Thirty-Six and a Half Motives: Rose Gardner Mystery #9 (Rose Gardner Mystery Series) (36 page)

C
hapter
One

T
he dark clouds
on the horizon were my first clue it was going to be a bad day.

June thunderstorms were a common occurrence in southern Arkansas, and truth be told, we needed the rain. But I also needed to get six azalea bushes into the ground by five p.m., or I was not only going to lose the cost of the bushes but the labor too.

“You think we’re gonna get it done?” Neely Kate, my best friend, roommate, and co-worker asked as she cast a nervous glance to the west.

“If we don’t, Mr. Hodges is gonna throw a conniption.”

“Thank you, Marci,” Neely Kate grumbled about our ex-employee as she dug her shovel deeper into the dirt.

Business was booming at RBW Landscaping, enough so that my business partner, Bruce Wayne Decker, and I had been forced to hire several new employees. One of them, Neely Kate’s cousin, Marci, had been tasked with staying in the office to talk to the clients. Her first—and last—day had been yesterday, and the amount of damage she’d done was impressive. Without any prompting, she’d told Mr. Hodges he’d get a one hundred percent refund if we didn’t have his bushes planted before five today. Apparently Marci was obsessed with
Plant or Die
, a new reality TV show in which landscapers had twenty-four hours to complete their project or be eliminated. She’d hoped to get on the show by making a series of outrageous self-imposed gardening challenges on camera. Or so she’d explained to us.

“What in tarnation are you talkin’ about?” Neely Kate had asked her cousin in horror.

“I
really
need that five thousand dollars prize money,” Marci had said. “I want to go to beauty school, and I need the money for my tuition.”

“Five thousand dollars?” I’d asked, suddenly wondering how we could get an audition for real.

Marci’s eyes had widened as she turned to her cousin. “
Of course
I was gonna share the money with you and Rowena.”

“Rose,” Neely Kate said.

Shaking her head, Marci said, “No. Azalea bushes. Not roses.”

Neely Kate looked like she was about to say something, then closed her mouth.

Marci took that as encouragement. “I only need thirty-five hundred dollars. You two can split the left over three thousand.”

“Fifteen hundred,” Neely Kate said, looking like she wanted to strangle her cousin.

Marci’s eyes squinted in concentration. “No…I’m pretty sure the lady said the tuition was thirty-five hundred.”

“
Marci
.” Neely Kate groaned. “Five thousand minus thirty-five hundred is only fifteen hundred. Not three thousand.”

Marci looked confused. “Are you sure?” Then she waved her hand. “What am I askin’? You were the math genius in the family, with your D-minus in Algebra and all.”

Neely Kate ignored the compliment to her math skills. “And you think it’s fair that you should get the majority of the money from the show? On your first day?”

Marci blinked, the expression on her face showing just how ridiculous she considered Neely Kate’s question. “Well, yeah… I really
need
it. And besides, I’m the one who’s auditioning.”

“How on earth do you figure that?” Neely Kate shouted. “Where are the cameras, for Pete’s sake?”

Marci pointed up at the ceiling. “Up there.”

I glanced up just as Neely Kate groaned.

“
Marci
,” Neely Kate forced through gritted teeth. “That’s a sprinkler head.”

“Oh.” She laughed. “Silly me.”

The very next thing Neely Kate had done was fire her.

In the end it didn’t matter why the promise to plant the azaleas had been made, all that mattered was that we were going to live up to it. Bruce Wayne had his own planting crew of two men and they were working on a tight deadline at a commercial office site. He couldn’t afford to send anyone over to help, so Neely Kate and I had put our design and estimate jobs on hold to get this project done up close and personal.

And now Mother Nature was conspiring against us.

“We can do it, Rose,” Neely Kate said with her characteristic optimism and perkiness. “Besides, what’s a little rain? We won’t melt.”

As if to taunt us, a large bolt of lightning filled the sky and thunder shook the ground just as rain started to fall in fat drops.

Resisting the urge to groan, I moved the bushes closer to the fifty-year-old house and laid a bag of our premixed fertilizer/potting soil in front of the containers to keep them from blowing away. Neely Kate quickly began to help. We finished arranging them just as another bolt of lightning struck, the thunderous boom sooner than the last one.

“That was too close,” I said. “Let’s go.”

We put the shovels into the back of my RBW Landscaping truck, then climbed into the pickup, shivering in our semi-drenched clothes.

“We’re not givin’ up, are we?” Neely Kate asked, incredulous. But her tone also held a hint of guilt. She was the one who’d insisted on hiring Marci despite the foreboding fact that the girl couldn’t fill in the address of the house where she’d lived for the last eighteen years with her parents on her job application. Not to mention the way she’d filled in the “Date of last job” blank with “last night with Bobby Hixler,” mistaking the word “job” for something else entirely.

Being the bigger person, I’d held back my told-you-sos.

I was polishing those up for when I might need them later.

“Of course we’re not giving up.” I turned the key and the truck engine started, hitting us with a blast of cold air that made me shiver.

Neely Kate fumbled with the air conditioning knobs to turn off the air as I pulled away from the curb.

“We can come back when it blows over,” Neely Kate said. She flipped down the visor and looked in the mirror as she took her long blonde hair out of the messy bun she’d put it up in before we started digging. She gave it a fluff, then ran a finger under her eye to wipe away a mascara smudge. While Neely Kate had learned a lot about the landscaping business since I’d hired her at the first of the year, digging in the dirt was one of the few jobs she detested and avoided at all costs. “There’s a reason I moved away from a farm, Rose,” she’d say, wrinkling her nose. “To get away from dirt and cow manure.”

I sighed. “Let’s get some coffee and look at how we can shuffle our schedule around and still get everything done. We’re also supposed to plant those begonias and then get an estimate to the Hendersons by five.”
Thank you, Marci.

Neely Kate snatched her pink sparkly purse from the floor board, then removed a tube of concealer and placed dots under her eyes. “You want to go by the office?”

“Yeah. But I want to check on Muffy first.”

“Afterward, why don’t we stop by the new coffee shop? I hear it makes a great white mocha.”

I wasn’t sure a town the size of Henryetta could accommodate two coffee shops, but so far The Daily Grind had attracted a flock of courthouse employees and city police, as well as foot traffic from the downtown shoppers and store owners. It helped that they carried pastries from Dena’s Bakery, the best thing to hit Henryetta in five years. Besides, The Daily Grind’s competition was on the edge of town, close to a newer neighborhood and a condo complex. Those residents tended to avoid downtown anyway.

I parked in front of our office and grabbed an umbrella from under my seat.

She held out the lip gloss. “Here. You need this.”

I gave her a hard look. “Why would I put on lip gloss to get coffee?”

Neely Kate groaned. “Rose…” She dragged my name out like it pained her to do so. “You’ll never find a man if you don’t start putting more effort into your appearance.”

I laughed. “You think lip gloss is going to make me look better?” I knew what I looked like—no makeup, muddy jeans, my dark hair up in a ponytail. “And besides, it’s ridiculous to put on makeup when I’ll just sweat it off in ten minutes.”

I could see my dog Muffy in the window jumping up on the glass in her excitement. She weighed about eight pounds, but that didn’t stop her from trying to break through. I hated leaving her alone out at my farm, so I brought her to work most days and even to job sites. Neely Kate and Bruce Wayne had dubbed Muffy RBW Landscaping’s mascot, and lately, Neely Kate had begun shopping for dog costumes online. She was wearing one now—something that made her look like she’d been attacked by a giant white daisy. That alone could have been the reason she looked so frantic. Or maybe she was freaked out by the storm, the reason I’d left her behind.

But one look inside the window told me the real source of her distress.

“Neely Kate, I thought you fired Marci.”

“What are you talkin’ about?” she asked, digging in her purse. “I did.”

“Then what is she doing in our office?”

“What?” Neely Kate screeched, leaning forward to peer inside the windows. “I fired her. You heard me.”

“Well, she’s in there now. Let’s go find out why,” I said as I hopped out of the truck.

Neely Kate followed me. I opened the previously locked office door, and Neely Kate slammed into my back when I came to an abrupt halt.

Muffy stood on her back legs and her front paws scratched frantically at my legs.

I gasped as I bent down to scoop her up. “What in the Sam Hill…”

Files and papers were scattered everywhere—the floors, the chairs, and the desks. Not one inch had been left uncovered. And in the middle of the chaos stood a woman with long blonde hair, cut-off jeans shorts, and a lavender-colored tank top.

She spun around to face us and a frown tugged on her lips. “You just ruined the surprise.”

“That a tornado came through?” I asked in dismay.

She laughed. “Don’t be silly, Rowena. I’m redoing your filing system.”

“But Neely Kate
fired
you,” I said.

She waved her hand and rolled her eyes. “She was always such a kidder.”

“I wasn’t kidding!” Neely Kate’s voice rose as she stepped around me. Her foot slipped on a folder, and I grabbed her arm to keep her from falling on her booty. “What else did you do?” Neely Kate asked.

Marci put a hand on her hips and gave us an impressive pout. “I was only trying to help.”

“I told you that you are not auditioning for
Plant or Die
!”

Marci lifted her chin and gave Neely Kate a defiant look. “That wasn’t it. It was something else entirely.”

“What was it?”

“It’s something you love to do anyway,” Marci said with attitude. “You’ve said so a million times.”

Neely Kate put her hands on her hips. “What TV show did you think you were on this time?”

“Not me,” she said. “You.” Then she pointed to me. “And Rowena.”

“Her name is Rose!” Neely Kate shouted. “Who doesn’t get their own boss’s name right?”

“Are you sure it’s Rose?” Marci asked, giving me the once over.

“Yeah,” Neely Kate said. “I think I’d know since she’s my best friend. Now, what did you promise?”

“That poor man needed help. He was desperate.”

“What man?” Neely Kate asked.

“Radcliffe Dyer. His grandmother’s jewelry is missing.”

A shiver ran down my spine, but Neely Kate perked up. “Why did he come by here?”

“He heard that you and Rowena were good at finding things.”

“Rose,” I said with a sigh.

Marci shook her head. “He’s not looking for roses. It was jewelry.”

Tipping her head back, Neely Kate released a loud groan. “What did he say, Marci?”

“He said ‘I need to talk to the two girls who work here,’ and I said, ‘Well, you’re lookin’ at one of ’em.’”

I gave Neely Kate an exasperated look. Had we really let this girl represent our business for ten hours?

“Why did he want the two girls who worked here?” Neely Kate asked.

“He said—” Marci’s voice lowered into a deep bass “—‘I need them girls to find my grandmammie’s jewelry for me. My ex-wife has something to do with ’em going missing and I want to get to the bottom of it.’”

Neely Kate put a hand on her hip again and waited. When Marci didn’t continue, she asked, “What else did he say?”

“He said—” she lowered her voice again “—‘Sorry to hear about your yellow dress. When do you think they’ll be back?’”

Neely Kate turned back to me. “She obviously left out what she said to him, but I’m scared to ask what it was.”

“Agreed.”

Neely Kate turned back to her. “What did he say when you told him when we’d be back?”

“Oh, I told him I had no idea when that would be. So he gave me his number…” She spun in a circle, scanning the room. “Now where did I put it…?”

“Never mind,” Neely Kate said. “I know where to find Raddy. Now tell me why all those files are spread everywhere.”

“Oh!” Marci said, clapping her hands. “I was reorganizing your filing system.”

“By spreading them out on every horizontal surface?” Neely Kate demanded.

“I just set out the files,” she said defensively, then waved to Muffy. “That overgrown daisy was the one to mess ’em all up.”

Muffy let out a low growl. I stroked her head to quiet her.

Neely Kate shook her head. “You were fired, Marci.
Fired
. I fired you
yesterday
. Now get your purse and get out of here. Now!”

Marcie looked offended. “Does that mean I’m not getting my thirty-five hundred dollars?”

“You’ll be damn lucky to get the seventy dollars we owe you for yesterday.” When Marci started to protest, Neely Kate held up her hand. “And if you think we’re paying you for creatin’ this mess today you’re plum crazy. Now get out of here!”

Marci grabbed her purse and marched the walk of shame to the front door, nearly slipping a couple of times. When she passed us, she held up her head and kept her eyes on the door like she was Anne Boleyn marching to her beheading.

When the door closed, Neely Kate said, “Rose… I had no idea.”

Looking at the mess made me exhausted, and we hadn’t even started to clean it up yet. “We don’t have time to pick this up, but we can’t leave it like this either.” I set Muffy down, then grabbed my phone out of my pocket and called the nursery I co-owned with my sister. Violet was in Texas, recovering from her bone marrow transplant, but we’d found the perfect person to fill in until she came back. Maeve Deveraux answered on the third ring.