“Your father died on a day like this.”
“Yes, Mom, I know.” I glanced out the window of Shady Acres’s welcome center.
The trees had lost their autumn foliage and now stretched their skeletal branches to a cold January sky. The winter sun sparkled off the engagement ring my fiancé, Heath, had given me at Christmas. Normally, the sight brightened my day, but not today. A cloud shadowed the day this time every year.
“Dad died exactly five years ago today.” Shot in the line of duty during a routine traffic stop where the shooter sped from the scene before backup arrived. I often wondered whether the unsolved crime of his death might be the reason I so easily jumped into trying to solve mysteries.
“I think he would like Bob, don’t you?” She glanced up from her receptionist desk.
I gave a sad smile. “They would have been poker buddies.
Bob Satchett held a poker game every Friday night in his cottage. I was a regular attendee. I wasn’t sure Dad would have approved, but I was his little girl. Other than a frown, he wouldn’t have said a derogatory word.
“How is the electricity coming in the greenhouse?”
“Not well.” I sighed. “Alice bought a generator. She said the ancient lights are too much of a drain on the main system.”
Alice, the manager of Shady Acres, had bought a used generator. I hated the noisy, smelly thing. Alice’s secondary reason for the ancient monster was that corporate hadn’t approved the work order and Heath wasn’t certified to do the repairs.
Through the window, I watched as Scott Cline unloaded boxes onto a dolly and wheeled them inside. “Delivery, Mrs. Hart.” He grinned, stacking the boxes next to her desk. “A few heavy ones.”
“Those would be the copy paper. Thank you. Have a cookie or two, there on the sideboard.” Mom pulled a box cutter from her top drawer and started cutting.
“How are you Scott?” I smiled.
“Just fine Shelby.” His eyes didn’t hold the usual glitter. “It’s a bit cold for driving around in a truck without doors.”
“I feel the same way on the golf cart, although it doesn’t go over fifteen miles per hour. Speaking of, I’d better get to work. The herbs won’t plant themselves.” I said my goodbyes and headed for the greenhouse.
Lined up in a neat row were seedlings ready to be planted. In warm weather, I set them right into the garden. But January left a frost that would kill the fledgling plants. On the other side of the glass wall the generator rumbled like an awoken beast out for blood. The racket would give me a headache for sure.
Being the anniversary of Dad’s death, I found it hard to concentrate. All I could think of was his partner showing up at our door with the bad news. Mom had collapsed. I sat on the sofa, stunned, while Donald, my then fiancé, paced the living room.
“Hello, gorgeous.” Heath entered, a dozen red roses in his hand. “I thought you could use these today. Ida told me what day it was.”
Tears sprang to my eyes. “I don’t deserve you.” I really didn’t. Kindness seeped from my Chris Hemsworth lookalike fiancé. He always thought of others before himself, and while he didn’t always like the idea, he backed me up when I set off to find a killer. I buried my face in the flowers then raised my head for a kiss.
He obliged, then pulled me close for a hug. “How about you work later and let’s take a walk?”
“That sounds wonderful. I’d like to stop by my place and put these in water first.”
Heath escorted me home where I cut a couple of inches off the stems and put the flowers into a crystal vase before setting them in the center of my table. “I wish I had fresh flowers every day. They bring a house alive.”
“I’ll do my best.” Heath wrapped his arms around me from behind and nuzzled my neck.
“Don’t be silly.” I giggled. “In the warm months I have a garden full of flowers. I just need to cut a few.”
“Every day? There’ll be no blooms left.” He turned me, kissed me, and took my hand to lead me outside for our walk. “I’ll take care of the days when you have no flowers, even if it’s a single rose.”
I had the best guy in the world. Sad how reluctant I was to get engaged. But, after having been left at the altar, love wasn’t something I thought was real.
Just inside the maze, I spotted Grandma and her fiancé, Ted, in a hot and heavy kissing session. “Doesn’t she realize she’s in her sixties? She acts more like sixteen.”
“Let her enjoy life. I think it’s cute. In fact, we could probably learn something from those two.”
I laughed and linked my arm with his. “I like us the way we are.”
Grandma spotted us. “Yoo hoo! We’re over here.”
I sighed and strolled toward her. “We saw you.”
“Were you looking for me?”
“No, just out for a walk before I replant some herbs.”
“I have a great idea for this weekend’s community get-together.”
“Good, because I have nothing.”
As not only the gardener, I was also the event coordinator of Shady Acres and was in charge of weekly gatherings. I’ve tried talking Alice into a monthly event, instead, but she said the residents look forward the parties.
“Ted and I will get married. Everyone will be there!”
I had not expected that. A 20s party, a murder mystery, plenty of things besides a wedding. “Why so sudden?”
“I’m not pregnant if that’s what you’re worried about.”
I opened and shut my mouth several times then glanced at Heath for help. The things that came out of my grandmother’s mouth often left me speechless.
“I think that’s wonderful,” he said, his eyes twinkling. “It’s kind of cold, but the fountain is still a beautiful spot.”
Not to mention it had been a crime scene not once, but twice, in the past few months. “Do you want your wedding shadowed by murder?” I shook my head. “We can fix the hall up pretty.”
“No, I like the idea of the mystique of our infamous fountain. In fact, I want a Winter Wonderland wedding. We’ll rent a snow machine, string white sparkling lights over every surface. The reception can be in the hall.” Grandma caressed Ted’s cheek. “Teddy is in full agreement, right sweetie?”
“I know better than to argue with you. Shelby, we’ll need a lot of white roses. I want Ida to have whatever she wants.”
“I know where to find them.” We’d all freeze our patooties off, but it did promise to be beautiful. “I’d better head to work and place that call for roses.” I stood on tiptoes and gave Heath a quick kiss.
“I’ll see what else they want done for this weekend and meet up with you later.”
I shoved my hands in the pockets of my coat and headed back to the greenhouse. Once there, I placed a call on the installed phone for an outrageously expensive amount of white roses. The poor girl on the other end had to repeat the order back to me several times in order to be heard over the noise of the generator.
I’d almost rather work without electricity than put up with the awful noise. I picked up a tomato plant in a dissolvable carton and set it into the dirt of a planter. Soon, I had a whole row of lovely plants that would yield fresh tomatoes. I then moved to basil.
My eyelids grew heavy. I needed a nap. After surveying the amount of work left to do, I decided against the guilty pleasure and kept working.
I spotted Heath smiling at me from the other side of the wall. I lifted a heavy hand and…collapsed in a heap in on the dirt floor.
When I opened my eyes, I was lying on the ground outside, a worried Heath leaning over me. “Somebody call an ambulance.”
“I’m fine.” I tried to sit. Nausea and a pounding headache prevented me from getting up.
“I called.” Mom leaned over me and held up two fingers. “How many?”
“Two.” I pushed her hand away. “I didn’t hit my head. I just fainted, or something.”
“You don’t faint.” She planted hands on her hips. “Our people never faint.”
“I did once,” Grandma said.
“No, you didn’t.” Mom glared. “You passed out from too much wine.”
“Nonsense.” Grandma bent over me and patted my cheek. “You look pale.”
Please, God, where was the ambulance?
“Scott!” Mom waved a hand. “Would you please stand in the parking lot and direct the paramedics when they arrive.”
I couldn’t see him, but he must have agreed, because Mom looked satisfied. My question was…why was he still there and not doing his job? “Help me sit up.” I held up a hand. “Where’s Heath?”
“I’m here. I turned off the generator and opened the doors of the greenhouse.”
“Why?” I glanced into his face, lacking its normal kindness.
“Because someone hooked up a hose to the inside of the greenhouse. You’ve been poisoned with carbon monoxide, is my guess.”
“Don’t jump to conclusions.” Ted marched to the back of the building. Being a retired police officer, he couldn’t help but take charge when something happened. He returned a few minutes later. “Yep, Heath is right. We’ll have to wait for Seth, who is on his way, but that generator tried to kill you.”
“Seriously? It’s an inanimate object. A living person tried to kill me.” Who wanted me dead this time? I hadn’t been involved in a death since before Christmas. That was weeks ago. Those hadn’t been aimed at me. Not until I’d gotten close to the killer, anyway. “Why would someone want to kill me?” I glanced at all their worried faces.
“Honey,” Heath squatted next to me. “Who wouldn’t want to? Think about it. You’ve been the reason for murderers to either die themselves or be put behind bars. Those killers obviously had families.”
“You’re saying this was revenge? Why couldn’t it have been an accident? Someone messing with the generator that had no idea of the dangers?”
He cocked his head, looking at me with pity. “You’re smarter than that. The residents of Shady Acres wouldn’t be caught dead getting their hands dirty.”
“Don’t say dead.” I laid back on the ground.
Someone wanted me dead. What a way to start off the New Year. “I almost died on the same day as my father.”