Narcissist in the Daffodils

  The Narcissist

  In the

  Daffodils

  A Greene Fields Mystery

  This is a work of fiction. All characters, organizations, and events portrayed are either a product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

  Narcissist in the Daffodils

  A Greene Fields Mystery

  Copyright © 2018 Willow River Press

  Imprint of Between the Lines Publishing

  Between the Lines Publishing

  2515 White Bear Ave N

  Maplewood, MN 55109

  www.btwnthelines.com

  Printed in the United States of America

  All rights reserved

  Chapter 1

  Penelope stared at the phone. Had she really heard that right? She had just hung up with her cousin, Sorrel. There had been some sort of incident at the Greene Fields, the gardening center that Penelope and Sorrel ran. She had inherited the store from their grandmother when Penelope was 30. Two years later, she and Sorrel had settled into a nice partnership. Sorrel handled the flowers, and Penelope handled the vegetables and fruit.

  Bramble grunted as he shifted on the other side of the bed. The large Lab yawned and looked over at Penelope. She shrugged at the Lab. “Looks like I have to head down to the gardening center.” Penelope laughed as Bramble stretched and got up. “I gather you are coming with me, huh?”

  The dog went over and nudged his vest. Sorrel and Penny had gotten him a vest with the Greene Fields logo, the silhouette of a meadow in an oval frame with the words Greene Fields over the top. Penelope shook her head at the dog. “You aren’t going to work. Come on. We gotta hurry.” Penelope looped her red hair into a hair tie and hurried to the door.

  The whole way to the Greene Fields, Penelope tried to think what would bring the police out to their garden center. Sorrel hadn’t really known the nature of the occurrence, as she had just gotten a call from the police asking her to come down. She had called Penny to let her know before she left to meet the police there.

  It’s two in the morning, so it had to be something awful. A fire? A burglary? Penelope shook her head. Bramble put his paw on her leg, and she gave the dog’s ear a scratch as she drove down the road. Her truck protested driving so quickly on such a chilly night.

  The truck was a beat-up old Ford 1966 F-250 long-bed truck that had belonged to her father. It gave her a world of trouble sometimes, but she could not bring herself to part with it. Her dad had been the one who got her into gardening as a child while he helped her grandmother run Greene Fields.

  Penelope gasped as she turned into the driveway leading up to the modest parking lot, which was hidden behind some pines. Even through the pines, she could see the police lights. As she entered the lot, she saw an ambulance and her heart leaped. What had happened?

  She parked as quickly as she could, and soon she and Bramble were making their way toward the flashing lights of the police cars and ambulance that were parked on the grass close to the building. As much as she hated to see the grass messed up, Penelope was more concerned as to why an ambulance was necessary.

  As she approached, she heard Sorrel’s aggravated voice. “I told you that I just got here. You know where I live, Leo.”

  Penelope’s stomach did a most unpleasant flip. Leo was there? Leo Solomon had been her high school sweetheart. Everyone had thought they were going to get married and have a beautiful family. Everyone except for Penelope and Leo, that is. They split up when Leo went off to college after high school. When he had moved back to town a couple of years ago and taken a spot on the Fall Creek police force as a detective, Penelope had been happy to see the man. They had remained cordial, but that was it.

  “What’s going on?” Penelope asked as she and Bramble came to a stop near Sorrel. She eyed Leo questioningly.

  Leo gave her an uncomfortable smile. “It’s just procedure, Penny.”

  “What’s just procedure?” Penelope asked as she put her hands on her hips.

  Sorrel shook her head and pointed at Leo. “He thinks I killed Elizabeth Rhodes!”

  “Wait, what? Elizabeth is dead?” The question had barely left Penelope’s mouth when a couple of EMTs came out of the garden center gate with a stretcher. The occupant was covered with a sheet. Penelope put her hand over her mouth and mumbled, “I think I am going to be sick.” She wheeled back around on Leo, who raised his hands as if to ward off an attack. “There was a dead woman in my garden center? Where? How? What is going on?”

  Sorrel waved her hands. “Never mind the how. Why are you picking on me? Your department called and woke me up, Leo. I can’t be in two places at once!”

  Leo cleared his throat. “If you ladies will just calm down.” He glanced around. Some of the other officers were looking over at the group of them.

  “How can I calm down when you are accusing me of murder?” Sorrel was beside herself, rubbing her right arm with her left palm in agitation. It was a nervous habit the woman often did.

  Penelope put her arm around Sorrel’s shoulder. “Deep breaths. I’m sure that Leo doesn’t think you killed anyone.”

  “I just have to ask certain questions, Sorrel. Look, I’m sorry that I have to do this, but I need to know where you both were between 1 and 2 a.m.” Leo had a notepad and was waiting for them.

  Penelope and Sorrel both said, “Asleep!”

  Sorrel grumped, “You guys woke me up, Leo. Then I called Penelope and woke her up. We were both home in bed.”

  “Can anyone verify that?” Leo looked at them both in turn.

  Penelope laughed. “Are you kidding? No. You could try asking Bramble; he was with me.” Leo’s eyes went down to the golden Labrador sitting beside Penelope. Penelope shook her head at the man. “You know that we both live alone. Sorrel called, and I came to see what was going on.”

  “Where was she? How did she even get in there?” Sorrel was shaking her head. Penelope gave the woman’s shoulders a squeeze.

  Leo sighed. “She was found in greenhouse #3. I’d love to know how she got in or who she was in there with. The gates were all unlocked. Someone with a key was in there.” He said softly, “Look, I have to ask these questions, because the only leads we have are that a woman called 911 to report an accident at Greene Fields at 2 a.m. and that the gates were all unlocked, so someone who has access to Greene Fields had to be in there with her.”

  “Okay, I definitely get why you would think it is us, but couldn’t someone have picked the locks or something?” Penelope was getting a sinking feeling, and she did not like it.

  Leo nodded slowly. “I’ll have them check, but there didn’t appear to be any forced entry. Is there anyone other than you two who has a key to the garden center?”

  “No,” Sorrel said, then she frowned. “Well, Margaret does.” Penelope nodded to confirm Sorrel’s statement.

  As he wrote on his notepad, Leo asked, “Margaret Clems?” When Penelope nodded, he said, “I’ll need to speak with her.”

  “She’s on vacation in Florida,” Penelope said with a sigh. “She’s not due back until next week.”

  Leo frowned. “Where in Florida?”

  Sorrel let out a deep breath. “She went to Tampa, didn’t she? With her sister and family?”

  “Yeah, they were going to go to some resorts or something,” Penelope said. “Sorry, Leo; it’s just late.”

  He nodded. His curly brown hair blew ever so slightly in the night breeze that swirled across the parking lot as he looked at Penelope. “I’ll be in touch.”

  Penelope nodded as the man walked away. Sorrel whispered to Penelope, “Why would someone do something like that here?”

  “I don’t know, but I’m going to fin
d out,” Penelope said with conviction.

  Bramble ambled over to Penelope, who was shifting some of the new tomato plants into a wheelbarrow to display them for purchase. Penelope scratched the dog’s ears as he sat down next to her. “Working hard?” Penelope asked Bramble, who just wagged his tail at her as if to agree. “Well, come on. Let’s get these tomatoes out there. I know some ladies who will be very eager to get them in their gardens. Aren’t they pretty this year?”

  Penelope pushed the wheelbarrow out front. Tom, their summer help, came over. “Need some help?”

  “Nah, I’m just taking them to this table here.” Penelope nodded to the table in front of her.

  Tom hesitated for a moment before he said, “I was awful sorry to hear about what happened last night, Miss Penelope.”

  Penelope gave the man a smile. “Yeah. Me too. Leo said he’d need a statement from all of us, so don’t forget to go to the station.” Penelope gave the man a sympathetic look at the frown on his face. “I know it’s a place you really hoped to never go in this town, but they do need all our statements.”

  He nodded. “I know. I’ll go right after lunch.” Penelope nodded and watched the man go back to loading Sorrel’s flowers up on the table near the door.

  “Well, I for one was glad to hear the news,” Mabel Shelton’s voice rang out from the cash register. “Oh, Bert, don’t give me that sanctimonious look. Just because the woman is dead doesn’t make her a saint. Not everyone who dies is going upstairs, ya know?”

  Bert Griffin, a retired firefighter who had a passion for petunias these days, rolled his eyes at Mabel. “You might want to hope that I'm generous when you die, then, Mabel.”

  “Oh posh; you know that woman never did anyone a kindness in her life. Leo has his work cut out for him. Half the town wanted that woman dead.” Mabel folded her arms and stared defiantly at the tall, silver-haired man who was behind her in line. Sorrel shook her head she rang the woman’s order up. Mabel patted her white bun that was held precariously on her head with a pair of chopsticks. “I don’t hear any of you denying it.”

  Bert snorted. “What good would it do? The woman was not a pleasant sort. It doesn’t make her death any less of a crime.” He folded his arms and stared back at the woman.

  “Here’s your receipt, Miss Mabel,” Sorrel said softly as she held the paper out to the woman.

  Mabel took it with a warm smile. “You give your cousin my best. If you two did do it—and I’m not saying you did—then there’s a lot of people in this county who would say you did the place a benefit.”

  “We didn’t kill anyone, but thanks,” Sorrel said as her brows furrowed. Mabel gave Sorrel’s hand an affectionate squeeze before she left with her bag of bulbs.

  Bert stepped up to the cash register. “What do you think? Mabel good for it?”

  Sorrel snickered. “I think Mabel is more a talker than a killer.”

  “Probably so,” Bert said with a sigh. Sorrel just shook her head at the man and rang up his new batch of petunias. She handed him the receipt, and he thanked her kindly. “See you next week, Sorrel!”

  Sorrel lifted her hand as the man walked toward the exit. Bert waved at Penelope as well, who was walking over to Sorrel. Penelope stopped near her, and they exchanged a look. Sorrel said with conviction, “This town is just one big bundle of crazy.”

  “Yeah, but we knew that already,” Penelope said with a grin. “Mabel’s right, though. There were a lot of people in this town who had a grudge against Elizabeth for one reason or another. Leo is going to end up with the whole town on the suspect list.”

  Sorrel frowned. “I think he’s pretty happy with just us for now.”

  “It’s his job, Rel,” Penelope said. “It sucks, but what is he supposed to do?”

  Sorrel shrugged and went over to straighten the petunia table where Bert had made a mess of them. Penelope sighed to herself. Sorrel was right, though; they were the most likely candidates for murder suspects, even if they knew they didn’t do it.

  Chapter 2

  “You are barking up the wrong tree here, Leo,” Penelope said as she put her foot down firmly. The garden center was closing for the day, and she wanted nothing more than to lock the doors and go home. That was until Leo showed up asking about Tom.

  Leo shook his head at the stubborn woman. “He’s got a record, Penelope.”

  “For stealing when he was a kid,” Penelope reminded Leo in aggravation.

  He threw his hands up in the air. “I can’t believe you would hire someone with that kind of past. You two girls run this thing by yourselves.”

  “Women; we are women,” Penelope corrected. “I actually didn’t hire the man. Sorrel did. She wanted to give him a second chance. Believe it or not, he’s been a great employee. I completely back her decision to hire him. And get this, Leo: you don’t get a say in that.”

  Leo looked down at his polished shoes and nodded. “I’m sorry. I don’t mean to be in your business, Penny. I know how independent you are. I was just worried when his background check came back. It pushes him up the suspect list.”

  “He stole some beer when he was a teenager. That doesn’t really equate to murder, Leo.” Penelope shook her head. “After all the hijinks we got up to as kids, you are really going to stand there holier than thou and judge that poor guy?”

  Leo bristled. “We never robbed a liquor store, Penny.”

  Penelope rolled her eyes. “Mrs. Deever’s garden,” Penelope reminded Leo. “Remember stealing that woman’s expensive and rather heavy statue of David?”

  “That was a prank,” Leo said with a laugh.

  Penelope corrected him, “It was a prank because my Dad talked her into not pressing charges.” She sighed. “No one had Tom’s back. So now I’ve got it. He didn’t do it.”

  “I can’t let personal feelings get in the way of the case, Penny,” Leo said with a helpless gesture. “I’m going to have to bring him in for another round of questioning. The mayor’s already after me to wrap the case up.”

  Penelope chuckled. “Probably because he doesn’t want his wife to know that he was being blackmailed by Elizabeth.”

  “You shouldn’t listen to rumors,” Leo reminded Penelope.

  Bramble ran over and nudged Penelope’s leg. “Looks like it must be time for supper. Can we argue about this later?”

  “Sure,” Leo said with a sigh. He reached over and gave Bramble’s ear a scratch. “How you doing, big boy?” Bramble’s mouth flopped open in a wide grin as he pushed his head against the detective’s hand. “At least he still likes me,” Leo said with a laugh.

  Penelope assured the man, “I still like you. I just think you are wrong this time.”

  “Maybe,” Leo agreed. “But I have to do my job.”

  “I don’t believe this,” Sorrel said with righteous indignation. “What do you have against me, Leo?”

  Leo’s clean-shaven face scowled at Sorrel. At six feet tall, he towered over the petite woman standing before him, defiantly challenging what he had just said. “I don’t have anything against you, Sorrel. It’s just come to my attention that you had words with Elizabeth a couple of days before she died. Care to explain it?”

  “Who told you that? Was it one of Mabel’s quilting cronies?” Penelope had never seen her cousin truly furious, but she felt like the woman was getting close. At twenty-eight, Sorrel was one of the most peaceful people Penelope knew. When Leo did not answer her, Sorrel sighed. “She accused my plants of breaking her out. I explained to her that I was not responsible for any allergic reactions she might have. After all, I don’t know what allergies people have.”

  Leo thumped his notepad with the eraser on his pencil. “What sort of plants broke her out?”

  “She was near the tulips, but I honestly don’t know, because she just kept flailing around and shouting until she finally left.” Sorrel shrugged, and the anger seemed to leave her as the woman deflated. “I didn’t hurt anyone. She just was yelling, and I yelled
back.”

  Leo gave a short nod as he wrote down what Sorrel had said. “I tried contacting Margaret, but her family said she had left to come back already. When she gets here, I’ll need her statement, too. I know it’s just a formality, but I’ll still need it.” Leo nodded toward a broken sapling pear tree that Penelope was setting in her wheelbarrow. “Did it get in a fight with the birch tree?”

  “Ha. No, we had a bit of wind last yesterday, and it fell over. It might mend up if I can give it a bit of TLC for a few weeks.” Penelope gave the tree a gentle pat as if comforting it. “Are you just about done with us?”

  Leo shrugged. “You know that I have to work outward. This is where it happened. Chances are, the killer is someone close to this place.”

  Sorrel shook her head. “I can’t believe anyone here would do such a thing.”

  “Besides the fact that there are only three of us who were even in town, that’s a mighty small suspect pool, Detective.” Penelope frowned as she spoke. “It has to be someone else.”

  Leo nodded slowly. “Yet logic dictates that it’s not someone else. Think about all the circumstances, Penny.”

  “So what, it’s me? Or Sorrel? She had words with an irate customer. If that means murder, then most retailers are in a lot of trouble.” Penelope picked up the wheelbarrow. “I’m sorry, Leo. I just don’t believe that it was any of the three of us.”

  The man looked to Penelope like he agreed, at least with part of that statement. She knew that he still had his money on Tom. Penelope shook her head at the man. “Look, we’re really busy, Leo.”

  Leo simply nodded and left without any protest. Penelope watched the man go and sighed. One day she was going to have to do something about whatever was still between them, but now really did not seem like the time.

  Sorrel pushed some strands of hair behind her ear and gave Tom a smile. Penelope shook her head at her cousin as she approached Tom and Sorrel repotting some lilies to sell. “There you two are,” Penelope said with a grin. Tom and Sorrel turned to look at Penelope. Penelope noted the slight blush on Sorrel’s face. “Can I have a word with Tom?” Penelope asked as she took off her gardening gloves.