Killer in the Kiwis (Lovely Lethal Gardens Book 11) Read online

  Table of Contents

  Cover

  Title Page

  About This Book

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Epilogue

  About Lifeless in the Lilies

  Get Your Free Book Now

  Author’s Note

  About the Author

  Copyright Page

  About This Book

  A new cozy mystery series from USA Today best-selling author Dale Mayer. Follow gardener and amateur sleuth Doreen Montgomery—and her amusing and mostly lovable cat, dog, and parrot—as they catch murderers and solve crimes in lovely Kelowna, British Columbia.

  Riches to rags. … Chaos again. … Winning is important, … at least for some!

  Doreen is overwhelmed with joy when she sees all the volunteers who show up to help get her deck addition built. Most of the men are cops, friends of Corporal Mack Moreau’s, and are happy to help Mack’s special friend and the lady who has helped solve so many crimes for them with a spot of home renovation.

  But before the deck improvement can be finished, duty calls, and the cops are called away on a case. Another gray-haired lady has dropped dead. Yet another heart attack victim is added to the long line of previous ones. And, of course, neither of these recently deceased women had a heart condition that would explain their sudden demise.

  With her animals at her side, Doreen is determined to figure out what the ladies had in common, plus why and how kiwis keep popping up in this case. As she digs into the ladies’ lives, the things Doreen discover are shocking, … but not as shocking as the answer is to this riddle …

  Prologue

  Wednesday Late Afternoon …

  Arnold and Chester prepared to leave, each one of them holding on to one of Heidi’s arms.

  “That was a good thing you did,” Mack said quietly to Doreen.

  Doreen gave him a quiet smile. “Someone needed to help Aretha. Now, of course, I don’t have a case to work on …” She looked at Mack hopefully.

  He stiffened and glared at her. “None of mine.”

  “Don’t you have another case in progress?” Arnold asked her.

  “No,” Doreen said with a big smile. “I figured I’d look into these old ladies dropping dead.”

  “You are the gardener,” Chester said, with that fat smile of his. “If anybody can figure out what kiwis have to do with that damn case, I’d like to know.”

  Doreen stared at him. “Kiwis?”

  Mack sent a warning look to Chester, but it was already too late. Chester was too far ahead.

  “Yep,” he said. “A kiwi in the mouth.”

  “But only one of the women’s mouths?”

  He leaned forward and said in that thick heavy whisper, “Yes, but all three had one on their person.”

  Doreen grinned. “Killer in the Kiwis. I love it.” That was so her next case.

  Mack shot her a hard look. “You stay out of it,” he said. “Cold cases are one thing, but my cases are another.”

  She grinned up at him impudently. “No problem,” she said. “You’ve got, let’s see, what? Twenty-four hours?”

  Mack jammed his hands on his hips, as Arnold started to chuckle. Whistling, he and Chester loaded Heidi into the back seat of their RCMP patrol car, leaving Doreen with Mack.

  Doreen turned and looked up at him. “So?”

  “So, what?” he growled.

  “Twenty-four hours? Forty-eight? How much lead time do you need?” she asked hopefully. He took a hard step toward her, but she no longer felt threatened by Mack. She looked up at him and grinned. “Come on. Forty-eight hours it is then. It’s a deal. I’m on the Killer in the Kiwis case.”

  Laughing, she raced into the kitchen. She heard the front door slam as Mack walked out, and she knew he had to leave. He now had even more work to do at the police station. And that was fine.

  She’d give him the two days but not a minute more.

  Chapter 1

  Forty-One Hours and Counting …

  Friday mornings were usually spent at Millicent’s garden, and Doreen needed something to do anyway, as she awaited the end of Mack’s head start on the kiwis case.

  Calling the animals to her, she put some coffee in a thermos and walked over to Millicent’s garden.

  Millicent sat outside, and, as soon as she saw Doreen, Mack’s mother bounced to her feet with what seemed like endless amounts of energy for someone Doreen’s age, let alone someone of Millicent’s age. “Oh, it’s so good to see you,” she said. “Mack told me about what happened with the jewels I found.”

  Doreen rolled her eyes. “I’m happy to let that case go,” she said. “That was a little rough.”

  “Hey,” the older woman said, beaming, “I really appreciate what you did though.”

  Doreen smiled and nodded. “I didn’t expect it to come out the way it did. I still need to have a talk with Nan about Aretha.”

  “Well, we haven’t heard all the details yet,” she said. “So, if you want to fill me in …” She gave Doreen an enticing smile, hoping that she could coax Doreen into sharing more info. Doreen was happy to oblige. As she weeded in the garden and cleaned up the beds, she told Millicent all about the case.

  “That’s so hard to believe,” the older woman said in amazement. “And why would the jewels end up under my juniper?”

  “Now that,” Doreen said, sitting back on her heels, “I really don’t know, except that Reginald hid them around the city.”

  “And is this the last of them?”

  “Well, it’s the one he came back to get,” Doreen said. “And they were gone.”

  “Of course they were,” Millicent said. “The tree he was looking for was gone.”

  “And, therefore, he probably didn’t know if he had the correct location or if the tree had been downed and then the jewels could have gone into a compost bin or were tossed into the dump or something else. But he couldn’t find them. He did look for his landmark, apparently around your place, as far as I understand though. And he did give it a good search, but it was rough going.”

  Millicent nodded. “We had pulled the tree out after the storm had split the trunk, and the jewels sat there for a while before we discovered them. So anybody could have come and found them first, and we wouldn’t have ever known,” she marveled. “Just think of all this going on around us, and yet we had no idea.”

  “Anyway, it’s all good,” Doreen said. “Heidi will pay for her crimes—however the court ends up deciding the matter—and Aretha hopefully will continue to live in and to look after Heidi’s house.”

  “And that’ll be good for Aretha too,” Millicent said with a knowing nod. “That poor woman needs something good to happen in her life.”

  By the time she had done all the weeding, Doreen had run out of things to talk about. But Millicent was full of questions, and she kept peppering Doreen with a million of them. Millicent totally ag
reed with selling the jewels and turning it into a charity scenario. It had been one of the things that Doreen was a little worried about, as nobody could really lay claim to the jewels. The businesses involved had gone bankrupt, and then so many years had gone by that it was hard to determine exactly who should get any money. She still needed to talk to Mack about it, and that was a bit of a problem because he was avoiding her.

  “And you have a buyer for the emerald?” Millicent asked.

  That launched Doreen into Zachary Winters’s story.

  “Oh, that’s so sweet,” Millicent said. “We definitely need to make sure that Mrs. Winters gets that emerald.”

  “I know,” Doreen said, “but we’ll sell a few of the other gems too.”

  Millicent sighed. “If there aren’t very many, maybe we could split those up. You get one. Mack gets one, and Aretha gets one.”

  Doreen looked at her in surprise. “Well, you know what? That’s not a bad idea. Sell the big ones, then put those funds into the charity, and everybody else can have one of the smaller gems,” she said with a shrug. “I have to get them appraised, just to see what kind of money we’re looking for. Only that didn’t work out so well the first time.”

  “It will now.” Millicent clapped her hands in joy. “Who knew that by asking you to look into this, you’d solve it, and so fast,” she said with an admiring glance at Doreen.

  “I don’t know,” Doreen said. “Seems like it took forever to me.”

  Millicent smiled and shook her head. “And, by the way, I was given a whole bag of zucchini,” she said. “Do you want one or two?”

  “If I knew how to make zucchini bread,” Doreen said, “I’d love some. I could use one maybe.”

  “I made zucchini bread too,” Millicent said. “Hang on a moment.” She hopped up and raced inside.

  While she was gone, Doreen picked up the wheelbarrow full of all the weeds and walked it over to Millicent’s compost bin and quickly emptied the wheelbarrow. It wasn’t her compost pick up this week, so Doreen moved the wheelbarrow back against the shed and tilted it up, so the rain wouldn’t collect in it. When she returned to the deck, the animals were all sitting and paying attention. She looked down at them and said, “Millicent said zucchini, not treats.”

  Millicent’s laughter seeped out through the door. She headed to the animals and gave all three of them a piece of cheese.

  “Wow,” Doreen said. “I didn’t know you were feeding these guys too.”

  “Not all the time,” Millicent said. “But it’s such a joy to have them around.”

  “They’re such moochers,” Doreen said with a laugh.

  “It’s all good,” she said. “And, for that matter, this is for you.” She handed over a couple baby zucchinis and a pack of something wrapped up in tinfoil.

  “What’s in the tinfoil?” Doreen asked, looking at it.

  “Oh my,” she said. “The best zucchini bread ever. Ask Mack. He’ll tell you.”

  “This is your own recipe,” she said, her mouth already watering.

  “Absolutely,” Millicent said. “I don’t even plant zucchinis in the garden anymore because so much comes from a single plant. But I have friends who still plant it, and they give me enough every summer. I’ve already put seven loaves of zucchini bread in the freezer, so please take this one.”

  “What about Mack though?” Doreen asked. “I don’t want him getting shorted of his share.”

  Millicent’s laughter carried across the backyard. “He’d probably thank you for taking some,” she said. “Every time I bake a batch, I give him a whole loaf. He’s protesting that he can’t eat it all, so I’m sure he’s happy that you take some.”

  Doreen wondered about that because none had come her way. So, either Mack was eating it all or he’d frozen a bunch himself. But he never seemed to be sad about taking any from her. She smiled at Millicent and said, “Thank you. I’ll enjoy it thoroughly when I go home.”

  “Good,” she said with a smile.

  And, with that, Doreen led her motley crew around the cul-de-sac and onward to home. With her animals in tow, following along behind her. It would be a busy weekend if she and Mack could get started on the deck like she really wanted to, but she was afraid that they still needed more supplies. On that note, she sent Mack a text. Do we have enough to start on the deck?

  The response came back as, Yes.

  When?

  Probably tomorrow. I’ll stop by later tonight.

  She grinned at that. Dinner?

  Have you got anything?

  Maybe, she replied with a frown as she headed to her house. Let me get inside and check. She disarmed the security and walked into the front room. Without the furniture and with everything still so clean, it was an amazingly spacious-looking house. She headed back into the kitchen, where she set down her goodies and put on the teakettle. Then she checked out the fridge. She still had a few leftover noodles that he had cooked for her, but she was short on meat.

  Leftover pasta, plain, she sent out. No meat.

  Mushrooms?

  Yes. Why?

  A happy face was his response.

  She chuckled. Does that mean dinner? she asked hopefully.

  Maybe. Be there around five-ish, unless you put more work on my plate. She could almost hear the growl in his words.

  She smiled and typed, No, I’m good. I just finished at your mom’s.

  Right. You can fill me in on how that’s going when I get there.

  Immediately she got worried. Was it costing him too much? Because she really didn’t want to lose that money. But, at one point in time, all jobs came to an end. Millicent’s place didn’t need that much work anymore. Doreen could probably keep Mack’s mom’s yard looking good by just going every other week for the same money, which would save them some money but would cost her. Frowning, she pulled out the sandwich fixings and made herself a huge ham and cheese sandwich, with her usual lettuce and tomatoes. On a whim, she sliced zucchini and put the raw zucchini slices on it too.

  She stared at it and wondered, “Maybe that’s a little bit too far.”

  Then she cut a piece of zucchini into little pieces and put it in front of Thaddeus. He walked over and eyed it from all angles before he reached down and pecked a little piece of it. Doreen ate her sandwich with the zucchini slices on it, then shrugged. “It’s not that bad,” she said to Mugs.

  He sat there at attention, looking up at her. Seeing a little bit of ham and cheese sticking out of her sandwich, she broke off a little piece of both and gave it to him.

  Immediately Goliath glided forward, took up a seat in the chair beside her, and stared at her intently. She groaned. “You guys, you have your own food.”

  And she knew that they did because she had fed them herself, but she gave Goliath a little bit of cheese anyway.

  As soon as her sandwich was gone, she got up and made a pot of tea and then brought out the jewels. She should have done this first. She laid them all out and took some photographs, wondering just how this would work. Millicent had a good suggestion about the six little diamonds. Give Mack two. Maybe Doreen could keep two as well, and Aretha could have the other two. She might just sell them for outright cash, given her financial situation.

  Doreen didn’t know what she would do with the loose gems. Mack probably didn’t want his allotment, but she had yet to corner him on this issue. Doreen felt like her two should go to Aretha as well. After all, Doreen’s situation had greatly improved since she had first arrived in Kelowna. When Nan’s antiques sold at Christie’s, Doreen would have plenty. It was still hard to imagine that. Still, she needed to get these jewels appraised by somebody she could entrust with them. Then sell the emerald to Zachary. But didn’t he already pay for this once, some forty years ago?

  Almost as if he knew what she had been thinking about, the phone rang. It was Zachary.

  “I hear you had quite the fun,” he said in a jovial voice.

  “Yes,” she said. “Mystery so
lved.”

  “And I can’t believe it,” he said. “I heard bits and pieces of it.”

  “Well, until the court determines the case,” Doreen said, “nobody can confirm anything.”

  “And does that leave the emerald available for sale?”

  “Potentially it does,” she said drily. “I still haven’t gotten anything appraised.”

  “Of course not,” he said. “And you don’t want to use my appraiser, do you?” His voice held a note of humor, as if understanding full well why she wouldn’t trust them ever again.

  “No,” she said. “Secrecy and privacy are everything in this business, and they have lost my vote.”

  “Good enough,” he said. “It was a deviance from their usual handlings of such matters, what with the extenuating circumstances, but I understand how you feel. Could I possibly have a copy of the appraisal?”

  “Why would I do that?” she asked suspiciously.

  “Because I still want to buy the emerald for my wife,” he said.

  “Wasn’t it already paid for way back when?”

  “Yes, but my insurance covered the loss back then too,” he said. “Too bad the emerald isn’t the same value today that it was back then.”

  “True enough,” she said, not understanding how any of that worked. “Amazing that you got your insurance to pay out, yet Aretha and her husband didn’t.”

  “But I was big on insurance,” he said. “And I had already paid for the gem, and I had a valid receipt, so that loss was covered.”

  “Fine,” she said, “but, like I said, I still have to get the jewels appraised, and then I have to figure out what a good selling price is.”

  “What will you do with the money?”

  “That’s still up for discussion right now,” she said. “Potentially a charity because a lot of fingers are in this pot, but nobody seems to have a legal claim to these other jewels.”

  “Understood,” he said. “Any chance we could wrap this up soon though?”

  “If I could find a trustworthy jeweler who can do the appraisal, maybe,” she said.

  “The diamond exchange,” he said. “They’re coming through town in a couple weeks. You might get someone there to do an appraisal right on the spot.”