by Joyce Lavene
“You’ve been busy.”
“I have to go.”
“You just got here. Are you feeling all right?”
She looked at the words in the chat box and answered. “I should warn you, I reported you to a police friend of mine. It’s illegal to stalk people.”
He put in the symbol for smiling. “So you’re worried about me stalking you? How ridiculous. I suppose you’re worried I’m the one who threw you off the dock then.”
“If you’re smart, you won’t pursue this.” She typed with a shaky hand.
“How can you ask me to give up our relationship? It’s the only bright spot in my night.”
Peggy moved her cursor to hit End Game.
“I could help you solve the murders. Trust me, Nightrose. I won’t hurt you.”
She didn’t reply. She watched the screen clear, then shut down her computer. She half expected the phone to ring. Nothing happened. Maybe he’d take the hint. Maybe he didn’t realize how much he was bothering her.
She climbed into bed, pulling the blanket and sheet from the dog. Lying back against her pillow, she stared at the ceiling. The old house groaned and creaked around her. She loved the sounds. They represented the peace and security the house provided her. Sometimes it almost felt alive and caring, nestling her inside its wood timbers and mellowed bricks.
Peggy didn’t want to think about Nightflyer or the pang she felt leaving him there alone. It was too desperate, too pathetic that part of her enjoyed his attentions. The logical, sensible part of her was the one who told Al. It argued with the romantic, emotional side that she didn’t know this man. Anyone who went to such lengths to stay in touch with a stranger had a problem.
Sam’s theory about Nightflyer being too shy to approach her in real life set up the debate again. She was right to consult Al. The idea that Nightflyer was some love-starved recluse might fit in with her teenage readings of Jane Eyre or Wuthering Heights. But this was the real world. There were wacky people out there. The chances were that Nightflyer was one of them.
She convinced herself and was almost asleep with the dog snoring next to her when the phone rang. The noise jerked her out of bed, trailing the sheet behind her as the pillow fell to the floor. “Hello?”
His voice was raspy and deep. “Good night, Peggy. Sleep well.”
The phone went dead in her hand before she could reply. Wide awake now, she knew there wouldn’t be any sleep for her that night.
12
Angelica
Botanical: Angelica archangelica
Family: N. O. Umbelliferae
Common Names: Angel plant, dead nettle, holy herb,
wild celery
According to legend, angelica was a gift to man from the Archangel Michael. It is said to have protected whole villages during the plague. It will protect against witchcraft. Angelica was planted at all four corners of a house to ward off lightning, witches, spells, evil spirits, and evil of all kinds.
SERGEANT ANDY JONES of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg PD Cyber Unit arrived bright and early the next morning. After tea and toast, Peggy led him upstairs to her bedroom. She bit her lip when she looked at the sheets and pillows all over the floor. “I’m sorry for the mess. My dog sleeps with me.”
He laughed. “Yeah, I got a crazy poodle that’d be a snack for your big boy downstairs. Don’t worry about it. Log on and show me where you go to play chess with this man.”
Peggy showed him, very conscious of her moves, knowing this man was an expert. “What will you do to catch him? Do you have some gizmo that will detect when he challenges me to a game of chess?”
“Bill Gates might have something sophisticated like that,” he answered. “I take down the name of the site and set up a monitor to look for his login. As soon as he gets into the system, we got him. I can trace him back to his source. Every IP keeps information on their clients nowadays. Depending on where he is, we can have someone pay him a visit that day.”
“Thanks, Andy. I feel much better now.” She glanced at her watch. “And I’m sorry, but I’m late for a class. If you’ll excuse me, I have to run!”
“Sure thing. I’ll let you know when we pick up on anything. Nice to meet you. Thanks for the tea. What kind did you say it was?”
“Orange peach with a hint of lemon.” She handed him a slip of paper with the name on it and walked with him to the front door. “Give my best to your wife. Have her try that feverfew for her migraines. It can make a world of difference.”
By the time she walked Shakespeare and got everything together, the taxi she called was waiting in the driveway. She sighed as she glanced at her bike but knew it would be a few more days before she could ride again.
She needed to find time to work on the hydrogen conversion for the Rolls. It wasn’t so difficult as it was time consuming. If she wasn’t so stubborn, she’d hire someone else to do it. But where would the fun be in that?
She was lecturing to both of her classes as well as a group of undergrads at Queens that morning. The auditorium was packed as she limped to the speaker’s platform. Fortunately, she could give the lecture in her sleep if she had to. After last night, that’s exactly what she felt like she was doing. Maybe Nightflyer would log on to the game room looking for her and find Andy waiting instead.
She didn’t think she’d prosecute him. Just knowing who and where he was would make her feel better. He was obviously in Charlotte somewhere to be able to track her movements so closely. Right now, he could be anyone she passed on the street or worked with at the university. She needed a name and a face to have some peace of mind.
At the conclusion of the lecture on collecting and preserving sample pollens, Peggy answered questions from the group. She wondered if Nightflyer was in that sea of faces. Would she know his voice in person? From his previous behavior patterns, she felt sure he’d give himself away to let her know he was there. He definitely wanted her attention.
But the students were leaving, and the lecture was over. There was no sign of Nightflyer. She gathered her notes and ruminated over becoming a worried old woman who jumped at sounds in the night.
“Hi, Peggy.” Sam’s cheerful face appeared in her line of vision. “I was over here mulching some gardenias for the Bostics and noticed it was about time for your class to be over. Need a ride to the shop?”
She hugged him. “Yes, I do. Thanks for thinking of it.”
His face turned red, and he glanced around at the group of rapidly retreating students. “It’s only a ride. You even paid for the gas.”
“Sometimes it’s the little things that matter, Sam. Let’s go.”
Shakespeare was waiting in the truck. “Thought I might as well pick him up.” Sam helped her into the truck and shut the door behind her. “How did it go last night?”
While the dog licked her face, she described the whole experience in dramatic detail for him. She knew he liked it that way. “The big surprise was walking out into Paul. But I think Mai took care of that problem.”
“She somehow managed to take the oak tree out of his butt?”
“No.” She laughed. “She kissed him. Really kissed him.”
“Wow! That was above and beyond. I wouldn’t have gone that far.” He considered the matter. “Well, probably not anyway. So little Paul finally has a girlfriend. I hope you got pictures.”
“I barely got to see it. They were outside. But it looked pretty hot and heavy. I knew they had a thing for each other. I guess we’ll have to see what develops.”
“What happens now?” Sam pulled the truck behind the shop. “We find out someone slipped Warner some alcohol, and then what? How do we find out which one of his many women did him in?”
“Don’t count out the men in those women’s lives,” she replied. “It could’ve been one of them.”
Sam stroked his chin. “Hmmm, Keeley didn’t have a man in her life besides Mark. You said he broke up with his personal assistant a while before. Unless you’re thinking the man who replace
d him . . .”
“No, not really. I think that’s a dead end altogether. Excuse the pun.”
“Excused. That only leaves one man who might have been jealous enough to do something to Mark for sleeping with his wife: Bob McGee.”
“That’s right. Ronda said he was out of town that night. But suppose he set the whole thing up to make it look that way. Maybe he wasn’t out of town at all.”
Sam laughed. “And you’re going to prove that how?”
“Don’t ask me.” Peggy shook herself. “I’m new at this detective thing. I suppose I’ll walk up and confront him. That seems to work best for me.”
“Has it occurred to you that your style might be what got you thrown off the dock? Or that it could happen again if you confront the wrong person?”
“You mean the right person? Don’t worry. I’ll be careful. I’ll either have Shakespeare with me, or I’ll make sure I do it in a crowd. Then I’ll have Shakespeare with me afterward.”
“I don’t know if that dog would do anything more than wag his tail and bark a lot, Peggy. Maybe you should get a gun.”
“And shoot myself in the foot? No, thanks. I appreciate your input though. Where are you off to now?”
“I’m going to talk to a buddy of mine who’s working for the new arena group. He promised us a shot at bidding for the plant work.”
Peggy raised her eyebrows. “That’s a big contract! Is that interior or exterior work?”
“Both. And whether we get it or not, you need to start thinking about hiring someone to take Keeley’s place. I talked to Dawn, but she’s not interested in doing fieldwork all the time. I need some help. I can’t keep going with school and work without someone else helping out.”
She patted his hand. “I know, and I’m sorry. I should’ve already seen to that. There’s been so much going on that I forgot. Or maybe I was hoping Keeley would come back. But I’ll get some ads out today. Thanks, Sam.”
He cleared his throat. “I can manage for a while. Just don’t forget about me.”
She promised not to and got out of the truck. She walked up the back steps, her eyes torturing themselves by going over the ground where she’d fallen from the dock. She knew if there was anything left behind, Al would’ve found it. Resolutely, she turned away from the area and went inside.
The extreme warmth from the shop hit her as she walked in. Keeley and Selena were sitting behind the counter talking. The front door was open into the courtyard.
“I hope you called maintenance,” Peggy said to Selena as Shakespeare ran into the shop and found his familiar spot. “It must be a hundred degrees in here!”
“I called when I first got here,” Selena answered. “No one was there yet. I left a message. It’s the same at the Kozy Kettle. Probably the same at all the shops.”
“Hi, Peggy,” Keeley said quietly. “I thought I’d stop by for some tea.”
Peggy took off her cape and hugged her. “I’m glad you did. How are you feeling?”
“Ready to go back to work. Light duty for a few weeks. But I’d really like to have something to do.”
“What about school?”
“I’ve decided to drop the rest of this semester. My brain needs some time off. But the rest of me needs to be busy.”
Selena went to help a customer. Peggy faced Keeley. “You know I’d like to have you back, and Sam is crying for some help, but I don’t want you to come back too soon.”
“Are you worried about the Warner thing?” Keeley suggested. “Because I don’t think it’s going to be a problem. Even if they decide not to prosecute Mr. Cheever, I think I’ll be fine.”
“I’m not worried about that. I know you’ve been through a strain, and I want you to have plenty of time to get better.”
“So you don’t want me back.” Keeley’s voice was flat. “Okay. I understand.”
Peggy laughed. “I think we’re talking, but we’re not communicating. Of course I want you back. You can start on light duty whenever you’re ready. But if you start back too soon and your mother comes after me, I’m going to tell her it was your idea.”
Keeley hugged her. “Thanks, Peggy. I won’t do more than I can handle. Don’t worry. Besides, I’ll be with Sam. He’s close enough to being a doctor that he can take care of me if I try to do too much. And no matter what, I won’t tell Mom. I’d appreciate it if you didn’t mention to her that I’m skipping this semester. I haven’t told her about that yet.”
“You’ve got a deal.” Peggy consulted her workbook. “Sam’s trying to get us a bid on the new arena. But I could use your help counting supplies before we order at the end of the month.”
“Sounds great. I don’t think counting supplies should be too strenuous.”
The shop was busy for a Wednesday. Peggy was hoping to get her presentation for the Thursday morning garden club ready while she manned the cash register, but it was going to have to wait. Between getting ready to order supplies and the steady stream of customers, it was all she could do to keep up. She was glad to have Keeley there. Maybe she needed to consider another assistant for the shop.
Just after the lunchtime crowd began to dissipate, Hunter and Jane Cheever arrived at the shop. Keeley and Selena took over so Peggy could have lunch with the two women.
“The judge postponed the trial indefinitely while the doctors try to make some kind of judgment about Mr. Cheever’s medical condition,” Hunter told her as they sat down inside Anthony’s Caribbean Café.
“That’s good news.” Peggy waved to Anthony, who hurried over to her table.
“I was beginning to wonder if you’d taken a strong dislike to my food, Miss Peggy.” The tall, thin Jamaican man hugged her. “But here you are, and you brought some friends.”
Peggy introduced him to Hunter and Jane. “I don’t know what they’d like, Anthony, but I want my usual. Rice ’n’ peas, candied yams, fried plantain, and red sorrell tea.”
Hunter shrugged. “Sounds good to me, too.”
Jane agreed, and Anthony took their order back to the kitchen. The colorful café was crowded with shoppers who were taking a late lunch. Flags from the island nations hung from the ceiling, and palm trees decorated the walls. A huge mural of the ocean covered one whole side of the café, while a thatched roof covered the kitchen and the bar areas.
“This is good news,” Hunter continued with their conversation. “It gives all of us time to do what we can for Mr. Cheever. If there’s any information out there to support the possibility of his innocence, now’s the time to bring it forward.”
Peggy didn’t respond. She knew Hunter wanted what she knew about Ronda McGee. But after talking with Mark’s lover in the courtyard, she agreed that it wouldn’t make sense for Ronda to kill him. Maybe Ronda made a mistake by having an affair with Mark, but that didn’t make her a killer.
“Dad’s doing much better.” Jane thanked the waiter for her iced tea. “The doctor isn’t sure how much he’ll recover from the stroke. He may never really remember that night.”
“I believe he remembers the important part.” Peggy explained her theory about Mark’s alcohol allergy to them. She didn’t go into detail about what she and Mai had done to discover the truth.
Hunter put more sugar in her tea. “Didn’t they release his body today?”
“I heard something about that,” Peggy agreed.
“How are the police going to run tests on him if they don’t have the body?”
Peggy smiled at her. “It’s already been taken care of.”
“Then why haven’t I been informed of any changes in the case? If they found alcohol in Warner and he was allergic, it would change everything. There was no way for Mr. Cheever to know he was allergic or to administer the alcohol.”
“There haven’t been any changes yet.” Peggy thanked the waiter for her plantain. “When there are, I’m sure you’ll be the first to know.”
Hunter leaned closer to her, her bright eyes flashing. “What’s going on? What aren�
��t you telling me? You hired me to save Mr. Cheever. Whatever you know that could help—”
“When I know something I can share, I’ll tell you,” Peggy said. “Right now, all I have is theory and speculation. We need proof.”
The lawyer sat back in her chair. “You’re sure you’re not trying to protect Keeley now that she’s been implicated?”
“I wouldn’t know how to make that choice. I just don’t have all the answers yet.”
The three women ate their peas ’n’ rice in silence. The funky island music played around them, and the waiter kept their drinks filled.