by K E O'Connor
“We’ve not been inside them,” I said.
“Come with me. I’ll give you the real tour. I’ll leave nothing out.” Julius stroked his beard. “Right this way.”
“What role do you have with Fleur de Bloom?” I asked as we followed Julius along a gravel path.
“As small a role as possible.” He chuckled to himself. “I help out and advise now and again. It’s good to give the younger generation my experience. I worked in the City for thirty years before taking early retirement. I must have picked up a few useful facts along the way.”
I grinned at Helen. “I’m sure they appreciate your input.”
“So they should. I’m the favorite uncle. Here we are, greenhouse number one.” Julius pushed open a glass door, and we entered a muggy, damp environment. “This is where the pretty flowers are produced.”
I shut the door swiftly to keep the temperature under control and looked around. It was a huge greenhouse with rows of plants as far as I could see. A sprinkler system kept a light mist in the atmosphere. My dark hair would be a fluffy mess if we stayed here too long.
Julius led us along rows of brightly colored flowers. “These are Gloriosa. Expensive and beautiful. We also have our own crop of saffron.” He pointed to a row of pale purple flowers. “Commonly known as the world’s most expensive spice. It’s one of our specialities.”
“Do you only specialize in rare plants?” Helen asked.
“Rare means expensive, so I encourage it. The horticultural nerds like to experiment with other things, but these flowers are what make us the most money.” Julius pointed at a clump of dead plants. “A failed attempt at growing Rothschild’s orchids. Those plants go for five grand a pop!”
“That’s a lot of money for one flower,” I said.
“Rare plants are like the Van Goghs of flower nerd heaven. Some people will pay anything to get their hands on something beautiful and unique. I keep nagging Zara to have a stab at growing the more exotic varieties, but she digs in her heels. We’ve diversified into rare hybridized plants. They fetch slightly less money but are hardier.”
“Are you involved with breeding the plants?” Helen asked.
“Good lord, not for a second. I do not have a green finger on my ham-fisted hands.” Julius held up his large stubby fingers. “I leave that sort of thing to the girls. They oversee the flowers. Zara’s got a Ph.D. in Botany. She’s been to some exotic places in South America to study how they breed their orchids. That girl has more than a few useful brain cells in her head. She’s a smart one, as was my Felicity.”
“Who’s Felicity?” I asked.
The smile faded from Julius’s face. “Ah, no one’s told you about my niece?”
“Does she work here too?”
“This way.” Julius led us out of the first greenhouse and past several others until we reached the last one. “Come inside. This was Felicity’s base of operation.”
The plants lining the shelves were not beautiful like the orchids and saffron we’d just seen. Several had large spikes and dark leaves on them, and a few had glistening berries.
“What do you grow in here?” Helen asked.
“This was my niece’s favorite place. She spent a bit of time with the pretty flowers, making sure we had plenty of stock to sell to those who like their flowers perfect and sweet smelling. My Felicity had a thing about toxic plants. It was her obsession. She loved nothing more than extracting the dangerous ingredients from these plants. She always said nature was more powerful than any human-made weapon. You could kill someone with a drop of poison from some of these plants.”
I grabbed hold of Flipper and held on tight to make sure he didn’t so much as sniff a plant. He wasn’t interested in the plants. His attention was on a small dog bed on a work bench.
“Does that dog bed belong to Miltonia?” I asked.
“Yes! She’s such a sad, ugly little critter. Zara’s keeping an eye on her until she finds her a home. Miltonia used to belong to Felicity.”
“Miltonia was in the office when we were looking around.”
Julius shook his head. “Who would want something that looks so strange? I don’t know where we’re going to find her a new home.”
My thoughts went to the terrified dog in the office. Poor Miltonia, somebody would adore her.
“Why the fascination with toxic plants?” Helen asked.
“It beats me,” Julius said. “I never understood half of Felicity’s babblings. I think it was a morbid fascination of hers. She was what you might call an eccentric.” He stopped by an empty bench and rested his hand on it. “Rather sadly, this is the spot my lovely niece was found dead.”
Chapter 3
My heart thudded in my chest, shock running through me at the news of Felicity’s death. “What happened?”
“It was a terrible tragedy. It was the end of April this year when she was found. Felicity had been working long hours, experimenting and refining a new hybrid. She was always terrible at taking breaks. When she was done working in the other greenhouses or with Zara in the office, she’d come here and play with her dangerous plants.”
“How did she die?” Helen asked.
“The official report stated she died from multiple bee stings. The coroner ruled it an extreme allergic reaction.”
“Do you have hives in the grounds? Did a hive swarm, and the bees attacked?”
“No hives, but the flowers attract the bees. They’ve been a nuisance this year. They ruined my summer picnic in August, buzzing around and dropping into the champagne. Anyway, some got into the greenhouse. Maybe Felicity aggravated them, and they attacked her.”
“What a horrible way to go,” Helen said. “Did Felicity know she was allergic to bee stings? It’s a risk working with plants if she did. Bees love brightly colored things. I’m always wafting them away when I’m wearing anything with flowers on it.”
“That’s the odd thing. No one knew she had an allergy. Felicity certainly didn’t. And I’m certain she’d been stung before and didn’t have any problems.”
“Felicity didn’t have a bee sting kit in the greenhouse?” I asked.
Julius scrubbed at his beard. “Not that I know of. What’s in it?”
“My boyfriend, Zach, has one in his work van. He works outdoors and has used it on people who’ve reacted badly to being stung. The most useful thing in it is a shot of epinephrine. It counteracts the venom from the sting. That could have saved Felicity.”
“No, we have nothing like that. It was an unfortunate accident. It was such a loss to the family, and there aren’t many of us left. Felicity spent a lot of time around her plants, more so than any of us.” Julius sighed as he looked around the greenhouse. “At least, she died surrounded by things she loved. The poor thing was so bloated when I found her, she was hard to identify. If it wasn’t for the pink hair, I wouldn’t have known it was her.”
“Pink hair?”
“Yes, she liked to change her hair color to match her favorite flower of the month. You never knew what you’d get from Felicity. She could be orange one month and green the next. My niece was a little on the quirky side.”
“I’m so sorry she’s gone.” Helen nudged me.
I knew she was wondering the same as I was. Was Felicity’s ghost lingering around this greenhouse, unhappy with how she died? I looked around slowly, but there was no sign of a pink-haired ghost.
“As was I,” Julius said. “But Felicity loved her plants more than she loved any member of her family. I can’t blame her for that. We’re an odd bunch, at times. Have you met her brother?”
“No, not yet,” I said.
“He lives in the house. You’ll meet him this evening at dinner. He’s a charming one but don’t believe a word he says. Felicity got all the brains in the family. Horatio got left with a lot of charm and hot air. Fortunately, he’s not bad looking, so he’ll capture a rich widow to spoil him rotten and make sure he never grows up.”
“Was Horatio close to Fe
licity?” I asked.
“He cared about her. I get the impression she put up with him. He was the annoying big brother, who had little ambition and still enjoyed teasing his sister, even though they were adults.”
“Felicity didn’t run the business with him?”
Julius snorted out a laugh. “She’d never risk her reputation on his fly-by-night ideas.”
“Felicity ran the business just with Zara?” I asked.
“That’s right. They’d been friends since they were kids. Both smart, young women. Zara’s held things together on her own, but I think it’s a struggle. This Halloween party will help get things up and running again. It’s what we all need, something positive to offset such a tragedy. Felicity’s death has been lingering over this place for months. I will celebrate and remember my niece fondly when we have this party and sell her final creation to the masses.”
I nodded. “That sounds like a lovely way to remember her.”
“It is, indeed. As well as all the money we’ll make.” Julius chuckled. “I’ll leave you to it, ladies. Best you don’t stay in this greenhouse. It’s not a safe place to be if you don’t know what blooms you’re handling.” He walked off, whistling loudly.
I hurried out of the greenhouse with Helen and Flipper and shut the door.
“Have you seen Felicity’s ghost?” Helen asked as she looked around the gloomy shadows of the garden.
“There’s no sign of her. If she died here, it makes sense her ghost would be around if she needed to make contact.”
“Death by a bee sting, how awful.”
“It’s an unusual way to die.”
“You can’t train bees to attack a specific person, can you?” Helen glanced around as if expecting an angry hoard of killer bees to be hovering behind her.
“I’m pretty sure you can’t train a bee to do anything it doesn’t want to do.” I peered through the greenhouse glass. “Since Felicity’s not here, we can’t ask her what happened.”
“It’s possible someone let the bees in. They could have made them angry, shoved them in the greenhouse when Felicity was working, and let them attack her.”
“Possible, but it’s a risky thing to do. I wouldn’t want to handle a load of angry bees. What if they turned on me? There are safer and easier ways to kill someone.”
“Let’s hope Felicity doesn’t make an appearance,” Helen said. “As horrible a death as it was, let’s chalk this one up to an accident and get on with enjoying our time here.”
I nodded as I pulled my jacket tightly around me, and we headed to our rooms to freshen up for dinner. It was a horrible death and must have been painful, but it sounded like her family and friends were doing something to remember Felicity by launching her final flower to the market. Maybe they’d name it after her. The Felicity Orchid, it had a lovely ring to it. I’d make sure the party was great, in memory of Felicity and her hard work.
As I walked into my bedroom, I slowed. There was a single white orchid on my pillow.
Flipper ran in front of me and barked. He turned in a circle several times, his tail up.
I recognized the signs and sucked in a breath as I grew lightheaded. “Felicity, is that you?” I looked around the room but saw no sign of a ghost.
As I went to pick up the orchid, Flipper jumped on the pillow and kicked it off with his paw before stamping on it.
“It’s okay. It’s not going to hurt me. It’s a flower.” Still, I didn’t want to pick it up, especially after we’d been in a greenhouse full of poisonous plants. And I was no horticultural expert. Maybe Flipper was right to be cautious of this orchid gift.
I eased the flower out from under his paw and scooped it into the trash on a piece of paper before wiping flower pollen off his paw.
As I raised my head, I came face-to-face with a sad looking ghost wearing round, dark-framed glasses. She had a mass of frizzy pink hair and wore an oversized black cardigan.
“Felicity?” I asked.
She nodded and looked at the flower I’d thrown into the trash.
“I was being cautious after seeing your greenhouse full of toxic plants.”
She shrugged and nodded.
“I’m Lorna Shadow,” I said. “I can see you but can’t hear you. Is there something you need from me? Perhaps you have a message you want to send to a family member or loved one before you feel ready to pass on?”
Felicity nodded and drifted to the dressing table. She grabbed an eyeliner pencil and wrote the word help on the mirror.
“What help do you need? Is it something to do with the way you died?”
She nodded again and dropped the pencil.
“I was wondering about whether to wear my green dress or the black dress for dinner.” Helen strode in carrying both dresses. She stopped and stared at the mirror. “I’m guessing you didn’t write that.”
“We spoke too soon about Felicity’s ghost not being around,” I said. “She’s just arrived. She left me an orchid on my pillow. She does need our help after all.”
“Oh, boy,” Helen said. “A ghost who needs our help on Halloween. Why shouldn’t I be surprised to discover that?”
I smiled and shrugged. “We have to help her. If her death wasn’t an accident, she deserves justice.”
“Of course, we must help her,” Helen said. She held up the dresses. “The green or black dress for dinner, Felicity?”
Felicity stared hard at Helen and scratched her head. It looked like fashion wasn’t her thing.
“She’s pointing at the green dress,” I said.
“Perfect. That’s my favorite.”
I shared a smile with Felicity. “So, what next, Felicity?”
She pointed at the door.
“We should take her to dinner with us,” Helen said. “She can show us who she thinks trained the killer bees to sting her.”
Felicity tilted her head, her expression puzzled.
“Or maybe she wasn’t stung by bees,” I said as I carefully observed Felicity. “But something bad happened to her. We can help you if you’d like.”
Felicity nodded before drifting out of my room.
“It looks like we’re taking a ghost to dinner,” I said.
“Great! Let’s go get some tasty food. Then we can help our flower loving ghost have a happy Halloween by solving the mystery of her death.”
Chapter 4
“Are you ready to see inside the spooky house?” Helen asked as we crossed the damp grass and headed to our first dinner with the rest of the family and Zara.
“I’m sure it won’t be that bad.” I glanced at the wonky spire and lead-lined windows. The whole place had a creepy vibe about it. I forced myself to dismiss the concerns I had. My head was full of Halloween, and that always came with an extra side of creepy. After all, I knew the truth about ghosts.
Felicity trailed along behind us. I was glad she was attending the dinner. It would give me a chance to see how she reacted to everybody. She might have an idea who wanted her dead and could point the finger when we were all together. If not, she might have a few clues about who her killer was if she even was killed. I was still undecided about that.
Even if this wasn’t a case of murder, Felicity needed our help with something, and we would make things right for her.
I stopped outside the main door of the house, which stood ajar. Despite the cold night seeping through my clothes, I was not keen to enter. My nerves jangled, and a cold sweat prickled at the back of my neck.
“It’s just a spooky old house. There’s nothing bad to see here. No evil ghosts will jump out and terrify me,” I whispered to myself.
Helen pushed on through the door with Flipper and Felicity. She turned to look at me as I waited by the entrance. “Come on. You’ve been in worse places than this. Remember, we worked for that psychic who saw dead pets? That was a spooky place, and you did okay in there. And what about that creepy castle we worked in with the cobwebs and ancient ghosts in the basement?”
“S
ure, but this is different. I can’t explain it.” I touched the ancient wooden front door. It was solid but not reassuring. Maybe I could feign illness and ask for a plate of dinner to be sent to my room. No, I couldn’t do that. It would make a terrible first impression on everyone. I would have to face the creepy head-on.
Helen shook her head. “A few annoying ghosts have never stopped you from enjoying a good dinner.”
“I know I’m being silly.” I rubbed the goose bumps on my arms and stepped across the threshold of the house. The hallway was dark and wood-lined with oil paintings of landscapes. I held my breath as I looked around for any signs of malevolent spirits. So far so good, there were no ghosts peeking out to greet me. They must all be lurking in the shadows, waiting to jump out when my back was turned.
I walked through a couple of cold spots as I followed Helen along the hallway toward the sound of voices. Cold spots I could handle. If that was the worst the ghosts threw at me, I’d be fine.
I stopped outside a closed door. Although the room was quiet, I got a sense it wasn’t empty. I eased open the door. My eyes widened as I saw half a dozen ghosts sitting in a small library. Several had books in their hands. I closed the door quickly before they saw me. I could manage one ghost but not half a dozen seeking my attention. That was the road to passing out in front of everyone and looking ridiculous. I hurried to catch up with Helen as she entered the dining room.
Zara was already there, along with Julius. A tall, good-looking guy with messy blond hair, wearing a crumpled linen suit, stood with Zara, a drink in his hand.
Zara smiled when she saw Helen and me and beckoned us over. “I hear you’ve already met Julius.”
Julius raised his glass and nodded at us. “Charming girls. You picked brains and beauty with these two.”
I resisted the urge to roll my eyes and grinned at Helen instead.
Zara pursed her lips. “Of course. That’s what I asked for when I contacted the recruitment agency; no unattractive people allowed to work here. Attractive, smart women only. It was top of my requirements.”