Bones in the Begonias Read online

  On that thought, Mack came to mind. Again. The detective was well over six foot—his shoulders were almost as broad as he was tall. He was a big mountain of a man. But, so far, he’d been very gentle and kind to her. Although she exasperated him more than anything.

  But all for the right reasons …

  Chapter 2

  Unfortunately Doreen wasn’t sure Mack believed that though. Nor had he believed her at first about the dead bodies. It took closing an old cold case and several more current cases before he did. So, all in all, Mack should be thanking her. Maybe he should even be paying her for her assistance. She brightened for a moment, contemplating the idea of a fat check coming from the local Royal Canadian Mounted Police and then shook her head.

  “Not going to happen.”

  She shrugged. It was her current reality. And, for whatever it was worth, she was a whole lot happier now than when she had been a plastic Barbie who never worried about money.

  She stared at the scratch on her palm, blood already welling up. She should have worn gardening gloves. No point looking at her damaged nails. Besides, she couldn’t see them for the dirt.

  “Doreen?”

  She spun around and yelled, “I’m in the back!” She turned toward the felled wire fence and sighed. This would make a mess of her hands. And possibly her back. She headed to her teacup, scooped it off the rock, and took a sip. When she heard footsteps, she pivoted to see Mack walking toward her, holding Goliath while scratching his furry head, and talking to Mugs who had run to greet him. She set down her cup and beamed. There was just something about Mack …

  Mack grinned, setting the cat free on the grass, giving Mugs a smile and a quick ear rub. “Leave you alone for a week and look at you. You’re ripping the place apart.”

  She laughed. “Well, someone had to,” she said with a smile.

  Thaddeus decided to join them now, landing inside the backyard.

  “Hey, boy,” Mack said, waiting for the bird to walk to him for a quick pat on the head.

  All three animals clustered nearby to watch the big man.

  “What brings you by?” Doreen asked.

  He pointed to the front of the house. “Is that crowd bothering you?”

  She shrugged. “The notoriety is definitely different. Can’t say I’m accustomed to it. However, the stress is easing slightly.”

  “Well, you are accustomed to notoriety, just not necessarily at this level.”

  She winced at the reminder of her wealthy now-estranged husband and the number of times she’d been photographed as his partner at one do or another. She nodded. “Point to you. Doesn’t necessarily mean I like the sensationalism though.”

  He motioned to the fence. “Did you mean to take that down?”

  She glared at him. “Does it look like I did it by accident?”

  He laughed. “With you, anything’s possible.” He walked over and tested the corner post. “This won’t stand for long either.” He looked at the long and rambling busted-up fence on the side edge of her property shared with one neighbor and the big fancy fence butted up against it that was her neighbor’s. “Are you going to remove this side too?”

  “Is there any reason I can’t and just use the neighbor’s fence?”

  He shrugged. “That’s what I’d do.”

  With a big fat smile, she asked, “Can you pull out the last of those posts?” She was almost rubbing her hands together in joy at the thought of getting rid of this huge eyesore. Having this much of the ragtag fencing down had opened up so much of the creek’s natural beauty that she couldn’t wait to get rid of the rest of her creekside fence.

  It seemingly took him nothing but the same effort to lift a cup of coffee, and he had the huge iron post up and out of the ground.

  She couldn’t even rock the pole slightly.

  “It’s a big mess back here,” Mack said. “For now, the only good place to drag this old fencing is in the middle of the backyard. It’ll take some of this plant stuff here with it.”

  “That plant stuff you’re talking about happens to be perennial bushes that I would like to keep.”

  He glared at her but twisted so he had the post with both hands, pulled it higher over his head, and dragged what he could toward the center of her backyard where it ended up in a big heap on the lawn. “You’ll need some good wire cutters to clip this into manageable pieces.”

  “What I need is a truck to make a trip to the dump,” she announced. “I can’t get very much in my car at one time.”

  “After you work on Mom’s garden project, we’ll probably make a trip to the dump, depending on how much yard waste we need to get rid of at Mom’s house and how much new compost we may need to add. We can always take some of your yard debris at the same time.”

  She beamed. “Now that would be lovely.” Then she frowned. “I don’t think I have any tools that will cut up this wire fencing.”

  “I don’t know. Nan had a whole pile of them in the hall closet.”

  Doreen glanced at him in surprise and then remembered the hall closet full of an odd assortment of things. “You could be right. I’ll go check.” She started toward the house before suddenly turning and calling out, “Careful! Don’t hurt those plants!”

  He shot her a look but continued to struggle with the posts.

  Leaving him standing there, tugging at more fencing, trying to pull it up without damaging the plants, she headed inside to the closet. Once there, she wasn’t exactly sure what wire cutters looked like. She found a hammer though—she needed that to pull out the nails in the wooden boards on the fallen pieces of fencing.

  She grabbed what looked like two pairs of something—possibly what she needed—and, with the hammer, raced back outside. As she reached Mack, she held them up and said, “Ta-da.”

  He took one look, and his smile fell away. He started to laugh.

  “What’s wrong with that?”

  He pointed to one and said, “Those are fancy toenail clippers for a dog.”

  She stared at them and then over at Mugs, who gave her a look that could have said, “Don’t you dare.”

  She shook her head. “I’ve never seen any like this.”

  “It certainly won’t cut wire. Now these, on the other hand,” he said, taking the other pair that looked like weird shears to her, “will probably do it.” He tested them on the center post he had pulled out. Instantly the wire snapped under his grip. He went to the main rod, cutting the wire off there and said, “Now do that to every one of those posts and separate the wire so you can roll it into a bundle.”

  She nodded eagerly. “I can do that.” While she’d been searching for tools, he’d pulled out the rest of the main posts. Some of the plants were likely damaged, but she would spend the afternoon cutting this fencing monstrosity into something easier to handle. She smiled. “You can see how much better it looks already.”

  He turned and studied her massive backyard all the way to the creek and nodded. “You’re right. Just getting rid of that ugly nightmare has opened it up beautifully. But you don’t want a fence at the back?”

  She shook her head. “No, I want to see the creek. It’s beautiful.” She led him to where she’d been standing earlier. “I think I would put a patio in here.”

  “Don’t let the government know about that,” he warned. “This is a riparian zone. You’re not allowed to do anything without a mess of permits.”

  She lifted her eyebrows. “Permits? It’s my land. Why can’t I put down some flagstones?”

  He shrugged. “All I can tell you is, you’ll probably need a permit to do even that much.”

  She frowned, disgruntled. The last thing she wanted was anybody to stop her gardening fun. “I can just make it gravel then. I don’t know. That’s not a top priority. I have this lovely bank and a small path and the bridge. Although old, it’s solid.” Except for where she’d put her foot through one of the boards last week.

  The bridge theoretically could be used by anyone, bu
t she’d never seen anybody walking that creekside path, as it was quite overgrown and not very popular. But, for Mugs, it was a great way to get exercise. He could use it.

  Just then Thaddeus hopped onto the pad of paper on the rock, sending it and her pencil flying into her teacup. The teacup fell with a crash to the rocks below, and Thaddeus hopped farther away from the damage. But, of course, in his high piercing voice, he called out, “Damn thing. Damn thing.”

  “Oh, Thaddeus, why do you say that?” She walked over, collected the busted pieces of china and the pad of paper, now covered in tea. It was her fault. She shouldn’t have put it here. But she had no table or outdoor chairs at this spot that she could have otherwise used.

  “I see you’re teaching him more words.” Mack kept his voice carefully bland.

  She sent him a suspicious look. “Not intentionally.”

  He chuckled. “I’m pretty sure that damn bird will pick up everything you don’t want him to.”

  Thaddeus looked at Mack with beady eyes, tilted his head to one side, and said, “Damn bird. Damn bird. Damn bird.”

  She groaned. “Watch what you say around him.”

  Mack held out his hands. “Me? I’m not the one who taught him the first phrase.”

  “But now you have taught him the second one,” she snapped. “Before we know it, he’ll know all the curse words and shock the neighbors.”

  “I think you’ve already shocked the neighbors,” Mack said with a grin. “Finding bodies, capturing a murderer, and solving a case that has been cold for a long time all definitely counts as shocking the neighbors.”

  She blushed at the admiration in his tone. “Well, I did my best. Besides, you needed my help.”

  “I did not need your help,” he blustered. “I have been a detective for a long time, solving crimes well before you ever came here.”

  “Yes, but you didn’t solve this one, did you?” She couldn’t help teasing him.

  “Well, how was I to know you had a body hidden on your property?”

  She shrugged. “At least we solved it,” she said, magnanimously adding, “the two of us together.”

  He hesitated, tilted his head in her direction. “Okay, I’ll give you that. We did that one together.”

  She beamed. “Now that Thaddeus has emptied my tea and broken my cup, do you want to go inside and have a cup of tea?”

  He shook his head. “I’ll take a rain check on that. I stopped by to ask if you could come to my mother’s house. She’s got a patch of begonias she’s fretting about. I don’t know if you can fix them. But, while we’re there, we could discuss what to do and when.”

  Doreen donned her expert gardener face. “Of course I know how to deal with ailing begonias. I have begonias here that need to get into the ground. They were dug out when your department came and removed the body. The first one.”

  He nodded. “And since I mentioned that begonias had been pulled out here, my mother has been fretting over the begonias in her garden.”

  “When do you want to go?”

  He hesitated. “I don’t want her to worry, so would you mind coming with me now, just to take a quick look? We’ll come up with a plan on what we can do with them.”

  Excited, Doreen said, “Absolutely. Let’s go.”

  They walked around to the driveway. Ignoring the people standing and staring outside her house, not saying a word to anyone, Doreen hopped into his truck, Mugs trying to follow her. “Okay if Mugs rides with us?”

  Only it wasn’t just Mugs as Goliath raced toward them, Thaddeus squawking from the porch before soaring in their direction.

  “Everyone? Really?” Mack sighed and allowed time for Doreen to pick up her menagerie. When they were all in the vehicle, he reversed out of her driveway and drove the five minutes to his mother’s house. It was close enough to walk, but then they would have been accosted by all the curious onlookers.

  As they got out of his vehicle, he said, “She should be napping still. I left her ready to go to sleep and came straight to your place.” They slipped around to the back, and he pointed out a large patch that wasn’t doing very well.

  Doreen sighed. “If these are begonias, they’ve definitely seen better days.” She wandered the large six-foot-plus patch and then bent down on her hands and knees, plunging her fingers into the dirt, checking and testing the soil. “I’m not exactly sure what’s wrong with them. Is there a shovel handy?”

  He brought over a small spade. She dug in close to the roots on the first bush, pulling up some of the dirt so she could see the root system. After scooping away several spades full, she stopped, brushed off some of the dirt against the tubers, and took a closer look. “They’re definitely not happy. How often are they getting water?”

  “There are sprinklers and soaker hoses on timers. So they should be getting plenty.”

  She nodded and shifted her spade back a little bit, so she could pull out more dirt. Some perlite was all around the base of the plant, but the black dirt was decent. Although plenty of clay was here too, it appeared to be absorbing enough water. As she pulled up another handful, she froze.

  Mack bent down beside her. “What’s the matter?”

  She plucked up something white, dropping it in his hand. She turned to look at him. “Is this what I think it is?”

  He frowned, shook his head, but his mouth opened, and then he froze. “I sure as hell hope not.”

  “It would be fitting,” she said in a dark tone.

  “How?” he barked, his gaze on what was in his hand.

  She snickered. “Bones in the begonias, anyone?”

  Chapter 3

  Mack glared at her. “That’s not funny.”

  Doreen slapped her hands over her mouth to hold back the giggles and stared at Mack. “Then tell me it’s not human.”

  The glum look on his face said it all. “I can’t say that.”

  She peered closer. “That could be a raccoon bone. It could be a bone from a squirrel. There’s no way we can say it’s human right now.”

  He reached into his pocket, pulled out a small bag, and stuffed the bone in there. “There is one way. I’ll take it to the lab. But they’ll need a few days.”

  “Good,” she said shortly. “I need more than a week between bodies, please.”

  At that, he gave her a sideways look and grinned. The grin quickly turned into an infectious laugh.

  She stared at him, feeling her own sense of humor returning. “The only funny thing I see about this is the fact that, this time, it’s your mother’s property.”

  Instantly his laughter cut off. He glared at her. “That’s not funny.”

  She smiled sweetly. “No, but it’s true.” She stood, glanced around. “And your mom has a lovely garden back here. If there are bones in the begonias, well, maybe it’s not her fault either.” She glanced at him. “How long has she lived here?”

  He frowned. “I was born and raised here. And she was here probably soon after she married my father.” He turned his gaze to the house. “I don’t exactly know how many years ago though. Fiftyish?”

  “Might be time to find out.” Ignoring him, she walked the length of the begonia bed, then surveyed the whole backyard garden. “Everything is healthy but the begonias. So we can transplant them to another location, turn this particular plot of soil over, enrich it with some peat moss, fertilizer, and some perlite—maybe new soil, depending on the last time your mother boosted this area. Then plant a different perennial there.”

  Willing to change the subject, he turned to the rest of the garden. “Where would you put the begonias?”

  “Begonias love sun.” She turned in a slow circle, studying the garden that ran the perimeter of the backyard. “There’s a lot of sun on that back fence over there.” She walked closer and studied the big daisy bushes in the spot she had in mind. “Daisies will grow in poorer conditions. We could do a switch. Move the daisies to where the begonias are.”

  She contemplated the idea as she gl
anced around at a few other bushes. “You’ve also got a big spot here.” She walked to a patch of bare garden beside some azaleas and what looked like a big rhododendron. “You can always split up the daisies and pop one in here and scatter them around the yard. They throw a nice touch of white color throughout the summer.”

  “I’ll talk to my mother about that.”

  Doreen nodded. “You do that. In the meantime, when you decide what you want to do, you can give me a call. We’ll walk home, except I guess Goliath will do what he wants to do.” She gave Mack a cheerful finger wave and headed out the backyard gate. “Come on, Mugs and Thaddeus. We’ve done enough damage here.”

  Thaddeus walked toward her, calling out, “Damn bone. Damn bone.”

  She sighed. “That’s not quite what we said, Thaddeus.”

  Thaddeus tilted his head to the side as he started forward.

  She held the gate open for him, and, before he passed through, a golden streak raced through the opening. It almost sent poor Thaddeus tumbling. “Goliath, remember your manners.”

  Goliath stopped, turned, gave Doreen a malevolent look, and slowly loped forward.

  She bent and caught Thaddeus. “How about a ride, big guy?” She popped Thaddeus on her shoulder.

  He leaned forward and stroked his head along her cheek. “Thank you. Thank you.”

  She laughed. “That was appropriate. Who taught you to talk anyway?”

  “Miss Nan. Miss Nan.”

  Instantly Doreen felt homesick. “Well, we can go the long way home and stop to visit her, if you want. Or maybe go to town after a cup of tea?”

  With a nod of Thaddeus’s head at her second suggestion, she opted for heading home.

  As she carried on past the fence, she cast a glance behind her to see Mack standing in his mother’s backyard, his hands on his hips as he watched her with her trio maneuver toward the creek path. She waved again. He waved back, but she caught the odd look on his face. Whether it was because he heard her talking to the bird or because of the begonias and whatever they’d found, she didn’t know.