said, confused. “I can’t tell if I like it or not.”

  “Whenever you break a long-time habit like that, the guilt can be overwhelming.”

  “But why should there be any?” She didn’t understand, but he was right—she felt guilty.

  “There shouldn’t be. Once you adjust to this new lifestyle, you’ll get used to it.”

  “I’m not sure that’s a good idea.” She brushed the tousled hair off her forehead. “Do you have any news?”

  “If you mean about Betty Miles, the answer is no. I don’t really expect to get any with the case being thirty years old.”

  “Sure, but to a woman who smacks me across the face, it’s obviously not old at all.”

  “Now all we have to do is find out who it was and ask her why she felt so strongly about this,” Mack said gently. “But, if you don’t know who it is, how am I supposed to talk to her?”

  Doreen sat back in her chair and stared morosely at the laptop. “I should have run after her, shouldn’t I?”

  “Not necessarily,” Mack said hurriedly. “That could have made her even more violent.”

  “Ugh. That’s not something I want to think about.” She could just imagine what the neighbors would say if she’d had a wrestling match on her front lawn.

  “Anyway, call the stove guy and see what’s happening. I’ll talk to you later.” And he rang off.

  She thought she’d heard somebody talking to him in the background, realizing he’d probably called from work. Not the easiest job in the world being a police detective in the RCMP Serious Crimes Division, but at least it had to pay a whole lot better than what she was doing, which was exactly nothing. One could hardly count charity cases of gardening for Mack’s mother as being regular employment. Yet it was something. And the money from Nan would pay for a stove.

  Thinking of which, she grabbed the phone again and called her grandmother. “Thanks for the money to pay for a new stove, Nan,” she said without a salutation.

  “Good morning to you too, Doreen. And you already left your thank-you message on my voicemail machine. No need to repeat yourself,” she said in a gentle voice. “Did you have a good night?”

  “No, I didn’t. I kept dreaming about people hitting me.”

  Her grandmother gasped sympathetically. “That’s terrible, sweetie. You really should have a nice cup of chamomile tea before you go to sleep at night.”

  Doreen rolled her eyes. “Sure. I’ll add that on my list of things to buy out of my nonexistent money,” she said, then groaned. “Sorry, Nan. I guess I got up on the wrong side of the bed too.”

  “Bad nights will do that to you. Why would you think people were hitting you?”

  Realizing Nan might know something about this woman, Doreen explained what had happened yesterday. “Now, if only I knew who she was, Mack could talk to her.”

  “Interesting,” Nan exclaimed. “You certainly have livened things up in this town, my dear.”

  “That wasn’t what I was planning on doing. I was hoping to fit in and to become one of the nice lovely little villagers, living here in the Mission, where nothing ever happens.”

  Nan’s laughter pealed through the phone.

  “Do you have any idea who she could be?”

  “Not from the description you gave me, but let me think about it.” Nan’s tone was slower, more thoughtful. “I wonder if any of the neighbors saw what happened.”

  “According to you, somebody always sees.”

  “You’re right. That’s exactly the way it works,” she said. “Thanks for giving me something to work on today.” And, with that, her grandmother hung up.

  Doreen dropped her cell phone on the table and checked on her animals. From her seat at the kitchen table, she could see Thaddeus atop his perch in the living room, and Goliath had left the kitchen for parts unknown, which was normal for the cat. But Mugs rested at her feet as she drank the last of the coffee in her cup. She got up and poured another cup. With Mugs at her heels, she opened the back door and stepped out into the sunshine.

  The weather in Kelowna was normally beautiful. There were a few hot spells in the summer and a few cold spells in the winter, but, compared to living in other parts of Canada—back East or up north or enduring the heavy rains of down South—this was lovely. She walked around the garden, noting the downed fence that still had to be dealt with in the middle of her yard and realized today might be a good day to tackle more of that. At least then, if Mack came around with his truck, he could make a trip to the dump for her, if he didn’t mind. With that she chewed on her lip, worrying there would be a price attached to her dump run.

  She’d like to think it was free, but it seemed nothing in life was free anymore. Her stomach grumbling, she went inside and checked out the contents of the cupboards. She knew it was bad when the leftover dog food looked appealing. She pulled out the last of her crackers. She still had some peanut butter, so that was enough for breakfast, but she was ravenous. All the salad and sandwich fixings were gone, although she did have a couple of
apples left. Rummaging through one of the kitchen drawers, she found several granola bars.

  She would have to make that trip to the grocery soon. As she eyed the contents of the pantry, it looked as if she could survive today, and Mack would pay her tomorrow. Hopefully. But they hadn’t discussed that issue yet. She was pleased she still had some of the money she had found when sorting through Nan’s clothes. That was for real emergencies. Like food.

  But her stomach grumbled as she contemplated her breakfast. She sat down and scarfed an entire plate of crackers and peanut butter, then cut up an apple. After that she went for her third cup of coffee. With it, she sat outside on the deck steps and ate a granola bar. When she finished, she went inside to put her coffee cup in the sink and propped open the back door, so the animals could go in and out as she worked in the backyard. She grabbed Nan’s work gloves and headed to the garage for the wheelbarrow to deconstruct the remainder of the downed fence.

  She worked steadily all morning. When her phone rang, she stopped, wiping the sweat off her brow, and saw it was almost noon.

  It was Willie, the stove guy. “I’m out front with my buddy. I have the replacement stove here too. Are you home?”

  Delighted, she told him, “Yes. I’m in the backyard working. I’ll come around to the front.” She hung up and raced around in time to see a panel truck backing up her driveway.

  Willie hopped out of the driver’s seat with another man getting out on the other side. They both smiled at her. “I decided I might as well do this on my way to another job.” Willie motioned at the stranger. “This is Barry. He’s an electrician and will give me a hand installing the new line.”

  She smiled. “Much appreciated.”

  At least it would be if she knew how to use the darn thing and could afford to pay both men working on this. But electric was a whole lot easier than gas. Isn’t it? She was sure of it, since she could handle an electric teakettle and an electric coffeemaker. An electric stove was just a step up, right?

  She watched in amazement as the two men manhandled the large heavy item onto some sort of a small hand-maneuvering wheeled thingy, and then they got it up the front steps. She stayed out of the way as much as she could, but Mugs wasn’t quite so easy to deal with, in their way and underfoot. Finally she ended up calling him back to the kitchen door, so the two men could pull the old stove into the center of the kitchen and put in the new one.

  Then both men worked under the deck until Willie called out to her, “Okay, wiring is done.” He sighed as he climbed onto the deck. “Unfortunately Barry doesn’t have the right breakers for the stove.” He headed back inside, checked out the back of the new stove, and then turned toward her. “Are you okay if I come back tomorrow with the parts needed for the rest of it?”

  She nodded. “That’s fine.”

  He left the stove partially out for easy access when they returned. With a wave and a honk, he took off, leaving her alone with two stoves, neither one usable. At least the gas one was mostly out of the way. And the newer one was jutting out in the kitchen, but what did she care? She didn’t need to be on that side of the room anyway. Unless she was curious about her new stove.

  Wiring? Breakers? She leaned over the back of the stove to find part of the wall open, with wires, one in particular, sticking out with its end cut open. Also some metal plate was over something else on that wall. She presumed that was where the gas line had been cut off. She wondered if that meant she didn’t have a gas bill to pay anymore. How stupid that she didn’t even know this stuff.

  Returning to her backyard to something she did understand and could work with on her own, she surveyed her handiwork. She’d accomplished a fair bit. Only she was hungry again.

  Thaddeus walked on top of a stack of fence posts she had managed to get out of the ground. He shook his head, looked up at her, and said, “Thaddeus hungry. Thaddeus hungry.”

  She snorted. “You’re hungry? The real problem is, I’m hungry.”

  There was no help for it. She had to go to the grocery store and get some food. She nudged the animals back inside, washed her hands and face, and quickly straightened up her hair. After she grabbed her keys, she hopped into the car and drove the few blocks to the grocery store. On a normal day she would have walked, but today she needed a whole lot more than what she could carry home.

  She grabbed a cart and walked through the store. She picked up fresh fruit, more crackers, bread, peanut butter, cheese, and the list went on. She stopped halfway through her shopping and stared at her purchases, worried about the cost so far.

  She did a mental calculation, figured she was close to maxing out her budget for an entire week, and quickly walked to the meat counter to look at what was on sale. Which didn’t matter because she still couldn’t cook anything anyway, even if the new stove was hooked up. She headed to the deli section. There she picked up some chicken and some ham on sale. Finally she walked toward the clerks and checked out.

  She winced when she realized she was over her budget by a good forty-five dollars. She paid the bill and headed to her car.

  While she was unloading the groceries into her car, she caught sight of the same woman who’d slapped her. Doreen stared in surprise as the woman got into a small gray car and pulled slowly away. She was just enough ahead that Doreen could see the license plate. She wrote it down on her receipt and, with a smile of satisfaction, got into her car. Instead of driving home before calling, she dialed Mack right away. “I saw her,” she said excitedly.

  With exaggerated patience in his tone, Mack asked, “You saw who?”

  “The woman who slapped me,” she cried out. “I’m at the grocery store, and she just pulled away, but I got her license plate.” She rambled off the tag.

  “Well, hold on a minute. I need a pen. Now give it to me again slowly.”

  She repeated the letters and numbers. “Do you think you can track her down now?”

  “Maybe. You leave this to me. Congratulations for not talking to her.”

  “I would have, but she really surprised me, showing up like that.” She laughed. “But I did good, getting the license plate, didn’t I?”

  “You did at that. Now go home and get some real food into you.” There was a pause before he said, “You did buy food, didn’t you?”

  “Of course I did,” she said indignantly.

  “There’s no of course about it. You’re always starving. You need to eat more.”

  “I would buy some meat, but I still don’t have a working stove.”

  “Would you know how to cook it anyway?”

  “No, but I’m willing to try.”

  “Why don’t you have a stove? When did Willie say he’d come?”

  She explained the problem, adding, “Maybe by tomorrow night I’ll have a working stove.”

  “And what’s the first thing you’ll make?”

  She stopped, thought about it, and then said, “I haven’t a clue.” She laughed out loud. “Go back to work. One of us needs to be employed.” She hung up on him, grinning like crazy at the thought of Mack finding out who had slapped her.

  Chapter 14

  Doreen unloaded her groceries and stopped for lunch. Feeling better now, she could get more done. Although she didn’t want to, Doreen was determined to get the downed fence cleaned up. Most of it was stacked, but she had more to do. She pocketed her wire cutters, grabbed her gloves and her cup of tea, and headed back outside. Mugs immediately headed to the garden, digging and rooting through the dirt. Goliath found a big rock, hopped on top, and curled up to go to sleep. Thaddeus, on the other hand, was bugging her. He insisted on riding on her shoulder, even as she bent to pick up piece after piece after piece of wood, wire, junk, and nails.

  “Thaddeus, can’t you find some other place to sit?”

  And damn if that the bird didn’t call out, “No. No.”

  She sighed. “How come you can be so amiable and easy to get along with most times, and then there are times like right now?”
>
  He made a funny sound, almost like a trill. She likened it to laughter. She glared at him. “It’s not fair. Everybody is laughing at me. You’re not allowed to laugh at me too.” Trying to ignore him, she bent down for one of the last few pieces of rotten wood and added it to the appropriate stack. She should probably carry all this stuff out to the front driveway, so it could be loaded from there to take to the dump.

  But that looked like a heck of a lot of work. Still, she didn’t have to do very much at a time. If she could get one stack to the front yard, that would help. She chose the rotten wood because it was the lightest. When she had the wheelbarrow full, she realized it would take at least three if not four more full loads. She picked up the wheelbarrow by its handles, determined to make this work. It took a lot of effort to get through the rough backyard, but, when she made it onto the path that ran alongside the house, it was much easier.

  She dumped all the wood onto a tarp on the paved drive. She didn’t know if the tarp was necessary, and she certainly wasn’t capable of lifting it full of wood, but it might keep her driveway relatively clean of nails and excess dirt. She came back and did it again and then again. By the time she was done with the rotten wood, she was exhausted.

  She called out to Mugs, “Come on, Mugs. Let’s go for a walk by the creek.”

  Woof. And Mugs ran toward her. His jowls and ears flapped in the wind.

  She laughed, loving the look on his face. Too bad she hadn’t brought her camera … Although she did have a camera on her cell phone. By the time she got it up, the dog already stood beside her, his tail wagging so hard it might come off any second. She chuckled and turned to look at Goliath. “Goliath, you coming with us?”

  Goliath didn’t even raise an eyebrow.

  Figures. And Thaddeus, … no way to get rid of him, so with just Mugs and Thaddeus, she walked to the end of her yard and along the path behind her neighbors.

  She knew Mack wouldn’t be impressed, but how was she not supposed to return to the spot where he’d found the ring and she’d found the ivory box? For all she knew, third time was the charm, and they’d find something else.