Jewels in the Juniper (Lovely Lethal Gardens Book 10)

by Dale Mayer

  “Oh. right. I heard about that.”

  “What do you mean, you heard about it?”

  “One of the five ladies there happens to live here at the home.”

  “Which one?”

  “The one who tried to turn away,” Nan said comfortably.

  “How do you know she tried to turn away?”

  “Because she always does whenever there’s any conflict.”

  “Definitely one lady was trying to separate herself.”

  “Yeah, that’s Hillary,” Nan said. “She doesn’t do well with conflict of any kind.”

  “And yet she’s Aretha’s friend? That must expose her to conflict on a regular basis.”

  “They were all part of the same group way back when, and they still make a point of appearing in public together. But honestly, I don’t know how much the word friendship comes into play with that group,” Nan said.

  “I’ve got the feeling Aretha is just a lonely old lady,” Doreen said thoughtfully. “One who has seen better times.”

  “You could say that for a lot of people in here,” Nan said. “You really can’t put too much stock in appearances.”

  “Maybe not, but I have to admit, as I sit here and look back on the conversation, I feel a little sorry for her.”

  “Don’t get caught up in that,” Nan said, sounding alarmed. “She’s not friendly.”

  “No,” Doreen said. “A lot of unhappy people aren’t.”

  “Oh, dear,” Nan said. “I was afraid of that.”

  “Afraid of what?”

  “You’re just too soft-hearted,” she said.

  “Maybe so, but, if you can tell me where she lives, I could take a drive-by, and that might put my mind at rest.”

  “I doubt it, but maybe if you’re lucky it will.” Nan rattled off the street name not too far away. “She’s staying with a friend of hers who owns a big mansion. It’s just the two of them there.”

  “Oh, interesting. So it’s one of those old regal estates then?”

  “Yep, exactly,” Nan said. “Likely Rosemoor was just not good enough for her,” she said in a scoffing tone. “Which is just crazy, as you know, because it’s wonderful here,” and her voice warmed up considerably.

  Doreen smiled. “You’re good for that place too,” she said.

  “Darn straight I am,” Nan said. “Everybody here would die of boredom if I wasn’t around.”

  At that, Doreen had to chuckle. “As long as you’re staying out of trouble.”

  “Of course I’m staying out of trouble,” she said, “and, if you want to come down, I’ve got more veggies for you.”

  “That would be great,” Doreen said. “Maybe we will walk down now, since I just finished eating.”

  “Good, I have some walnut bread. Do you know how many walnut trees grow in the Okanogan area? There’s so many. And hazelnut bushes. And it’s definitely not the season.”

  “Don’t they have to dry first?”

  “Sure,” Nan said, “but then everybody has all their old nuts to get rid of, so they can make room for the new ones. Come whenever you’re ready,” and she hung up.

  Doreen put the phone down as she thought about Nan’s words and realized there really was some logic to it. But it was a little weird to think about. She looked at the animals. Mugs had been watching her since he’d heard Nan’s voice on the phone. Doreen looked down at him. “You want to go see Nan?”

  “Woof, woof!” Mugs barked, dancing around her.

  She looked over at Goliath, who was sprawled out, sound asleep, on the chair beside her. She reached out a hand, scratched his belly, and, as she went to withdraw, he grabbed her hand and pulled it back to his belly.

  She chuckled. “You can stay here all alone, or you can come to Nan’s with us.” He dug his claws in, not allowing her hand to leave his belly. “That’s not an answer,” she said. “Or not an answer I’m prepared to live with.”

  Thaddeus, who had been sleeping on the window ledge, lifted his head and gave his whole body a shake, so his feathers stuck out at all angles.

  Doreen laughed at him. “Don’t you look beautiful, gorgeous.”

  “Thaddeus is gorgeous. Thaddeus is gorgeous.”

  She chuckled. “That’s a new line for you, but I’ll have to agree. You are gorgeous.”

  He hopped down and preened from one side to the other. “Thaddeus is gorgeous,” he said in a singsong voice.

  “Thaddeus, can you sing?”

  He gave a cackling sound, like a witch, that made Doreen stop.

  “My goodness,” she said. “Where did you get such a wonderful range of sounds?”

  Thaddeus hopped onto her hand, the one on Goliath, then reached down and pecked at his belly. Goliath made a meow sound and bolted off the chair.

  Doreen looked at Thaddeus. “You did that on purpose,” she accused.

  He looked up at her, gave a he-he-he and then broke into song. “Thaddeus is gorgeous.”

  Doreen picked up the leash and hooked up the squirming Mugs, who was dying to get out of the house. “What’s wrong with you guys?” she scolded. “We’ve been outside all afternoon.”

  She opened the kitchen door, then remembered the alarms. She headed back to the front door, locked it, and set the security system on the kitchen door as she left that way. After all, she had the jewels here with her. With the animals ahead, except for Thaddeus, who had taken his perch up on her shoulder and was still busy singing about how gorgeous he was, she walked to the creek, wondering if she could get another trip down the path.

  In contrast to earlier, the water level had dropped slightly. She smiled at that and walked toward her grandmother’s place. She couldn’t imagine anything better on a Saturday midafternoon than lounging about, doing some gardening, and visiting with friends and family. It was something she’d missed all those years she was married. Her husband had refused to let her have much of a relationship with her grandmother, and her friends were his friends that he deemed appropriate. She remembered when a couple divorces happened among his group of friends; she had been told clearly not to have anything to do with the wives.

  Thankfully they had never contacted her afterward anyway, but she often wondered now what she would have done. Back then she didn’t have much of a personality because it had all been subdued under what was right and correct and precisely how her husband wanted it. That was the problem with being molded and marrying so young.

  But thankfully she wasn’t that way now. She was her own person and enjoying every bit of it. Of course that didn’t mean she wanted something to happen to her ex or his current girlfriend, her ex-lawyer. Come to think of it, Mack hadn’t mentioned his brother at all when she’d seen him. But then he appeared to be quite distracted with this new case.

  Who would have thought Kelowna would have been this busy little city of criminals? But, as she thought about it, over 140,000 people lived here within the city limits, and some of these crimes had been spread over multiple decades, so it wasn’t such a high crime rate. But still, Doreen seemed to be the one finding them all.

  Maybe she did have a knack for it. Or maybe she was just a nosy busybody, like some people thought.

  She was no sooner around the corner when she saw Nan waiting for them. She lifted a hand and waved and realized for the first time she wouldn’t have to argue with the gardener. She walked across the stepping stones, feeling as if something were lost. “Nan, whatever happened to Fred?”

  Nan shrugged. “Seems he lost his job. At least in the interim until the trial.”

  “I’m so sorry for all that,” Doreen said.

  “Of course you are,” Nan said with a beaming smile. “That’s because you have a good heart.”

  “It’s possible he might get off with a much lighter sentence,” Doreen said. She hated to admit maybe she was okay with that too.

  “Maybe,” Nan said, “but the law has to run its course now.”

  “If only he hadn’t had a part in all of it.”<
br />
  “Well, he did,” Nan said, “so don’t you worry about it.”

  Doreen laughed. “It’s not like I can’t worry about it.”

  “Sure you can. You have to learn to manage what it is you’ll worry about. If I worried about getting old, I’d expend all my energy on something I couldn’t stop. So I’d rather spend my time making each day lovely.” She smiled. “Come sit down. The tea is almost ready.” And in a voice a little more commanding than usual, Nan said, “Now!”

  Surprised, Doreen grabbed her chair and sat.

  Chapter 9

  Saturday Late Afternoon …

  “What’s the matter, Nan?”

  Nan grumped a little bit, as she puttered around, bringing out teacups and a plate of what appeared to be the walnut bread she’d spoken of earlier.

  Doreen wasn’t sure what had happened, but Nan was obviously upset. “Nan?”

  Nan turned and shook her finger. “I don’t want you involved with that Aretha person.”

  Surprised, touched, and a little upset, Doreen settled back and asked, “Why not?”

  “She’s the poisonous kind,” Nan announced.

  “Maybe she was,” Doreen said quietly. “She looked very unhappy.”

  Nan glared at her.

  “So, you want her to still be a bad person?” Doreen asked gently, as she poured the two cups of tea. “Or is it that you’re upset at the idea maybe she’s not who you thought she was?”

  “She was very mean to some friends of mine,” Nan said. “They didn’t deserve being talked down to like she did.”

  “Did she ever talk to you like that?”

  Nan shook her head. “She tried a couple times, but I have more backbone than to allow it.”

  “And some to spare,” Doreen said with a smile. “But the thing is, I’ve met lots of women like her. And they’re very unhappy on the inside. I also think she’s lonely.”

  “Maybe so,” Nan said, “but I’m warning you. She’s poison, and that’s all I’ll say on the matter.” She gave a quick nod, as if to add punctuation to her comment.

  Doreen kept her smile hidden. “I highly doubt she’ll have anything to do with me anyway.”

  “Good,” Nan replied. “Surely you have another case you’re working on by now.”

  “Do you know anything about missing jewels?” Doreen asked in a bright tone.

  “Missing jewels?”

  She nodded. “Yes. Jewels that are missing.”

  “I don’t know why I would,” Nan said.

  “Oh, I’m just wondering if you know of any case where somebody lost a little jeweler’s bag full of cut but unset gems.”

  Nan frowned as Doreen pulled out her phone and brought up the pictures she’d taken. “Oh, goodness, aren’t they lovely?” Nan said with a bright smile. “They really are beautiful.”

  “They are, indeed. But we also don’t know who they belong to.”

  Nan just stared at her. “That’s hardly something you’d lose.”

  “It’s certainly possible,” Doreen said.

  “I don’t know how.” Nan looked at the bag. “Do you know anything about the jewelry bag?”

  “Johnson and Abelman,” Doreen said without hesitation.

  “Right, you mentioned the store earlier. Those are truly beautiful. Seems like, if it was a theft or from when the store burned down, there would be records.”

  “Wait. The store burned down?” Doreen asked, staring at Nan over the rim of her teacup. Her grandmother was in possession of some of the darndest information.

  Nan nodded. “Yep, it burned down just before they declared bankruptcy. They had to at that point. They had nothing left. The insurance company, suspecting fraud over the missing jewels claim, dropped their coverage. I think the parents were still trying to get the place reinsured when it went up in smoke. They lost everything. They died not long after.”

  “That’s terrible,” Doreen said with a snort. “Was the fire an accident, I wonder? Too bad the parents aren’t still alive to ask who knew about the insurance being canceled. If no one knew, then maybe it was deliberate to save the business. But, if everyone knew, maybe it was deliberate to finish off the family business. Then again, it might have been a terrible accident.”

  “Exactly,” Nan said, “but I’d put that fire down to Aretha’s first husband. He was really kind of useless.”

  “It does seem like he drove the business into the ground.” Doreen thought about the stately Aretha; maybe she had taken a step down in life after all. Maybe, by the time her husband died, there hadn’t been any money left.

  “No, he wasn’t any good at business,” Nan said with a smile. “And Aretha was a girl who liked to wear the jewelry.”

  “Do you think she had anything to do with the burglary?” Doreen asked.

  Nan looked at her, surprised.

  “Oh, my goodness,” Nan said. “I can only imagine what kind of a scene that would have been, if she had.”

  “Exactly,” Doreen said. “So, you’re saying the business burned down soon after that?”

  “Yes. It was very soon after that,” Nan said. She shook her head. “Well, I hadn’t heard any of this about the jewels.”

  “It doesn’t change much, but it does make you wonder,” Doreen said.

  “Yes,” Nan said. “Maybe it is poor Aretha after all. I can’t remember now,” Nan said. “Did her husband commit suicide? I think there were rumors to that effect.” She tapped her jaw as she tried to remember.

  “If he did, maybe it’s not so hard to understand, given the fact they were broke.”

  “But the insurance should have covered a certain amount.”

  “Depends on how much they had the business insured for,” Doreen said. “And insurance companies don’t like to pay out.”

  “No, of course not,” Nan said. “It’s money going in the wrong direction, as far as they’re concerned.”

  “Exactly. … Of course, if her husband committed suicide fairly soon afterward …”

  “I know that look on your face,” Nan said eagerly. She leaned closer. “What are you thinking about?”

  “Not a whole lot,” Doreen said. “It’s just interesting. I’ll have to look up her second husband.”

  “Well, he’s dead too,” Nan said with a wave of her hand, as if to say, Easy come, easy go. “There isn’t a lot you’ll learn about him.”

  “Does he still have family around?”

  “Of course. His brother is here,” Nan said.

  “Brother? What brother?”

  “Mangus. He’s in here with me. But he’s older, and he’s also kind of a grump.”

  “Sounds like maybe he’s of the same mold as Aretha.” Doreen was clearly distracted, her mind going in all directions.

  “I don’t think there’s been any love lost between them,” Nan said. “When they were both here, they wouldn’t even sit at the same table.”

  “If I was still married, and my husband died, and I came to Rosemoor, I’m not sure I’d want to hang out with my husband’s old friends or family either.”

  “Okay, good point,” Nan said. “That could very well be it. Aretha doesn’t do well with anybody. You know that, right?”

  “That’s what you keep telling me,” Doreen said with a smile.

  “Just say that you believe me,” Nan said.

  “Okay.”

  The conversation eased back a little bit at that point.

  “So, what about Mangus?” Doreen asked. “Is there any way I could talk to him?”

  “Probably,” she said. “You could come by on Monday. He’s on my lawn bowling team.”

  “Are you enjoying the game?” she asked curiously.

  Nan laughed and nodded. “I am and finding it fun,” she said. “I’m not saying I’m very good at it, but Mangus is quite good.”

  “Is he here now?”

  “Nope, he’s not. He’s gone away for the weekend.”

  “Interesting. How does one get away for a week
end when in Rosemoor?”

  Nan snorted. “Honestly, he’s probably gone into the hospital for a procedure. Anyway, he’s not here and is supposed to be back Monday.”

  “Good,” Doreen said. “Maybe I can talk to him then.”

  Nan nodded, then looked at her watch. It was about the third time she’d looked at it.

  “Am I keeping you from something?”

  “My favorite show is coming on.”

  “Oh my,” Doreen said. “I don’t want to put you out.”

  “It doesn’t matter,” Nan said. “If I miss some, I’ll just pick it up later.”

  “Maybe, but I’m totally okay to walk home now.”

  “If you’re sure?” Nan frowned at her.

  “Absolutely,” Doreen said. “Besides, the tea’s all gone.”

  At that, Nan started to laugh. “Good point. It is, indeed.” She stood. “Would you like some walnut bread to take home?”

  “I’d love some,” Doreen said warmly. As Nan walked back into the kitchen, Doreen wanted to mention the vegetables she’d been promised, but, at the same time, maybe Nan had given them away to the others.

  Then Nan came back out and set her basket down. “Pick the vegetables you want, please,” she said. “I’m honestly struggling to eat it all.”

  “I don’t want to take too much,” Doreen said, but eyed the huge tomatoes with a gleam in her eye.

  Nan chuckled and pulled out a plastic bag. “Here. Let’s get you some cucumbers and carrots. Green onions of course. Oh, and some tomatoes.” Very quickly she closed the bag, nearly emptying the entire basket, only leaving herself one tomato, a couple small baby carrots and a little lettuce.

  “Nan, are you sure?” Doreen asked, looking down. “You’ve only got a little left.”

  “Not only am I sure,” Nan said, “but here. She held out a tinfoil-wrapped packet. “Six slices of walnut bread. Feel free to share with the good detective, if you’d like to.”

  “He’s cooking dinner tomorrow night,” Doreen confessed. “So I’m sure he’ll love some.”

  Nan literally rubbed her hands together with glee.

  Doreen frowned. “Don’t read too much into this,” she warned.

  Nan’s face drifted off into a smooth and unlined innocent look that didn’t fool anyone.