Bones in the Begonias

by Dale Mayer

  The coroner’s vehicle was parked partially in her driveway and partially in the street, with several other RCMP vehicles around, all because she had a tarp full of wood scraps taking up much of her driveway space. At least fifty people were out there, and, of course, the press had set up cameras and had microphones, ready to nail anybody who came or went.

  “How did they find out so fast? Dammit.” She headed to the utility room off the kitchen to put her wet clothes on to wash, then pulled out her cell phone and found she had several missed calls. “Good. I don’t need to talk to anybody.” But just then the phone rang in her hand. It was Nan. With a heavy sigh Doreen walked into the kitchen and hit Talk. “Hello, Nan.”

  “Oh, my dear, you are just livening up this town like nothing else.” Her grandmother sounded thrilled.

  “I really wish I wasn’t.” Doreen picked up the electric teakettle and, with the phone against her shoulder, walked to the sink and filled it. “Honestly this has nothing to do with me.”

  “That’s not what everybody is talking about though,” Nan said excitedly. “So, give me the details.”

  “I can’t. You’ll just share them with everybody else.”

  There was an awkward silence on the other end.

  Doreen sighed. “You know that’s how this works, Nan. I’ve got police everywhere. I’ve got press everywhere. And every bloody neighbor for miles around is standing out in the front yard.”

  “Are they ruining the grass?” Nan cried out.

  “No, I had the police push them back off the property.” That was a small white lie. Because, so far, she had seen some had crept onto the front lawn again. “As soon as I’m allowed to tell you anything, I will.”

  “Well, the news is, you found a body.”

  “I did not find a body,” Doreen protested. “I don’t walk around every day and find bodies, you know. C’mon, Nan.”

  “Well, a lot of people went missing over the years. And, since you’ve been in town, it seems like you’re right in the thick of it all.”

  “But they don’t think I did it, do they?” she wailed.

  Nan’s laughter trailed through the phone. “Oh, my dear, of course not. You’re not old enough, for one. And, for two, you haven’t been here for a long time.”

  “Maybe I killed them thirty years ago, and I’ve now come back to find the bodies and to make good on my deeds from back then.”

  More laughter filled the phone.

  Doreen grinned. “Okay, that was a bit far-fetched.”

  “Just a little. So, if you didn’t find a body, what did you find?”

  “Part of a body but don’t you dare tell anyone.” And Doreen hung up the phone.

  She knew it wouldn’t do any good. Nan would tell everybody. At least it was a bit of truth and no details. Doreen stood on her back deck, waiting for the teakettle to whistle. She was so cold inside and out that she wondered if she’d ever get warm. The shower had helped, but seeing the gathered crowd out front had her warm glow leaving again.

  The police would need to dredge the places in the creek where she’d found the ivory box and where Mack had found the ring and now where the bones had been unearthed. If there was an arm, there could be so much more.

  And then she thought about how the bank had been built up, and some of it had washed away. What the police really needed to do was take that bank back a full foot. See what else could be buried there. Of course they couldn’t do that. It would compromise the ecosystem or some other such nonsense. Everybody had an excuse for everything.

  Still, she didn’t want to be the one who got into trouble with the government about this riparian zone that Mack had warned her about. Surely a murder investigation trumped a zoning issue, right? And, yes, she had found the box, which led to the other finds … But this was hopefully solving a murder from thirty years ago. That was the bigger picture. In her mind at least.

  The teakettle finally whistled behind her. She turned, headed back inside, and made a cup of tea.

  She wondered if Mack needed a cup. Of course he did. He’d been standing in the creek this whole time. But, if she were to offer him some tea, in front of his team and the coroner and the nosy onlookers, that would put Mack in the middle of something she didn’t want to thrust him into. Right now, he was all business. A whole different story than his teasing from earlier. She didn’t know what kind of relationship they had going, but she didn’t want to mess it up. As long as she kept finding bodies, or body parts, it was a great excuse to keep him around. How sad was that?

  With her teacup in hand, she wandered into the living room to see how bad the crowd was outside. They had surged forward, over her front yard, and the two people she’d ordered off earlier were right at the head of it. She put down her tea, grabbed her camera, and stepped outside, taking pictures, focusing on the ones in the front on her land. They had knocked down her No Trespassing sign too.

  She called out to them, “I have a lawyer who will be in contact with you.”

  Fortunately the crowd backed off her property. The cop turned to look at her and grinned. She gave him a small smile, took a picture of him, then stepped inside the house. She’d be damned if she’d let them run all over her place again. She’d been the hottest story in town last week. The last thing she expected was to be the hottest story in town this week too.

  She returned to her tea, sat on the big comfy couch, and put up her feet. Goliath jumped on her and kneaded her lap before turning in a circle and collapsing, as if Doreen had nothing better to do than to be a comfortable pillow for him.

  As she stroked his long back, she realized maybe that was a good purpose in life after all. There were a lot worse things than having pets that loved to be with you.

  Mugs, true to form, jumped up with his front paws on her lap for her to cuddle him for a few minutes, then walked over to lay down on his dog bed. He was just as happy down there as he was on the couch with her.

  He and Goliath got along amazingly well, considering. Every once in a while, Mugs still chased Goliath; and, every once in a while, Goliath seemed to deliberately taunt Mugs. But, when it came to times of crisis, they were both very calm and very patient. They would be back to their normal behavior tomorrow morning. If not sooner …

  By then, maybe some of this media hype would have died down again. She worried that was a very long and distant hope. Now that she’d found a second body—no, make that pieces of her fourth dead body—in less than a couple of weeks, she knew she’d never live it down. So much for her hopes of a nice new beginning by moving.

  Thaddeus walked into the living room, hopped up on the couch beside her, and then walked up onto her shoulder. He brushed his beak against her cheek. She smiled and tilted her head into his gentle strokes. “Thanks, sweetie. I’m okay, Thaddeus. It’s just been a very frustrating day.”

  He cooed in her ear, and she sank back, enjoying her first really contented moment as a family. The outside circumstances left a lot to be desired. But inside? Well, her world could be a whole lot worse than it was. She smiled, picked up her tea, and relaxed.

  Chapter 15

  Saturday …

  Doreen got up the next morning bright and early, put on her gloves while the coffee dripped, and headed out to the backyard. It was thankfully empty. Which she couldn’t say about her front yard, still filled with people. She had no idea how long the police had stayed last night. Neither did she care. They had a job to do and would do it, regardless of the length of time it took. But they didn’t seem to be here right now. She just hoped her appointment with Mack wouldn’t be affected by all this.

  With the wheelbarrow in hand, she burned through her restless energy, still hanging on after a bad night. She moved the cut-up wire around to the front, ignoring the crowd. She hadn’t heard from Mack and still had no idea if he would be on time or a little bit later this morning or if he’d come at all, given yesterday’s events. She wanted to get some work done on her own garden before she headed to his mo
m’s. She was excited at the idea, mostly because she needed the money, but also to see how this could work as a career direction. If she got in a few hours today, then she hoped that Mack might pay her today.

  Having overspent her grocery budget yesterday, she had to find a way to replenish that money. No income coming in sucked. Half an hour later, she walked inside through the back door into the kitchen, snagged a cup of coffee, and sat down at the kitchen table, waiting for the sweat to evaporate off her back and face. She had moved all the wire to the front yard.

  Thankfully, with her last load, Doreen noted how the nosy neighbors had left. Was that Mack’s doing?

  Regardless, now she had two stacks of refuse for the dump on her driveway, one of wire and the other of rotten wood. She still had all the metal poles to move. But her efforts had made a massive difference already, as the backyard looked quite decent. By rights, the entire backyard should be scraped clean to the dirt, underground irrigation put in, topsoil put down, then she could plant her garden. If she added decent nutrition-based fertilizer, she’d have a thriving backyard.

  She didn’t think Nan’s place had any irrigation anywhere, and that was a problem. Doreen should look around, see if she could get secondhand soaker hoses to weave through the beds.

  As she finished her second cup of coffee, her phone rang. Willie’s number appeared on her screen. “Hi, Willie.”

  “Hi, are you there right now? I’m heading up to the lake country in a little bit. I was going to run by and hook that stove up for you on the way. If that would work, I’ve got the breaker with me.”

  “That would be great. I have an appointment at nine,” she said, adding a little self-importance to her tone. “It takes about ten minutes to get there, but, if you could come now, and it doesn’t take you very long, that would be perfect.”

  “Okay. Me and my son will see you in about ten minutes,” he said, then hung up.

  She pocketed her cell phone, put down her empty cup, and walked outside again. The wheelbarrow wouldn’t work so well for the poles. She’d carry them one by one.

  She was dragging the last two large ones from the backyard to the front when Willie pulled up. He hopped out, his son too, and took a look at all the old broken-down fencing material and said, “Wow, that’s a lot of junk.”

  “Isn’t it though?” She smiled up at him. “Now if only I had a decent way to get rid of it all before the neighbors start to complain about the mess.”

  “Dump run,” Willie said in a sing-song voice. “I end up doing those on a regular basis. Once I take that old stove away, it will have to go somewhere.”

  She gazed at him with a crafty look. “So what would it take to have you haul all this with it?”

  He frowned. “I don’t have my dump-run vehicle today. Didn’t think to bring it to haul away your old stove.” He glanced at his panel van and back at her. “If you don’t mind me leaving the gas stove right here beside the rest of your fencing stuff, tomorrow I can load it all up and take it to the dump. You don’t have very much here. If I put the other appliances I have to haul out on the flatbed truck first, we should be good to go.”

  Her face lit up with joy. “If you could do that, that would be awesome. Thank you.” Mack had said he might be able to haul some away too. So maybe, between the two men, she’d get rid of it all.

  He nodded. “It’s really a pain to have stuff like this hanging around. The wood will be full of bugs.” He motioned at her small car. “You don’t want to put wire and rotten wood with nails into a vehicle like that.”

  She nodded. “I noticed the bugs.”

  He nodded agreeably, motioned for his son to follow him and headed inside. He had a couple boxes in his hands, which she presumed were breakers or something.

  She walked around to the backyard and made sure it was all picked up, loaded another wheelbarrow full of little bits and pieces, took it to the front, dumped it on the tarp, and then took the wheelbarrow back around again. As she walked into the kitchen, she checked the clock. Almost eight-thirty. She needed to leave soon.

  Willie had just wiggled the new stove into position. Standing upright, he said, “It turns on and looks good.”

  “And the gas lines have been capped off properly?” she asked. She couldn’t help but remember Mack’s comment about the gas dangers.

  Willie nodded. “You’re safe and secure. This is properly wired up. You’ll have to put some money into the house wiring at some point, but it was done right originally. Only the codes have changed in the last fifty years. So, whenever you renovate, be prepared for the fact that the electrical bill will be a little higher than you had planned.”

  He put the old stove on what he called a hand truck, and, with his son’s help, moved it to the pile in the front driveway.

  She watched as her stack of trash grew bigger. “You sure you can come and get this tomorrow?” She couldn’t imagine what all the neighbors would say if she had a junkyard like this around long. Her ex-husband would have had a fit. He would have the man back within the hour to get it all gone. But then her ex hated disorder of any kind.

  “No problem,” Willie said with a big smile. With that, the two men hopped into the van and drove away.

  She looked at her watch, walked into the kitchen, and washed her hands. Then she grabbed some yogurt and granola that she had gotten on her last grocery trip for a quick breakfast today. With that polished off way too fast, she could almost hear her ex-husband’s admonishing voice about proper manners as she placed the bowl in the sink, ran some water in it, grabbed her gloves, and walked out the kitchen door. No way she wouldn’t walk to Mack’s mom’s house. It was only a couple cul-de-sacs over. And she could take the creek path. Provided the police hadn’t crossed the area off with yellow tape. Although she didn’t think that was possible since it was Mother Nature’s space. Surely they couldn’t block it all off.

  She called for Mugs, who came racing and barking toward her, as Goliath strolled into view. Thaddeus took up his position on her shoulder, and she realized the entire family would go to work with her. Goliath led the way. She went around the corner of her property and stopped. Mack was there with two policemen. She frowned up at him.

  He grinned.

  “I was just going to your mom’s house,” she said.

  He nodded. “I’ll walk with you.” He gave a couple more instructions to the two officers, then turned and led the way.

  When they were out of earshot, she asked, “Are you here to stop me from digging in the creek?”

  He tossed her a surprised look. “No. Of course not. I left men here this morning, working, so no way would they have let you do that.”

  “Oh.” She didn’t dare admit she had planned to at least look at the area to see if anything had surfaced overnight.

  His smirk said he knew exactly what she was thinking.

  The morning was beautiful, and she’d already gotten some work done. Although she’d forgotten to pay Willie. “Willie was here this morning. He hooked up the stove. But he didn’t ask for the money.”

  Mack looked at her in surprise. “He might send you an invoice. Does he have your email address?”

  She thought about that. “I don’t know.”

  “He’ll probably request an e-transfer.”

  Her heart stopped. “An e-transfer?” She sighed. “Just give it to me straight. What do I have to do?”

  He led her through the process of sending money online to Willie through the banks.

  “I didn’t even know that was possible. What if I don’t have the money in the account?”

  “How were you planning on paying him?”

  She shrugged. “Cash. But I have to pay Barry too somehow for the electrical work he did.”

  “Call Willie to see when he’ll be in the area next, or you could drop it off at the office.”

  “He’s coming back tomorrow because he didn’t bring his big truck to take away the old stove. Plus he has a bunch of other stuff to haul to t
he dump, and he said he would take the fencing I had piled out front too.”

  “That’s very generous of him.”

  “It is. I’ve got it all stacked up in the driveway so he can easily load it.”

  “Did you already get everything moved to the front yard?” he asked in astonishment.

  She nodded. “I’ve been working on it since yesterday.”

  The five of them walked toward the cul-de-sac where Mack’s mother lived, down the path to the road, where it widened into a big circle. What a sight they must have made. His mom’s place was in the middle. They headed into the backyard, and Doreen took a good look at the begonia bed again.

  “This bed has definitely suffered. Because we don’t know why, you should boost the nutrients in it.” She glanced around at the hilly beds, watching as her brood checked out this backyard with curiosity. “If you don’t want to bring in any new topsoil, you could quite probably steal enough from some of these beds.”

  He looked at the beds. “But that’ll disturb all the plants there, right?”

  She nodded. “Yes, and I don’t really know what bulbs she’s got buried in there. Once you start digging around, you’ll damage the roots.”

  “I can bring the pickup by with a load of topsoil,” he said. “It’s not that big a deal.”

  She smiled. “It isn’t for you. For somebody like me, with no truck and no muscle, it is.”

  He laughed. “I think you have more muscle than you know. You moved all that fencing material.”

  She smiled. “I did, didn’t I? Do you have a tarp? I can start laying out the begonias and getting them moved over. It’s early in the season, but, because they aren’t doing much here, we’ll trim the old roots back to the tuber and put them in their new bed. They won’t do much this year, but they’ll be very thankful for it next year.”

  “Next year. Next year. Next year.”

  Doreen smiled at the bird, shaking her head. She never knew just what he would say, just what he would pick up.

  Together she and Mack walked to the large garden shed. Mack pulled out a spade for her and a shovel for him. Next he found a big tarp, and they spread it down beside the begonias.