Read Between the Tines (3 page)

Imagining her finding the man, I looked at the spot where he lay. All the trees in his vicinity were young saplings dreaming of the day they would produce a thick log like the one lying on the victim. Still, I was certain she was telling the truth no matter how bizarre the logic. That was how Daisy's mind worked.

"So what did you do?" I asked.

"I ran over there and picked up the log." She wrapped her arms around her middle and started rocking. "Oh, Paige, it was awful. Just awful. His head was so smashed, but I checked for a pulse anyway." She halted mid rock and looked at me with baffled eyes. "You know what? I don't think the log fell on him. I think someone hit him with it. Lots of times. They killed him."

"Do you know who the man is?"

"No, I couldn't tell. There was so much blood, I—" She started crying.

I rubbed her back in small little circles I hoped would give comfort and decided to end my interrogation. She'd have to recount all of these horrific details as soon as Adam got here and, with my limited experience in murder investigations, it's not as if I really could help her. At least not other than providing moral support. So I continued to rub her back and watched the officers work.

Taking small sure steps, the men thoroughly combed the area. One of them placed a tented card painted with the number one on the grass then snapped a picture. The shutter click ricocheted through the clearing, stirring birds overhead. Occasionally the officers picked up items and put them in plastic bags. Mitch held the wallet from the deceased and talked into his phone, probably calling the medical examiner.

With Mitch holding the wallet, we'd soon know this poor guy's identity. Did I know the man lying there? Probably. As small as Serendipity was, I most likely had at minimum a passing knowledge of him. Soon his family members going about their day as usual would have their world thrown into turmoil.

How horrible. Utterly horrible. I closed my eyes and offered a prayer for the family and their situation.

"What're you doing?" Daisy asked after a few minutes.

I opened my eyes. "Praying."

She rolled her bluer than blue eyes. "Oh, yeah, I forgot you believe all that junk."

Had she not been fresh from the discovery of a body, I might've snapped at having my faith called junk, but I cut her some slack. "Faith gets you through tough times."

"I never did get what the big deal was. Like when Mitch tried to send you to jail last month. If your god could help you why didn't he make Mitch back off?"

I pondered the serious expression on her face. Now was probably not a time to get into this, but I couldn't let the opportunity pass. "God could take away our struggles and sometimes He does. Other times He lets us go through the difficulty so we can learn from the experience. But He's always there, ready to listen."

Her face remained blank. "Huh? You lost me."

"Think of how you felt when you found the body. You needed someone to be with you so you called me. I needed to remember God was with me just now and praying is just like calling Him."

She raised penciled-in eyebrows. "Okay, I kinda see, but I still don't know why he doesn't just help you out."

"Because He's like a father. He wants you to have a wonderful life, but sometimes it's better for you to work through the problem so you learn to cope with all life throws at you."

Her skinny brows crinkled. "So what did you learn from that whole mess last month?"

"Things happen and you have no control over them so why spend time trying."

"I don't try to control things."

I laughed at her literal interpretation. "I meant me, Daisy. I like to control things."

She nodded rapidly. "Don't I know it. At work, you're always acting like the boss."

I shook my head and laughed again. "I am the boss."

"Oh, yeah, right." Her eyes drifted off, and she jabbed a fuzzy finger at the edge of the woods. "Look, there's Adam."

My sweetie, wearing dark blue jeans paired with a deep green polo shirt, stood arguing with a uniformed officer who was turning red and seemed to want to keep Adam out of the crime scene. When I first met Adam, I didn't think he was super attractive. His eyes and nose were a little too large for his face. If you stared at him when he was still, the features seemed out of place, but when he smiled or grew animated like now, everything fit splendidly and my heart raced from seeing him.

That first day I'd nicknamed him an iris for the plain pointed leaves shooting from the ground before a stunning display of flowers took your breath away, and I haven't changed my mind. Irises were, in my opinion, the most varied and useful genus in the garden. Like them, Adam was very low maintenance and trouble free. Oh, and very important in life recently, irises were quite pest-free, which came in handy when I needed protection from a pest like Mitch.

Sadly, Adam wasn't trouble free right now. In fact, he was waving his fists and raising his voice, demanding to see me. Mitch took his time, sauntering over to his officer to authorize Adam's entry.

As soon as Mitch stepped back, Adam brushed past him and charged across the clearing. "Are you two okay?"

At the concern in his eyes, I smiled to ease his worry. "We're fine. But I think Mitch might try to pin this on Daisy."

Adam gave Daisy a tight smile. A practiced lawyer's I'm-here-to-help-but-I'm-not-a-miracle-worker smile. He used the same one on me at our first encounter when Mitch thought I was a prime murder suspect.

Adam clapped his hands together and peered at me. "Okay, first things first. If you think Mitch is trying to implicate Daisy then you also think the man was murdered. Who is he?"

"We don't know yet. But I think Mitch does."

"He didn’t mention it, but let me see if I can find out." Adam spun and marched with purposeful strides to Mitch.

The pair talked, perhaps argued, as Mitch's face tensed and his gestures grew lively. Adam tipped his head in our direction. Mitch looked at us. I stared back and tapped a toe. Hours seemed to tick past as I waited for the news. Their motions grew more animated. Adam shook his head and pivoted. Looking disgusted, he rushed back to us.

"What'd he say?" I peered into his troubled eyes. "Did he tell you who it is?"

"No, but he did tell me he needs to talk with Daisy. I tried to get him to schedule an appointment at the station later. He won't hear of it. Said the blood all over her hands and suit are enough to take her in."

"Arrest me?" Daisy jumped up, her vinyl feet clacking together.

Adam shook his head. "He's taking you to the office for questioning."

I placed a protective hand on Daisy's shoulder. "If he doesn't have enough for an arrest, why haul her down there when he could ask the same questions here?"

More frustrated than I'd ever seen, Adam peered at me. "He said something about being tired of
you
interfering with his job."

Adam's irritated scowl also said he was tired of me butting into these crimes. Shoot, Daisy had the same expression on her face. I was only trying to help. Maybe I was trying just a teensy bit too hard to control this situation and needed to lighten up.

In defeat, I looked up.
Okay, God, I get the point.

"I'll talk to him," I said and crossed over to Mitch. I forced a smile. "Mitch, please don't take Daisy to the station. I'm sorry I've been pushy. If I promise to keep my mouth shut, will you talk to her here?"

He made a big production of thinking it over—hemming and hawing, his finger tapping on his chin. "Not a word?"

"Not a word."

"I'm not sure I can trust you."

My temper was flaring, and I wasn't sure I could trust myself much longer either. "Please, don't make Daisy pay for your frustrations with me. It isn't her fault."

"Fine," he said, his eyes brightening from thunderous to mildly perturbed. "Let's get to it."

He marched ahead, but I dragged behind. How was I going to follow through on my promise? Could I possibly stand by and watch him run through his tough cop routine with Daisy and not try to stop him? I highly doubted it, but only time would tell.

As I approached, I heard Adam tell Daisy if she was uncomfortable answering questions to look at him, and he would nod if she should respond. He would also interrupt if she should stop talking. I wanted to rush ahead and tell Adam Daisy frequently misunderstood the subtleties that Mitch would surely use in his questioning and to provide her with more explicit directions, but the snarly lawman would interpret my words as interference.

Besides our recent tussle over Bud's death, Mitch held a gigantic grudge against me from high school. At a class picnic, he'd bragged about making a dangerous jump off a train trestle into the river. Thinking he'd never do it, I called him on it in front of everyone. He couldn't back down without losing face so he jumped, blowing out his knee. He missed his senior year of football and any chance to go to college on a scholarship. He also blew off our friendship along the way and since I'd come back to Serendipity to live, he'd barely tolerated me.

As if he could feel my thoughts, he gave me a practiced glare then took out a small note pad and looked down on Daisy. "Your full name?"

Daisy pulled back her shoulders, her ample chest pushing free of the bright green suit. "Daisy Rose Plante."

A flash of humor took over Mitch's face, which I didn't appreciate. Not only were Daisy and I sisters in the whole finding a body thing, but we both had mothers who didn't think twice before giving us double meaning names. I couldn't count the times Paige Turner nearly led to a black eye in my youth. Daisy fought a similar battle.

"Okay, Ms. Plante, give me a detailed description of how you came upon the body."

"Well, I walked out here and—"

Mitch held up his hand. "Back up. Exactly why did you come here?"

Face strained, she peered at Adam. He gave a barely perceptible nod. She shook her head. He nodded again.

"I can't tell you," she blurted out. "It doesn't matter anyway. It has nothing to do with finding him. Honest. I promise."

"I'm afraid answering my question isn't optional, Ms. Plante." Mitch looked at Adam. "Please instruct your client to answer."

"I can't. I mean, I won't." Daisy turned to face me. "I'll tell Paige and then she can tell you."

"I can't talk." I tipped my head at Mitch.

Daisy crossed her arms. "Then we'll just have to move to the next question."

Mitch and Adam both seemed like they wanted to strangle Daisy. I wasn't far behind. What could she be too embarrassed to admit?

Mitch cleared his throat. "Fine, tell Paige. But hurry up."

Daisy grabbed my hand and dragged me out of earshot. "The suit was binding something awful, and I had to fix it."

I laughed at what I thought I heard her say. "What?"

She tugged on the inside of the costume molded to her body like a one-piece bathing suit. "This was riding up something fierce. Awful painful. I had to adjust it, but the principal locked up the school after I changed into the costume. I couldn't find him and say, 'excuse me, Mr. Principal but could you let me into the school. My suit is binding up.' I couldn't fix it in public, or I'd get fired for opening the costume in front of others. So I came out here where no one would see me."

I forced back a laugh and giving my eyes an understanding scrunch, I nodded. "I see."

"So, go tell them. I'll wait here until they know."

"It's not a big deal, Daisy."

She seemed ready to pour tears. "Not to you. You aren't the one the whole town will talk about when they hear."

She had a point. This would spread through Serendipity like blight on a rose bush. I could empathize. When I'd found Bud, my name was bandied about and remained airborne until I solved the crime. I would do whatever I could to keep that from happening to Daisy. I gave her a quick hug then returned to the pair and explained her dilemma.

Mitch howled. This was the first time I'd seen him laugh this earnestly since I'd moved back to town a little over a year ago. Who knew it took a simple clothing malfunction to make him laugh? Would have been worth the pain had I known. But I wouldn't downplay Daisy's discomfort. "This is embarrassing enough for Daisy without your chuckles. I hope you'll keep her reason for being out here just between us. Now, can we resume your questions so she can go?"

Mitch nodded and slowly, very slowly, wound down ending with a grin.

Curling a finger, I beckoned Daisy, who trudged our way. Her ginormous green feet flopped on the needle-covered ground, sending debris jumping when they hit. In my opinion, seeing a dejected and utterly humiliated pickle was one of the worst sights in the world.

Mitch, however, seemed not to care. He attacked the moment she arrived. "Okay, so now we know why you were here." He paused as if fighting the grin capturing his lips. "What happened next?"

Daisy flushed crimson. "The marketing manager at Pacific Pickles—she's my boss—already warned me once about messing up the suit, so I set the head ever so carefully on the ground and then opened up the front." She tugged at the seam running the length of the suit. "See how there are Velcro tabs all the way down? It takes forever to get in and out of this thing, but I just had to adjust it, because it was starting to. . .well, never mind. I got it open and shifted things around. Phew, it felt so good. I mean it was really—I saw the man's feet. Then I spotted the log. The poor guy. I just knew he was in trouble. I mean, how would you feel if a log fell off a tree and hit you on the head?"