“I hope so.” Peggy glanced at her watch, then got to her feet. “I have to go. Thank you for putting up with us. We’ll see you Thursday.”
“Not a problem. It’ll work out.”
“And I’ll replace those vases my big nitwit broke, Rue. I’m so sorry.”
“Don’t worry about it, Peggy. Just be careful with him. I’d hate for you to get hurt before we calm him down!”
Carlos came back for them. He laughed and couldn’t believe Shakespeare wouldn’t follow the trainer’s commands at the shop. “He’s always so good in the car. Aren’t you, boy? Maybe it was the way she was talking to him.”
Shakespeare barked and jumped over into the front seat, almost managing to sit on Carlos’s lap. Peggy tugged on his leash and ordered him into the backseat while Carlos tried to steer the taxi around the dog that was almost as big as him.
When Peggy finally got Shakespeare to move, Carlos straightened his cap and looked in the rearview mirror at her. “That’s a lot of dog, Peggy. You gotta be careful he doesn’t break your arm.”
Peggy, who was almost sitting on Shakespeare to keep him down in the backseat, was breathing hard when she promised to be careful. “Maybe this is too much dog for me after all. I went from not having any pets to this monster. It would probably have been better if I’d found a poodle.”
Carlos let them off at Peggy’s house. He promised to come back for her at the same time Thursday. She told Shakespeare what she thought of his behavior as she walked him in the front yard for a few minutes. She didn’t let him off of his leash like she usually did when they went into the house. Instead, she walked him into the laundry room, told him to stay, and closed the door.
She made herself a cup of sassafras tea to steady her nerves while she checked her phone messages. The university was asking for all school personnel to attend a training/awareness seminar on how to handle early dismissal for bad weather. She glanced at the big clock on the kitchen wall. She was already twenty minutes late for that. Not that she saw much point in having a seminar for letting people out of school early.
Instead, she tried to relax as she drank her tea. It was a homemade brew. Her mother went out to find the mitten-shaped leaves on the sassafras tree and dig for the roots to make her own tea back home. There was a railroad track by the house, a place sassafras loved to grow. Her mother walked the track for hours to get enough root to dry and carefully preserved her stock.
Drinking it made her think of home and her childhood. Her grandmother always made them drink sassafras as spring was approaching. She said it was a good spring tonic. It wasn’t until later, when Peggy began studying plants, that she knew the science behind it. Sassafras was a stimulant, a poison actually, when used in its purest form. The orange brown tea helped the body get over the human slowdown that accompanied winter. And it was delicious!
She finally called Mai to let her know she’d be at the precinct by three thirty. That would give her plenty of time to talk with the medical examiner, show him her samples, and still be at the Potting Shed before five. She was looking forward to meeting the ME, despite Mai’s assertions that the man was obnoxious.
Just when she thought she had everything in hand, the front doorbell rang. She opened the door to find Beth and a young man in a dark gray business suit on her doorstep.
“How could you do this, Peggy?” Beth cried and wrung her hands. “How could you do this to me?”
“David Rusch.” The young man tripped over the edge of the rug at the door as he tried to shake Peggy’s hand. “I’m representing Mrs. Lamonte for Lamonte, Rusch and Peterson.”
Peggy could see the resemblance between father and son. Same dark hair and gray eyes. Except the elder Rusch was much more sophisticated, smoother, and taller. She watched David try to get his foot untangled from the fringe on the carpet for a moment before turning to Beth. “I did what I thought was right. I’m sorry if that makes it hard for you. I know you didn’t do anything wrong. I’m sure we’ll be able to prove that. You have nothing to worry about.”
“I’m sure we can all come to a mutual understanding.” David finally freed his foot from the fringe. “We all want the same thing. We just have to get on the same page. Keep our heads together. Fight for the team! Make the problems with this accident go away so Mrs. Lamonte can go on with her life.”
“I’m thinking that Park’s death wasn’t an accident, Mr. Rusch. Someone at least wanted to make him sick. They succeeded in killing him. Park was my friend. I want to know who’s responsible for his death. Don’t you want that, too, Beth?”
Beth nodded. Her hair was a mess, and her face was blotchy from crying. “The police know about the insurance policy. They know Park was cheating on me with Cindy. They asked me to come in and answer some questions.”
“I’ll need to speak to the attorney Mrs. Lamonte hired without realizing Lamonte, Rusch and Peterson would provide her defense.” David frowned and waved his briefcase, almost knocking a vase off of Peggy’s side table and rushing to retrieve it.” She’ll have to sign off on the case unless she wants to second chair. We want to provide Mrs. Lamonte the best possible defense in the light of these accusations made against her.”
“I’m sure she has nothing to hide,” Peggy defended. “And Hunter Ollson is a good criminal attorney, Mr. Rusch. I’m sure she’s advising Beth to do the right thing.”
“Hunter?” David stopped pacing for a moment and stared at her.
“Didn’t I tell you her name?” Beth asked him.
“Hunter Ollson?”
The doorbell rang again, this time persistently. It was followed immediately by pounding on the heavy portal. Peggy opened the door and stepped aside as Hunter rushed into the house.
“What the hell is going on here?” she demanded, glaring at everyone. “I thought Beth was my client.” She paused in midtirade and blinked her pretty blue eyes. “Davey? Is that you?”
12
Banana
Botanicaclass="underline" Musa sapientum
Family: Musaceae
The banana has a history that follows our own civilization. Called fruit of the wise men, Alexander wrote of it in 327 B.C. Arabian slave traders are credited with naming it banan, “finger,” for the shape of it. The banana tree is actually not a tree at all but a giant herb. Cultivated bananas will not grow from seed, only from rootstock.
PEGGY DID THE INTRODUCTIONS. The look on Hunter’s face didn’t change. She glared at the other attorney while Peggy was speaking. “I think you and I should step into another room for a word, Counselor.” Hunter opened the door to the small sitting room on the right and waited for David—Davey—to join her.
He shrugged and finally followed her, closing the door behind them . . . after closing his suit coat in it and extracting it.
Beth turned to Peggy. “I know what this looks like. This thing with Park and Cindy was terrible. I was out of my head when I told him to get that insurance policy before he came back to me. I don’t know what difference I thought it would make. I suppose I thought the money aspect would affect him. I don’t know. But I didn’t kill Park or Isabelle. You have to believe me.”