Roses are Dead My Love

by Penny Clover Petersen

  “Who’s what? There must be fifty people there, Bill. Everybody and his Auntie Em have turned out to see what’s up.”

  “The woman standing next to Angela. And what the hell has your mother got?”

  Angela Forrest was standing on the sidewalk looking quite chic in an unwrinkled, white linen sheath draped with a blue silk scarf, and white strappy sandals. Daisy waved at her and said, “God help us! What is Mother holding? And, look, she brought Percy.”

  A tall, beautiful woman with short chestnut hair was standing next to Angela trying to dislodge Percy from her ankle.

  Rose answered, “You mean Sally Henderson? She owns the flower shop. Why?”

  “Just curious. I haven’t seen her before.”

  Daisy smiled and chirped, “Looking around, Bill? Again? Not everything happy at home? Bambi getting a little too nuts for you?”

  Bill started to say something just as Malcolm broke loose and darted out into the street causing an ambulance to slam on the brakes. He made it across and jumped onto Percy. The two started barking and running in circles around the crowd, trying to herd everyone into a tight group.

  “Look, you two go home and I’ll be there later. And take those moron dogs with you!” He turned to Tom and yelled, “And you, get all the rest of these idiots out of here!”

  Bill was turning to go around to the back when he heard a woman scream. He looked past the crowd to see a man jogging across the bridge in a tee shirt and shorts with a baseball cap pulled low over his face.

  “Hey! That guy’s junk is hanging out of his pants.”

  As Bill watched, Angela pushed her way past Sally and a group of gawkers and headed after him. “And where’s your mother going? This is turning into a freaking circus.”

  Daisy said, “Ooh, that’s the Bostwick bobber. I’ve already told him his padiddle is less than appetizing, but I guess he didn’t listen.”

  “For God’s sake Daisy, you talked to that pervert?”

  “Not so much talked as yelled at him as he ran by.”

  As Daisy was talking Tom pushed his way through the crowd and caught up with Angela, but by the time they made it to the bridge his quarry was gone.

  Angela stamped her foot and said, “Drat, I missed him.” She was pointing a large squirt gun in the direction the bobber had gone.

  “Mrs. Forrest, please, don’t try to catch this guy. He could be dangerous. Just leave it to me. I’ll get him.”

  “Tom, for the hundredth time, call me Angela. I have no intention of catching him. I just wanted to get a good look.”

  “Huh?” Tom muttered and turned bright red.

  “What’s the matter? Oh! Oh for heaven’s sake! His face. I wanted to see his face. Good Lord, certainly not his doo-watty. I want to be able to recognize him again if I see him in a crowd.”

  Tom shook his head. “Angela, I’m begging you, please let me take care of this.”

  Angela smiled. “You’re such a worry-wart, Tom. Okay, he’s all yours - for now.”

  They turned back and Angela joined Daisy and Rose in front of the post office. Tom walked over to the on-lookers and started shouting, “Okay, everybody go on home. Let our guys do their jobs.”

  Most of the crowd moved off slowly. Sally Henderson walked across the street and asked Rose, “What’s going on? I heard someone’s dead?”

  Rose nodded. “Peggy. We found her in the parking lot.”

  “What happened?”

  “I don’t know. It could have been a heart attack.”

  “I guess the post office won’t open today, will it?”

  “Probably not. We’re going home.” She and Daisy grabbed Angela by the arm and trapped the dogs by stomping on their leashes as they ran by. “Okay guys, enough fun. You’re making me crazy.”

  Crossing the bridge they met Abby and Brad walking over to see what the excitement was. Brad asked, “What’s up?”

  “I’m afraid the postmistress is dead,” replied Rose.

  “That sounds like a murder mystery, doesn’t it? The Postmistress Is Dead,” said Abby. “I guess I shouldn’t joke. What happened to her? Do you know?”

  Daisy sighed and said, “I don’t know much. It could be a heart attack.”

  “Really? I didn’t think she had one,” Abby laughed. They gave her a look and Brad cringed and said, “It’s not very funny, Abby.”

  “You’re right. But I didn’t even know her and nobody liked her from what I hear. It’s just my way of dealing with unpleasant things.”

  “Well, we’re going home and hiding for a while. You might as well go home, too. There’s nothing to see and the police want us all out of the way.”

  They walked on, Angela in the lead with the dogs. Marc Proctor was standing on the porch when they got to the house. “Daisy, what’s going on?”

  “Oh you know, same old, same old. Another day, another body.”

  “Are you all right? Are you hurt?”

  Daisy replied, “I’m fine. Peggy, not so much. Look Marc, Bill’s coming by to get our statement in a little while. I’ll tell you all about it afterward.”

  The ladies went upstairs and Angela went straight into the kitchen to brew tea. A few minutes later she carried a tray with a teapot and three mugs into the living room and set in on the coffee table.

  Rose asked, “What’s with the Super Soaker?”

  Angela said, “It’s for the ‘bobber’. It shoots twenty-five feet. Would you believe it? I had a trainer tell me to use a water gun on Percy to discourage bad behavior. It hasn’t done a lot for Percy. He actually seems to like it. But I thought it might work on our streaker.”

  “Mother, really, it’s not a game. This guy could hurt you.”

  “That’s what Tom said. Drink your tea.”

  Rose held the mug and said, “I have to say that even though that woman was a royal bitch, I am not happy she’s dead. And I’m less happy that we found her. Anyone for something stronger than tea?”

  Daisy said, “Well, it’s barely ten o’clock, but, yeah, a little something wouldn’t hurt.”

  Angela smiled and said, “I’ve already put some bourbon in the pot. A stress reliever. You girls have got to calm down. It was a heart attack. It could happen to anyone.”

  “No, it wasn’t,” said Rose. “I think she was beaten to death.”

  “Oh. I see. That’s why Bill is here again?”

  “Yes. I guess we just wait. Thank God for Tonya. She can open for us.”

  They were onto their second cup when the bell rang and Daisy went down to let Bill in.

  “Okay, what in the Sam Hill were you doing at the post office at seven o’clock this morning?”

  “And good morning to you, too,” said Angela.

  “Good morning. Now, what in the Sam Hill were you doing at the post office?”

  Daisy ground her teeth and said, “Looking for dead bodies. We can never get enough of them.”

  Rose sighed and said, “We were taking a walk. I like to go before it gets too hot.”

  “And you were walking behind the post office because the parking lot is so scenic?”

  While Daisy and Rose were waiting for the police to come they had decided to blame the whole thing on Malcolm. Rose looked at the little guy staring back at her and felt like a traitor, but said, “Of course not. Malcolm ran off. We followed him and found Peggy in the doorway.”

  Bill looked unconvinced, but asked, “Did you touch anything?”

  “I felt for a pulse,” said Daisy. “Then we just waited for you guys. What happened to her? Was she, you know, ‘assaulted’?”

  “No, doesn’t look like it. It looks like she caught someone trying to break in and they hit her with something. It wasn’t one of you, was it?”

  Daisy drummed her fingers on the table and said, “Are you serious?”

  “I have to ask. You found her. I understand that she and Rose had some sort of argument the other day.”

  “Everybody in the neighborhood had arguments with
the woman. She was really quite unpleasant. And no. Neither of us killed her.”

  “Did you see anyone around this morning? Anything out of the ordinary?”

  Rose sighed and said, “Just a dead body.”

  “You’ll have to come in and sign statements. I’ll have them ready for you.”

  “All right. And you might want to make a note that my name is Daisy Forrest, not Greene.”

  “You changed it? I thought you liked being Daisy Greene.”

  “No. You liked me being Daisy Greene. I didn’t want to change my name at all, remember? But you got so snippy about it, I did.”

  “Well, Daisy, if I had known you felt that strongly about it, I would have let you hyphenate our last names.”

  “Daisy Forrest-Greene? That just sounds ridiculous. And clearly you weren’t listening to me even then. I was so incredibly naïve. The whole name thing should have been a warning.”

  She paused for a moment, then stiffened and said, “And what the hell do you mean you’d have let me?”

  “I didn’t mean it like that. I just meant that I thought you liked being married and it hurts knowing you didn’t even want my name.”

  “Hurts, does it? Hmm, just trying to remember which one of us didn’t like being married. Oh, it was YOU! You really are such an incredible ass.”

  Bill was opening his mouth to respond, but Rose stepped in. “Stop! It’s old news, water under the bridge, been there/done that. I could come up with a couple more clichés, but mostly I just don’t want to hear it.”

  Bill ground his teeth a bit, got up and went to the door. “Okay, I’m out of here. Come to the station tomorrow morning and sign your official statements.

  Angela had been pacing around the apartment with her squirt gun, listening. Just as Bill was turning to go, her hand jerked and she got him with the soaker. “Oops, sorry Bill. This thing’s got a hairy trigger.”

  Bill automatically said, “Hair trigger!” and then looked down at the wet patch on the upper leg of his pants, glaring at her.

  “Really, sorry. I just got this and I’m not very good yet. I really didn’t mean to get your pants so wet. You have my sincerest apologies.”

  He glared a bit more, then turned and tramped down the steps.

  Chapter Six

  When they had stopped laughing Rose said, “Mother, you did that on purpose, didn’t you? Not very nice.”

  Angela smiled serenely and said, “Well, neither is he. And, no, I did not do that on purpose. As I said I’m not very good with this, yet. I was aiming for his head.”

  Daisy smiled, “But you got his crotch. It was perfect! I really needed a good laugh. It’s been a lousy day.”

  Rose yawned and said, “It certainly has.” She looked at the clock on the desk. It’s eleven and I’m hungry. How about an early lunch? Salad okay?”

  Daisy replied, “Sounds great. I’ll make the dressing.”

  Rose got up and went into the kitchen and started putting together a huge chef’s salad. As she worked Rose asked, “Mother, why were you here so early this morning? I didn’t even know you were coming by.”

  “Oh. I wanted to show you my squirt gun and tell you my plan for catching our little naked friend.”

  “Of course you did. Well, you are not going to catch our little naked friend. I mean it.”

  “I didn’t mean ‘catch’. I was just going to get him good and wet.”

  “Well, you’re not!”

  Angela narrowed her eyes and actually said, “Humph!” She turned to Daisy and said, “Okay. So who did it? Who killed Peggy and why? What’s the scoop?”

  Daisy looked at Rose. “Good question. There’s a little more to this than we told Bill. We weren’t really chasing Malcolm this morning. He’s just a good, little dog who took the rap for us.”

  She reached down and ruffled his head. Malcolm looked up at her from under his shaggy eyebrows and sniffed. “I swear he can understand everything we say.”

  They told Angela the whole story about Mattie and the blackmail and the mail going to the wrong places.

  “We were going to try to find out who the P.O. Box next to ours belongs to.”

  “But why in heaven’s name didn’t you tell Bill all this. I know he’s unpleasant…”

  “And a liar and a cheat and a supercilious jerk,” interrupted Daisy.

  “Yes dear. He is all those things. But he is also a fairly competent policeman.”

  Rose said, “Because we want to keep Mattie out of all this, if it’s possible. And we have no reason to think that Peggy was killed because of the blackmail business. It was probably just a break-in.”

  After lunch Angela went home and the sisters went down to the shop.

  “It’s been busy,” said Tonya. “All sorts of people have been coming by hoping to find out what happened. What did happen, anyway? Tom stopped by for just a minute, but didn’t say much. I think he was worried about me.”

  “Holy cow,” said Rose, “Of course, he’s worried about you. I’ve been so overwhelmed with finding Peggy’s body, it didn’t even dawn on me that there’s a murderer on the loose. Again!”

  Daisy told Tonya about finding the body and Bill investigating and the ‘bobber’ showing up. She didn’t mention blackmail.

  “Do you think that pervert could have done it? Maybe Peggy caught him and he killed her.”

  “If he did, he’d be pretty damned bold to run around the crime scene with his weezer hanging out and the police everywhere.”

  Rose said, “Not to mention Mother. If I were he, I’d be more afraid of her than the police. I don’t know. I guess he could have done it.”

  “Well, what I do know,” said Daisy, “is that we’re back to extra precautions. All doors locked except the front. Tonya, if you’re at all uncomfortable with someone in the shop, don’t hesitate to use the panic button under the counter. I’d rather you embarrass a customer than become a victim.”

  Last fall, Daisy and Rose had a decent alarm system installed in the shop and apartment, but added a panic button in the shop after Daisy’s close encounter with a certified knife-wielding nutcase. It rang at the police station, but also set off an earsplitting alarm the whole neighborhood could hear.

  “Oh, I will. And Tom did promise extra patrols. It’s nice having our own policeman to look after us, isn’t it?” said Tonya just as the bell over the door rang and a man walked in. He wasn’t a customer. A small notebook and pencil were tucked into the pocket of his orange polo shirt and the belt of his light green slacks held a beeper, cell phone and what looked like a tape recorder.

  “Jeff Moody, my favorite reporter,” said Rose.

  “Hi ladies.”

  Jeff Moody worked for the local newspaper, The Bostwick Bulletin. His beat was all of Bostwick and any news it had to offer. “I’m covering the murder and need to interview you.”

  “Ah. Well, we’re not here right now and probably won’t be for the foreseeable future. You know we can’t say anything. Sorry.”

  “Look, help me out here, would ya? At least give me a quote for my story or my boss will have my butt.”

  Rose sighed and said, “No comment. There’s your quote.”

  “Oh, come on. Were there any clues? Did you touch anything? This is the first real story I’ve had in a long time. You gotta help me out here.”

  “Sorry Jeff, but the police asked us not to talk about it yet. Call the police spokesman. He’ll give you a story.”

  “I already have. I need a scoop. Will you at least promise to call me first if you decide to dish?”

  Rose said, “Sure. But don’t count on it anytime soon.”

  “Yeah, yeah. I know. Well, I’m outta here.”

  When he’d gone Daisy said, “That guy reminds me of someone.”

  “Who?”

  “I don’t know.” Daisy thought a minute. “Maybe someone in the papers.” She shook her head. “I’ll think of it.”

  Several people had just come in and were looking
around when Daisy stuck her head out of the office and motioned for Rose to join her. Rose mouthed, “What is it? We’ve got customers.”

  “Just come here for a minute.”

  “Tonya, I’ll be right back.” She walked back to the office and said, “Okay, what?”

  “He could be the blackmailer.”

  “Who?

  “Jeff Moody. Think about it. Nobody thinks anything of a reporter nosing around. He has access to all sorts of background information.”

  “Daisy, don’t start.”

  “Start what?”

  “You know good and well what. Every second person you see is going to be the blackmailer. Let it go for now. We’ve got work to do.”

  Daisy said, “Oh okay, I’m working. But we have to talk to Sally. And soon.”

  “We’ll see her at the committee meeting tomorrow. We’ll ask her to lunch.”

  “That should work. Speaking of the committee meeting, are we supposed to be doing anything in particular?”

  “Yes we are.” Rose reached into her desk drawer and handed a sheet of paper to her sister. “Here’s the list. Have fun!”

  Daisy and Rose were both on the Fourth of July committee. Old Towne liked to celebrate in a big, old-fashioned way. The streets were closed to traffic and the day started with a parade at nine in the morning.

  Afterward, grills were fired up and the cooking started. The American Legion did a huge bull and oyster roast at the fire house. Many shops set up stalls with hot dogs, hamburgers, funnel cake, fresh strawberries and cream, and homemade ice cream.

  In the afternoon the games started. An egg and spoon race, three legged race, bocce ball, a beautiful pet contest, and a taffy pull. At dusk a gorgeous fireworks display was set off at the golf course adjacent to the bike trail.

  The committee met at the Tavern at ten the next morning. All ten members were there - Daisy, Rose, Brad Douglas, Sally Henderson, the Clovers, Michael Jenkins and his partner, Sam Lee, who ran the micro-brewery, Walt Miller, and Mary Newhart.

  Walt Miller owned the bakery/deli and was the committee chairman. As he was going over the agenda for the Fourth, Daisy was busy scrutinizing everyone. She whispered in Rose’s ear, “Rats! Nobody looks suspicious. Oh, but look at Brad. He looks really stressed. He’s always so easy going, but you can see around his eyes. He looks anxious.”