Murder in the Rose Garden: A Scent with Love Cozy Mystery (Scent with Love Cozy Mysteries) by Tabitha Tate Read Free Book Online Page B

believe what she was hearing—a highly sophisticated drug cartel
operating out of Bartholomew Bay sounded bizarre. Considering the location and
all the fishing boats coming in and out of the harbor it did seem like the
perfect place to run an operation like that. Now that she knew that Piper Pots
was an undercover police officer, she wondered why her mother had been paying
her large sums of money via the flower shop. Was she a dirty cop? Perhaps she
was the mystery blackmailer.
    Beth decided that she would need to try and
find out more about Piper and look into why the sheriff was arguing with her
mother the day before her death.

Chapter 7
     
    When Beth got to the
shop, she found Hannah working on a large floral arrangement. White lilies
nestled among light pink and white roses.
    “Morning,
you’re in early,” she said as she hurried in and went straight to the kitchen.
She was glad to find that the kettle had just boiled because she was dying for
her morning caffeine fix. Chase had stayed long after dinner and they had
finished an entire bottle of red wine as they chatted into the early hours of
the morning. He had told her how he had moved to Bartholomew Bay to take over
his father’s business after he had suffered a stroke.  Beth had talked to him about
her life in Boston and her plans to get back there as soon as her mother’s
affairs had been finalized. She had told him a lot about herself but she had
not mentioned her failed relationship with her boss Andrew.
    “Who ordered
that?” asked Beth.
    “Mrs.
Blackwood,” replied Hannah as she placed the final lily in the vase.
    Beth looked
at the vase and became annoyed. “We need to stop using those vases. I can’t see
the point of continuing to use the second-hand vases Mom collected. I know it
was her hobby but I feel that it is just too expensive to manage. We can’t
afford it; it is just impractical to deliver flowers and collect the vases
afterwards. I know Mom thought it was a good way to get repeat orders but I
feel that there are better marketing options which I will look into.”
    Hannah
looked like she was about to argue but thought better of it and nodded her head
in agreement. “I’ll put these in a standard white vase before I deliver it this
afternoon.”
    Beth swept
the floor, put out a new window display, placed buckets of fresh flowers at the
entrance and recorded the previous day’s sales.
    “That
reminds me, Hannah…do you know the name of the accounting firm Mom used to
manage the books?”
    Hannah
thought for a minute and hurried to the back of the shop. She came back a few
minutes later with a black business card. The words ‘Jean Fisher, Accounting Services’
were written in gold lettering on the front, next to a logo depicting the
letters J and F in black at the center of a gold circle.  
    “Here you
go, Jean was a close friend to Mary-Ellen and she lives a few houses from your
mother’s cottage, number nine Pondicherry Road.”
    “Thanks,
Hannah.”
    Hannah
looked down at a message scribbled on a Post-it note next to the phone. “I
almost forgot…a Mr. Dunne called yesterday, he was looking for Mary-Ellen. He
seemed very concerned when I told him about her death, asked if he could speak
to a family member or the executor of her estate. I told him you would give him
a call today.”
    “What was he
calling about?” asked Beth.
    “He didn’t
say, but it sounded quite important.”
    Beth didn’t
have time to talk to Mr. Dunne. “I will get back to him later in the week.”
    ~
    Beth knocked
on the door of number nine Pondicherry Road a little after one in the
afternoon. The cottage looked very much like her mother’s, except it was
painted white and the garden was not as well kept. The old fisherman’s cottages
were quite sought after in the area and there was a long list of buyers waiting
to make an offer whenever one came on the market. Beth cringed at the thought
of Bernard inheriting her mother’s cottage.
    Jean