Beeline to Trouble

by Hannah Reed

  A shot rang through the air. I said to Sally Maylor, “Was that one of us firing?”

  She shook her head, and I took that to mean she had experience determining type of weapon sounds, and this one wasn’t one of ours. Effie then, had taken the shot.

  Silence ensued and time passed. I stayed back on the perimeter per orders, holding my breath, craning for a view, my heart beating overtime, thinking, what if the absolute worst happened and I lost Hunter?

  Next I heard Ben bark and a high-pitched female scream.

  Pretty soon, the team came into view, Ben dancing in the lead as though he’d had the time of his life, Effie trussed up like a bird ready for the spit, and a piece of cloth wrapped around her wrist where Ben had taken the chief’s gun away from her.

  We watched the other team members shove Effie into the back of a squad car. I was glad it was someone else’s turn for a change.

  “My truck is still here,” I said to Hunter. “Come home with me.”

  Hunter waved off the rest of the team and everybody took off, leaving us alone.

  “I’m grilling a burger for you tonight,” I said to Ben. Hunter thought I meant him, gave me a big, loose grin. “You, too,” I told him, proud of my guys.

  “The Illinois police picked up Harry as soon as he crossed over the Wisconsin border,” Hunter told me. “He had a hostage with him. Patti.”

  “Patti?” I said, wondering how long Harry would have been able to contain her before she cleaned his clock. And wasn’t it a good thing I hadn’t counted on her to rescue me? She’s rarely around when she’s needed the most. Then I remembered the shadow on the other side of the cedars while my mom was having her meltdown. That must have been Harry, stalking her. Patti must’ve been the one I saw in the truck’s passenger seat.

  Hunter followed up with, “Harry also had a metal box with him, filled with hundred dollar bills. He swears it’s his money. He’s being held for kidnapping Patti. They’re letting her go even though it will be a crime against humanity.”

  As we walked up the drive toward the house, I laughed at that, the first time in recent memory. “And Holly?”

  “She’ll be on her way home within the hour.”

  I studied my man. “When that shot went off, I was so scared.”

  “Ben saved the day.”

  Ah, what a canine champion. I paused to scratch his head. “Sorry about how our day together turned out,” Hunter said.

  “It isn’t over yet. I want to do a little digging in a garden.”

  Hunter looked confused by that, but he followed me into Holly’s rose garden. I pulled out the pitchfork that was sticking out of the ground and went to work using it like a rake around the rosebushes.

  A soiled pair of gloves emerged from the earth. I’d bet my blouse that Jackson Davis would find evidence of water hemlock when he examined them.

  Spiders, my foot.

  We also found a hole in the ground, about the right size for another rosebush to go in. Or for a metal money box to come out.

  We invited everybody involved over for burgers. Master griller Max would handle the hamburgers, cooking them to absolute perfection. Holly made the concession to actually enter my backyard. Of course that was only after I reminded her that bees don’t fly at night.

  Milly, shocked to learn that her new friend was a murderess, recovered enough to volunteer to bring her potato salad, which is the best in the world.

  Carrie Ann and the twins weren’t overlooked, either. We were prepared to feed them once they closed the store. “Bring Gunnar and the kids, too,” I told my cousin.

  Hunter went over to The Wild Clover and picked up the meat and buns. Ben approved of his selection, and later had the burger I’d promised him.

  Stanley Peck showed up with his homemade honey mead, which he makes in his bathtub. I failed to mention that fact to the others, considering it might turn off a few of the guests. I even went out on a limb and sampled it myself. Delish.

  Max showed off his company’s latest flavor experiment by picking a bunch of endive from my garden and sprinkling it with Savour Foods’ latest discovery. I thought I tasted extra sweetness, but the product has a ways to go. Great concept, though.

  Patti slipped through the cedar hedge. In spite of her annoying ways, we were all grateful she was okay. “I’d have gotten free eventually,” she said, and we all believed her.

  While we ate, Hunter and I filled in a few holes, some of those holes of the rose garden variety.

  “Effie didn’t want anybody to notice the area in the rose garden where she’d recently dug,” I said, “so she made up the spider story.”

  “Which really worked,” Holly added.

  I went on. “She buried the gloves she’d used to pick the water hemlock in the same general area where she also buried some of the cash she’d stolen from Harry. Fifty grand of it. Harry claims she took more than that, but if she did, she isn’t saying.”

  “How did he find out where she was hiding?” Stanley asked.

  “Nova,” Hunter told us. “She made good on her threat that very first night.” Hunter looked at me and said, “Phone records prove it, and Harry confirmed the call.”

  I hadn’t liked Nova, but felt a pang of sadness for her. “If only Effie had known that she was too late. Nova would still be alive.”

  Hunter looked over at Patti. “Effie knew exactly who you were the entire time.”

  Patti shook her head. “I never met her when I lived in Chicago.”

  “No, but she knew you and used that to her advantage, setting out to frame you. It sure helped that you’d forgotten your water bottle over there. What could be more believable than one ex-wife killing the other?” Hunter reached over and took my hand in his.

  Holly jumped in. “That’s amazing how she put together such a complicated scheme in only one night. Imagine if she’d actually preplanned. I can’t believe a murderer lived in my carriage house!”

  “I can’t believe I considered her a friend,” Milly said sadly. “What happened to Chance? Is he okay?”

  “He has a brother in Waukesha,” Hunter told us. “He’s staying there for the time being.”

  I still had one more question. “How did Effie get Nova to drink out of Patti’s travel mug? I mean, she wasn’t exactly the pro-stalker type.”

  As always we looked to Hunter for the answer. “That morning when nobody could find Nova,” he said. “She was meeting with Effie in the carriage house. Effie begged her to reconsider her threat to expose her, Nova laughed in her face, not bothering to mention that she’d already set Harry in motion.”

  “Maybe she was afraid Effie would run,” Patti added.

  We all thought that was probably one of the reasons, but I could see Nova mocking her just to be nasty.

  Hunter continued. “Anyway, Effie already had the poisoned juice in the water bottle, and she knew exactly how Nova would react when she mentioned that she’d helped herself to the juice in the refrigerator.”

  Holly piped up, saying, “Nobody, but nobody, touched Nova Campbell’s juice. Or her personal belongings, or anything else that she owned. She was ultra-selfish. That’s why Gil put her name on the jar, to keep the peace.”

  Max shook his head at that. “I can just see her, grabbing the bottle away.”

  “Which she did,” Hunter said. “Then told Effie to stay away from things that didn’t belong to her. And drank it right down in front of Effie, actually throwing the empty bottle at her. While you were gone, Effie placed it on Nova’s nightstand.”

  Patti leaned in. “She must have really hated it when the cops went after Holly instead of me.” Her eyes went to Max, then back to Holly. “You aren’t going to really sue me, are you? Once I get my job back, I’ll write something nice to make up for it.”

  Holly laughed. “The only way we will consider letting it go, is if you promise not to write anything more about our family.”

  Patti thought that was a pretty good deal.

  S
o that’s what went on at my house following the arrest of Effie Anderson for the murder of Nova Campbell and a whole host of other charges for attempting to kill Johnny Jay and me.

  May she rot in jail.

  Oh, there was one more incident worth mentioning.

  Right before Max threw the burgers on the grill, Grams Fleetwood pulled up on the street out front. I couldn’t see her from the backyard, but when metal hits metal and Grams is expected, there’s only one conclusion.

  We rushed to the street just as Mom was getting out of the passenger’s seat. Grams had run right into Lori Spandle’s realty car as Lori and a new perspective buyer stood in the yard next door.

  I won’t go into how potty mouth Lori is, or how Mom went to town on everybody in sight, including the poor people who’d just wanted to look at the house (they decided against buying it, obviously), and I won’t mention some of the threats that were flung around or how Stanley almost went for his concealed weapon.

  The important part is when Tom Stocke pulled up, rushed to my mother right in front of everybody, got down on his knee, and proposed to Mom right on the spot.

  Just then, at that exact moment, Hunter moved up behind me. He wrapped his arms around me in a big bear hug, and while we witnessed Mom’s blubbering and Tom’s pleading, in the end, Mom said yes.

  We were one big happy family again.

  For now.

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  The Wild Clover

  Newsletter

  Notes from the beeyard:

  • Honeybees are the state insect in seventeen states, including here in Wisconsin.

  • Hives should be placed facing the southeast so honeybees wake up to sun. They love it as much as we do.

  • Busy, happy bees mean pollination equaling higher yields in your vegetable garden.

  Wildly simple concoctions:

  • Make rose honey by picking rose petals, any kind, even wild. Then lightly pack them in a jar. Pour in honey and cap it. For at least the next few days shake the jar gently to mix the flavors. The longer it melds, the better it will be. Serve with popovers (recipe below).

  • Moisturizing facial mask—2 egg whites, bit of flour, add honey to form thick paste, apply for few minutes, rinse with cold water. Your skin will be silky smooth.

  Popovers with

  Pumpkin Pie

  Honey Butter

  FOR THE POPOVERS:

  2 eggs

  1 cup flour

  1 cup milk

  1 teaspoon vanilla

  ½ teaspoon salt

  FOR THE HONEY BUTTER:

  Mix together ½ cup butter at room temperature, ½ cup honey, 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie seasoning.

  Preheat the oven to 450 degrees, and warm 6 custard or muffin cups with a dab of butter in each.

  Beat the eggs slightly, then mix in the rest of the ingredients until smooth. Distribute the mixture evenly between cups.

  Bake at 450 for 20 minutes, then reduce temperature to 350 and bake 10 additional minutes.

  Serve piping hot with pumpkin pie honey butter.

  Honeybee Bars

  1 cup granola

  1 cup quick cooking rolled oats

  1 cup chopped nuts

  ½ cup craisans

  1 egg, beaten

  1⁄3 cup honey

  1⁄3 cup cooking oil

  ¼ cup packed brown sugar

  ½ teaspoon cinnamon

  ½ teaspoon apple pie spice

  ½ cup mini chocolate chips (optional)

  Line an 8x8 baking pan with foil. Grease foil, set aside.

  In a large bowl, combine granola, oats, nuts, flour, and craisans. Stir in egg, honey, oil, brown sugar, cinnamon, apple pie spice, and chocolate chips.

  Bake in a 325 degree oven 30–35 minutes or until lightly browned on the edges. Use foil to remove from pan. Cut into 12 bars.

  Notes from the garden:

  • Instead of using chemical herbicides, spray weeds with vinegar.

  • July is the perfect time to start more basil from seed. It goes so well with September’s tomatoes.

  Milly’s Potato Salad

  3 pounds of red potatoes, skins on or off, chopped

  6 green onions, chopped

  ½ cup minced chives

  1 cup mayonnaise

  Salt and pepper to taste

  6 hard-boiled eggs, chopped

  Boil the potatoes, then let cool to room temperature. In a large serving bowl, mix potatoes, onions, chives, mayo, and salt and pepper, then fold in the eggs. Chill for several hours.

  Arugula & Garden

  Tomato Salad

  2 tablespoons white wine vinegar

  2 teaspoons Dijon mustard

  3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

  8 cups arugula

  1 cup thinly sliced red onion

  16 small tomatoes cut in half, or quartered

  Whisk together the vinegar and mustard, then gradually add in the olive oil. Toss in the arugula, onion, and tomatoes. Serves 8.

  Berkley Prime Crime titles by Hannah Reed

  BUZZ OFF

  MIND YOUR OWN BEESWAX

  PLAN BEE

  BEELINE TO TROUBLE