Her hands were shaking, but she forced them to punch in 911. She turned away from the dead man. Selena’s entrance broke the spell. She was glad to be able to function again.
“Was he killed right there, looking at the bulbs?”
“I don’t know. He was dead when I got here.” The emergency operator came on the line. Peggy told her what happened and her address. She closed the phone and sank down on the nearby garden bench. Her knees were a little weak, and she was light-headed. She despised those ridiculous women who fainted at the sight of blood and wasn’t about to become one of them. “You might as well sit down, Selena. This could take a while.”
It only took the Charlotte police department about a minute and a half to get a squad car to Brevard Court. An ambulance was there soon after. Peggy opened the door for them, then stepped aside.
The uniformed officer took a cursory look around the shop. He didn’t seem particularly upset when he saw the man on the floor. He took out a small notebook and pen. “Are you the one who found the body?”
She looked at his name tag. “Yes I am, Officer Kopacka. This is my shop.”
“Your name?”
“Peggy Lee.”
He looked up. “Didn’t you used to be a singer?”
“No.” Like no one ever asked her
He asked her a series of rapid-fire questions. She answered as well as she could. When it came to the shovel, she admitted that she disturbed the evidence. “I didn’t know at the time that it was evidence. It was just in the way.”
“And what makes you think the shovel is evidence now?”
She shrugged. “The blood on the edge?”
He looked skeptical. “And you’ve never seen this man before?”
“Maybe. It’s difficult to tell, since I can’t see his face.”
He scribbled down her answers, then addressed Selena. “What about you?”
“Me? I just got here. Peggy was standing over him when I walked in. I don’t know what happened.”
He looked back at Peggy.
“Hey, Kyle,” his partner called, “you better come and take a look at this.”
“Stay right here, both of you. I have more questions.”
“I have plants to run over to Wachovia,” Selena said. “Then I have class at noon.”
“Not today. Even if you didn’t see what happened, we still need your statement.”
Peggy put her arm around Selena’s shoulders. “Don’t worry. It’ll take a while to clear this up, but everything will be fine. I’ll call Liz at Wachovia and postpone. You should be able to get out of here in time for class.”
“Thanks.” Selena shivered when she looked back at the dead man. “What do you think happened? If you just got here, too, how did he get into the shop?”
“I don’t know.”
The officer came back to them. “You ladies might as well get comfortable. We’re going to have to wait for a detective. This man’s been murdered.”
“That’s crazy!” Selena declared. “Peggy wouldn’t hurt a fly!”
“Please don’t help me, Selena. I don’t think the officer was suggesting that I killed the man. Were you, Officer Kopacka?”
“Not necessarily.”
“That’s very reassuring. Thank you.”
Selena moved closer to her. Her long black hair and cocoa skin emphasized her golden whiskey brown eyes. She was tall and thin, a long-distance runner at Queens University. After taking Peggy’s botany class by accident last year, she went to work for her a week later. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it the way it sounded. I’m just so nervous, you know? This is like being on one of those reality shows. Except for real.”
“It’s okay. I don’t know how all of this happened. But I know we can clear it up. There wasn’t a dead man here when we left last night.”
“No.” Selena stopped. “Was there a delivery? Not that they would’ve delivered him here but . . .”
Peggy pushed a strand of white hair out of her face. “I’m not sure. I’ll have to take a look at the delivery log.”
Emil crashed in through the courtyard door. “Peggy? What happened?”
“You can’t come in here,” Officer Kopacka told him. “This is a crime scene.”
All five-feet-ten inches of Sicilian male bristled. His voice was still heavily accented, even after twenty years away from Sicily. “Hey! I’m a taxpayer! I’m entitled!”
“I’m sorry, sir. Nobody walks in on a crime scene unless the detective on duty says so.”
“Okay. Where’s the detective?”
“I’m all right.” Peggy didn’t want her friend to go to jail. He was a little prone to theatrics. This wasn’t the time for it.
