“Luther had severe asthma. Anyone who knew him at all knew that. A hyacinth can cause asthma attacks.” Jonas glanced up at her. “The flower might not have been there by chance. Darmus might have used it to kill Luther.”
“Why would he do that?” Peggy asked. “Darmus loved Luther. Luther helped him get away.”
“Maybe he wanted it all back again.”
“Feed America had just received a very large, private donation,” Al explained. “Darmus set it up, but Luther was going to get it.”
“You know better!” Peggy rounded on him. “Darmus would never—”
“What?” Jonas got to his feet. “Pretend to be dead? Possibly be responsible for the death of the man he put in his place for us to find? I think none of you know Darmus anymore.”
“I have Luther’s statement about how that happened,” she explained. “I think it will convince anyone Darmus wasn’t in his right mind.”
“Exactly, Peggy.” Al pulled at his tight shirt collar. “He wasn’t and isn’t in his right mind. We don’t know what he was capable of doing.”
Jonas chewed on his pencil. “How did all of this get by us anyway? There was an autopsy done on the man we thought was Darmus after they found him in the house. I know they checked who he was.”
“I’m sure they did,” Peggy agreed. “I’ve asked myself the same question. Somehow, Darmus’s body made it through the process without them finding out that it wasn’t really him. I guess it was a case of if it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it is a duck.”
Jonas’s face was bewildered. “What?”
The phone rang before Peggy could explain her theory. Jonas spoke briefly, then hung up. “That was Officer Davis. The hospital is keeping Darmus for observation. They think he might be having a breakdown.”
Peggy pulled a clean tissue from her pocketbook. “I can’t believe it. This is so wrong.”
“Take it easy.” Jonas moved to pat her awkwardly on the shoulder. “The question now is: Did Darmus, in his agitated state, give his brother a hyacinth knowing it would kill him?”
“How will you know?” Steve put his arm around Peggy. “It was a flower. Anyone could have given it to him.”
“That’s probably true.” Jonas got on the phone again. “We’ll process it and see if we can find anything else. There could be a fingerprint on it somewhere. I’m sorry about your friend, Peggy. Get some rest. Take some of those herbs you’re always giving everyone.”
“Thanks, Jonas.” She stood up slowly, weary after the day’s events. “You’ll let me know what you find out.”
“I will.”
But Peggy and Steve were only gone a moment before Jonas called the DA’s office for an arrest warrant for Dr. Darmus Appleby.
PEGGY READ ABOUT DARMUS’S ARREST for fraud the next morning in the
She felt helpless, and didn’t know what else she could do to help him. She’d done what she could.
“Says here your friend will be in the hospital awhile for observation.” Her father read from the paper as they finished breakfast. “Maybe something will come up that will help him.”
“I don’t see what.” Peggy got up to get more coffee for Cousin Melvin. “He’s dug a pretty deep hole.”
“But you never know,” her mother added, spooning blueberry preserves on her biscuit. “Miracles happen.”
That led to a discussion of miracles around the table. Ranson, Lilla, Cousin Melvin, and Aunt Mayfield had come back from church an hour before. They were critical of Peggy for preferring to spend some time in her basement with her plants rather than attend church with them. Ranson supported his daughter, reminding them that God created those plants, and Peggy was the good shepherd, taking care of them.
They finally went upstairs around ten a.m. to change clothes and prepare for their afternoon outing. The weather was holding up and there was no rain in the forecast. This wasn’t a good thing with the drought settling in around the area like a disagreeable neighbor, but it meant they could go out to the Stowe Botanical Garden that afternoon. Peggy’s good friend was the director there, and he’d promised her a wonderful show of late spring/early summer plantings.
Although she didn’t feel like going out, Peggy knew if she didn’t, her parents would sit around all day, or worse, go to another mall. Since there was nothing she could do for Darmus, she figured she might as well go to the gardens. At least her father would enjoy it.
Peggy put on peacock-blue slacks and a matching tunic top she’d bought the last time she was in Atlanta. She’d been there with John at a law enforcement conference. John had encouraged her to buy the outfit, telling her how much he liked the color on her. They’d gone back to the hotel that rainy afternoon and made love on the big bed.
She put on a little pink lip gloss before she slipped her feet into sandals. That seemed a lifetime ago or longer. John was killed two weeks after they got back from Atlanta. It had been that long since she’d really
Not that she ever would again. She sighed. Steve stirred up all kinds of things inside her. But they didn’t seem to have that sort of relationship, or he didn’t think about her that way. Maybe it was the age difference. Or maybe some things were best left behind with youth.
She was about to go downstairs when her computer beeped. She hesitated. Her parents were waiting
