6 A Thyme to Die Read online

  “Why can’t we ever have someone work at the shop who’s hot but not gay or otherwise involved?” Selena looked at Peggy.

  “The next person we hire will be your choice,” Peggy promised with a laugh. “That way it can be the man of your dreams.”

  They all laughed with her. Selena went to get more copies made of Sam’s flyers.

  “I guess I have to go and give Adam the bad news.” Peggy sighed. “I feel like I should be paying him a salary.”

  “Except that no one’s paying you either,” Sam reminded her. “Don’t worry about it. Adam can handle it. He’s a good guy.”

  Peggy hoped that was true. It seemed to hold up when she went to give Adam the news.

  “I’m not surprised,” he said. “I’m also not prepared. My assistant had to go and get her sick daughter from school. I can handle the show responsibilities, if you can still share your second helper with me.”

  “That will be fine.” Peggy took her keys out of her bag. “I’d better leave you with these in case I can’t make it back for closing. Thanks, Adam.”

  “You got it, Peggy.”

  Selena wasn’t as happy to be rented out, as she called it. “I don’t know anything about floral displays. How am I supposed to fake that?”

  “The same way you do at The Potting Shed,” Sam joked.

  She growled at him.

  Peggy took her arm. “Don’t worry about it. You know about flowers, even if it is about growing them instead of arranging them. There are plenty of displays at Adam’s exhibit. Mostly I imagine you’ll be giving out flyers.”

  “Great,” Selena remarked. “Who’s going to have flyers printed for me and Sam if I’m at the florist exhibit?”

  “Let’s work that out,” Peggy said. “I’m sure everyone can handle this. Don’t forget, we’re trying to catch at least one killer. I’d like for Paul to be able to care of other crime instead of babysitting me too.”

  Selena pouted. “Sorry. I forgot that worse things are happening than me being taken for granted. I’ll watch the flower shop. You go get the bad guys.”

  Peggy hugged her before she and Paul left the flower show. She checked in at the welcome center for a moment while Paul got the car. More than ten thousand people had already visited. She didn’t know what the numbers were for Atlanta, but those sounded good to her.

  They arrived at the ME’s office about twenty minutes later. Peggy saw Steve and Al’s vehicles parked outside. It looked like it would be a bigger meeting than she had anticipated.

  She really wasn’t much of a meeting person. Norris had been right about that. She liked working at a project and getting results. Sitting around, talking about it, wasn’t her cup of tea. But she was willing to do what it took to help find Aris’s killer. She’d like to be able to tell Tanya and her grandmother that a killer was in custody.

  To make matters worse, Norris and Steve, Al and Dorothy, were all waiting for her in the conference room. Mai was there too. She gave Peggy a bottle of water and a pad of paper.

  “Are you staying for the meeting?” Peggy asked her.

  “Yes. I hope they make it quick. Dr. Beck has me re-doing the autopsy on Abutto again. I’d like to get on with it.”

  Peggy understood her feelings.

  Steve smiled and nodded at her. Peggy avoided making eye contact with Norris. She wanted to get past the unfortunate start to their relationship at some point, maybe not now. Al smiled at her, too, before she sat down.

  “I guess we all know why we’re here.” Dorothy began the meeting—it was her conference room. “To bring everyone up to speed, my assistant ME will brief us on her findings after the Wilder autopsy.”

  Mai’s findings included tox screen results, blood work and photos that made Peggy glad she’d had lunch a lot earlier. Most of it was information Peggy either didn’t understand or didn’t think she could use.

  “We were all thinking that Mr. Wilder had been killed with a knife,” Mai concluded. “By examining the wound, I found that this wasn’t a blade at all. It was short, rounded, and thicker than a blade would’ve been. We’ve been looking for what that weapon could have been, but we still aren’t sure about it.”

  Peggy looked at the picture on the screen. The size and shape of the wound that had killed Dabney was unmistakable, at least to her.

  Mai completed her analysis and Peggy added her discovery to the silence around the conference table.

  “I believe the murder weapon was a pair of garden snips,” she said. “I’ve got a pair in my bag, probably not as large as the ones that created this wound, but you should be able to get the idea.”

  Chapter Twenty-five

  Night blooming cereus

  Night-blooming cereus is also known as moonlight cactus, part of a group of about 20 species in the family Cactaceae. The plants are native to tropical and subtropical America. They are widely grown for their unusually large, fragrant, night-blooming white flowers. More often than not, these plants are grown indoors. Many are climbing plants but others creep along the ground. They have projecting lobes which help them cling to trees and other objects.

  Everyone moved into the autopsy room. A few minutes later, Mai wheeled Dabney’s body into the room with them.

  It wasn’t a pleasant experience for Peggy, but she knew it was important. She took the small, pink-handled garden snips out of her handbag.

  She swallowed hard as Mai pulled back the sheet covering Dabney and addressed the group.

  “As you can see, these are much smaller. There are several different sizes that gardeners use. This looks to me like it was done with a larger pair of snips.” She held the garden snips above the wide, slightly curved wound in Dabney’s side.

  He was so white. It wasn’t as though Peggy hadn’t seen a dead man. The harsh florescent lighting made the scene too bright, washing out any color, even from his hair.

  It was amazing how a person’s personality affected their features, even when they were asleep. Death took everything away, she thought, until a person was nothing but an empty shell.

  Everyone stepped in close to look at the wound and the smaller snips. Peggy loved it when Steve moved to her side and inconspicuously took her hand in his.

  The warmth of his touch and the small smile he gave her when they’d moved back from the table, made her feel less maudlin. It only lasted a moment. Steve went to speak with Al in a corner of the room.

  “I think Dr. Lee is on to something,” Dorothy said. “I think we should run some tests on this idea.”

  “Even if you prove that the murder weapon was garden snips, there must be thousands of them at the garden show,” Norris said. “I doubt if we can get a court order to have them all checked for blood.”

  “Even if you could, that pair of snips could be long gone,” Al added.

  “But knowing what weapon was used is important,” Steve said. “Dr. Beck, if you could expedite those tests, we’d appreciate it.”

  “Of course, Steve. We’ll get working on it right away.”

  “What about Dr. Abutto?” Peggy asked, seeing her ambition of presenting the killer’s name to Tanya and her grandmother slipping away.

  “We don’t have anything on that right now,” Al explained. “Let’s continue to re-examine all the evidence, with an emphasis on proving the theory of the garden tool killing Wilder.”

  Steve, Norris, and Al were done with the meeting. That left Dorothy, Mai, and Peggy standing in the autopsy room.

  “Now what?” Mai asked.

  “We send someone to the store to get large garden snips.” Dorothy tucked her hands into the pockets of her white lab coat. “I’m open to any other outstanding ideas. Congrats on that one, Peggy. I think you’re right on the money.”

  “Where is all the trace evidence that you found on Dabney?” Peggy asked with a sudden burst of intuition.

  “Everything is over here.” Mai walked to the side table. “Or in the refrigerator. There wasn’t much. What are you looking for?
”

  “Was there anything in the wound?”

  Dorothy’s eyes widened behind her glasses. “I see where you’re going, Peggy. If the person who killed Wilder had recently used the garden snips for some botanical purpose, there could be trace elements in the wound.”

  “Yes. If we can identify the elements, it might be easier to narrow down whose garden snips killed Dabney.”

  Mai’s fine eyebrows knit together as she opened the plastic container that held tiny pieces of evidence she’d found on the body.

  “I didn’t notice anything unusual in the wound. Could it be something clear?”

  “Let’s take another look.” Dorothy put on her safety glasses and gloves. She pulled a drop-down, lighted magnifying glass over Dabney’s body then drew back the sheet again to expose the wound.

  The medical examiner pored over the body with Mai standing beside her, trying to spot anything she might have missed.

  “I see a little piece of something.” Dorothy picked up a pair of long-handled tweezers and stuck them into the wound.

  Peggy winced and swallowed hard but forced herself not to look away.

  “What is that?” Mai asked as Dorothy’s steady hand came back with a foreign particle held in the tweezers.

  “I’m not sure. But I’m not the forensic botanist around here. Put on some gloves, Peggy. Let’s take a look at this thing.”

  Peggy put on a mask and gloves before she took the tweezers from Dorothy. Mai sprayed the small piece of foreign evidence with a preserving solution.

  The three women moved to the microscope.

  What Dorothy had found in the wound was so tiny that Peggy wasn’t sure she could identify it. It was the color of blood with no particular shape. She hoped it hadn’t degraded past what could be used after being inside Dabney.

  “What is it?” Mai asked.

  Peggy adjusted the microscope after putting the specimen on a glass slide. “I’m not sure yet. It doesn’t look like much of anything.”

  “Yet you recognize it because you’re the best, right?” Dorothy encouraged her. “It has to be something. It’s not part of the normal human body.”

  “I’m not sure.” Peggy wondered how many times she was going to have to say it. She turned up the magnification of the lens she was looking through.

  Amazed, she saw something she recognized.

  “It’s a thyme flower. It’s probably one of the pink thyme flowers from Aris’s grave.”

  “Quick!” Dorothy sent Mai to retrieve the samples of the pink flowers.

  When Mai brought the other flowers back with her and Peggy had compared them, she knew they were the same.

  “So Wilder may have been killed by the same person who killed Abutto.” Dorothy created special containers for the two flowers. “Or at least he was killed by someone who had cut the same flowers.”

  Peggy looked up from the microscope. “That’s been part of the puzzle the whole time. There was pink flowering thyme all over the dirt where Aris was buried, but there was no thyme at all in the rest of the flower show.”

  Dorothy tapped her fingers on the table. “Maybe this brings us a step closer. I guess the question is—who has the thyme?”

  Mai looked at her watch. “I do.”

  Peggy and Dorothy laughed.

  Mai smirked when she got the joke, and then took Dabney’s body back to the cooler.

  “Stay in touch,” Dorothy said to Peggy. “Let me know if you find what you’re looking for. And don’t confront the person if you find him or her. We’re the research backbone of the police department, not the part with the guns.”

  “I’ll call if I need help,” Peggy promised. “Let me know if you find anything new about Aris.”

  Paul was waiting for her. On the drive back to the flower show, she told him about Dabney’s death wound and what they had found.

  “You know, I like working with you,” he said. “I get information right away. Normally, it could be days before I hear something about what the ME found.”

  “I like working with you too. I don’t think Captain Sedgwick would like to pay you to follow me around all the time.”

  He laughed. “You’re probably right.”

  Peggy dropped her bag off at The Potting Shed exhibit. She went immediately to find Adam and let him know that she was back.

  He was relieved to see her. “Your assistant has been doing a good job for me. I don’t know how you can handle all the whining from the growers and vendors. That man from Dallas actually asked me to get him something to eat. I told him to get it himself.”

  “They can be a problem,” she agreed. She would’ve handled the man from Dallas with the exquisite cactus collection a little differently. A person had to eat, didn’t he?

  They walked back to Adam’s exhibit so Peggy could grab Selena and thank her for her help. She really tried to make her feel appreciated. She didn’t know what she’d do without her.

  “Wow!” Adam’s eyes got big when he saw the crowd at his display. “It must be the award. I’m really glad you’re back now, Peggy. The keys to the convention center are in my blue jacket over there. Would you mind getting them so I can take as many orders as possible?”

  “Sure. No problem. Thanks again.” Peggy beckoned to Selena who was in the middle of a conversation with a woman whose hat had to be decorated with every kind of fruit in the world.

  She went to get the keys while she waited for Selena. They were in the left hand pocket of the jacket. There was dirt or something in there with them. She dug around until she had the keys.

  Something else came out of the pocket with them. The fine dust glittered on her hand.

  Peggy glanced up quickly. Adam was totally involved in talking with two men she recognized from a large chain of florists.

  He hadn’t seen her.

  Heart racing, she pulled an envelope from her bag and deposited the diamond dust she’d accidentally taken out of the pocket. She sealed it and marked where she’d found it and what time it was. For good measure, she used her phone to take a picture of the jacket.

  Adam was still engaged, thank goodness.

  Paul, who’d been waiting for her on a nearby bench, walked to her side. “What’s going on, Mom? Did you find some evidence for the case?”

  “Not here,” she whispered.

  “What?” he asked.

  “I’m so glad you’re back.” Selena joined them. “This place was as busy as The Potting Shed exhibit has been without Sam to talk to all the people. I’m starving. Do you have anything to eat?”

  Peggy gave her some dollar bills for the vending machines and asked her to meet them at The Potting Shed exhibit. “Thanks again for helping Adam.”

  “Sure.” Selena’s eyes narrowed. “Is something up that I should know about? You look a little guilty.”

  “Not here,” Peggy told her too. “At the exhibit.”

  “So, what’s going on?” Paul asked as they walked away from Adam’s space.

  “There was diamond dust in his pocket,” Peggy whispered, still too nervous to say it out loud. “I put my hand in there to get the keys and they were covered in diamond dust.”

  Paul glanced back at Adam. “Is there any way he could’ve had diamond dust in his jacket pocket without being involved with Dr. Abutto’s murder?”

  “I don’t know.” She searched her brain. There had to be some explanation, besides the obvious. “Maybe he found the duffel bag we’ve been looking for. He might not even know what it is.”

  “That’s some thin evidence. I don’t know.” Paul surveyed the crowd. “Unless there’s something else to corroborate . . . ”

  Peggy was conflicted. Adam was a good friend she’d known for many years. It was hard to imagine that he’d killed Aris or Dabney.

  “Maybe we should take a look at his garden snips, if he has any,” Paul suggested.

  “I don’t think I can do that,” Peggy demurred, ripped apart for the moment, by the idea that this could have
happened.

  “Why? We can legally collect evidence. I’m a police officer. It seems to me that we’re at a good place to figure out if Adam is the killer.”

  Peggy didn’t know how to explain to her son that it wasn’t that they couldn’t do it legally—it was that she couldn’t find it in her to go after Adam this way. He was always willing to lend a helping hand. He’d given her and Paul a special discount on their wedding flowers. How could she even think that he might’ve killed Aris?

  “I’m not comfortable with the situation.” She sat down when they reached Sam and the exhibit. “I’d feel better if Al or Captain Sedgwick handled it. I-I don’t think I can.”

  Sam sat down at the picnic table with them. “Out of flyers again. When is Selena coming back? What’s up with the two of you?”

  Peggy told him what had happened. “I don’t want to think about Adam hurting anyone. Why would he do such a thing?”

  Sam shook his head. “How much did you say those diamonds are worth?”

  Chapter Twenty-six

  Hollyhock

  This plant was once known as holy mallow, so named because the first flowers came from the Holy Land, although their original home was in China. The tall, stately flowers have been planted across the world since the Middle Ages.

  “He has had some financial problems,” Peggy agreed. “But so has every other small business in Charlotte. That doesn’t make him a killer.”

  “It’s circumstantial,” Paul agreed. “He could even have the duffel and it would be circumstantial.”

  “We need more evidence,” Peggy said firmly. “We can’t suppose he could be the killer.”

  “What kind of evidence?” Sam asked.

  “I don’t know.” Peggy worried her lip with her teeth. “Probably his garden snips.”

  Paul agreed. “That would do it. Where do we find those?”

  “Probably close by where he’s working,” Sam answered.

  “I could get Adam to loan me his garden snips,” Peggy suggested. “I guess this could prove him innocent as well as guilty. I’d rather think about it that way.”