Beware the Orchids (A Shady Acres Mystery Book 1) (8 page)

14

R
ather than begin my day going door-to-door, I decided to speak with some of the residents at breakfast the next morning. It would save time and foot pain. Since Alice gave her approval, I could approach others with a bit more confidence than the day before.

I grabbed a pastry from the buffet and sat at the table with Harry Weasley and Hattie Black. Neither spoke to each other. Instead, they leaned over their plates like they were starving. Neither looked up when I sat down, either. “Excuse me.”

Harry peered through thick glasses. “Yeah?”

“Good morning. I’ve already spoken to Ms. Black, but we’re asking the residents of our lovely community to donate funds toward restoring the koi pond. It’ll be tax deductible and allow renovating funds to be delegated elsewhere. May we count on your support?”

“Yeah, sure.” Harry pulled out his wallet and tossed me a fifty dollar bill. “Hattie, pay the girl.”

Hattie rolled her eyes and handed me a twenty from inside her bra. “Don’t bother me about money again. I’m not as generous as Weasley, here.”

I took her money with my fingertips. “Thank you both, very much.” I slid the cash into an envelope in the back of my notebook. “Did either of you know the victims very well?”

“Victims of what?” Hattie peered at me over her glasses. “Oh, the dead people. No, not more than anyone else here. I don’t usually come to the meals, but I’m short on groceries. This…” she pointed at me, “is why I stay to myself. People always want something.”

Harry straightened and crossed his arms. “Why are you asking about them?”

“It’s sad and a little scary, don’t you think? To have two residents murdered?”

“Most people get what they got coming.” He picked up his empty plate and deposited it on a sideboard before leaving the room.

As if noticing she was alone with me, Hattie leaped to her feet and did the same.

I almost wanted to smell myself to see if I stunk. Instead, I sighed and moved to the next table where Myrna and Bob were sitting.

“You look like you’re drumming for money,” Bob said with a scowl.

I gave him my pitch, not expecting much in return. My eyes widened when he wrote me a check for a hundred dollars. “Why, thank you.”

“That old pond is an eyesore, especially now that there’s been a body in there. People need something new to look at. Pay up, Myrna.”

“I’m on a fixed income.”

“From your dead husband.” He motioned his head toward me. “Everyone knows you don’t need to worry about money for the rest of your life.”

“Fine.” She also wrote a check for a hundred dollars.

I leaned my elbows on the table and lowered my voice. “Are you two worried about the murders? It’s as if we aren’t safe leaving our cottages after dark.”

“Who says Maybelle was murdered at night?” Myrna shook her head. “No, I saw her early the morning she died. So did you, if memory serves me right. She was looking for her teeth, as usual. Now, that fat handyman…well, I saw him wandering around after dark. Looked mighty suspicious to me.”

“Did you see anyone else out and about?”

She glanced at the ceiling and thought for a moment. “One of the cleaning girls was coming home. Then, of course you’ve got the vampire, Leroy Manning. He’s not really a vampire. We just call him that because he only comes out at night. Oh, and Alice was snooping around. That’s all I can think of.”

None of who seemed like a killer, except maybe for the vampire. “Thank you both for your donations.”

I was heading for another table when Harold Belcher, uh Ball, stopped me. “Heard you’re looking for money,” he said. “Here’s twenty bucks.” He shoved it into my hand. “We can’t have our staff going without.”

“Oh, it’s to renovate the koi pond and fountain, Mr. Ball. Not for me, personally.” How sweet of him.

“Well, that’s a good cause, too.” He stepped closer. “Tell your grandmother that I’m a bit perturbed she’s shoved me off for that cop. That’s no way to treat a man.”

My heart skipped a beat. “Did you date Maybelle once?”

His eyes narrowed. “What if I did?”

“Nothing.” I forced a smile and walked away as fast as I could. I would have to warn Grandma. What if Harold killed Maybelle because he thought she was cheating on him? It happened in movies and books all the time. Everyone knew that fiction was based on fact, right?

“Cheryl.” I approached her at the buffet. “Have you seen Grandma?”

“Not since earlier. She was helping me approach people about donations. She was catching them before they came into the building.” She glanced around the room. “It’s strange for her not to be here.”

“I’m heading to her cottage.” My heart settled down around my knees. I would never forgive myself for getting her involved if something bad had happened. “Will you come with me?”

“Of course.” Cheryl grabbed a banana and rushed outside with me.

We ran for Grandma’s cottage. Finding the door locked, I sent Cheryl for Heath and his master key. While I waited, I circled the cottage looking for a way in. The bathroom window beckoned. Opened about six inches, it would suffice if I could get it pushed up another two or three inches. I found a bucket to stand on and hoisted myself up.

After a few seconds of pushing, the window slid open more. Hooking my arms over the windowsill, I spider-manned my way up the wall. My boots slipped a couple of times, despite their rubber soles, and I found myself hanging half in half out. Nice. I was stuck.

I kept kicking against the outer wall until I slid through, landing in a heap on the bathroom floor. “Grandma?” I squeaked out once I caught my breath. I pushed to my feet and hurried to her bedroom.

By the time Heath and Cheryl arrived and unlocked the front door it was obvious Grandma wasn’t home. I sagged onto the sofa, tears welling in my eyes. Mom was going to kill me if I didn’t find her. “Where could she be?”

“Maybe we should call Officer Lawrence?” Cheryl suggested.

“Sure.” Heath knelt in front of me. “Before we worry, we should see whether she went off with him.”

I wiped the back of my hand across my eyes. “I should have thought of that. Will you call?”

He made a face, but dug his cell phone from his pocket. “He’s the last person I want to talk to, but I’ll do it for you.” He punched in the officer’s number. “Sir, this is Heath McLeroy. Is Miss Ida with you? No, sir, we haven’t seen her in over an hour. Shelby is worried with all that’s been going on. See you then.” He slid the phone back into his pocket. “She isn’t with him.”

“What now?” I lunged to my feet. “We have to look everywhere.”

Heath grabbed my arm and stopped me from rushing outside. “We can’t go off helter-skelter. We need a plan. First, we call Alice and have her make an announcement.”

“We can do that?”

He nodded. “Then, either Ida will hear and feel bad for scaring you or maybe one of the residents will come forth and say where they saw her last.”

“Okay.” I was willing to let him take charge. My brain refused to focus on anything other than the fact Grandma was missing. I plopped back to the sofa.

Cheryl sat next to me, putting an arm around my shoulders. “We’ll find her. She’s most likely flirting with someone or visiting the salon.”

“We have a salon?” I glanced up.

“I thought you read your papers.”

“I skimmed them. Did you see how big the stack was?”

“Attention residents. Would anyone who has seen Ida Grayson please contact her granddaughter, our very own Shelby? It seems the woman is missing.” Alice’s announcement rang out loud and clear.

A knock at the door had me springing to my feet. I darted over and yanked it open only to find Officer Lawrence and not Grandma. “She’s still missing.”

“I heard the announcement.” Instead of his uniform, he wore khaki pants and a deep green shirt. “Where have you looked?”

“Just here.”

“Okay, we’ll split up. I’ll take Cheryl. Heath, you go with Shelby.” He handed me a walkie talkie. “Notify the others the moment you see or hear anything.”

His matter of fact way of approaching the situation helped put me a bit at ease. “Heath and I will take the area around the greenhouse, then work our way to the lake.”

He nodded. “We’ll start at the main building. There are a lot of places a person could be. Don’t worry. We’ll find her.” He clapped me on the shoulder.

“Come on, sweetheart.” Heath took my hand in his large, work-roughened one, leaving the other two to head one direction while we headed the other.

“What if she’s in the koi pond or under a bench in the greenhouse or floating in the lake? Oh! What if she took a hike and turned her ankle and she’s in the woods being stalked by a bear?” Each thought seemed worse than the one before. “Did anyone check the pool?”

“We’ll check the pool right now. Stop jumping to conclusions. Chances are greater that she’s just fine.”

I breathed in then out and in and out until my breathing regulated. If Grandma could see how I was freaking out, she’d pinch me. Get it together, Shelby! Put on your Hart pants and do what needs to be done.

Grandma wasn’t at the pool or my cottage. Neither was she in the greenhouse or the koi pond, thank goodness. I spotted the shed where I kept my tools. The lock was busted from the door.

“Heath. Look.” I pointed and grabbed a shovel I’d left leaning against the greenhouse.

“Give me that and stay behind me.” He took my makeshift weapon.

With me holding on to his belt, we snuck up on the shed. Heath held a finger to his lips and pulled the door open. Sunlight squeezed through the dirty window above the door.

Sitting on a crate, her hands and feet tied, a pillowcase over her head, sat my grandmother. She squealed, the sound garbled.

I quickly removed the pillow case and the gag. “What happened?”

She blinked against the sunlight. “I was taking donations. Someone cried for help. I went around the pool house. The next thing I knew someone put this bag over my head, tossed me over their shoulder and carted me here. I’d say our killer is a man.”

My gaze was glued to the note pinned to her blouse.

“Stop snooping or fall the way Maybelle did.”

15

W
hile Heath cut the zip ties keeping Grandma bound to the chair, I pressed the button on the walkie talkie. “Officer Lawrence, she’s tied up in the tool shed. We’ve got her. She’s unharmed.”

“Don’t touch anything. Out.”

I hung the walkie talkie on the band of my jeans. “He’s on his way.”

“This ought to let me off the hook.” Heath made the last slash of his knife, freeing Grandma. “I was in plain sight in the dining room when Ida was taken.”

Grandma hugged him and planted a kiss on his cheek. “Teddy doesn’t think you killed anyone. He just doesn’t have anyone else to harass. We need to help him solve this case so he has time to focus on me. Now, get me out of this dark, dirty place. We can wait in the sunshine just as well as in here.”

We stepped outside. Heath found an old lawn chair in the shed and dragged it out for Grandma while we leaned against the shed.

“I was so worried.” The infernal tears started again as I leaned down and hugged her.

“Dry the tears, sweetie. It’ll take more than a kidnapping to do me in.” Grandma patted my back. “We must be getting too close to solving this thing.”

“I guess.” I straightened. “I sure wish I knew what it was we supposedly know.” Then, the killer could be behind bars and the danger to the residents of Shady Acres a thing of the past.

“You okay, Ida?” Officer Lawrence rushed toward her and gathered her in his arms.

“Right as rain.” Grandma laid her head on his shoulder.

I couldn’t help but notice how frail she looked in his arms. Almost like a child and a father. For the first time, I realized this strong woman wasn’t immortal and there would come a day when I no longer had her around. The tears welled again. I suddenly wanted my mother. I sent her a text asking her to come for lunch.

Seconds later, she responded with a yes. My day brightened.

“The three of you stay out here.” Officer Lawrence placed Grandma on her feet and entered the shed. He stood in the doorway and shined a flashlight around the small interior. “Shelby, come here.”

I joined him. “What?”

“See anything amiss?”

“Nothing other than the crate my grandmother was tied up on.” It would be hard to tell. I hadn’t had time in my myriad of duties to organize the shed.

He made a noncommittal noise and stepped outside. “I’ll have the crime scene unit come, but I doubt we’ll find anything.” With his fingertips, he picked up the note Grandma had ripped from her blouse and dropped. He frowned and carefully placed it on the crate to be submitted as evidence.

Alice tapped her way toward us. “Please, tell me she isn’t dead. We can’t afford another death.”

“I’m glad to see how important I am to you.” Grandma drew Alice’s attention to her. “As you can see, I’m alive and well.” She linked her arm with mine. “Let’s go to your cottage. I need a drink.”

Alice was speared with four glares from myself, Grandma, Heath, and Cheryl. My bestfriend actually paused in leaving and stared down at the selfish manager before following us. I ducked my head to hide a grin.

“Shelby.” Alice called me back. “You, too, Heath.”

“I’ll meet up with y’all.” I turned. “Yes?”

“Now that your grandmother has been found safely, I believe you have work to do, do you not? Heath, too. We have a community to run. There are repairs to be made, grounds to upkeep. I want this to be a showplace. That won’t happen if you spend your time doing things that aren’t your job.”

I had to bite my tongue to keep from telling her that she was always having me do things that were not in my job description. Instead, I nodded and headed for the greenhouse. I had some seedlings to plant and needed to weed the herb garden for starters. That should keep me busy until lunch. Still, I wanted to be in my cozy little home keeping an eye on my precious grandmother.

“I’ll be working in the main building fixing the plumbing in the men’s restroom if you need me,” Heath said, stepping into the greenhouse. “Keep your cell phone handy. I don’t like you being alone.”

“You’re in as much danger as I am.”

“Don’t worry about me.” He tweaked my nose before leaving.

I turned to my seedlings, grinning and blushing like a high school girl with a crush. How could I even think of romance after Donald, and with a murderer on the loose? Not to mention how close Grandma had come to being not only a kidnapped victim, but a dead one. I needed to step up my investigation. It didn’t appear as if “Teddy” was any better at catching a killer than I might be.

I placed the seedlings on a tray and carried them to a wheelbarrow. They were destined for the herb garden. I moved back inside the greenhouse in search of the gardening gloves I’d left there. Not finding them, I went to the shed. I could have sworn I’d laid them on the bench in the greenhouse. I frowned. My favorite pair. Pink with red ladybugs. Where could I have put them?

Not finding them either place, I hefted the wheelbarrow with unprotected hands and hoped I wouldn’t get a splinter, or worse, callouses. Instead of heading straight for the garden, I made a detour to my cottage to fetch another pair of gloves. I had several, and the lost pair were sure to turn up eventually.

I didn’t find Grandma or Cheryl in the cottage. No worries. I fetched my metal pail of gloves from the top shelf of my closet and set them in the wheelbarrow next to the plants. I chose a bright yellow pair with blue ducks and happily headed toward the garden by way of the pool. My happiness drained away like a pulled plug in a bathtub.

Mom laughed and chatted with Grandma and Cheryl, all three with their feet in the hot tub and some kind of tropical drink in their hands. Before lunch! Oh, it looked like fun, and here I was slaving away at my job. I sighed and continued on my way. I had told Cheryl I would have to work. It shouldn’t be a surprise to either one of us when I actually did work.

Before long, I was kneeling on a cushioned vinyl pad inserting delicate herb plants into the rich soil and forgetting how much I thought I wanted to swim and hang out rather than nurture little green sprouts of life. From a nearby maple tree, a mockingbird serenaded me. The sun kissed my arms and the back of my neck. The day was beautiful and my family was safe. What did I have to complain about?

If I wanted to, I could focus on the fact that Alice had her arm linked with Heath’s as the two of them strolled in the direction of the koi pond. Which reminded me I hadn’t finished getting donations. Why did the two of them look so lovey dovey? I narrowed my eyes. I got the impression that Heath didn’t particularly like the woman.

Alice’s giggle reached me, making my blood boil. She glanced my way and tossed me a wave, no doubt hoping I’d clear Heath’s name so she could marry him! I was being ridiculous and I knew it. There was nothing between me and the handyman but some harmless flirtation and what might be a nice friendship. It’s best I leave things be.

I kicked at a rock in the dirt, then bent to remove it from my garden. The problem with tossing it aside was the fact it wasn’t a rock. I held a clump of polished quartz in my hand. The type tourists buy at roadside tourist traps. I grabbed a trowel from the wheelbarrow and dug a little deeper.

Soon, I had quite a little pile of treasures. A locket with a couple from the early 1900s, a vintage mirror, a pocket watch, and silver comb drastically in need of polishing. Were these more items taken by Maybelle or had they been here before Shady Acres was built, waiting for someone to discover them?

I gathered the items and put them in the wheelbarrow. If Officer Lawrence had a list of stolen items, these things might be on there. If not, I’d clean them up and offer them as prizes for a future Bingo game.

A glance at my watch told me it was time for lunch. I rolled the wheelbarrow back to the toolshed and locked the door with the treasures inside. Once I felt they were secure, I hurried to the main building to wash up in the ladies room for lunch. Hopefully, I could solicit more donations and gain some information.

In the restroom, I washed my hands and arms, then splashed my face with cool water. When I felt presentable again, I rushed to the dining room and filled a plate with a salad and sautéed shrimp. I took a seat at my usual table next to Heath, relieved that Alice was nowhere to be seen.

“Productive morning?” I stabbed a cherry tomato rough enough with my fork that the tines slid off and the tomato sailed off my plate and onto the floor.

“Not really.” He shook his head. “I had an unwelcome shadow all morning. Alice seemed to think today was the day she needed to personally show me my duties.”

I cheered up immediately. “Of course, you must be polite.”

“How was your morning?”

I told him about the items I found in the garden. “Who tilled the dirt?”

“I did, but I never noticed anything.” He sat back in his chair. “I’m pretty sure I would have noticed if all those things were lying there.”

“They were covered by some dirt. I found them while planting herbs.”

“Do you mind letting me see them before you turn them over to the authorities? Maybe I’ll recognize one of the items.” He glanced around the room. “They sound like they came from the time period when most of these people were young. Since I’ve been here a little over a year—” he shrugged.

“True. Find me after lunch and I’ll take you to the shed.”

“That sounds like fun.” He winked.

“Stop.” I smacked his arm. “You’re spoken for.” With a grin, I got to my feet and started my trip around the room asking for money. My first stop was the table where my family and best friend sat. “Hey.” I plopped next to Mom and gave her a hug. “I suppose Grandma told you what happened this morning.”

“Yes, and thank you for finding her.” Mom returned my hug. “Is that why you invited me to lunch?”

“You three are all I have,” I said, glancing at each of them. “I wanted my family around me, even if for only a few minutes.”

“This is all warm and fuzzy,” Grandma said, “but there’s something I want to tell you that I didn’t tell Teddy.”

I leaned forward, almost knocking over Mom’s glass of tea in my eagerness. “Really? Is it about your abductor?”

“Yep.” She lifted a mug of coffee and gave a sly smile. “I have something to tell you that is common knowledge…Maybelle’s memorial service is tomorrow. The secret information is…the man who abducted me wore Polo cologne.”