She set up her portable radio, changing the station to NPR. Then she put her legs up on the garden bench and ate her bagel sandwich while she looked through some new gardening catalogs. There was a lovely new miniature blackberry bush she marked to buy. Also some antique-looking garden implements she thought might go over well in her market. In Charlotte, the next best thing to real antiques were faux ones.
She called Hunter when she finished eating. She was out; Peggy left her voice mail. She glanced at the big clock on the wall. It was almost seven-thirty. She was wondering when the delivery truck would come when she heard it make the turn into the back. Putting on her jacket, she walked to the loading dock.
The back light still wasn’t working. She went inside for a flashlight, worried that the truck driver would back right through her storage area if he didn’t have
It was cold despite the sunny warmth of the day. Sunset brought a biting wind and a clear, starlit sky. She could smell the Dumpsters behind the shops around hers. The sweet aromas of baking bread and cinnamon were long gone from the bakery a few doors down. Everything was shut tight in the courtyard.
As she was looking up into the sky, a hand came out of the darkness behind her and pushed her off the dock into the path of the truck. It was so startling, so fast, it took her a moment to realize what happened.
Her knees and hands stung from hitting the gravel. She couldn’t catch her breath. The truck kept coming, not seeing her. The flashlight had rolled to the other side of the dock. Red taillights coming closer pushed her to her feet. She had to get out of the way.
Reeling from shock and pain, she limped to the stairs and collapsed. The wood was hard and real under her. As hard and real as the hand that pushed her off the dock.
She glanced back into the shadows and took out her cell phone. Her hands were shaking so badly, she could barely push the numbers. When the 911 operator came on, she gave the address and explained what happened. Her voice sounded weak and pathetic to her ears.
The truck was in position at the dock. The cab door squeaked open and slammed shut. Footsteps started toward her. “Hey! Whatcha doin’ down there? I coulda hit you. It’s dark back here. Ain’t you got no light?”
She couldn’t find words to explain to him. She still couldn’t believe someone had tried to kill her. She couldn’t see another way to say it. And that’s what she told the police officer who came right after the paramedics.
“So you say someone pushed you off the loading dock?”
“That’s right. I couldn’t see anyone because it was dark. The light isn’t working. The truck was backing up, and someone pushed me.” She winced as the paramedic cleaned the scrapes on her hands and knees.
“You should probably go in for some X rays on your wrist and knee,” the technician told her. “You’ve got some swelling. I don’t think either one is broken, but it wouldn’t hurt to check on it. You’re lucky you didn’t fall on any glass back here.”
The officer looked skeptical. “Are you sure you didn’t take an extra step off the dock?”
“I know what I felt,” Peggy insisted. “Someone
He shrugged and took out his notebook. “Okay. I’ll write it up as an assault. We’ll take a look around and see if we can find anybody. You should probably go with the ambulance. These people know what they’re talking about.”
Peggy knew they were right. Her knee felt tight and swollen. She asked the truck driver if he’d unload the pansies for some extra money. He agreed, and she waited to leave in the ambulance until she could lock up behind him.
SHE WAS STILL WAITING to be X-rayed at Carolinas Medical Center when Al and Paul found her. A nurse had left her in a wheelchair in the drafty hallway about an hour before. She was starting to get impatient and thinking about leaving.
Paul crouched down beside her. “Are you okay? Al caught what happened on the police scanner and called me. Why didn’t
“It’s not that serious. I think the knee is wrenched. I’m pretty sure my wrist isn’t broken either.”
“That doesn’t matter, Mom. You should’ve called me. I feel like some kind of moron that I had to hear about it this way.”
Peggy sighed. “I tripped going up the stairs at the house two weeks ago. I didn’t call you then either.”
“This is different,” Paul insisted. “You were assaulted. What happened?”
She explained everything. Al wrote as she spoke. “I already told the officer at the scene. I didn’t think homicide detectives had time to investigate assaults.”
“This homicide detective has time to check out anything that happens to an old friend. Who do you think did this to you?”
“I’m not sure. I don’t even want to think there’s someone lurking around my shop who wants to kill me.”
“Maybe it’s involved with the murder somehow,” Al suggested. “Maybe questioning people around town has hit someone the wrong way.”
Peggy didn’t have time to answer. The X-ray technician came for her, and she spent the next twenty minutes with him. By the time she came out, Al was gone, but Paul was waiting for her.
When a nurse didn’t come for her, he pushed her wheelchair back up to the emergency room. “You know, you might be right about your homeless friend not being responsible for Warner’s death. If someone came after you, there might be something else to hide. They must want you out of the way.”
She waited to answer while the nurse told them it would be another hour until the X rays came back. “I’ve talked to a lot of people, Paul. I don’t think I could zero in on any one suspect who seems more likely than another.”
“I wish you’d leave this alone. If the killer is out there and worried about you finding out about him, this may
