Killing Weeds (7 page)

“Cop speak for you don’t know. I was married to your predecessor. I know the lingo.”

“It would be best for all of us if your son confessed. I’m sure with his record, the DA would offer some kind of deal. You should talk to him. Don’t let these circumstances drag your family’s name through the mud.”

“I’ll certainly see what I can do to prevent that, Captain Hager. Thanks for your help.”

Peggy held her head high and her back straight as she stormed out of the police station. Her feet were quick on the stairs as she wondered where Paul was. Obviously, he hadn’t been charged. They didn’t have enough evidence.

Al was waiting in the parking lot for her. “Rough day, huh?”

“A horrible day.” She leaned against the car beside him. “I’m ready to wake up now. This has to be a nightmare.”

He put his big arm around her. “Me too. I’m not suspended, but I can’t go near Paul’s case.”

“I understand. Don’t feel bad about it. We’ll figure it out.”

“I already told Mary that I’m taking some vacation time. They can keep me from looking into the facts of this case on the department’s time but not on my own.”

Peggy studied his broad, brown face that was so dear to her. “Don’t get yourself in trouble too. We’ll handle it.”

“Excuse me—who is the senior police officer in this family? If this had happened to Mary, and John was alive, he’d do exactly what I’m going to do. We’ll figure it out, but that includes me.”

She hugged him, tears misting her eyes. “Thank you.”

“Where are you off to now?”

“I need to call the insurance adjuster and let Sam and Selena know what’s going on. Steve is out of town tomorrow yet. Do you know where Paul went?”

“I know he was assigned to desk duty after they questioned him. That’s standard procedure as they work the investigation. I assumed he might be home with Mai and the baby.”

Peggy decided to go home. She let all their close friends and family know that she was holding a meeting at the house. She needed everyone to be in the loop until they could make sense of this.

Al followed her after a quick call to his wife, Mary. Sam brought Selena. Paul and Mai came a few minutes later with Baby Rosie.

“The insurance adjuster said his investigation of the break-in and vandalism couldn’t be concluded until the police investigation is over,” Peggy told them. She’d talked to Bobby Dean who was very sorry to hold up the money she needed to restock The Potting Shed, but his hands were tied.

“I’m still gonna get that shipment,” Sam said. “It will be here first thing tomorrow, and we’ll have to pay for it. I don’t know where we should store it since there’s no alarm and the police might have to go through the shop again. I’ve sold about twenty five hundred dollars of it so far. Any ideas?”

“Divert it here,” Peggy decided. “Call them right now and have it brought here. If necessary, we can cover some of it with tarps, but it will probably be fine out in the yard.”

“Good idea,” Al added. “The police might want to look through it for poisonous plants. Captain Hager is convinced that’s where Paul got the hogweed.”

“From a garden supply company?” Sam snorted. “Seriously?”

“They don’t know much about plants,” Al said. “That’s why we hire Peggy when the need arises.”

“Like I’d know what hogweed looks like,” Paul said. “But whoever set this up knew that my mother knows all about poison plants.”

“Mary Hood,” Sam said the name. “It’s what we’re all thinking, right? For whatever reason, Mary Hood has made it her occupation to ruin our lives. That’s what I think anyway.”

Selena shrugged. “It makes sense to me. The vandalism shut down The Potting Shed. This whole thing, with an unknown woman pretending to be Mary Hood, is just bad for business. And Mary Hood framed Paul for murder.”

“That’s a stretch, little girl,” Al said. “We have no proof of any of that.”

“And yet it happened,” Paul reminded him. “This can’t be coincidence.”

There was a knock on the kitchen door that Shakespeare responded to, glad to have a chance to run for it. Peggy answered and found Millie waiting there with Hunter.

“Anyone call for a lawyer?” Hunter asked with a grin.

“I might know a few people who need one,” Peggy responded with a smile. “Come on inside and join the party.”

It was getting late. Peggy ordered pizza for her group of strategists. They’d spread out in the dining room around the big antique oak table as they planned their next move.

“We should definitely pay a visit to Stewart’s Fur Shop,” Al said. “Hager has the box and the coat. He’ll try to get the information for the customer who sent it to Nita Honohan. They’ll be focused on Paul’s name and credit card information. We need to take a look at everything the shop has for that day. I’m thinking Mary Hood’s name isn’t on that list, but someone else who bought one of those minks is.”

“What will we do when we get the information?” Selena asked. “We can’t arrest anyone.”

“No,” Sam agreed. “But we can step on them.”

Paul and Al both frowned at him.

“What? Maybe this is someone trying to get to Peggy, but my part of the business is hurt by it too, and I’m out there selling my ass off to make up for what this person did.”

“Are you sure there was no one with this woman who ordered plants from you?” Millie asked in a quiet voice.

“No. We were completely alone. It’s not unusual. Most of the bank executives and other professional husbands aren’t interested in what their wives do with the house and yard. Even my best clients—I’ve never met their husbands. The wives have the check books.”

“What about this fake Mary Hood?” Millie wrote down his response in her notebook. “What did she look like? Do you think you could describe her for a sketch artist?”

Sam shrugged. “Sure.”

“But we don’t have a sketch artist,” Mai said.

“Maybe I could help with that.” Selena raised her hand. “I’ve taken art for the last two years. I’m not Rembrandt, but I could do a crude sketch that would give us an idea of who we’re dealing with.”

“Great idea,” Millie said. “Anybody got paper?”

“There should be some in the library.” Paul got to his feet.

Peggy paid the pizza delivery guy at the door. Shakespeare’s big head almost knocked the pizza box out of her hands as she turned around. Her cell phone rang, and she put the boxes on the kitchen table.

“Peggy? It’s Dorothy Beck. They’ve called me back from the seminar, can you believe it? I can’t even get away for two days.”

They both laughed at that, but it was a forced response. Both women knew why she was calling.

“I’m sorry, Peggy, but you can’t work on the Honohan case anymore. Conflict of interest. You know. I have to call Mai as well. You’re both on leave until this is over. I wish it could be different.”

Ferns

These plants reproduce by spores but possess true roots, stems, and complex leaves. These are ancient plants, dating back millions of years, and there are about 12,000 species. We may never know exactly how many species there are because some are lost every day to development in rain forests.

Chapter Eleven

It wasn’t totally a surprise that Dr. Beck had to pull them from the team.

Mai was emotional—she had more to lose than Peggy—and had to leave the room for a few minutes while everyone else ate pizza.

“I guess it goes along with taking me off the case,” Al said. “This pizza is good. Where did it come from?”

“Giovanni’s.” Peggy didn’t feel much like eating either. Working for the ME’s office wasn’t her entire livelihood as it was for Mai. She didn’t have expectations of moving up the ladder as her daughter-in-law did. Mai had hopes of someday taking Dr. Beck’s place.

Still, it was a black mark on her reputation. To be accused of working with Paul to kill Nita Honohan was enough to close all doors to her working with other botanists around the world. They needed a viable answer that would take the blame away from Paul. That would change everything back to the way it was. That was what she had to focus on for all their sakes.

They put Selena in the dining room with paper and pencil, away from the pizza and conversation. Millie sent Sam in first to make sure his description of Mary Hood wasn’t tainted by Paul’s description.

Peggy called Walter to let him know that there would be a noisy early morning delivery the next day. She didn’t answer his questions, telling him she had company at her house.

“If this woman has a criminal background, we should be able to ID her in the FBI database.” Millie carefully made sure her lipstick wasn’t smeared by the pizza.

“She must have some knowledge of botany,” Hunter said. “Otherwise how could she know to use this hogweed poison?”

“You could pick it up from Google,” Peggy answered. “I’m afraid making botanical poison isn’t that difficult. If you have a rudimentary intelligence, you could figure it out. It’s gruesome. I wouldn’t have thought of it as a way to kill someone. And I hope other people who read about it don’t try it.”

Mai came back in the kitchen as Selena was done working with Sam on the sketch.

“I’m sorry. I guess I just lost it.”

“Don’t worry about it.” Al squeezed her shoulder. “You just take care of you and that baby. Let us do this.”

Mai pushed herself up to her full height and faced him proudly. “I have twelve years’ experience with the medical examiner’s office. I can be a valuable member of this team. And since I have more to lose than anyone else here, I plan to take care of Rosie and make sure Paul doesn’t end up in prison.”

Al held up his hands in surrender. “You are absolutely right. I apologize.”

Sam grabbed some pizza. “Don’t ask me about the sketch. Millie says I shouldn’t talk about it.”

Millie had gone into the dining room with Paul so she could witness the procedure and make sure it was done correctly.

“Good,” Hunter said. “That’s what we need. Anything less won’t hold up in court.”

Everyone ate at least one slice of pizza, and Mai fed Rosie. Shakespeare looked so despondently at the empty pizza boxes, that Peggy gave him a dog treat. He carried it into the other part of the house, satisfied.

Conversation lagged as they waited for the outcome of the two sketches. What their next move would be hinged on what Selena drew.

It was a surprise, and a disappointment, when the two versions of Mary Hood didn’t match.

“How’s that possible?” Sam asked. “There are two women named Mary Hood living in Charlotte and trying to ruin our lives? I don’t believe it.”

Selena held up the sketch she’d done of Sam’s version of Mary Hood. She had long brown hair and had been wearing sunglasses the whole time because they’d been outside.

Paul’s version of the woman had short blond hair and blue eyes.

Peggy stared at both of them. “Let’s skip the face and ask another question—how tall was she? Small? Medium? Large? It’s hard to hide your height.”

“She was pretty short.” Sam held his hand at mid-chest level. “Petite, I guess, and thin.”

Paul mostly agreed with that. “Not thin. She had large hips and breasts.”

“But short, right?” Al asked. “You can add padding and change wigs, but it’s hard to hide height.”

“So we assume she’s short and thin—you can’t make yourself thinner—and she probably has short hair,” Peggy said. “Maybe she has blue eyes. It’s hard to say with contacts.”

“What about her age?” Millie asked. “Young? Old? Middle-aged?”

Sam glanced at Paul. “I think fifties. What about you?”

“Late forties or early fifties. She was wearing a lot of make-up.”

“Yeah. I’d say that too,” Sam agreed.

“It could be the same woman,” Mai said. “If you could set up another meeting with her, Paul, I could jab her with a needle and do a DNA test. We’d know who she is soon enough.”

Paul put his arm around his wife. “Getting a little vicious, are we? Why not just shoot her?”

Mai hugged Rosie tight. “I’m good with that. She’s trying to ruin our lives and doing a good job at it.”

“That’s not gonna happen,” Al said. “We can describe her as a short, thin woman in her late forties or early fifties when we go to Stewart’s Furs to have a look at their customer list for the day.”

“How are we going to get something like that without a court order?” Hunter asked.

“We don’t need a court order,” Paul said. “I have my PI license. I can use that as ID.”

Mai groaned. “That’s what got us into all this trouble.”

“I’m sorry,” Paul said.

Rosie was tired and started fussing, so Paul and Mai decided to go home. There was nothing more they could do until the next day.

Millie talked with Al before she left. She wanted him to be very careful that he didn’t jeopardize his thirty-plus years on the job. “You’re only off this case right now,” she cautioned. “I’m sure you don’t want it to be a permanent thing.”

Al laughed. “My wife would shoot you if she thought you were trying to keep me from retiring. I’m not worried about CMPD finding out that I’ve helped Peggy. I’ve given them a lot of good years. That includes losing my best friend to the job. If they want to get rid of me for what I do on vacation—so be it.”

Millie shrugged. “I understand. I’ll see you all later. Hang in there, Peggy. We’ll make this right.”

Peggy hugged her and said goodbye. Hunter left with Millie. Peggy hadn’t realized the two women were friends. She’d only known them to have met a few times at her house.

“We’re going too, unless you want me to stay,” Sam offered. “I can take Selena home and come back. I don’t know if you should be alone.”

“I’ll be fine. Shakespeare is here, and I lived alone in this house for many years. Don’t worry about it. Get some sleep. I know that plant shipment is coming early.”

“You won’t sleep through it either, you know,” Sam joked. “Those guys are noisy, and so is their truck. They aren’t used to quiet urban neighborhoods. You might get some angry calls from your neighbors.”

“Drop it off in that big open area by the garage. Only Walter will know, and I’ll tell him to expect it.”

Sam, Selena, and Peggy hugged before they left.