Lyndsey Cole - Lily Bloom 03 - Roses are Dead (4 page)

Daisy leaned close
to Lily. “What are you thinking? You don’t have a spare thousand bucks to lose.”

Lily threw her shoulders back and straightened to her full five foot five inch height. “I don’t plan on losing.” She smiled with more confidence than she felt
.

Nina Baldwin, the reporter for the Misty Valley News, approached Lily. “It sounds like I’ll be doing a feature on you again. Want to give me a quote before the big event starts?”

Lily scratched her head. “Sure. I’m excited that our visiting detective, Vinnie Stewart, will be donating one thousand dollars to the FurEver Home Animal Shelter when I beat him in the charity shooting contest. How does that sound?”

Nina was busily writing in her notepad. “You seem awfully confident about winning.”

“I guess you could say that, Nina. I am confident and I know I’ll have a lot of folks cheering for me. You know what my mom always told me?”

Nina shook her head, smiling as she waited for some sage advice.

“My mom, and everyone knows Iris, told me that confidence is ninety percent of the show.” With that, Lily posed with her hand on her hip and a smile from ear to ear for Nina’s camera. From the corner of her eye she could see Vinnie watching with a scowl on his face. That just made her smile grow broader.

Lily walked over to the area with the shelter dogs and cats,
and headed toward Pammie. Pammie hugged Lily. “I hear you’ve challenged an out-of-towner to a shooting contest.” She grinned. “And he’ll be making a one thousand dollar contribution to my shelter when you teach him a thing or two about how to shoot.”

Lily nodded. “Word sure does travel faster than a greyhound after a rabbit. But, you’ve heard correctly. That,” Lily lowered her voice, “out
-of-towner is a smug, macho, bully and I’m planning to teach him a lesson.”

Pammie laughed. “Don’t mince your words. I’ll certainly be cheering for you
, as will all the dogs and cats. I know you can do it. What time does it start?”

Lily looked
at her watch. “After the barbecue. At six thirty. I’d better go get my chicken. I need to fuel up to get through this match.”

Pammie slapped Lily on the back.
“Good luck.”

As Lily made her way to the food tables, lots of people
high fived her and wished her luck. Everyone loved to see a homegrown girl show up someone from out of town. Of course, Lily had to beat Vinnie but there didn’t seem to be many in the crowd who doubted her ability. Except, the one who she had to beat.

Lily got a plate and loaded it up with chicken and every kind of salad
she could imagine. Daisy, Iris, Jennifer, Katie and Ryan were already at a table, saving a spot for Lily.

Ryan scooched over to make room for Lily. “Does drama always follow you?”
he teased.

Lily took a big bite of chicken before answering. “
Keeps life interesting.” She winked at Ryan. “Are you signed up for the contest too?”

“I am but I think there are
only two people everyone will be watching.” He leaned close and whispered. “I’ve heard Vinnie competed in college.”

Lily slowly turned her head to look at Ryan. “Are you doubting my ability?”

“Nope. Just want you to know what you’re up against.”

“Harumph
,” was all Lily cared to respond with.

Katie was shaking Lily’s arm. “Guess what I did today?”

Lily turned her attention to Jennifer’s adorable five year daughter. “Hmmm. Ride your bike?”

“No.”

“Play with Iris’s puppy?”

“I did do that but guess something else.”

“I don’t know. Tell me.”

Katie was jumping up and down. “I got to ride on a pony. He was brown and I bounced up and down when he ran.”

Lily hugged Katie. “What a lucky girl.”

Adam
May walked over to their table. “Mind if I join you?”

Jennifer smiled. “Nice to see you. Sure
. Slide in next to me. What are you doing in Misty Valley anyway?”

Adam
glanced at Ryan. “I wanted to warn Ryan about Carla, but I guess I was too late.”

“Warn m
e? About what?” Ryan’s interest was engaged.

“She had called me wanting to know where you were. Said she wanted to get back together.
Told me she had made a big mistake.”

Ryan stopped eating and listened intently.

“I told her she couldn’t just waltz back into your life but she just laughed at me. She said, I always get what I want and I want Ryan. I can make him want me again.”

Lily’s mouth fell open. “How arrogant
,” she blurted out.

The food disappeared as if everyone hadn’t eaten in days. Lily got compliments on her salad and she overheard some comments about it being a weird potato salad with all the other vegetables in it. She ate slowly and watched as the contestants were starting to gather around the shooting area. She could see five bull
s eyes set up in front of straw bales. Everyone who’d signed up would be randomly divided into five groups and the winner of each group would advance to the next round after everyone had a turn.

Lily easily beat the other four people she was up against. They had all groaned when they found out they were shooting against Lily. She stood off to the side waiting for her next round and watched the other groups shoot. Vinnie missed one of his shots, it went wide.
But he still won his first round. She wondered if he did that on purpose. He seemed like the type to try any trick in the book.

The last round of five was ready to go.
Lily, Vinnie, Adam, Ryan and Iris. The top two would face off against each other. Everyone knew it would be Vinnie and Lily, and sure enough they tied for first place in that round.

Vinnie nodded to Lily and said
, “Ladies first.”

Lily stepped up to her line, steadied her arm and put the first bullet right through the center. Vinnie did the same
with his target. They traded shots for several rounds. Back and forth. Lily missed. The crowd gasped. Vinnie smirked, took aim and his shot was wide. Everyone held their breath. Lily looked at all the shelter dogs waiting for homes and thought of Rosie and those big loyal brown eyes. She saw sweat beading up on Vinnie’s forehead. Lily’s next shot was perfect. Vinnie’s shot was wide again. The crowd roared and cheered for Lily while Vinnie stomped off in a rage.

Lily ran after him. “Wait. Don’t forget our deal. You can write that check payable to FurEver Homes Animal Shelter.
I’m sure you’re a man of your word.”

Adam
congratulated Lily on her shooting. “Where did you learn to shoot like that? Very impressive. Ryan was the best shot when we went through the police academy together.”

“My dad used to take me to the shooting range. He loved how I could beat all the local boys in shooting competitions.
He said I had the steadiest hands and sharpest eyes he had ever seen.”

“
He got that right.” Adam lowered his voice. “I need to talk to you more about Carla. I have some information that might help but I don’t think Ryan is ready to listen to me yet.”

“What kind of information?”

Adam looked around. “This isn’t a good place for this conversation. Too many ears and I don’t know who I can trust. Can we get together tomorrow?” He handed her a paper with his number on it. “Call me when you can.”

Lily took the paper and gave
Adam a good hard look. He seemed to be a little nervous behind his serious exterior. Little things caught her attention—he was fiddling with his keys and shifting from one foot to the other as he glanced around at the crowd. He knew something, or was hiding something, or was hiding from someone.

“Did you visit Carla in her motel room?”

He looked everywhere but at Lily. “I did. But it’s not what you think.”

“And what do you think I’m thinking?”

He hesitated. “That I murdered Carla. I know it looks bad, but I didn’t do it.”

“Are you sure it’s murder?”

“I have a feeling. Because of the people she was hanging around with after she left me. People who are in prison now.”

Ryan suddenly appeared at Lily’s side and protectively put his arm around her. “What’s going on
, Adam? Stealing Carla wasn’t enough for you?”

Adam
sputtered but said nothing. He turned and walked to his car.

Ryan looked at Lily. “What was that all about?”

Lily decided it was best not to tell Ryan about the conversation and possible meeting the next day. He was still too angry with his old friend and Lily was determined to find out what Adam knew. “He was congratulating me for my shooting skills and beating Vinnie.”

“I don’t trust him. I need to find out what he’s doing in Misty Valley. It’s too much of a coincidence that he showed up here at the same time Carla arrived. I don’t believe that baloney about warning me about her. I can still read him. He’s hiding something. You should stay away from him.”

Lily was suddenly mobbed with congratulations. The first was a big bear hug from Pammie. “That thousand dollar check will help so much. What’s up with that guy though? He didn’t say a word to me, just stuck the check in my hand and stalked off.”

“Poor sport,
” Lily told Pammie. “And he especially doesn’t like to be beaten by a female.” They all laughed that much louder.

Nina congratulated Lily and took another photo for her article in the paper.

Lily couldn’t have been happier to have beaten Vinnie. And relieved, too, that she could still pull off some great shooting. She went to bed content but uneasy about what Adam had said to her.

Lily called
Adam’s number first thing in the morning. She wanted to find out what he knew, and the sooner the better. They agreed to meet at his motel room. As she drove to the motel, Lily thought about the evidence and suspects if Adam was right about it being a murder. Was she making a mistake by going to meet him? He had motive and was in the right place at the right time. But the detective seemed to think Lily had motive and he tried to place her at the scene. And what about Ryan? Had he gone to the motel? Probably a key piece of evidence was that missing EpiPen. Where was that? Lily knew she had seen it when Carla was in her shop the morning before she was found dead. And who brought the roses? Questions but no answers, she thought. Hopefully Adam could shed some light on what had happened.

She pulled into the parking lot and saw his room, number
eleven, on the upstairs level on the end. She had never looked carefully at the Cozy Motel before. It wasn’t fancy at all. Ten rooms on the first level and ten above. There were stairs going up at each end. It was early. No one was around. There weren’t even many cars in the parking lot. She was starting to feel nervous. She shook off that feeling, grabbed her quilted tote and climbed the stairs, two at a time, and knocked softly on the door but got no response. It was opened a crack. Maybe he was in the shower and hadn’t heard her knock, she decided. Lily pushed the door open. She gasped, then screamed. Adam’s room was a mess. Everything was torn apart, not that there was much in the room. Sheets and blankets were on the floor. Everything from his suitcase was strewn around.

Lily stood there for seconds
. Minutes? She had no idea. She felt a slight breeze and turned to see Ryan walking in.

“What are you doing here?” h
e asked after taking in the scene in front of him.

“I could ask you the same thing. Were you following me?”

“I saw you leave early this morning and I was worried about you. Why did you come here? Where’s Adam?”

“This is what I saw when I opened the door. He wanted to meet with me. He said he had some information about Carla.”

They heard feet clomping up the stairs and were surprised and relieved to see Adam walking into the room. He looked well rested and was carrying a tray with hot, steaming coffees. “Quite the mess, isn’t it?” he said as if this was an everyday occurrence for him.

Ryan was visibly upset. “I saw you here last night and your room was a
s tidy as the head of a pin. What happened?”

Adam
walked in and made space for Ryan and Lily to sit down. He handed them each a coffee. “After you left, I decided to drive around town and get the feel of this place, check out the nightlife.”

Ryan laughed. “I bet that kept you busy for all of, let’s see, maybe five minutes?”

“Yeah. I didn’t find much, but someone must have been watching me and trashed my room in that time I was gone. The owner gave me another room for the night but I didn’t sleep much. I kept watch to see if anyone turned up again.”

Ryan stood up. “I better investigate this mess. Get my guys in here and look for prints.”

“Don’t bother. Vinnie is on his way.”

Lily finally found her voice. “What were they looking for
, Adam? You said you had information about Carla. What’s going on?” She looked from Adam to Ryan. “Vinnie keeps making me feel like he thinks I’m a suspect and I don’t like it. I want to clear my name.”

Adam
put up his hand. “Slow down Lily. Carla was mixed up with some bad dudes. Don’t do anything stupid.” The edge of Ryan’s mouth twitched as he tried to suppress a laugh. Adam noticed. “What am I missing here?”

Ryan p
ut his coffee down. “Lily has a—let me say this gently—a way of getting mixed up in some interesting adventures. Drama seems to follow her, but she has a secret weapon.”

Adam
nodded. “Yeah, I saw that shooting ability. Very impressive and it really pissed off Vinnie.”

Ryan laughed. “Well, that’s not even what I was talking about.” He looked at Lily. “Should I tell him?”

Lily was grinning now too. “I don’t know. It won’t be secret anymore if you tell him.”

Adam
looked from Lily to Ryan to Lily. “Come on. You can’t leave with that mystery.”

“Lily has a dog.”

Adam plopped back onto the chair. “Oh. A dog.”

Lily’s eyes blazed. “That’s right Mr. May. A dog. A dog
who saved my life twice. She’s an amazing dog that’s had her picture on the front of the paper more times than anyone else in this town.” She got up and leaned right into his personal space. “Got it?”

“Sorry,” h
e mumbled. “I’d like to meet this dog sometime,” he said, trying to calm Lily down. “Anyway, getting back to Carla.” Now he turned his attention to Lily. “Her father, a cop, is spending a little vacation in the state prison for intimidating witnesses.” He paused to let that sink in. “He seems to have quite a following but we don’t even think he’s the head of the organization. We think Carla stumbled on some information that made her a threat to someone. That’s what I’ve been working on.”

“So, did you come here to warn Ryan about Carla or for your investigation?”

“Both, actually. I did want to warn Ryan about Carla’s recent activities and how unbalanced she had become. I didn’t know to what extent it had gotten to.”

Lily walked around the room and motioned with her arm. “What about all this?”

“No clue yet. But I’ll be sticking around here longer than I expected helping Vinnie get to the bottom of this.”

Lily looked repu
lsed. “You’re working with that … that detective?” She spit out the last word.

Adam
laughed. “Sounds like he’s gotten under your skin a bit. He has a habit of doing that. Although, I heard through the grapevine that he has his eye on someone in town.”

Now Ryan laughed as he looked at Lily’s disgusted expression. “He and your mom have a date, I heard.”

Lily pursed her lips. “Yeah, I heard that too. And a rumor that he has a tattoo. I hope it isn’t anywhere too private.”

Ryan and
Adam almost fell on the floor laughing at that comment. “I heard he has a little rosebud tattooed on his butt,” Ryan teased.

Lily slapped him. “Not funny.”

They all got serious in the time it takes to swat a fly when they heard Vinnie’s voice as he walked into the room. “Well, well, well. What have we got here? Looks like a little coffee klatch. Got one for me?”

Adam
looked embarrassed. “Sorry, Vinnie, I didn’t know you’d be here so early. Shall we get started with the investigation?”

Vinnie picked up Lily’s quilted tote. “Is this yours, Detective May?”

Lily tried to snatch it away from Vinnie. “No, that’s mine.” It fell between them and all the contents spilled on the floor.

She watched as her personal items were violated by Vinnie’s rough hands as he sorted through her belongings
, shoving them back into her tote. He seemed to get some pleasure out of manhandling her things.

Ryan walked with Lily to the parking lot
. “We need to talk, but not here. I’m sticking around to see what else I can find out. It should be my investigation but for some reason Vinnie is trying to block me out. At least Adam is trying to keep me in the loop.”

Ryan
started to head back upstairs but remembered something. “Did you forget about Jennifer’s grand opening for her café today?”

Lily smacked herself. “I’ll head over there now. Meet me there when you can?”

“Sure. Can you bring her a bouquet from me? Something colorful and happy.”

“Great idea. I’m so excited for her. Misty Valley needs something like this. Wholesome breakfasts and lunches. I think it will be a huge hit.
And now that I’m thinking of food, I’m starving.”

Lily made a quick stop at Beautiful Blooms and made a bouquet of sunflowers, pink larkspur, lavender delphinium and a few yellow roses.
When she tried to pull up in front of the Sunflower Café, all the spots were taken and there was a line of people waiting to get in. Sunday was the perfect day for an opening. Word must have gotten out and everyone wanted to check out the new café. Lily saw Iris tapping on the window and motioning for her to come in.
Great
, Lily thought,
they have a seat for me
.

Lily carefully squeezed by the waiting line
with the bouquet. Jennifer saw her immediately and Lily brought the flowers to her. Jennifer put her hand on her heart and smiled. “These are absolutely beautiful. Thank you.”

“Don’t thank me. They’re from your brother. He’ll get here as soon as he can.”

Jennifer put the flowers in a vase next to the cash register to oohs and aahs from the customers waiting to pay. Lily thought it might be good advertising to keep fresh flowers here for people to see when they came to the café.

Lily slid into the booth next to Daisy with Iris sitting on the opposite side.
Iris primped her hair.

Lily nearly choked when she saw the purple streaks in Iris’s gray curls. “What have you done to your hair?”

“It’s all the rage now. Vinnie said it makes me look hot,” she said seductively.

Water sprayed out of
Lily’s mouth. “He what? That guy has some kind of ulterior motive.”

“Oh, Lily. Don’t be so negative. I can’t be too picky at my age.” She leaned in closer. “Did you see the tattoo on his arm?”

“I missed that detail. I must have been too busy trying to keep him from arresting me every time I turn around. Have you heard what happened this morning?”

She got surprised looks after that comment but the waitress arrived and she had to make a decision about her order.
Lily knew that everything would be delicious since she had eaten Jennifer’s cooking in the past. “Two blueberry pancakes with real maple syrup please, a small orange juice and coffee.” Lily put her menu down, looked quickly to see who was nearby, and sighed as if she hadn’t had a good breath all morning. She whispered, “Adam May’s room at the Cozy Motel was trashed last night.”

“
Adam May?” Daisy couldn’t place the name.

“He was Ryan’s best friend.
They went through the police academy together. Ya know, the one Carla ran off with? Remember? He was at the chicken barbecue yesterday.”

“Oh
yeah. Really good looking.”

Iris
watched Lily. “So, how do you know this? I’ve got a funny feeling I won’t like the answer.”

Lily grimaced. “I met him this morning. He wanted to talk to me about Carla
.”

The waitress
, Marcia, arrived with plates of delicious smelling food, which brought an abrupt halt to their conversation. Pancakes for Lily, spinach omelet for Daisy and home fries with two eggs over easy for Iris. “Congrats on your win at the barbecue yesterday, Lily,” Marcia said. “You taught that guy a thing or two, didn’t ya? Enjoy the food.”

They all dug in with hearty appetites
. Jennifer slid in next to Iris. “I have a few minutes. How’s everything?” she asked a little nervously.

They all tried to answer at the same time with mouthfuls of food. What came out was a combination of “
fantastic,” “delicious,” “awesome.”

Jennifer smiled. Lily
swallowed and said, “You must be extremely happy with the turnout. This town needed something like this and your cooking is amazing.”

“Thanks. And thanks for the flowers. They’re beautiful. I’ve had several people already ask me where they can get such gorgeous blooms. Do I get a commission?” She laughed as she left to get back to work.

Lily wanted to lick her plate it was so delicious, but she decided she should show better manners than that. She sat back, finishing the last sip of coffee. “Let’s go to my house and figure out what’s next.”

Daisy finished her coffee. “What do you mean?”

“I can’t just sit around and wait for Mom’s heartthrob to arrest me. We’ve got some snooping to do.”

Ryan walked in just as they were getting up to leave. “Sorry it took me so long. How was the food?”

Lily raised her eyebrow at Ryan. “Really? You have to ask? Don’t let your sister hear you. Are you getting something to eat?”

Ryan shook his head. “I don’t have time
to eat now. I’ll walk out with you.”

They all walked out into the bright sunshine. The line of people waiting to get in wasn’t too long anymore but Jennifer would be busy for quite a while still.

Lily hung back with Ryan. “What did Adam tell you?”

“He was working on a case investigating some people Carla was involved with. He hadn’t figured out much yet but he mentioned he had talked to her father. He was a cop and he’s been in jail for the last six months for
intimidating a witness. It sounded like he’s ready to talk in exchange for a lighter sentence.”

“Does the
bulldog detective think I’m involved? And why is he here anyway?”

“
Adam is working with Vinnie. Vinnie got called in because of the connections Carla had and Adam came in on the case because he had background information on Carla. Vinnie isn’t telling me much and I wouldn’t know this if I hadn’t swallowed my pride and gone to see Adam last night.” Ryan held Lily’s arms and looked at her. “Don’t start poking around. These are dangerous people. I don’t want to worry about you putting yourself in danger.”

Lily’s arms tingled where Ryan was holding her. “Danger? Me? Not on your life.” She gave him her most flirtatious smile and winked. “Just a nice leisurely Sunday for me.”

Ryan studied her face, not believing her coy attitude.