Killing Weeds (16 page)

She thought about all the facts again and her mind kept coming back to the same conclusion—Ruth Sargent. This had to be something involving her old friend. She was missing exactly what it was—they all were. If it wasn’t Ruth, it had to be someone she’d spoken to about Peggy and her family. Someone Ruth trusted had decided to exact revenge for her imprisonment.

Peggy got up and switched on the desk lamp before taking out a piece of paper and a pen. She doodled everything she was thinking on the paper, even considering asking if Ruth’s body could be exhumed to be certain that she was dead.

But maybe the important thing was to check the prison records, find out who visited her and if she received any mail. If there had been someone who’d befriended Ruth, that person might be the one who took up the sword on her behalf.

The pen that had been on the desk stopped writing. She rummaged through the drawer, looking for another one. With thoughts of what she could do next, she came across an old cell phone.

Maybe not old, she realized, though not one of their phones that they used every day. This was a burner phone, as Al, Steve, and Paul called them. A cheap phone with pre-paid minutes.

She examined it curiously and found pictures on it with one call made to Al’s number.

Last year, Paul had managed to find missing documents that had been taken from his father’s police file. It had been his motive for becoming a private detective. The pictures on the phone were of the documents that had been stored here in the library but had gone missing with no explanation.

Paul had kept copies of the documents but the question had remained—who’d taken them from her house?

She didn’t know what the call to Al said, but there was a return voicemail from him. “It’s good you got rid of those files, Steve. There’s nothing but heartache and danger in them for Peggy and Paul. Let’s talk tomorrow.”

Carrot

Wild carrot seeds were used medicinally and as a spice 5,000 years ago. The seeds have been found in prehistoric cave dwellings. The Greeks only used carrots in medicinal applications and not as a food.

Chapter Twenty-three

Furious at being duped by her husband and one of her best friends, Peggy almost threw the phone across the room. She wanted to cry but couldn’t. Steve and Al had acted in what they believed to be her best interests. They’d lied to her and destroyed evidence that could lead to John’s killer.

Betrayed and unsure what to do, she sat in the chair and held the cell phone in her lap.

The next morning, she was up and dressed before Steve got out of bed. She’d spent the time in the basement checking her plants and let Shakespeare out. There was coffee brewing, and the tea kettle was whistling. She’d even made pancakes for her father and Steve.

This wouldn’t be the final word on the subject. At some point, there would have to be a reckoning. She was still angry and resented that Steve had tried to hide the truth from her. But whatever he’d done with those documents, Paul still had the originals.

She and Paul had read through them several times, but they were heavily redacted. They knew that John had been killed for his work with the FBI, probably by a sniper who’d been at the domestic abuse crime scene which was the last case that he’d worked.

But for now, she couldn’t afford to dwell in the past. She had to figure out the case in front of her so that Paul was freed. She had to get her family out of danger and re-open The Potting Shed. There was more than enough work to keep her occupied.

Steve came downstairs in his pajamas, sniffing the pancake-fragrant air. “You’re up early this morning. Too much on your mind to sleep?”

“Yes.” She put more pancakes on a plate. “Oh look. There’s Norris.” She watched him drive up. “He’s here early. You’d better get dressed.”

“Is everything okay?” he asked, putting a hand on her neck.

“As okay as everything can be with Paul in jail,” she responded stiffly.

Ranson came downstairs. “Mai’s parents got home late last night. I came here once she didn’t need me.” He rubbed his hands together as he came into the kitchen. “Smart girl. Make pancakes while your mother is still asleep. Pile me a bunch of them.”

“Coffee?” she asked as Steve and Ranson said good morning to each other, and Steve went back upstairs.

“You know it.” Her father chuckled as he sat down with a plate. “We may have to live with you permanently, honey. I’ve eaten better here than I’ve eaten at home in a long time. Your mother is all bran cereal and skim milk for breakfast and salad with chicken for lunch. A man can’t live on that stuff.”

“Maybe a healthier man could,” she reminded him of his heart condition. “These pancakes have no egg in them. They might not seem very healthy, but they are. And the coffee is decaf.”

He groaned. “Not you too.”

“I think you could have some bad food once in a while, but Mom’s right. You need to cut out some junk food.”

Norris knocked on the kitchen door. Peggy couldn’t leave him standing outside on the doorstep. “Come on in,” she said in a resigned voice.

He walked past her. “Where’s Steve?”

“Upstairs. Would you like some pancakes?”

“No. I had a power bar and carrot juice for breakfast.” He eyed the pancakes with distaste. “I’ll get him.”

“He’s still dressing.” She poured another cup of coffee. “He may even be in the shower. I’d suggest you wait here.”

He thrust back one of the chairs from the table and sat. “Fine. I’ll wait.”

“Have you discovered something about the murder?” Ranson asked.

Peggy wouldn’t have bothered—she could wait until Steve came down.

“I have some information for Steve on the case. I’m sure he’d rather me not discuss it with you.”

Ranson gripped his fork in a death lock but didn’t say anything else.

Steve came down about twenty minutes later. His brown hair was still wet from the shower, but he was dressed in a button-down short-sleeve shirt and dark blue dress pants.

“Good morning, Norris. You’re here early. What’s up?”

He grabbed a plate of pancakes, scratched behind Shakespeare’s ears, and smiled at Peggy before he sat down.

Norris glanced at Peggy and Ranson uneasily. “Maybe not now, Steve.”

“Does it involve my family?” Steve asked.

“Yes, but—”

“Spill it.” Steve poured maple syrup on his pancakes. “We all want to hear.”

“All right.” Norris took a deep breath. “Last night, one of the men who work for the alarm services company didn’t come in for his shift. They found him dead at his home this morning.”

Steve stopped eating and looked at his associate. “That could be the lead we’re looking for. What’s his name?”

Norris consulted his tablet. “William Joseph, fifty-nine. He worked for the company for the last year. Before that, his records show that he worked for a security firm in Atlanta.”

“How was he killed?” Peggy asked.

Norris glanced at Steve, who nodded.

“He hanged himself. The ME has the body. We’re supposed to have a report by noon.”

“I don’t know that name,” Peggy said. “He might not be involved in this.”

“Or he could be another cog in the wheel.” Steve hurriedly finished his pancakes and coffee. “I’m going to check it out. I know you’re going out today, but stay safe. And take someone with you.”

Ranson grinned. “Road trip.”

Steve kissed Peggy goodbye. “I’ll call as soon as I have something.”

“All right. Be careful too,” she said.

Steve and Norris left right away, but Walter came in right behind them.

“Pancakes! I’m starving. Any chance for quid pro quo? I have some new information for you on the goop that killed Nita Honohan.”

“I only have a few pancakes left,” Peggy said.

“Allow me.” Ranson got up from the table and went to the stove.

Walter took his place. “I wanted to tell you about this last night, but it was one a.m. when I discovered it, and you’d gone through that horror with Paul being arrested. Everyone at the medical examiner’s office is talking about it. I’m so sorry.”

“Thank you. I was up most of the night anyway. What did you find?”

“I found the sumac, poison oak, and ivy in the mixture all came from local wooded areas, specifically the areas around the Uwharrie Mountains. They contain a large amount of aluminum, as you’d expect, from the waste that was left in that area by the big processing plant in Badin.”

“Good work, Walter.” She took the file he was holding, thinking that Nightflyer had been right about new revelations in the murder. “What about the giant hogweed?”

“Actually from Canada. I’d expected to find that it was from Virginia since that’s our closest neighbor where the plants are growing. They have a distinctive growth pattern in the colder climates not found in the plants I sampled from Virginia.”

“Good work,” Ranson congratulated. “But I’m not sure I understand how that will help get Paul out of jail.”

“I’m sure Peggy would explain that it’s all part of the big picture,” Walter said. “It won’t help Paul in and of itself. But it gives us a profile of the killer. He or she must live in or visit the Uwharrie Mountains and has recently been to Canada. Or purchased hogweed online, if that’s possible.”

“I don’t think it is,” Peggy said. “These are the facts that make the case against this person when we catch him.”

Peggy thought again about Ruth. She’d lived, or at least used to live, near Lake Tillery, which was in the Uwharries. It seemed like another odd coincidence.

Sam came by to get more plants. Peggy and Ranson helped him load them into his truck.

“I’m so close to getting rid of all of them.” Sam grinned, his perfect teeth very white against his tan skin. “Just a few more, and we won’t have to haul any of these back to The Potting Shed when we reopen. Any word from the insurance dude when that is going to happen?”

“Not yet,” Peggy said. “I’m going to give him a call this morning and get more insistent. It’s stupid for the store opening to be held up this way. I’ll see you later. Good luck today.”

He waved as he got back in the truck. “Text me if you hear anything.”

“You know,” Ranson said. “I don’t understand texting. I do it—but I don’t get it. You could more easily pick up your phone and call someone. What makes it so attractive?”

“I think it’s the secrecy factor. People can overhear you on the phone, but they can’t see your texts.”

He shrugged as they walked back inside. “So, where are we headed today?”

Peggy’s phone rang. It was Mai.

“Dr. Beck is willing to let us take a sneak peek at the dead alarm service man the police found today. I thought it might be something we’d want to do in case we recognize him. What do you think?”

Redbud tree

Eastern redbud trees, frequently misspelled as ‘red bud’, have bright pink/purple flowers in the spring. They are one of the few flowering trees that tolerate shade. The tree can grow to be twenty to thirty feet tall and is one of the first to bloom in the spring.

Chapter Twenty-four

“It sounds like a plan to me since we’ve wondered about the alarm company and how the problems with it might play into what’s happened. I’ll meet you there, Mai.”

“Okay. At the very least, it will take my mind off the bond hearing for Paul this morning. The bail bondsman said we don’t have enough equity in our house to use as collateral. I don’t know where we’ll get the money to get him out. I’m so worried about him, Peggy.”

Because Peggy didn’t own the house she lived in either, she wasn’t sure, but she spoke confidently. “We’ll find a way. Don’t worry. We won’t let him spend another night in jail. See you in a few minutes.”

“Off to the ME’s office?” Ranson smiled. “You’re right about texting, sweetheart. You can hear what people say on the phone.”

“Yep. Give me a few minutes to change clothes. Are you going to tell Mom?”

He frowned. “Nah. I’ll leave her a note. If I’m lucky, she won’t get up until I get back anyway.”

Peggy went upstairs to change clothes, her eyes drawn to the large, open space where the spruce had been. She jostled her mind away from that loss and focused on what she needed to do moving forward. It was also much easier to put the whole problem with Steve and Al away from her with so much going on.

She met her father back downstairs a short time later. She’d changed her casual clothes for something more appropriate for a visit to a place she hoped to work again soon. Her spring green dress was light and frothy, reminding her of the season of new life. It was the same shade as many of the young leaves shooting out around the city.

Her father had put on long pants instead of his shorts. He’d also left her mother a note on the kitchen table.

“Coward,” she accused him with a smile.

“Whatever. What is it the kids say nowadays? Talk to the hand.” He held his hand out in front of her face.

Peggy laughed as she grabbed her bag. “The kids used to say that, Dad. You’ll have to watch some different YouTube videos if you want to know what they’re saying now.”

He frowned as they walked out the door. “I don’t want to watch the educational videos if that’s what you mean.”

Peggy tried to explain on their way over to the medical examiner’s office. She wasn’t sure if he understood, but he could Google it. He’d see what she was talking about.

She parked the car in the lot, sorry in a way that she hadn’t come by herself. It was such a beautiful morning. She wished she’d been able to ride her bicycle. It would have been a good way to clear her thoughts. But it was nice having her father with her too.

Meeting Dr. Beck at the entrance was an odd feeling. Since Peggy had been stripped of her ID for the office, someone else had to walk her inside. The security guard at the door smiled and saluted, as he always did, but with a slightly apologetic air because he couldn’t let her in.

Dorothy Beck was the same as always. She was happy to see Peggy and also welcomed her father.

“I’m sorry this happened.” Dorothy hugged Peggy. “I hate that I wasn’t here. I know there’s nothing I could have done to make it different. I just hate that Mai was suspended too.”