Lethal Lily (A Peggy Lee Garden Mystery) (21 page)

After she had laid out her past cases involving botanical poisons, she took questions from the audience.

Walter’s hand was the first one up. “What about the case you’re working on now?”

Peggy was a little annoyed that he’d asked that question, knowing she couldn’t talk about most of the information on that case. “I am presently working on what appears to be a botanical poisoning, but it’s too early in the investigation to be certain of that—or to discuss it in an open forum.”

The sheriff of Stanly County asked a few questions about toxins in water. His county contained a large man-made lake that had at least a few drownings each year. Peggy had worked with him on a previous case in which a poisoning had been made to appear to be a drowning.

There were several botany students who had questions about how to get into Peggy’s very specific field. She answered as openly as she could, explaining the six-week course she had to take in Raleigh to become a forensic botanist.

“You have to understand that there isn’t a huge call for forensic botanists—but when you need one, nothing else will do.” Everyone laughed at that. “The state can’t afford to keep botanists on staff for this task, so most counties have a botanist they work with. You can’t have my job in Mecklenburg County, but there are ninety-nine other counties that could be looking for a botanist in this field.”

A master gardening group from the city of Concord had dozens of questions about poisonous plants they should tell people to stay away from. The group fielded thousands of questions from gardeners every year. One of the biggest questions pertained to plants that were poisonous to animals.

Peggy smiled as she leaned on the podium. “You know, I always think it’s amazing how much more interested people are in protecting children and pets from poisonous plants than they are themselves. Last year, more adults died from ingesting poisonous plants than any other group. Mostly, this is because adults see themselves as being too smart to be poisoned. And yet, a relatively intelligent person will eat a poisonous plant just to see what it does.”

The group laughed and talked amongst themselves for a moment, and then Peggy launched into a quick review of plants that were poisonous to horses, dogs, and cats. “A single red maple leaf can kill an adult horse.”

She talked about specific plants that were deadly poisonous to humans as well, including azaleas, vinca, potato plants, and heartleaf philodendron.

As always during this type of presentation, there were the myths of what was, and what wasn’t, poisonous. She suggested never inviting a plant into a home or garden without knowing them properly. That included knowing if they were toxic, and if so, what to do if they were accidentally ingested.

When the presentation was over, everyone got to their feet and applauded. A dozen people made for the podium area to ask Peggy personal questions. Those were the questions she hated most because invariably someone would ask how much poison it would take to kill an adult male or female.
What is the best poison to use so you don’t get caught?

For years, she’d refused to answer. She never wanted to worry about what the outcome could be from a small speck of information. She didn’t change her response after this lecture. If someone was serious about harming another person, they’d have to do it without her.

She was surprised to see Paul’s face there among the attendees greeting her. He brought bad news with him.

“Al has been trying to call you all morning,” he said. “They had to let Ray Quick go. He has an airtight alibi for the time you were attacked at the hospital.”

Bougainvillea

Beautiful bougainvillea is native to South America. It has many different names in that area of the world. It is Spanish papelillo, primavera, três-marias, sempre-lustrosa, santa-rita, ceboleiro, roseiro, roseta, riso, pataguinha, pau-de-roseira, and flor-de-papel in Brazilian Portuguese.

Chapter Twenty-one

“How is that possible?” She raised a brow at him as several other people thanked her for her lecture. “I was there. It was
definitely
Ray Quick.”

Paul frowned. “The parking lot video didn’t pick up his face. He has three people who swear he was on the other side of town. One of them is a minister who works with parolees. Right now, it’s your word against all of theirs.”

Peggy was baffled by that information. She continued smiling and thanking her audience. It didn’t make any sense that someone would say that Ray was somewhere other than the hospital parking lot knocking her around, and stealing Ann Fletcher’s file.

“I’m sorry, Mom. I was hoping taking him in from the Kozy Kettle would be an end to it, but he’s out on the street again. Do you want me to ask Al for police protection?”

“No. Besides, how could he do that when Ray has an alibi? He’d have to have a good of reason to spend money that way.”

“I wish there was something else I could do.”

She leaned her head close to his. “Arnie called me. He said everything is back in the storage unit. I think that’s enough for you to do in one day.”

Paul smiled, and Steve walked up, wondering what was going on. “Paul. Is anything up?”

“You might as well tell him,” Peggy said.

Paul related his news about Ray. Steve shook his head. “I don’t see how that’s possible.”

“They might be working with him,” Paul said. “But we couldn’t hold him.”

Steve took a deep breath but didn’t have time to say anything before Millie and Norris joined them.

Millie Sanford smiled at Peggy as she congratulated her on a great lecture. “I’m going home to throw away all of my evil plants tonight. I’ll never look at them as being helpless and harmless again.”

Norris was less enthusiastic. “We learned most of that stuff in training. It was a very good lecture—from a layman’s point of view.”

“Thanks, Millie.” Peggy glanced at her partner. “Norris.”

“We have to get going,” Millie told Steve. “There’s been another robbery. This one is on Sharon Road. Same old story. The burglars knew the couple was out of town and took some expensive antique jewelry.”

“Okay.” Steve kissed Peggy, but spoke to Paul. “Are you on duty? Can you go with her today?”

“I’d like to, but Mai has a doctor’s appointment. It takes forever because the doctor keeps rushing out to deliver babies as we’re waiting. I could call someone.”

“You don’t need to call anyone,” Peggy assured them. “I’m going to meet Arnie at the mini- storage, and then either to the shop or the ME’s office, depending on who I hear from first.”

Steve and Paul traded uncomfortable glances.

“I’d be honored to tag along with Peggy,” Walter volunteered. “Excellent lecture, as always, my dear.”

“Good idea.” Steve clapped him on the shoulder. “Thanks.”

“I have to go.” Paul looked at his watch. “Mai gets hyper if we’re not there on time, even if the doctor is never on time for our appointment. I hope this is the last one.”

Steve dropped Peggy and Walter off at the house. He and Peggy argued all the way home from the university. Steve wanted her to take the day off and stay inside to avoid meeting up with Ray Quick again—at least until Al could figure out what was going on.

It was a losing battle for Steve, as he was fairly sure it would be. “But I had to try.” He kissed her goodbye and asked her to be careful.

“She’s in good hands, my man.” Walter held up his umbrella like a sword. “I’ll see to it that she stays safe.”

Peggy let out a sigh of relief when Steve was gone. She turned to Walter and assured him that he didn’t need to come to the mini-storage with her.

“I’d be letting down a friend and going back on my word if I don’t accompany you, my dear. Steve knows what he’s talking about since this is his line of business, as surely as you or I might know the difference between a daffodil and a jonquil.”

Peggy understood the difference between being thankful to have someone who cared about her, and being obnoxious about trying to get rid of him. She insisted on driving her own car, though. At least that would make her feel somewhat in control.

Arnie was still waiting at the mini-storage. Peggy called him to come and open the gate.

He was surprised to see that she wasn’t alone. The two men shook hands as they introduced themselves. The three of them drove from the parking lot to Unit 34.

“You can imagine how surprised I was to see everything back here again.” Arnie used his key to unlock the door.

“What do you think happened?” Walter asked. “It seems to me that it must be someone who works here.”

Arnie agreed. “The manager acted as surprised as I felt when I brought him down here. I thought he may have put all of my things into a different storage unit by accident, and when he realized what he’d done, he put it all back.”

The two men congratulated each other on their theories. Peggy went inside the storage unit, thankful that they had no idea what had
really
happened. She hoped they never found out.

“Whoever was responsible did a bang-up job of putting everything back.” Arnie chuckled. “It’s much neater and better organized than Harry had it.”

“Where are the files?” Peggy thought she should act enthusiastic about finding them, even though she knew there was nothing of any great importance in them.

“Of course.” Arnie used his inhaler before picking out the two boxes that contained information about John. “I hope there’s something in here that will help you find out what happened to your husband.”

Walter looked around at the boxes filled with papers and other more tangible items. He picked up one of Ann Fletcher’s herb books. “It looks like there was a garden enthusiast here.”

Peggy joined him, and perused some of the books that contained deadly herbs and plants—including lily of the valley. “I’m afraid she may have been too enthusiastic about her reading material. It may have caused her death.”

She thought about the woman who was on the slab at the morgue. As soon as the tissue samples came back, they’d know if she died from convallatoxin. Peggy wondered if the two women were close.

“Here is the information about my sister that Harry gathered together through the years.” Arnie put two more boxes at her feet. “Have you found anything out of the ordinary by exhuming her?”

“It’s too soon to tell. I’m sorry. As soon as I know something definitive, I’ll let you know.”

“I brought a small cart so we could take these records someplace else to look at them,” Arnie said. “I don’t know what all is in them, but I hope they’ll make a difference.”

“Look at this,” Walter said from the other side of the storage shed, behind an old rocking chair. “There must be a small fortune in jewelry here. What do you think, Peggy?”

Peggy and Arnie went to examine the find. There were several pieces of very good antique jewelry.

“I’m no jewelry appraiser,” Peggy said. “But these stones look like the real thing to me.”

Walter sank his teeth into one of the gold settings around the jewels. “I believe this is real too. As I said—a lot of old jewelry that must be worth a small fortune.”

“I don’t believe Ann ever owned anything like this.” Arnie shook his head. “She and Harry barely got by. They were always borrowing money. I can’t imagine where this came from.”

The three sifted through the rest of the boxes in the storage unit, but there was no other jewelry. The box that had held the jewels was filled with personal items that had once been Ann’s. Nothing of any real worth was there—a hairbrush, some old photos, and a few other trinkets.

“I think we should bring this box too,” Peggy said. “It may have something to do with why Ann was killed.”

 It was something in her own thoughts from hearing Steve talk about the antique jewelry thefts around Charlotte. The other items in the box with the jewelry were at least twenty years old. Steve had mentioned that a similar occurrence had happened in the past. She wondered how far past. Was it possible Harry had been involved in that previous ring of thieves, and Ann had paid the price for it?

Between them, they got the five boxes moved to Peggy’s car. The facility manager rode by on his golf cart, asking if everything was okay, but he didn’t offer to help. Peggy was surprised that Arnie wanted her to take the boxes of files that pertained to Ann’s death as well as the other three.

“I’m staying at a motel,” he said. “You have a permanent place you can keep them, and we can look through them. Seems like the best solution.”

“I don’t mind at all,” she replied. “And I have an alarm system to protect them.”

Walter nodded. “Not to mention a large husband who is in the FBI, and a beast of a dog who would attack first and ask questions later. These items are as safe at her house as they would be in Fort Knox.”

Peggy laughed at that. Her phone buzzed. It was a text from Dorothy. There was new information. “Why don’t you come for dinner, Arnie? We can look through the boxes afterward. I have to meet with the medical examiner.”

He agreed. “Do you need any help with the boxes?”

“No. I have to drop off Walter first anyway. We can get them into the house before I go.”

“All right then. I’ll meet you at your place for dinner.” He smiled. “Except that I don’t know where your place is.”

Peggy took his phone, put in her address and phone number in his contacts. “Let’s say seven, okay? My large, FBI husband will probably be there too. Definitely my dog, Shakespeare, will be. See you then, Arnie.”

Walter and Peggy left the mini-storage. She saw Arnie in his white Cadillac coming up behind them.

“So you think Harry Fletcher was involved in the jewelry heist from years ago?” Walter asked in an excited voice. “That would mean the jewelry has been stored away with no one realizing it all these years. Are you going to tell Steve?”

“Later. When I see him. Right now, I have to deal with whatever Dorothy has found out, and then I have to spend some time at The Potting Shed. We’ll have to be patient and wait for answers.”

“I could email some pictures of the jewelry to my friend at the conspiracy blog and see what he thinks,” Walter offered.