Pretty Poison

She scuffed her shoe in the dirt. “It could’ve been back here for a year, too.”

“That’s easy to find out. Let’s see who has their key and who doesn’t. I have mine. You have yours. Who else has a key?”

“Let’s find out,” she agreed. “But first, let’s put that key in a plastic bag. I can take it over to Mai to check for prints.”

“Who’s Mai?” Sam wondered. “He sounds hot.”

Peggy laughed. “She might be. You can meet her yourself when you go in to have your fingerprints made.”

“A sister, huh? Oh well.” He slapped himself in the head. “Sorry. I keep forgetting to go over there.”

“If you’re arrested for Mark’s murder because the police don’t know you work for me, you might remember.”

“Why don’t you let me take the key over there, and I can get my prints made at the same time?”

She started back into the Potting Shed. “How do I know you’re not the killer, and the evidence on this key won’t ever reach the police?”

The door closed behind her as Sam digested her words. “Hey! Wait up! Are you saying that I’m a suspect?”

Peggy was already in the front of the store by the time he caught her. They both waited for a customer to leave before asking Selena to produce her key.

“You guys look like a couple of vultures.” Selena found her key and held it up. “I didn’t kill anybody. Especially not with this key!”

“No one said you did,” Sam replied with a suspicious tone. “Do you have something to hide?”

She stuck out her tongue at him. “No! Do you?”

“We know Mark Warner was murdered by one of his lovers,” he said. “You could’ve been one of them.”

“Eeuuww! That’s gross! Do you know how old he was? He was like my grandfather!” She recovered from her disgust and glared at him. “Besides, you could’ve been one of his lovers, too.”

Sam shuddered. “Eeuuww! You’re right. That’s gross. Except he had a lot of money. I could overlook a few things for someone who could help me pay off my medical school bills.”

They both looked at Peggy to end the dispute. She took her time about it, checking the cash register receipts before she answered. “I don’t know, Sam. You offered to take a piece of evidence to the police.”

“Not because I’m guilty of killing someone!”

She laughed and squeezed his arm. “Of course not, sweetie! And neither is Selena. But once we figure out how Warner got into the shop, we might be that much closer to figuring out why. This key could be part of that.”

Sam was satisfied with that. He started a list of key holders on his Palm Pilot. Peggy gave him the names of everyone who had keys. He put checks beside his name, Selena’s, and Peggy’s. “I’ll talk to Keeley tonight. Maybe you could check with Mr. Balducci, the cleaning company, and the bug guy.”

Peggy agreed and made a note for herself.

“What about me?” Selena asked. “I had to see the dead guy. Shouldn’t I get to check something out?”

“You should,” Peggy sympathized. “I have to leave again for a couple of hours. I’ll be back to close up. In the meantime, keep an eye out for that woman we saw with Mark for the past couple weeks. See if you can find some way to get her name.”

“You mean the woman with the legs that could crack walnuts?” Selena chuckled and nudged Sam with her elbow. “Too bad you don’t want to hook up with her. She’d show you hot.”

He shuddered. “She sounds scary. If her legs can crack walnuts . . .”

“Maybe you’re right,” Selena agreed. “Maybe she killed Mark Warner.”

“Let’s find out who she is before we accuse her of murder,” Peggy suggested.

“She looked strong enough to hit somebody with a shovel,” Selena reminded her.

A group of customers came into the shop. The lunchtime crowd was gone, but late stragglers were still shopping for weekend projects.

“I have to go,” Peggy said again. “Let me know what you find out.”

THE REST OF THE AFTERNOON went quickly. Her second class was less impressed by the murder in her shop, so they went through the process of photosynthesis.

One student stopped after class to ask about her lecture on botanical poisons. He suspected one of the people who shared his house of killing his goldfish by pouring Drano into the tank.

“Drano doesn’t qualify as being botanical,” she explained. “A botanical poison is made from plants or plant substances. I think Drano is chemical. You’ll have to do some research on the Internet.”

“Have you ever seen a Drano poisoning, Dr. Lee?” he continued. “Do you know what the symptoms would be?”

“I really can’t say. And I imagine it would be different for humans than for goldfish.”

“What about other poisons? What would be something you could use that would be fast acting and not leave