Lyndsey Cole - Lily Bloom 03 - Roses are Dead (7 page)

Ryan was waiting at Beautiful Blooms when Lily got back.

She threw her tote on her desk. “It smells good in here.”

Ryan opened a
take out bag. “Food to enjoy while I fill you in. Want a blueberry muffin and coffee?”

She looked at him skeptically.
“Buttering me up for something?” Lily took a bite, watching him carefully. “Sunflower Café makes the best muffins. So, you have some information?”

Ryan settled into the chair with Sweet Pea on his lap.
“First, those detectives you asked about, Larry and Chris, were both in town helping with the investigation. I don’t know when they arrived. According to Adam, Carla wasn’t involved with either of them.”

“
Adam? You were talking to him?” Lily said with disgust.

“He is working on the investigation. I have to talk to him or Vinnie to get any information. What do you have against
Adam?”

Lily glanced at Daisy but said nothing. “
It’s more like what
don’t
I have against him. What about finding Poppy in his car?”

“He has witnesses saying he was here in Misty Valley. His story checks out.
We didn’t find anybody else’s prints on his car. Maybe someone was pulling a prank.”

Lily almost spit her coffee across the room. “A prank? That’s
ridiculous. You know what Adam told me?”

That got Daisy’s attention. “
Adam? You talked to Adam?”

“I wanted some answers. He basically threatened me and told me to stop asking questions
before I get hurt. Or something like that. So, no, I don’t think someone stealing Poppy was a prank. It was someone trying to scare me away from Lana’s mother.” She looked at Ryan. “I need to find out what Lana knows.”

The front bell rang and Daisy hustled to the front. Ryan got up to leave. “Listen Lily,
Adam has a good reason to give you that warning. Let him do his job. There’s stuff I can’t tell you about.”

“That’s ridiculous. Don’t try to scare me with non-information. I know what my gut is telling me and something isn’t adding up. I want to clear any suspicion that I had anything to do with Carla’s death. What about
Adam’s room getting trashed? What was that all about? And another thing. Ellie Hill told me that someone stopped at their farm and bought roses from her mom the morning before Carla was found dead. Maybe you should try to track down that mysterious person.”

“I can’t tell you Lily.
Adam confided in me and I can’t break that confidence. When did you find out about the roses from Hill Farm?”

“
When I delivered her wedding flowers. She said she would talk to her mother and get back to me. But, ya know, it probably slipped her mind with all she had to do to get ready.” Lily studied Ryan carefully. “You make your choice about Adam May and I’ll make mine. But I’ll tell you this: I don’t trust that guy and I don’t know why you think you can after what he did to you.” Lily got up and went in the cooler to bring out flowers.

Ryan watched her
walk away, his shoulders sagging as he left to go back to work.

Iris passed Ryan on her way in. She asked Daisy, “Why is he looking so glum?”

“Oh, you know, Lily is mad at him for something. It’ll blow over. How’s Poppy? Any worse for her adventure?”

“
I had to give her a bath, but other than that she’s just fine. I’m not completely recovered though. Vinnie said he’d buy me a coffee to help me mend.”

“Don’t tell Lily. She’ll probably give you a lecture. I was hanging out with
Adam last night and I thought she was going to disown me. She actually went and talked to him. Can you believe it?”

“Shhh. Here she comes.”

Lily looked at the two women. “You both act like you just swallowed canaries. What’s up?”

Iris fluffed up her hair. “I’ve got a date.”

“Oh please don’t tell me you’re going to see that detective.” Lily scowled.

Daisy looked at Iris. “I told you so.”

Lily got her tote. “You two can make googly eyes at these detectives but I’m going to have another talk with Joanne. Come on Rosie. Let’s take a ride.”

Lily called Joanne, hoping she would answer her phone.

“Hello?”

“Hi Joanne, this is Lily. Can I meet with you so we can talk some more?”

“Um. I don’t know.” There was a long pause before Joanne said, “Okay. Meet me at that same diner.”

“Thank you so much. I’ll be there in about thirty minutes.”

Lily pumped her fist in the air.
This must be my lucky day
, she thought. She rolled the windows down in her minivan and let the warm summer breeze blow through the car. She pulled onto the highway, turned the radio up and sang as she watched the scenery fly by. A loud thump, thump, thump, made her slow down and pull off at the next exit.

She walked slowly around her van trying to figure out what caused the noise. It didn’t take long. Her back rear tire was as flat as road kill. She slammed her hand on the side of the van. “Crap. I
hope there’s air in my spare.”

Lily opened the back door to get the tire and jack out when she heard a car slow down and pull over next to her. The car looked familiar. Not in a good way. It looked like
Adam’s car, not exactly the person she wanted to see. She kept at her task until she felt a presence behind her.

“Do you need some help, Ms. Bloom?”

A chill went up her spine. Lily slowly turned around forcing her body to stay relaxed. “I think I can manage.”

“It looks like your spare is flat too. I could give you a ride back to Misty Valley.”

“Why are you driving Detective May’s car?”

“Mine’s in the shop. I
t had a little dent to get fixed.”

Lily looked at Detective Vinnie Stewart. “Did your investigation bring you out this way?”

Vinnie leaned against Lily’s car with his arms folded. “You could say that. So, how about that ride? I promised your mom a coffee so I need to get going.”

Lily sighed. This was not part of her plan but she didn’t have much of a choice. “Alright. I need to grab my tote.”

Vinnie waited in his car for Lily to slide into the passenger seat. “All set?”

“I guess so.”

Vinnie hit the power lock for all the doors and took off, making Lily’s head snap back against the headrest. His eyes gleamed and one corner of his mouth arched up. “I just had a nice chat with a friend of yours.”

Lily could feel the sweat of her
palms soaking through her jeans as she realized this was probably a bad decision. “Oh? Who would that be?”

“An old friend of mine, Joanne Shaw.”

“You two are friends?”

“Yeah. That way she gets some special favors for her daughter, Lana. She’ll do anything to keep Lana safe in prison.
The guide dog program? I helped Lana get picked for that.”

Lily’s skin was crawling. She slowly moved her hand to the door so she could
unlock it and jump out if he slowed down. “Anything? Like what? Sex?”

Vinnie laughed. “No.
Joanne’s too old for me. I like them more your age, Lily.” He looked at her with a suggestive smile.

Her left hand slid into her tote, searching for her phone. Vinnie slammed his
muscular hand on top of her tote. “You don’t need this.” He pulled it away and tossed it into the back seat. “I’m glad you decided to come with me. We need to have a little chat.”

Lily’s mind was racing. She
was locked in the car. Her phone was in her tote on the back seat. She didn’t want to enrage him and she suspected he was looking for a confrontation with her. She forced herself to breathe and relax her muscles. “What do you want to chat about?” She asked calmly.

Vinnie looked at Lily. “I can smell your fear. Not so cocky now that you don’t have anyone around to help you.”

“You’re helping me. I appreciate you giving me a ride.”

“Dumb
girl. You think I’m helping you?” He glared at her.

Lily nodded. She wanted to keep him talking. It didn’t matter what he said
, but if he was talking maybe she could distract him until they got back to Misty Valley.

Suddenly, Vinnie swerved onto a back road. “I think we’ll take the scenic route.”

“Okay. It’s pretty around here. There’s a nice scenic view up ahead.” Lily felt sweat trickling down her sides. Her armpits were soaked. If he stopped, she would jump out.

Vinnie slowed the car down. “Joanne told me you were asking about Carla
.” His eyes took on a dreamy quality.

She looked at Vinnie. Trying to sound surprised
she said, “Did you know her?”

Laughing like a maniac he suddenly floored the gas pedal, whipping Lily’s head back again.
She clutched at the seat to stabilize herself.

He slowed a bit.
“Carla was a tease. She used men then disposed of them. You’re not that kind of girl, are you Lily?”

She tried to smile again.
“Not at all. My mother always told me I was loyal to a fault. But I find that gets me farther when people can trust that I’ll follow through when I say I’ll do something. She warned me—”

He grabbed her arm. “
Shut up. You did enjoy humiliating me at that shooting competition, didn’t you?”

All her nerves tingled. “Is that what this is about? You resent that I beat you?
I thought you wanted some good competition. Makes life more interesting. Don’t you think, Vinnie?” Lily told herself to stop babbling, a trait that took over when she was nervous.

Vinnie started to hum to himself. Sweat was pouring down his face.
He had the windows up and locked, the air conditioning off. Lily was sweltering. He stopped the car at the scenic overlook. Lily tensed, ready to run if she had the chance.

“This is beautiful.” He raced off again. “
I do like a challenge. But I always win. No one beats me. Haven’t you figured that out yet with all your ridiculous sleuthing? Carla thought she could beat me. Used me to get Lana away from that other detective by flirting and offering to be my girlfriend.”

Lily suddenly felt ice cold. Fear tightened in her stomach.
“Chris? What are you talking about?” she slowly asked.

“That got your attention, didn’t it?” He smirked. “I planted the drugs in Lana’s backpack. It’s so easy to plant evidence. Then that
brown noser, Adam May, thought he was being the hero by finding the drugs. He’s such a loser.” He starting humming again, lost in his thoughts.

Lily was surprised. “
Adam’s a loser? I thought he was involved with Carla’s death.”

Vinnie had a self-satisfied look. “What can I say? I’m good.”

Lily sensed she could play to his ego. “You must be. I can tell you put a lot of thought into your actions. You had me fooled.”

“Thank you for noticing. I kinda like you. Such a shame you had to go stickin
’ your nose where it doesn’t belong. I tried to intimidate you to scare you off but, well, not as smart as I thought you were.”

Lily looked at Vinnie. “What do you mean? I’m sure we can work something out.”

“Your right about that, sweetheart. I
always
work something out.” Again that maniacal laugh. “Open the glove compartment.”

Lily pushed the latch to open it.

“Take out that syringe.”

Lily hesitated. “What if I say no?”

He sneered. “You don’t want to do that. Take it out.”

Lily picked it up, seeing Carla’s name on the side. She looked at Vinnie. “This is Carla’
s EpiPen? Why do you have it?”

“Let’s just say she left it in my car but now
it’s going in your tote.” He reached behind and felt around until he got hold of her tote. “Here. Drop it in.” Lily stuck her hand in and tried to grab her phone at the same time. Vinnie snatched the tote away and threw it into the back seat again. “Nice try,” he sneered. “That wasn’t so hard, was it?”

Vinnie slammed on the brakes and swung the car around one hundred eighty degrees, heading back the way the
y’d come. They drove in silence for about five minutes.

“Pretty clever
aren’t I?”

“
Clever?” Lily changed her meek tactics and decided to confront him head on. “Framing everyone for your actions and hiding behind your tough cop persona? I’d say it’s slimy and despicable. It’s the qualities of a weak, insecure person. You won’t get away with this forever.”

“Sure I
will. It just takes careful planning and patience. Patience isn’t exactly my strong virtue, but I manage.” Vinnie drove faster, squealing the tires as they went around corners. “Convenient about your flat tire. I was afraid that tire would go flat before you left town. But everything worked out exactly according to my plan. Flat tire. You had to walk for help. A hit and run. No one will ever know who killed you. Isn’t it nice to know when and how you will die? I gave that consideration to Carla too. She thought she could use me and walk away, right back to that cop you like now. I told her it wouldn’t work. Begged her even.” Vinnie looked at Lily. “I don’t like to have to beg. Ya know what she did? She laughed at me. Well, she wasn’t laughing when I gave her those red roses full of bees. Funny how that EpiPen will be found in your tote, along with rose petals in the back of your car. It was my lucky day when I saw those roses at the farm out of town.”