“Mom, you know why I don’t like Brad; I used to be married to one of his kind, remember? You know, the guy that used to knock the shit of out of me for a hobby?”
“Language, Quincy! You always have tended to exaggerate. I am sorry that your husband wasn’t always easy to get along with, but we all have our faults. Brad is a returned missionary, and he has a good job…” Just as Mom started her repetitive trip down the denial river, the other line on the phone started ringing.
“Oh, sorry, Mom…” The phone rang again.
“She’s hinted they might go ring shopping soon...” Another phone ring.
“Mom, I’ve gotta go—the other line is ringing—Mom—I’ll call you back.” I hung up fully aware I would have to pay for it later. She probably hadn’t yet noticed I wasn’t on the phone anymore.
I punched the button for the other line hoping I hadn’t missed a customer.
“Rosie’s Posies, this is Quincy.” The refrigeration unit on top of the walk-in cooler started up with its loud whirring.
“Hello, this is Betty Carlisle—I’m a volunteer with the hospital gift shop.”
“Oh hi, Betty.”
“I just thought you might want to know that we are out of arrangements in the cooler.”
“Out?”
“Out.”
“Okay, we’ll bring a cooler full as soon as we can.”
“All right, dear. Bye.”
This was more like it. July isn’t exactly the greatest month for florists. It’s even slower than January, which is horrific for sales except for the fact that it’s funeral season. Not a term used with customers, but a common part of the vernacular in the business. I allowed myself just a moment of indulgence to think about where the mortuary would send its customers now that Derrick had fallen victim to funeral season in July.
My pulse quickened as I itemized the increasing responsibilities for the day. My glances at the clock became more frequent as I hoped my helpers would arrive sooner than planned. The radio I had switched on earlier no longer played background music; instead it was screaming car commercials. Sweat began to pool on the back of my neck, and along my hairline.
Where was that Coke? There had been far too much action already without taking a hit. I grabbed the cup and perused the order bins on the wall, dragging cold liquid comfort through the straw, making every sip count like the final pulls on a last cigarette.
After organizing the daily orders and the hospital list, I ducked into the walk-in cooler to get more flowers and greenery and relished the relief it offered from the summer heat and the inadequate air conditioner. The whirring of the fan pushing air inside the cooler played tricks on my hearing, making it sound like the phone was ringing. I ignored the phantom sound. Then I heard it ring again. I popped my head out of the cooler and realized both lines were ringing.
“Damn it!” Saying it out loud seemed to help. Arms full, I used one foot to close the door while balancing on the other leg, then walked over to the design table, attempted to put everything down quickly without breaking any stems and rushed to the phone.
“Rosie’s Posies, how may I help you?” My voice sang out with a tone of warmth and enthusiasm—from where it came I don’t know.
“Hi, my name is Roger; may I speak with the person who makes the decisions about the phone bill?”
A scream rang out within the walls of my skull. “She’s not here right now,” I lied, while hardly restraining the fury in my voice.
“When would be a better time for me to reach her?” Roger—if that was his real name, tried to sound friendly and helpful.
“I don’t really know, just between you and me, she’s kind of unreliable. I couldn’t really give you a time, I never know myself.”
Painfully, yet mercifully, the other line kept ringing. I didn’t want to risk letting the voicemail pick up and lose a potential customer because I had been speaking to Roger.
“Oh, there’s my other line, it’s probably the boss calling to say she’s not coming in.”
“It’s okay. I’ll wait while you check.” I had to give Roger extra points for trying. Unfortunately for Roger, I neglected to hit hold. Oops.
I answered the ringing line. My ear started to throb.
“Rosie’s,” I answered sharply.
“Is the owner there?” A deep male voice asked.
“I am not interested!” I fired back. “I’m really busy right now and you guys have already called me this morning. Talk to Roger over in the next cubicle.”
“This is Detective Arroyo with the Hillside City Police Department. I’m looking for Quinella Swanson.”
Ugh. I closed my eyes and leaned my forehead against the wall.
“This is Quincy,” I corrected. “What can I help you with today?”
“Ms. Swanson, do you know a Derrick Gibbons?”
“My name is Quincy McKay. Swanson is my
ex
-husband’s name. And yes, I know Derrick—well I know who he is. I mean was. I guess that should be was, shouldn’t it?” My cheeks started to burn like they always do when I jumble my words.
“Why would you say
was
Ms…McKay?”
A cold burning started to churn deep in my stomach. A three-alarm fire burned across my cheeks. Danny’s admonition not to tell anyone echoed inside my head. His brother could lose his job if they found out he’d leaked the story. I had just broken the unspoken code of the florist.
If there’s anyone who knows all of the gossip in town, it’s the florist. Any florist knows that when they hear something juicy, they keep it in the vault. Danny was going to kill me.
“Ms. McKay, I need to speak with you about a few things. How long will you be there today?”
“I…all day as far as I know. But…”
“I just need to ask you a few things, so I need you to stay put.
“I’m sorry, Officer…”
“It’s Detective.”
“
Detective
; I was just wondering why you would need me to stay here. Not that I plan on going anywhere, but can’t we just talk over the phone? I mean, I don’t really know anything about Derrick anyway.”
“No. Like I said, don’t go anywhere.”
“Detective, I’m trying to run a business, and I’ve got a lot to worry about right now. It doesn’t really work for me to stay here all day, waiting. Isn’t it possible just to do it over the phone…now?”
“Somehow I knew you would be a pain.”
“Excuse me?” He was very unprofessional. “Is there a problem here?”
“Should there be a problem? Is there something you’re not telling me?” He sounded like a detective on a bad TV show.
“This conversation is getting weird. I don’t know why you’re talking to me in that tone and I really don’t know what I could tell you about Derrick.” I swiped my hair out of my face and tucked it behind an ear. “If this is about the parking lot thing yesterday…”
“What parking lot thing?”
Oh, crud. “Never mind. Nothing. I‘m just flustered by the way you’re talking to me. I don’t like your accusatory tone, Officer. I haven’t done anything wrong.”
“It’s
Detective
Arroyo. And my tone is the least of your worries right now. You were the last person seen with Derrick Gibbons while he was alive."
“Whoa. Exactly what are you saying?”
“I’m saying don’t go anywhere.”
Then, there was nothing but silence.
###
I stood immobile after I hung up the phone. A knot inside my head, consisting of hundreds of thought threads all pulling in their own direction resulted in my inability to do anything but stand there, stunned. Meanwhile the cooler motor clanked on again and the radio blared.
What a bizarre phone call. And what kind of idiot cop calls ahead, thus tipping off a suspect? Of course, I wasn’t a suspect. Was I? This had to have been a joke. But, I didn’t know anyone that would pull such a mean prank.
Wait a second
—the ex-husband. His relatives were virtually half the population of Hillside; he probably had connections at the police department.
I looked down at the caller ID. It said Hillside City Police on the screen. If it was a joke, someone could get in a lot of trouble just for helping my ex get his jollies. There had to be another explanation, but I didn’t have time to think about it. Maybe it involved Danny’s brother. But worrying about the jerk cop and his weird phone call would have to wait. I had things to do and if Detective Arroyo wanted to talk to me about Derrick, or for whatever reason, he would have to do it around my schedule.
If Arroyo really was a cop, I would probably be regretting the fact that I almost let slip about my little tiff with Derrick. I hated him even more now dead than when he was alive. I thought back to the night before, when I had gone to deliver a puny little planter basket to the mortuary. We bumped into each other and I ended up falling down on the asphalt after he pushed me. Derrick walked away as if nothing ever happened and there were no witnesses to the altercation. Or at least I thought there weren’t any witnesses.
“Okay,” I said out loud, “Enough time wasting.” The day was melting away as if the heat outside had an effect on the passage of time. I picked up the phone receiver yet again. I called Cindy, my assistant floral designer, who wasn’t scheduled to come in until noon.
“Hello.” The disdain in Cindy’s hello indicated that she probably saw the shop number pop up on her caller ID.
“Hi Cindy, I am so sorry to ask this, but can you please come in early?”
She responded with a long, intentionally drawn out sigh.
“How early?”
“As soon as possible.”
“Why?” She sounded like a whiny teenager arguing with her mom.
“Some last minute stuff has come up.” I didn’t want to mention the slim possibility of the police showing up. “The hospital called and we’ve got to get a full load over there soon.”
“Wuhl, isn’t Nick supposed to be there?”
Nick was my delivery driver. He’d been working for me for three weeks. So far he’d only been late four times, but he eventually shows up, which is better than the previous two drivers.
I glanced up at the clock and couldn’t believe what I saw. “It’s past ten already! Cindy, I just need to know if you can come in or not. Nick doesn’t do arrangements, and we’ve got a lot of stuff to get done.” Why should I explain anything to her anyway? I was supposed to be the boss.
“Hhhhuh,” she exhaled forcefully enough to collapse a lung. “Okay, I’ll guess I’ll come in.”
“Thank you so much, I really appreciate it.”
“Yeah.” The phone went silent.
“Be happy you have a job, you little troll!” I said to the receiver after I replaced it in its cradle with a little extra force.
I walked over to the radio and turned off one of the background noises. At least I had control over something. As I picked up my knife, I heard the familiar sound of the phone, and stuck the knife in the pocket of my apron as I reached for the receiver with my other hand.
For the next twenty minutes I fielded phone calls, which actually consisted of orders for the day. Now the heat was on—both outside with the weather and inside with the sudden onslaught of business. I returned to the design table and worked in between glances at my watch and the front window, worried it might be the police, instead of my helpers who would come through the door first.
Finally Nick walked in the door. Nick Wilson was twenty-two years old. A good enough looking guy, but he disguised it with a lazy demeanor. His slouch just shouted out, “I dare you to ask me to move any faster.”
“Hey, Nick.”
“Hey, Quincy. How’s it goin’?”
“Well, it’d be goin’ a lot better if my driver had been here at ten.”
“Oh yeah, sorry.”
“I’m sure you’re all broken up about it.”
“Huh?”
“About being late, I’m sure you just feel terrible about being late.”
“Oh. Yeah.” He had no idea what I was talking about.
“I was being sarcastic Nick. You need to be on time from now on.”
“Oh.” Pause. “K.”
I wasn’t going to hold my breath on that one.
“Since I don’t have time to finish making all of these before you leave, I need you to go to the front display cooler and grab a thirty-five dollar arrangement. Then write the card and take the arrangement to Fairview.”
Nick stood in place for a few beats while I watched for signs of cogs turning in his head. He looked up at me and I pointed toward the front of the store. His synapses finally fired up and he ambled in the direction of the cooler. While on his way, the front doorbell chimed. Cindy’s blond hair filled the doorway and framed a giant pair of metallic bug eye sunglasses. The glam glasses only distracted me momentarily from the thing that would cause a stress-invoked heart attack before I turned thirty.
Cindy is what you might call well-endowed. She wore a tight, white, scoop-necked tank top, which was too short to cover her belly button ring. Her cut-off denim short-shorts were too low riding to conceal the jewelry either. As she begrudgingly swanked her way back to the design area, I noticed Nick had a new purpose and pace to his step as he followed her while holding an arrangement.
As she approached the design table where I stood, I tried to assemble the correct words. I had to say just enough, but not too much. She had to know she couldn’t wear that to work right?
I must deal with this employee in a firm, but friendly manner
. That’s what Aunt Rosie had written in her shop instruction manual. As I tried to come up with something profound, Cindy reached the design table, but made a sharp right turn to the wrapping counter where she liked to stow her purse; she was obviously avoiding speaking to me for as long as possible.
“Hi,” I said with questioning intonation. I had decided to wait to speak with her privately about the dress code, after Nick left. That was, until I saw the view from behind when she crouched to put her purse under the counter. Not only was her lower back tattoo obscured slightly by the hot pink thong, but the shorts had a three-inch wide hole under her right butt cheek.
All thoughts of friendly firmness disintegrated.
“Are—you—kidding—me?” I said.