Lethal Lily (A Peggy Lee Garden Mystery) (22 page)

“I don’t think that’s a good idea since it could be involved in a murder and this burglary ring that the FBI is looking into. Not unless you want some unfriendly faces with badges knocking on your door tonight.”

“Oh, heavens no,” Walter retorted. “Not that I’m afraid of the FBI, or your husband. I was just saying that so Arnie would feel safe. May I join you for dinner, and the after party of snooping through those boxes?”

“Absolutely. I’m sure we could use another pair of eyes.” Peggy maneuvered through the light traffic until she reached her house. “Besides, you deserve it after being my babysitter and helping me lug these boxes around.”

“I wouldn’t have missed it!”

Walter had the opportunity to prove his worth on the subject as they struggled to take the boxes into Peggy’s house. The roofers were taking a break from their labors, sitting under a magnolia tree in the shade, watching as they walked back and forth from the kitchen door to the car.

When everything was inside—and Shakespeare had gone for a quick run in the back of the house—Peggy locked up and was ready to go. Walter was sitting in the car, waiting for her.

“You can’t come with me to the ME’s office,” she told him as she got in the car.

“I promised Steve I’d stay with you. Besides, I’d love to hear what the medical examiner has learned in this case of yours.”

“That’s the problem. It’s too hot for you to wait in the car. You can’t come into the building.” She fudged a little on that, but he couldn’t attend the meeting. “I’ll let you know what happens. That’s the best I can do. Steve will understand.”

Walter considered his words. “If you’re certain. I don’t want to get on the FBI’s bad list.”

“I’m certain. The parking lot is right beside the building, and there’s security. I’m not worried about it.” She didn’t mention that this was the parking lot where her car was vandalized.

“Then I’ll see you later, Peggy. If you have any problems at all, please call me. I can be there quickly and roust the ruffians.”

She smiled and thanked him. “I’ll do that.” She wasn’t sure he could find the morgue or how long it would take him to get there with the way he drove. “Seven sharp for dinner.”

He bowed slightly. “It shall be my honor.”

* * *

Peggy parked close to the building when she arrived at the medical examiner’s office. She’d had to turn her phone off to get there. Dorothy kept texting and calling her. Peggy didn’t like to talk on her phone when she was driving.

Tom saluted her as she passed through the metal detector. She made small talk with him until her handbag came through the detector, and then she hurried toward Dorothy’s office.

Dorothy wasn’t there, of course. One of the interns told her that Dorothy was waiting in the conference room with a few other visitors. Peggy took off her suit coat and left it at her desk before joining them. She wished she could step out of her shoes too. They were pinching her toes.

She opened the door to the conference room. Al was there, and so was Norris. She wondered where Steve and Millie were. Why were
any
of them there? They hadn’t heard about the jewelry she’d found as yet.

Dorothy got up nervously from her chair. “Dr. Lee, at last. We’ve been waiting for you.”

“Sorry.” Peggy smiled at Al. “I had an errand to run after the lecture this morning.”

“Take a chair,” Dorothy said. “I only want to go over our findings once so I invited a few people who might have an interest in Ann Fletcher’s death.”

Peggy itched to ask why the FBI had an interest. Was it something Dorothy had found out?

“First of all, thank you for coming, Detective McDonald and Agent Rankin. Let’s get down to the case.” Dorothy had put together a slideshow that revealed details about the dead woman and the tests performed on her.

“As you can see, the corpse was in good condition considering the length of time she’s been buried. We immediately tested her for convallatoxin, which at this time could only be found in her tissues. She tested off the charts for the poison, although our tests also revealed that it was not a rapid death, but one that took place over a period of time.”

Peggy’s cell phone rang. She opted to apologize and put it on mute. She could see it was Selena. Whatever it was would have to wait.

Norris glared at her and changed position in his chair. “Not sure why I’m here, Dr. Beck. This seems to be a
local
problem.”

Dorothy smiled. “I’m getting to that, Agent Rankin.”

“Please proceed,” Al said.

“Thank you.” Dorothy cleared her throat and changed the slide they were looking at. “We learned quickly that this corpse may have been buried as Ann Fletcher, but the body tells us another story. I was able to verify from hospital records that this woman
wasn’t
Ann Fletcher. I learned an hour ago that her name was Sheila Conway. As you can see from the photos of the two women, they looked a lot alike. But we verified this information with fingerprints and other records.”

Norris sat forward in his chair, a sudden look of anticipation on his face. “I recognize that name.”

Dorothy nodded. “That’s why you’re here, Agent. Miss Conway was a suspect in a series of jewelry thefts that plagued Charlotte for a year. I believe several members of that group were arrested, but a few more were never found.”

“Including the ringmaster,” Norris said. “We know from the work done at that time that the agents involved had reason to believe the leader was a woman.”

“I read that in the files,” Dorothy said. “It appears we may have found the leader of that group.”

Al shuffled through some papers Dorothy had given him on the case. “So you think this Sheila Conway was poisoned by the group and then buried in place of Ann Fletcher. But where is Mrs. Fletcher?”

“I have to go.” Norris sprang to his feet, grabbed his paperwork, and ran out the door.

Dorothy tapped her pencil on the table. “That was rude.”

Peggy shrugged. “Tell me about it.”

They forgot about Norris as they discussed all the findings they’d had for Sheila Conway’s body.

Al wasn’t sure how the two cases related, except that the wrong woman was in Ann Fletcher’s grave. “We’ll be following up on this, trying to figure out if there was a connection between them or if this was a random mistake.”

Dorothy looked at Al over the top of her glasses. “I hardly think this was random, Al. I think someone did this on purpose.”

Peggy agreed with her. She knew Al liked to be thorough. That was good, but it seemed to her that the evidence was staring them in the face.

She also had the feeling that Norris knew something more that he wasn’t telling them. She didn’t think he left so abruptly for no reason.

When the meeting was over, Peggy went into the hall and called Steve. Normally she wouldn’t call him about something either of them were working on, but she had information to trade that might help her understand Norris’s actions.

“Hi Peggy,” Steve said. “Why am I not surprised to hear from you?”

She rolled her eyes. “Because Norris told you that our cases have suddenly meshed?”

“Very perceptive. What do you need?”

“Actually, I might have something
you
need. I’m leaving here in a few minutes. Can you meet me at The Potting Shed?”

“I can be there in about thirty minutes.”

“See you then.”

Dorothy was waiting for her when she got off the phone. “You had the same feeling I did, right? Agent Rankin knew something and didn’t want to share.”

Peggy nodded. “It seems to me that if Sheila Conway was somehow implicated in the jewelry thefts twenty years ago, and now we find her in Ann Fletcher’s grave, it’s a good guess that she was there to distract people from Ann Fletcher.”

“That’s what I thought. I wonder why Al didn’t think the same thing?”

“Maybe he did, and he didn’t want to share either.”

“What’s the point of having meetings together if we’re the only ones sharing information?”

“I don’t know. But I’m hoping I can get a few hints from my husband.” Peggy smiled.

“Good idea. Maybe that’s the only way we’re going to stay in the loop.” Dorothy glanced at her watch. “I’m putting some extra people on the case to find out if Ann Fletcher is dead. That seems like an important hurdle to me. Let me know what Steve has to say about everything.”

Peggy promised that she would keep her updated and left the building. Trying to keep her promise to be more careful, she peeked out into the parking lot before she went outside. Her car was unmolested, and she didn’t see Ray Quick or any other threatening figures.

“I’ve been keeping an eye on things out there.” Tom noticed her furtive movements. “I was embarrassed that vandalism happened on my watch. I haven’t seen anything unusual.”

“Thanks, Tom.”

“I can walk out to your car with you, if you like.”

“I think I’ll be okay. I appreciate the offer.” Peggy smiled at him as she opened the door and went outside. She winced as a blast of hot, humid air hit her. Thank goodness for air conditioning.

Traffic was light as she drove to the shop and parked in the back next to the loading dock. Peggy locked her car doors and went inside. The Potting Shed truck wasn’t there, so she knew Sam was out working.

She felt bad knowing that he wasn’t there. Maybe Selena’s call
was
an emergency. She would’ve worried more if it had been Sam calling, but Selena sometimes called about silly things—like large spiders and not being able to find the lizard in the pond. Thank goodness that most of the time she was perfectly capable.

In this case, Peggy walked through the back of the shop to find Selena rocking in her chair with an iced mocha in her hand. “You called?”

Selena jumped and dropped her mocha. She was quick to pick it up so only a few drops spilled. “I didn’t mean you had to come over!  There was a question I couldn’t answer about tulips. Mrs. Eisenhower wanted to know if you had any white tulips with purple edges. I looked in the catalog and didn’t see any. I thought you might know.”

Peggy shook her head. “That doesn’t qualify as an emergency.”

“I know. You didn’t have to come in to answer.”

“Let’s go with things that aren’t an emergency as texts, and emergencies are phone calls.”

“I didn’t want Mrs. Eisenhower to go away unhappy. That’s what you always say.”

“And that’s true. I’ll see what I can find and get back with her. Thanks.” Peggy went behind the counter to stow her bag. “Anything else interesting this morning?”

“Nope. A person called about a huge piece of corn he grew. I think he saw the watermelon story in the paper today. Now we’re going to be the place to take large fruits and vegetables.”

“Oh. That came out today? Did we get a copy?”

“Of course.” Selena reached around her and produced the gardening section of the paper. “I think we should have taken out an ad at the same time.”

Peggy read the story and smiled at the picture of her, Dorian Hubbard, and the large watermelon. “You’re probably right. Still, they mentioned our address and phone number. That was good.”

Selena shrugged and went back to drinking her mocha. “What have you been up to today?”

Before Peggy could answer, Steve came in from the back of the shop.

“I know you’re busy,” she said to him. “I’ll get what I wanted to show you out of the car.”

“I’m not
that
busy.” He smiled. “Let’s go over to the Kozy Kettle and get some coffee. You can show me what you have after you tell me.”

“That sounds wonderful.”

“What about me?” Selena asked. “If you two go over there, I won’t get to hear the good stuff.”

“Hello, Selena.” Steve said to her. “I’m sure Peggy can fill you in later. Thanks for watching the store.”

Peggy thanked her too, but Selena was determined to be cranky about it. Peggy might have felt worse if she didn’t know that her assistant already had a break that morning, and the shop wasn’t busy.

“Are you sure you want to go over there?” Peggy asked Steve when they were in the sunny courtyard.

“I know how Emil and Sofia feel about me.” Steve took her hand in his. “I can live with it.”

Peggy felt her friends’ eyes on them as soon as they walked in. It didn’t help that it was a slow time for the coffee shop. That gave them plenty of time to hover.

Steve got coffee and a bagel. Peggy just got peach tea. They sat at a table inside. The occasional grunt from Emil made them realize that he was listening to their conversation. Once they had their order, Peggy decided they should sit outside.

There was a beautiful bougainvillea blooming beside their table. The huge red and purple flowers danced in the light breeze, and drooped down from the pretty green pot where Sofia had planted it.

“So? What are we talking about?” Steve asked.

“I got the boxes of files from Arnie this morning. I also took another box of personal items that Harry had stored there. Arnie thinks the items belonged to Ann.” She sipped her tea. “There were some very valuable pieces of antique jewelry that probably didn’t belong to her. Arnie said she and Harry never owned much and were always borrowing money.”

“You’ve heard that there was another antique jewelry burglary ring in Charlotte about twenty years ago,” he guessed as he spread cream cheese on his bagel. “Sometimes I wonder why you’re not working for me.”

“Because I like you too much to let that happen.” She grinned at him and snatched a bit of his bagel. “Do you have records of the jewelry that was taken back then that we could compare it too?”

He nodded. “Of course. This is the FBI. We’re all about records.”

“Good. Then we can trade. I’d like to know why Agent Norris lit up like a Christmas tree this morning at the medical examiner’s meeting.”

Dahlia

The dahlia is the national flower of Mexico. The mountains of Mexico and Guatemala are the home of this beautiful and versatile flower. Spanish conquistadors, in the 16
^th
century, brought back a vast collection of plants. The hollow stems of these plants were many times more than twenty-feet high and used for hauling water to the city. The Aztec name for dahlias was acocotli, or water-cane.