A Fatal Competition (A Rose Harbor Cozy Mystery Book 1)

by Ella White

  “We are…looking for…” Gwen stuttered out. “Well, I’m actually not too sure.”

  “She’s never been able to make up her mind about anything,” Lydia teased, although she kept her haughty attitude. “But we are on a budget, so we’ll need to discuss a few things.”

  “That won’t be a problem,” Bethany professed. “We can work within any budget.”

  “Is it okay if I take a look around?” Gwen requested. “Just to browse?”

  “Be my guest, young lady,” Bethany agreed. “May I point you in the direction of the wedding dresses? That’s usually what most young brides want to look at first.”

  “I’ll…I’ll look at everything,” she answered as she began to wander around.

  “Make sure you don’t touch everything, girl,” Lydia ordered, playing the role of concerned maid of honor very well. “We don’t want to have to pay for anything just because you broke it.”

  Gwen quite enjoyed the look of panic Bethany took on at the very mention of some of her displays being damaged.

  “Don’t worry I’ll be careful.”

  “In the meantime,” Lydia announced conceitedly. “Do you have any selections that go together as a theme?”

  “Of course,” Bethany concurred, trying to keep her smile plastered to her face. “Let me show you a few of our specials.”

  “Are there any specials that come in bundles?” Lydia asked, writing a number of things down in Gwen’s notebook to make it look like she was taking notes about Bethany’s services.

  Gwen didn’t want to seem too suspicious, so she started at the wedding gowns. They ranged from very simple in design to being so complicated that she thought they might have been inspired by hoop skirts. Women actually wore these for what is considered the most important day of their lives? Gwen had to admit that some of them were quite beautiful, but others looked like something out of the Victorian era, but with more ruffles, ribbons and other embellishments. She had to keep her laughter to herself; she didn’t want to insult Bethany while she was looking for clues. There was nothing interesting around here though.

  “Do you do both design and coordination?” Gwen heard Lydia interrogate Bethany.

  “I do much of the coordination myself, although I do have a few assistants who help me when I am not available,” Bethany answered. “As for designs, I contract out for most of those. If there is something specific you are looking for, I can ask around for it.”

  Gwen had to hand it to Lydia; she really knew how to ask all the right questions to get long answers from the wedding planner. Of course she probably knew all about it, having planned a wedding herself. Gwen secretly wondered if other weddings had been as complicated as what Bethany was making it out to be. She moved on to the wedding cakes.

  “So if we wanted a specific, say, flower arrangement,” Lydia grilled her, “I would give you the details and you would give me estimates for it?”

  “Of course, madam,” she replied. “I can provide multiple estimates from various providers if you like.”

  Looking at the samples of the cakes was making Gwen hungry, even though the models themselves were made of plastic. She made sure that she accidentally knocked one of the models over but caught it just in time. Bethany and a few others glanced over at her, and she put on a nervous smile. Her grin turned into a real one when they all went back to their business. It was actually pretty fun to play the role of an anxious bride-to-be. Maybe she could be an actress if her journalism career didn’t work out for some reason. By this point she reached the flower arrangements. Given Meredith’s occupation, if she was going to find any clues here, it was going to be in this section of the store.

  “Do you have a list of your providers for everything?” Lydia nearly demanded. “I’ve had a bad experience with a few florists and bakers, and I don’t want to give them my business.”

  “I understand, madam,” the wedding planner responded, and she passed her a list of all her contracts. Gwen could practically hear Bethany’s teeth grinding as she tried to stay civil. Lydia could act really annoying when she tried.

  Gwen was finally able to inspect the flower displays. She recognized some as Meredith’s style, but she also noticed that most must be from other florists, as they did not look nearly as beautiful or fitting to a wedding theme. She figured that this must be because she no longer did business with The Purple Petal, like Nancy had told them. She tried to search for any clues while not looking like she was messing around with the arrangements too much.

  Near the corner of the displays, next to one of the few potted plants, was a green bottle with a few pictures of various types of insects—flies, beetles, ants, bees, cockroaches, and snails—all underneath a giant red circle with an X. In big, bold letters was the label “PestBeGone.” Gwen stared at this for a minute, wondering what was so familiar about the name, when the light went off in her head.

  It was the same pesticide that was used to kill Meredith!

  “Miss Reed? What is this?” she asked, pointing out the bottle to the wedding planner.

  “That’s PestBeGone, a pesticide for flowers. It helps keep beetles away from the flower arrangements,” the plump woman replied. “I learned about it from the Blake cousins…. They run The Purple Petal, one of my florists.”

  “I don’t see that name on this list,” Lydia noted, pointing to the list of her business partners.

  “I had a bit of a falling out with Meredith Blake a while back,” Bethany explained, her face turning a little red, although Gwen couldn’t tell if it was from anger or embarrassment. “Although if you want an arrangement from The Purple Petal, my contract with them may be renewed soon, seeing that Maura has taken over the business.”

  “How do you know about that?” Gwen asked, her tone no longer timid.

  “Didn’t you hear?” Bethany inquired. “I suppose not. It’s brand new news. Meredith Blake died earlier today.”

  “Oh no!” Gwen said, a little dramatically. “What happened?”

  “Rumor is she was killed by a competitor,” she responded. “Some time last night. I didn’t hear about it until this morning. I had gone for a long walk last night.”

  Lydia was suddenly suspicious about why Bethany would share that type of information when they hadn’t asked for it, and why she was suddenly speaking so much faster than she had been just moments before.

  Lydia and Gwen kept their charade up for a little while longer, still not wanting to seem suspicious themselves, before they left Perfect Day Weddings, having obtained the information they had been searching for.

  Chapter Five

  “You’re sure that Bethany did it?” Gwen asked her friend as they arrived back at the newspaper station. “How can you be sure?”

  “It all seems to fit, doesn’t it?” Lydia suggested. “She has a motive in wanting revenge for losing her florist contract, and she knows about the pesticide.”

  “It just seems circumstantial,” her best friend complained. “I wish we had some fingerprints, or DNA, or something more solid to catch her with. Juries prefer that kind of thing.”

  “I agree, but we’ve got to work with what we’ve got,” Lydia stated. “If nothing else, it can give Chief Wyatt a reason to stop suspecting me so much.”

  Gwen was about to open the door to the newspaper publishing office when she turned to Lydia, who had stopped a few feet away. “Aren’t you coming in?”

  “I was thinking about clearing the water with Maura,” Lydia explained. “You know, to let her know that I didn’t kill Meredith, and that I think I know who did?”

  “Are you sure that’s a good idea?” Gwen inquired with a grimace. “You’re not exactly Maura’s favorite person right now. What makes you think she’ll listen to you anyway?”

  I didn’t kill her cousin,” she replied. “Maybe she won’t believe me, but I have to at least try.”

  Gwen gave her a sad nod, still feeling unsure herself but not really able to argue with Lydia’s reasons. She could u
nderstand why Lydia would want to make up with Maura. After all, her contention had been with Meredith and not her cousin.

  “I’m going to take a look at the photos again, see if I find anything else. And I want to check on Bethany’s alibi,” the journalist reported. She heard Melvin give out a loud meow, and she looked at him as he sat on Lydia’s feet. “You better come with me, Melv. Who knows how Maura feels about cats.”

  “She’s right. I don’t want to upset Maura any more than I already have…however unintentionally,” Lydia agreed, saying the last part in a quiet mutter. She glanced down at her cat. “Go on. I won’t be long.”

  Melvin seemed really reluctant, but he eventually left Lydia’s feet and headed through the open door into the newspaper office. Gwen gave Lydia a wave goodbye before heading inside herself.

  A few other reporters had taken over the table they had been working on earlier that day, so Gwen had to take her box of photographs and notes to her own desk. Thankfully her desk was located a little bit off from the rest of the office since she was not one of the top journalists for the paper…yet. Her boss was always happy with her work, so she was confident that one day she would have an office of her own.

  She dumped the contents of the box back onto her desk, covering it completely. Melvin seemed less interested in examining the pictures this time and decided that he would make a bed out of Gwen’s feet under her desk once she sat down. Gwen gave him a few pats on his head before looking back at her pile.

  With Melvin acting as her foot warmer, Gwen inspected each photograph with a discriminating eye. She wanted to make absolutely sure she did not miss anything suspicious, although she sometimes found herself a little distracted by the colors and lighting of the pictures.

  “This one is lovely,” she commented as she looked at a snapshot with all of the submissions to the contest in one shot. “The sunlight shines through the petals so nicely. I should put this on my desktop.”

  She put the picture aside as she kept looking through her work from the previous day. She was specifically looking for any photographs with Meredith or Bethany in them, although preferably with both. Given that Meredith was one of the finalists in the competition, she was in quite a number of the photos. In contrast, Bethany rarely showed up. There were actually only two photographs where Bethany showed her face, although Gwen suspected that she was the colorful blur that had been fighting with Meredith that she and Lydia had found earlier. She certainly wore the type of flamboyant clothing that matched the blurred photograph.

  Gwen looked closely at the two pictures Bethany was in. Not only did she wear rather bright clothing, but also she kept her hair in elaborate styles with a number of hair ties. Gwen could recall that when they went to see her earlier, she’d kept her hair back with a tie that looked distinctly like flowers, while in the photos she had a hair tie shaped like a feather.

  “She keeps her hair back,” Gwen concluded, “all the time…”

  On the other side of town, Lydia had reached The Purple Petal, the flower shop Meredith used to own. Although she supposed it belonged to Maura now, if Bethany’s statement that Maura had taken over the business was in fact true.

  In contrast to Nancy’s store, The Purple Petal was probably one of the largest and most complex florists that ever existed. The building was comparable in size to Lydia’s flower shop, but it seemed more crowded with various arrangements of flowers, both potted and not potted, with many bouquets everywhere. There were even a few trees scattered around. There didn’t seem to be one spot of wall space that wasn’t covered by some sort of plant.

  To say that Lydia felt unwelcome as she entered the store would be the understatement of the century. Each of the employees, from the assistant florists to the cashiers down to the custodians, gave her a glare once she came inside. She couldn’t help but feel like a black sheep as she walked up to the first cashier that wasn’t serving any customers.

  “Excuse me,” Lydia greeted, trying to be as polite as possible. “May I speak to Maura please?”

  “About what?” the cashier replied, probably only being as gracious as she was due to the customers within hearing distance. “What did you need?”

  “I need to talk to her about her cousin,” she explained. “About Meredith.”

  The cashier gave her a doubtful look, but nonetheless she picked up the phone to call into the office. She kept an eye on Lydia as she informed Maura that she was there, and then she hung up.

  “She says you can come in,” the cashier told her, pointing to a door near the back.

  The door to the office was only half a door, with the top half being taken up by a large mirror. Lydia presumed it was actually a one-way window that Meredith could use to look out at the store while still maintaining some privacy in her office.

  Meredith really was as self-centered at work as she was in competitions, Lydia thought to herself, furrowing her brow at the mirror.

  The door was already open when Lydia arrived. Maura was waiting inside, giving Lydia a frosty glare of her own. She let her into the office nonetheless.

  Lydia instantly realized that this room used to be Meredith’s office. Pictures of her and her family were everywhere (although Lydia noticed a distinct lack of husband or children), but nearly everything was being packed into boxes. Her books on everything plant and horticulture were piled in the corner, apparently to be taken away somewhere. Lydia noticed they each had a post-it with a price on it. Was Maura planning on selling them? Wouldn’t she want those books to help take care of the plants in the store?

  She also realized that the shelves and desk in the office were practically empty. It was almost as if the room had never been used, if the various cardboard boxes hadn’t indicated anything to the contrary. To be honest, it was a little unnerving to see all of Meredith’s things fill a couple of boxes, and Lydia swallowed. Meredith wasn’t that much younger than her mom was.

  It’s almost as if she never worked here, Lydia thought gloomily.

  “Now, what is it you wanted?” Maura went over and sat in the chair at the desk. She didn’t even offer a seat for Lydia. “I’m very busy here.”

  “I can see,” Lydia replied with a glance around before looking at her. “I wanted to clear the water between us.”

  “I’m not interested in making peace with my cousin’s killer,” Maura proclaimed.

  “I know you don’t think so, I but really didn’t kill Meredith,” Lydia insisted gently. “But I think I might know who did.”

  Maura froze, staring at her with both shock and irritation…although Lydia wasn’t sure she couldn’t have at least a little bit of annoyance in her facial expression at all times.

  “Who do you think killed her then?” she demanded.

  “I think it might have been Bethany Reed,” she proposed.

  “Bethany? Really?” Maura said, her tone a little skeptical. “I have a hard time believing that. Bethany’s a nice woman. I spoke with her earlier about renewing the contract between us and her business for wedding-themed flower arrangements.”

  “I don’t really have any solid proof against her,” Lydia admitted, taking a step toward the desk, “but I think there might be some evidence that could show her involvement.”

  “And what is this so-called evidence you think you’ve found?” Maura commanded.

  Probably more than the circumstantial evidence you think you have against me, Lydia thought, but she kept this to herself. She did want to be as civil as possible at the moment. She took a moment before she spoke again. “You know that Meredith ended her contract with Bethany some time ago. Anyone can tell Bethany has had some financial problems since she lost her best florist.”

  “I did notice,” Maura concurred. “She did seem to be having some problems. That’s why I thought it would be good to restart the contract. It could benefit both of us.”

  Lydia nodded. “I also found out that she uses PestBeGone, the same type of pesticide used to kill Meredith.”

&
nbsp; “How do you know a pesticide killed her?” Maura asked, but then she stopped herself. “Never mind. You have that little friend in the newspaper. She probably found out for you.”

  “That’s right,” she replied, although she had to hide her annoyance at the tone Maura had used to refer to Gwen. “She might have used it on Meredith as revenge for losing some of her business.”

  “That’s possible,” Maura acknowledged. “I was actually the one who suggested she use PestBeGone to keep the beetles out of her flowers. Maybe…she wanted a way to kill Meredith instead of just beetles.”

  “It’s wouldn’t surprise me,” Lydia agreed. “Gwen, my friend at the paper, went through the photos she had taken during the competition yesterday. She found a couple of Meredith and Bethany having an argument. It might have been about the contract.”

  “And Bethany decided enough was enough,” Maura finished for her, “and decided to kill her and leave it at your place to frame you.”