“I don’t even have any nails.” Mai sighed as she looked at her hands. “I’m surprised I have any hair. I think I was pulling it out this morning.”
“How long has Harold been gone?”
“Since this morning.” Mai sipped her tea and looked at Peggy. “Pretty pathetic, huh? He’s not even gone a whole day and I’m already falling apart. He’s not due back from that conference for two more days. I might as well put on a toe tag and crawl into the freezer.”
Police humor was something Peggy had grown to understand as she lived with John and listened to him and his friends. Morgue humor was something she hadn’t yet learned to appreciate. She could handle being around the dead bodies, if she didn’t think about it too much. Talking about them, making jokes about them, seemed beyond what her Southern upbringing would allow.
“You aren’t finished yet,” Peggy told Mai. Even if she wasn’t dating Paul, Peggy would like her anyway. She was sweet and sassy, a nice combination for a young woman. “Just take a few deep breaths and finish your tea. Then we’ll talk.”
“What’s there to talk about? I can’t handle it. Dr. Ramsey was right.” Mai slumped facedown on the table.
One of their coworkers came in with a pizza and nodded at Mai. “Is she faking it? That could be dangerous around here.”
Mai groaned.
Peggy discarded her notions of tea and a friendly chat as the tech, Bosco, sat down and started munching his pizza. “Maybe a walk would do you more good.”
“I can’t.” Mai’s voice was muffled with her mouth on the plastic. “I have too much to do.”
“It doesn’t look to me like you’re doing much of it right now.” Peggy tugged on her sleeve. “Don’t make me get a stretcher.”
Mai knew Peggy’s determination too well. To avoid being physically dragged from the office, she got to her feet and walked outside with her. “There! We’re outside. Things don’t look all that different to me.”
“Let’s walk. It’ll do you good.”
Still in their lab coats despite strict protocol to remove them before leaving the lab, they strolled down the sidewalk past a dry fountain with beds of half-dead petunias surrounding it. Peggy tried to divert Mai’s attention by pointing to the crescent moon. Mai, however, couldn’t get past the dead flowers.
“I don’t know what I’m doing wrong,” Mai lamented. “It’s not like I don’t know every protocol in the book, plus some. I know how to get the job done. It just seems to pile up on me. I guess I wasn’t expecting so much to go wrong so quickly. Couldn’t it have been peaceful while Ramsey was gone?”
“Let’s see if we can develop a strategy to focus on one thing at a time.” Peggy put her hands into her pockets. “Let’s start with why you called me.”
Mai’s smooth, almond-colored brow furrowed. “It’s that Mullis woman they found out at the dry lake.”
“I found that Mullis woman. What seems to be the problem?”
“She wasn’t exactly underwater, but there are all kinds of things in her orifices. I can’t tell what they are. So I called you.”
“You think they’re plants?”
“Maybe. Definitely some twigs and other stuff I’m not familiar with.” Mai shuddered. “Why do people feel the need to go out into nature in the first place?”
Peggy laughed. “Nature’s not so bad if you keep it out of your orifices. So you want me to take a look at Mrs. Mullis and see if I can identify what you found.”
“Exactly!” Mai turned to her. “Hey, this focus thing might be working. I can have George and Bosco work on the gang members. Pretty easy, since they still have the bullets in them. At least that makes sense to me. No twigs and worms and such.”
“Do you think Mrs. Mullis died from something other than natural causes?”
“I don’t think so. There were elevated BNP levels indicative of congestive heart failure. According to her records, she was on meds for heart problems. You know how it is, though. If this wasn’t the chief’s aunt and you hadn’t found her in the mud, she wouldn’t be here.”
Peggy explained about Lois’s cars still being in her garage and their belief that her death might not be so simple. “There might be something to it.”
“Maybe. We’ll see if you find anything suspicious. If not, she probably got a ride with a friend. It happens.”
They walked back into the lab as the building lights came on outside. “Can that wait until morning?” Peggy asked.
“I don’t see why not.” Mai shrugged. “She’s not going anywhere. The chief won’t be satisfied with a quick job; he’ll think we didn’t take long enough. I’m going to set George and Bosco on those gang guys, and then I’m going home, too.”
“Good for you! I’m sure we’ll both be fresher in the morning.”
Peggy thought about Lois as she waved to Mai and backed the truck out of the lab parking lot. It was sad in many ways that the world turned differently for people who were rich or well-connected. It was probably nothing more than a strange set of circumstances that surrounded Lois’s death. And it was humorous in a grim sort of way that Mai found twigs and plant matter disgusting but blood and guts didn’t make her blink. The world was a strange place.
Traffic was still heavy on the way back to Queens Road. If she ever got home again, she was taking all the phones off the hook, hiding the cell phones, and shutting down the computers. She just wanted a little quiet time with her favorite veterinarian.
She groaned when she saw her parents’ car in the drive. What were they doing here at this time of night?
The answer was too apparent. It was like she was a teenager again and they were spying on her, trying to catch her doing something she wasn’t supposed to be doing. It was ridiculous, she thought, parking her truck and plugging it in. She was too old and too tired for these games. She was going to march right in there and tell them she not only was dating Steve but sharing his bed as often as she could. He was right. They should’ve told them when they first met.
Loud laughter greeted her as she charged through the kitchen door. Shakespeare looked up at her, then hid his head under one paw, as though he knew what was coming.
Steve was sitting at the kitchen table, shaking the Yahtzee cup while her mother and father were challenging him to beat their high score. The words that burned on her tongue fizzled out as they all looked up at her.
“I’m glad you’re back, Sweet Pea,” her father said. “You’re just in time to see us beat Steve at this game.”
“It’s late.” She walked into the kitchen and closed the door behind her, weariness catching up and enveloping her. “I’m going up to bed. You can let yourselves out, if you don’t mind.”
“That’s no way to treat your guest.” Lilla glanced at Steve and smiled. “Of course we can see ourselves out, but you can hardly expect Steve to do the same.”
“Maybe we should just leave now,” Ranson said, “and let these youngsters have some time together.”
Peggy was about to tell him that it didn’t matter anymore that night when the cell phone she was supposed to turn off, rang. The number on the screen belonged to Geneva Curtis. She sighed as she answered it. There was no rest for the self-employed or the wicked, it seemed.
“We’ve talked to all of Lois’s friends,” Geneva said. “No one gave her a ride out to Lake Whitley this morning. There
is
something suspicious going on.”
Peggy hardly knew where to start with that information. She explained that she’d be part of the investigation into Lois’s death. “If I hear anything suspicious about her death, I’ll let you know.”
“Thanks. You’re a lifesaver.” Geneva whispered to someone else, then came back on the line. “We think Jonathon may have been responsible for what happened.”
“What? Why would you think that?”
“Because she didn’t want to ride out with us this morning.”
“I thought that was because of her lumbago.”
“I didn’t want to say anything, but something happened between them at the last meeting. None of us were in the room at the time, but they acted strange and Lois wasn’t herself. She didn’t come to the first outing we had at the lake. Grace and I think that might be why.”
“I don’t know what to say. I’ll check into Lois’s death. If it was from natural causes, that will be the end of it. I think you’re wrong about Jonathon. But we’ll see.”
“Thanks, Peggy. I knew you were the right one to talk to about it. Give my love to your mother. I’ll talk to you later.”
The whole time Peggy was on the phone, four pairs of eyes were glued to her. Shakespeare was the only one with good cause to wonder what she was doing; he hadn’t been fed yet.
“Like I said”—she turned off her cell phone and put it in her pocket—“that’s it for me today. I’m going to bed. I’ll see all of you tomorrow.”
Steve took the news well and gathered up the Yahtzee game. “I have an early day tomorrow, too. Go on up, and I’ll feed Shakespeare for you.”
“There’s no need for that.” Lilla might as well have fluffed out her maternal feathers as she flew to the kitchen cabinet. “Ranson and I will take care of that and lock up before we leave. Thanks for the game, Steve. We’ll see you Tuesday night, right?”
Steve frowned but didn’t say anything. “Right. Good night, everyone.” He glanced at Peggy, then walked out the kitchen door.
“Shakespeare’s food is in the pantry, Mom.” Peggy tried to work herself up to telling her parents that Steve was where he belonged. “You know, we live in a different age than the two of you were raised in. Things have changed.”
“You don’t have to tell us,” Ranson agreed. “Crazy things going on out there. But not all bad. There’s cable TV and remote control.”
“What are you trying to say?” Lilla asked.
Peggy stared at them.
Steve and I are living together—or trying to
. But those words wouldn’t cross her lips. “Nothing. I’m tired. Good night. I’ll set the alarm from upstairs.”
There would be another time to explain how her life was at that point. It was possible she and Steve would get married in the future, not that she was ready for that yet.
Was he?
She walked slowly up the marble stairs to her bedroom, hearing the kitchen door close behind her parents.
PEGGY WOKE UP THE NEXT morning with a un-Shakespeare-like arm draped around her. Steve’s face was close to hers, dark stubble peppering his chin and cheeks. She was more than glad to see him there, and moved closer to him.
“You’re finally awake?” he muttered without opening his eyes as his arms tightened around her. “You were sleeping like the dead when I got back last night. You didn’t even know I was here, did you?”
“No. But I’m really happy you are. I’ve missed you.” She kissed him passionately and laughed as he opened his beautiful brown eyes. “I’m sorry I couldn’t tell them last night and end this farce.”
“That’s okay.” He smiled at her. “I can sneak in after they’re gone. You know, double back after I pretend to go home, and make sure their car is gone before I sneak in through the basement. Lucky thing I know the alarm code.”
“It’s not as bad as all that,” she protested weakly.
“Yes, it is. We have to tell them, Peggy.”
“I know.”
“Paul, too. I can’t believe how many excuses I’ve had to come up with for being here early in the morning. I’ve dropped off your dry cleaning at six a.m., told him I was walking Shakespeare for you at ten at night, and I think he’s already suspicious because I know how to work the dryer.”
“Have I told you yet today how much I love and appreciate you?”
“I don’t think you can get away with it that easy.”
She kissed him again and snuggled closer. “How about this?”
“That could work. I’ve always been a sucker for beautiful redheads.”
“You can’t exactly call me a redhead anymore.” She pushed at her white hair self-consciously. “Now, in my youth . . .”
“You’re starting to make me forget my commitment not to talk about how hard this has become with your parents and Paul,” he warned with a smile. “Let’s have a little more of that kissing and stuff right now.”
“I can do that.”
A LITTLE LATER, after breakfast with Steve, Peggy went down to the basement to check on her experiments. Steve had to leave early since he had surgery that morning. It seemed one of his patients, Conner McCloud, a python, had somehow managed to swallow a stone that would have to be removed. She didn’t know how Steve was able to cope with such things, but she knew he had a great love for all animals. He was her own Dr. Doolittle.
It was because of his love for animals that they got together right after she’d found herself with Shakespeare in her life. He was her first pet. She’d taken him from an abusive owner and Steve had helped her nurse him back to health. Because of that, she’d gained so much richness in her life. The two of them had helped her move past John’s death.
The basement ran the full length of the house, with French doors that opened into the backyard. Here Peggy had kept plants since she’d moved there with John, fresh out of college. To begin with, it was some herbs and a few early tomatoes. After Paul had moved out, she’d installed a pond and begun working with other botanists from around the world on projects they talked about on the Internet.
Right now, she was observing some high-yield rice plants growing in the pond beside her native lilies and cattails. Her hydroponic gardening had expanded in the last few months to include a new form of bean that was a cross between a pea and a butter bean. It was high-yield and fast-growing to accommodate areas desperately in need of food. The more they could naturally tinker with plants that could feed millions, the closer they came to stamping out world hunger.
Of course there were some plants that were just for fun. She had the beginnings of a lovely, large passion flower vine growing near the windows, in the sun. There was also a grape-colored tomato growing close to it. She planned to surprise some dinner guests with that and a matching lavender lettuce she’d devised.