Evidence in the Echinacea Read online

  “Yeah, well, I won’t do that,” Doreen said. “I can hardly walk up and say, ‘Hey, Penny, I’m investigating your family. You want to give me all the gory details?’”

  “Why not?” Nan said testily. “You know how much easier it would be if people were honest?”

  “I can’t argue with that,” Doreen said. “Don’t suppose there would be anybody in the old folks’ home who would know, would there?”

  Nan chuckled. “I feel like I’m a really good source of information for you.”

  “I was just thinking about Richie’s age and how much he might know about Penny and maybe Penny’s family.”

  “Not just Richie but possibly Maisie,” Nan said thoughtfully. “But that would mean being nice to her.”

  “Nan, it’s not hard to be nice,” Doreen chided. “Remember that you’re not supposed to get into any more trouble.”

  “Which means I need to avoid Maisie,” Nan said. “Something about that woman just sets me off.”

  “Okay,” Doreen said hurriedly. “Don’t talk to Maisie then. Maybe ask Richie.”

  “I can do that,” she said, and she hung up just as Doreen approached Penny’s place.

  Chapter 15

  Tuesday Morning …

  At Penny’s house Doreen headed straight for the backyard garden where she’d taken the pictures last night, looking for whatever had been shining in the photograph, but she saw no sign of anything. With a shovel she stabbed the area where she thought she had seen it and found a small piece of laminate. Like from an ID card. Since it was a corner with no markings on it, she tossed it aside. I’m wasting time. She glanced around, looking for Penny, but saw no sign of her.

  Penny didn’t have to stay here and watch or work alongside Doreen; it was just a matter of whether Penny wanted to get the work done in time or not. Realizing there was no help for it, Doreen opened the garage door, pulled out the wheelbarrow again, and saw Penny’s car was gone. When empty, the garage appeared huge. It looked so much like a man’s domain that she could understand how this was George’s space.

  She put on the gardening gloves still on the workbench, and one of them caught on a drawer. The drawer popped open. She went to close it but saw a small leather-bound journal facing her. Glancing around, and knowing she had absolutely no business opening it, she picked it up and flipped through it. It looked to be in a man’s handwriting. She’d seen Penny’s handwriting on the letter she’d sent her, and this wasn’t it.

  And then she saw something about Penny in here. Realizing she shouldn’t read it, Doreen put it on top of the bench and closed the drawer, then grabbed the wheelbarrow and headed to the backyard. As she dug away, gathering soil from the backyard to transport to the front yard, she couldn’t stop thinking about that journal. She filled the wheelbarrow with as much dirt as she could handle, turned around, and walked it slowly back out to the front yard, where she dumped it in the garden bed. She did this four more times; then she grabbed her water, wiping the sweat off her forehead, and returned to where she’d left the journal.

  She took off her gloves, flipped though the book again. No name was on it, but it appeared to be ramblings all within the last year of George’s life. There were sporadic dates as well as lots of entries with no dates. Toward the end was a single line: I have no choice. Hearing a vehicle, Doreen dropped the journal back into the drawer, pulled up her water bottle, and stepped out as Penny drove into the driveway.

  She waved and honked and pulled up beside the garden bed. She hopped out and said, “I knew we were short on time, so I picked up the extra soil, so you didn’t have to.”

  “Good,” Doreen said, delighted at Penny’s thoughtfulness, making her own actions feel that much worse. “I wasn’t sure how I would manage it all. I’ve moved five wheelbarrows full of soil from the backyard garden. Take a look and see if you’re okay with how I’ve been taking out the dirt.”

  Penny nodded and said, “If you want to bring the wheelbarrow here, we can unload this.”

  Doreen nodded and brought over the wheelbarrow, wondering how she’d become a heavy laborer. She had less muscle than so many people. She lifted and moved the potting soil bags to the wheelbarrow and then dropped them off beside the new garden bed. She took the shovel and smoothed around the dirt. She looked to Penny and said, “Do you have a hose?”

  “Of course.” Penny went into the garage again, brought out a hose, hooked it up to a water tap just outside the large garage door, and handed the other end to her.

  Doreen soaked down the dirt she’d brought here, wondering how she could open up a discussion on Penny’s family. “I’ll get a couple more wheelbarrows full.” She shut off the water, grabbed her shovel and wheelbarrow, and headed to the back. Penny came with her.

  Doreen said, “I noticed how much space is in your garage. It’s amazing that you don’t have all the junk like I have in mine.”

  “They’re probably about the same size garages too,” Penny said, looking over her shoulder at her garage, still open. “I don’t even notice it. I never go in except to park and to go through to the house. Now that I’m selling though, I imagine I’ll have fun trying to clean out George’s stuff.”

  “Have you still got all his stuff in the house too?”

  Penny shook her head. “No, I cleared out all his clothing and most of his personal belongings. I gave it all to Goodwill. But something about the garage is a bit daunting.”

  “I might be able to help you,” Doreen said. “But I admit, for the moment, I’m pretty busy.”

  “Well, if you have time,” Penny said in delight, “it would be lovely to get a spare hand or two. I figured I would just open up the back of the car and fill it and take it all down to Goodwill. If you want anything here, you’re welcome to have it.”

  “Maybe I’ll take a look a little later,” Doreen said. “I’d love to recreate that same setup at my garage.”

  “Absolutely nothing in there I want,” Penny said, “so help yourself. Take it all if you want. Including the benches as far as I’m concerned. I’ll run out and grab some groceries. I meant to do that before, but I figured you would be here working and needed the potting soil first.” On that note she drove away again.

  Doreen immediately stopped what she was doing, picked up the journal, and stuffed it in her little bag. That was one thing she definitely wanted. She returned to her work, and, by the time Penny came back, all the dirt from the backyard had been moved over, all the potting soil bags had been emptied and mixed in—but for two bags still left on the side to heap around the transplanted plants.

  She next moved to the black-eyed Susans, finding two lovely little clumps to transplant. She brought them out to the front yard carefully in the wheelbarrow and planted them across from each other. She was thinking of a sundial type of a system. With both planted, she again went to the backyard, hunting out more options. She found two smaller clumps of daisies, just starting to bud. They were kind of late for her, but the clumps were really compacted, which would explain it. She hoped they would survive the transplant. Even if they didn’t bloom right now, they certainly would pick up and do well next year. Daisies were like that—they were hardy.

  The animals made every trip with her until they slowly dropped to the side and just watched her.

  Doreen straightened, rubbed her shoulders, and pulled an apple from her bag. She munched away as she wandered through the garage. While Penny wasn’t here, Doreen went through all the drawers, looking for anything else of interest. But there didn’t appear to be much. She found lots of sandpaper and metal files and stuff. She was fascinated by the tools and really would love to have a bunch of them because she had so many renos to do. She wasn’t all that handy herself, or at least didn’t know if she was or not, but she couldn’t even begin to determine that if she didn’t have tools. She’d find a way to empty her damn garage so she could get it set up like this.

  On the walls were boards with holes in them, full of hooks and tools hun
g in neat and tidy rows across the wall. There were hammers and chisels and so much more—everything one could possibly want. If Penny wanted to get rid of it, well, dare she hope Doreen could have it all? Just then Penny’s vehicle pulled back in again. She turned and waved as Penny pulled up into the garage. Penny hopped out and said, “See what I mean? There’s just so much of it.”

  Mugs came over to greet Penny.

  Doreen nodded. “I have so much work to do on my house, and I really could use what’s here.”

  “Take it all then,” Penny said. “I’ve already asked my daughters, and they don’t want anything, not to mention the fact they’re back East, so it’ll be much harder for them to get stuff.”

  Doreen pointed Penny to the new bed as they both walked to the garden and said, “This is what I’ve done so far. What do you think?” She explained which plants were which and what else she planned to do.

  Penny nodded enthusiastically. “We should have done this a long time ago,” she said. “When you consider how overgrown those plants are in the backyard, they probably should have been divided a long time ago.”

  She walked back to the car, unloaded the groceries, and said, “I’ve picked up some doughnuts. I’ll come out with a cup of coffee for you and a doughnut in a few minutes.”

  At that, Doreen laughed and said, “Thanks, I could use the sugar.” And she returned to the back garden. She studied the painted daisies, but they weren’t in great shape, and they would be much smaller. With that thought in mind, she found two small ones and put them together at the front of the new bed.

  And then she wanted the echinacea, and these plants would be smaller at the beginning but would grow higher, so she wanted them at the back of the new bed on both sides. So she went to the big pile of echinacea at the rear gate in the backyard. It wasn’t that it was in any better shape, but it happened to be the clump she was interested in. She gently loosened the roots and divided off several good-size plants. She wouldn’t mind having three for along the back of the front bed because, when it came to blooms, they were really stunning. She didn’t know the height of the daisies that she’d put in. She was used to daisies that grew a good three feet high. There might be some adjustments down the road, depending on what the garden looked like when the roots fully took. Moving carefully, she brought the echinacea clumps to the front.

  Just then Penny popped out of the front door with a cup of coffee. She looked at the echinacea and said, “Oh, I thought you would take it from the good bed.”

  “That’s one of the reasons why I took it from the one at the fence back there,” Doreen said. “They didn’t look to be doing too well there.”

  “I thought we were trying to make this prettier though,” Penny said, worrying at the bed. “Oh, you found the painted daisies. Those are pretty there.”

  “Yes,” Doreen said. “Do you have a birdbath or a centerpiece of some kind? We discussed the weeping maple, but I don’t think that’s a good idea now.”

  “I have a tall lamp. It’s solar. I took it out from the backyard because it was in danger of being completely overgrown. Let me see if I can find it.” She placed a cup of coffee down on the ground where Doreen could reach it and disappeared.

  Doreen took a big slug of water followed by a sip of coffee. Goliath snoozed on the porch steps; Mugs was at her feet, content. Thaddeus had taken up residence at the railing again. She reassessed her day’s work. Time was speeding by, and she still had to fix the holes in the back gardens where she’d taken all these plants. She personally thought a nice centerpiece and some white rock around the base would really set off this new bed, but she’d also promised to give this bed some sort of a finished edge.

  Once she was done with the transplanting, she could dump the rest of the potting soil in and around and pack the plants in tight. She wiped her forehead and decided she should check her phone. She’d turned it off while she was working, and, sure enough, there was a call from Nan. Glancing around, she called her grandmother back. “Hey, Nan. What’s up?”

  “Are you working at Penny’s?”

  “Yes,” she said, taking a couple deep breaths. “And it’s hard work. But I’m hoping to be done today.”

  “I thought you didn’t have to be done until tomorrow.”

  “I forgot about the brick edging to finish off the new bed,” she said with her shoulders sagging. “It’ll be tomorrow before I’m done for sure.”

  “Anyway I did hear some news I thought you’d like to know,” Nan said. “Well, you know Penny was from the lower mainland. That’s where he died.”

  “Who died?” Doreen asked, trying to follow the conversation.

  “Penny’s brother, and I guess eventually her father, although I don’t know of what.”

  “Thanks for this. I can call you back when I get home tonight, particularly if you have any more information for me.”

  Nan lowered her voice. “Can’t talk now, can you, huh?” she asked in a loud raspy whisper.

  Doreen groaned. “Not really.”

  “Okay, fine,” Nan said, “interesting,” and, with that, she hung up.

  Doreen wanted to scream. Interesting was a heck of a hook to end that conversation on, but leave it to Nan to add a bit of drama to the moment. Doreen wondered what betting pool Nan was setting up on this one. But her deadline loomed, and she really wanted to be done with this job. Before it did her in. She also had to get home to the guys working on the antiques. So it was a good thing she had tomorrow morning still.

  Just then Penny came back with a very tall solar garden lamp. She said, “This used to have a big cement block that it gets screwed into, but I don’t know where the block went.”

  Doreen looked at it and said, “This is lovely and would look wonderful in the center.” She placed it in the middle of the bed for a look.

  “That’s really nice,” Penny said again with a big smile. “I don’t know why I didn’t do this before.”

  “We do need something for a base to support it. What about the cement thing around back at the corner of the house?”

  Penny looked at her in surprise and darted out of sight. She came back a little later, rolling a great big round cylinder. “I don’t know how you managed to see this,” she said, stopping near the bed, out of breath, “but it’s exactly what I was talking about. The holes are a bit dirty though. I don’t know if we can clean them out.”

  While Penny rested for a moment, Doreen had her hold the lamp. Then Doreen got the hose and cleaned the holes in cement base. “Do you have any bolts?”

  “Somewhere,” she said doubtfully, “but I don’t know where.”

  “Do you mind if I look in the garage?” Doreen asked.

  Penny nodded. “Like I said, you can have anything you want in there.”

  “Then I want it all,” Doreen said, laughing. She opened drawers until she found a couple bolts, looked at them, and nodded. She came out with nuts, bolts, and washers. She tried them for size and said, “Look at that? They fit.”

  Together the two women put the bolts through the lamp base and into the big cement block, and then, with a washer and a nut on the other side, Doreen manually tightened each down. She had to go back to the garage and get a wrench in order to tighten them all securely.

  “You’re really handy, aren’t you?”

  Doreen chuckled. “Don’t tell my ex that,” she said. “He thought I was useless.”

  It took the two of them to lift the block and lamp into place in the newly redesigned bed.

  Doreen realigned it and said, “Penny, walk over to the end of the driveway and see which way it looks best.”

  With Penny at the driveway telling Doreen to turn it slightly left and then a little more until finally she was satisfied, Doreen pushed down the block as deep into the bed as she could get it and then packed the displaced dirt up and around it. Afterward she sat back and looked at it. “You know something? That looks really nice.”

  “Just imagine when it’s full of fl
owers,” Penny said, smiling. “Now we just need a border.” She looked at what was there and said, “I know something’s already there, but it’s half buried in the dirt and looks pretty rough.”

  “Well, maybe we can just hose it all off.” Doreen grabbed the hose and washed the bricks on the outside edge of the bed. It would be easier on her if she didn’t have to create a new border and could instead just clear off the old one. She turned to Penny and said, “Do you have a nozzle where I can get a harder spray out of this?”

  At that, Penny looked doubtful. “I can take a look on the backyard hose,” she said, “but I don’t think so.” She went around to the back, while Doreen used her thumb to make a more forceful spray. Soon she found the ring of bricks, almost completely buried under the dirt. But she worked harder at uncovering them because this would save her a ton of time. As it was, she would go home now. She could finish this up in the morning.

  Penny came back and said, “No, I don’t think so.”

  Doreen nodded. “This brick edging will take a couple hours to clean up, and I have to go home now, but we’ve done a ton today. How about I come back early tomorrow morning? I can have this looking pretty decent before the photographer gets here.”

  Penny smiled. “It’s after six o’clock. Do you think your movers are gone?”

  Doreen looked at her in shock. “Is it after six? Good Lord, I’m seriously late. I will see you in the morning.” And, with that, she scooped up the leash hooked on Mugs and called Goliath, who was lying in the far corner of the garden, as far away from the hose’s water spray as he could get. She tucked up Thaddeus onto her shoulder, and she raced home. By the time she got there, she was out of breath, and Mugs, who had run all the way with her, panted heavily. She groaned when she saw the house was dark and closed. But, of course, the movers wouldn’t have known to set the security alarm. Sighing, she opened the back door and stepped in.

  Chapter 16

  Tuesday Early Evening …