“When will that be?”
“Probably Friday,” he said. “We’re running pretty extensive tests to make sure that we don’t leave any rock unturned on this. Like you said, if it were just one or two deaths, then that would have gone unnoticed. But to have had four now …”
“I am a little worried,” she said, “because this Marsha could easily be the next one.”
“Maybe,” he said in a noncommittal voice.
“I know Nan will be devastated,” she said, “if any more of her friends pass on.”
“Of course,” he said. “And no way to stop it yet.”
“I guess an awful lot of little gray-haired ladies are in town, aren’t there?” she asked. “So no way to put a protection detail on all them.” At his gasp through the phone, she groaned. “Okay, so that was probably a silly statement. I just wish there was a way to protect them.”
“Well, they need to not walk off on their own all alone,” he said.
“That’s another thing,” she said. “They were alone, weren’t they?”
“Yes.” His voice sharpened as he asked, “Why?”
“Just because it’s not that common,” she said. “Yes, Nan does walk up to see me alone, but I don’t think there would be all that many people going out alone at that age. Aren’t they afraid of falling or something?” Was that too stereotypical? Because she couldn’t imagine anybody telling Marsha that she couldn’t go out shopping on her own. “Never mind,” she said. “I just realized how foolish that was.”
“It’s not so foolish,” he said, “because I think a lot of people do keep this in mind when they go out for a walk. But one of them was in a parking lot. Remember?”
“Right. So that could have been anybody.”
“Exactly. Let’s just keep an open mind and keep the assumptions down and the evidence up.”
“Yes, I know,” she said. “Still, we need to explore all possibilities.”
“No,” he said. “We need to, not you. You do the research in the kiwis and figure out what you still have time to plant in the garden to see if you can get some homegrown greens in before the winter comes. Other than that, remember that it’s time to leave it to the police.”
“As long as there are no more murders,” she said.
“We don’t know that there have been any murders,” he said, reminding her sharply. “Remember? We need proof, and we need evidence. No assumptions here.”
“Fine, but you better hurry up,” she said. “I don’t want to hear of any more gray-haired ladies dying off on their own.”
And this time, she hung up on him. And it made her smile.
Chapter 24
Wednesday Morning …
It was the next day before Doreen sat down to do some serious research on growing kiwis. She found that, although a lot of people below the forty-ninth parallel had much better success, some people in the Lower Mainland grew kiwis in their backyards but nothing on a commercial level. If they could do it in the Lower Mainland, then, under the right conditions, Kelowna would be a potential gardening mecca for kiwis as well. But again, only on the homegrown varieties and not on a commercial level because the weather was too unstable here.
Down in the Lower Mainland, you could pretty well guarantee that, although it might hit zero degrees or ten below during wintertime, you weren’t likely to get the winter temperatures Kelowna would get. And also the Lower Mainland was much less known for extreme heat. So Vancouver would definitely work. She was curious about trying kiwis herself but figured that would take her down a rabbit hole that she didn’t dare go. And, if Marsha had any idea that somebody else would appear as an up-and-coming competitor, that might make her much less open to talking to Doreen.
And talking was definitely something Marsha still needed to do. With her name in the Google search bar, Doreen quickly checked out any news that she could find. And, of course, just award after award was mentioned but very little about Marsha’s husband. Doreen hadn’t even asked what her husband’s name was, but Nan might know.
She quickly sent Nan a text, asking her about it.
Nan called instead of texting. In a cross voice, she said, “I don’t know everybody in town.”
Doreen chuckled. “What did I interrupt you from?” She asked because she knew that Nan never got cross unless she was busy.
“We’re lining up the bets,” she said. “The cook in the kitchen has a new relationship.”
“Oh, gosh, Nan,” Doreen groaned. “Do you really bet on people’s love lives?”
“Of course,” she said. “They’re such fun. They can go either way. Nobody really knows anything about it. One moment you think a couple is guaranteed to get together and to stay together, but the next, poof, you find out that she ran off with a delivery person or some such thing. Besides, I got these bets covered.” And such a note of complacency was in her voice that Doreen had to laugh.
“So, back to my question,” Doreen said. “Yes, I know you don’t know everybody in town, but I wondered if you knew Marsha and if you knew the name of her husband.”
“Ex-husband is what I heard,” Nan said. “I think he took off with a younger woman.”
“Well, that’s a fairly common trait,” Doreen said with a wince, thinking about her own husband.
“Sure is,” Nan said. “That’s why I got rid of the men before they got older. I figured I might as well be the woman who got rid of them instead of the other way around.” And she laughed and laughed.
Doreen smiled. By now, Nan’s single life was quite risqué and a bit legendary in Doreen’s mind. She didn’t have a clue how much of it was even true, but it was fun to think about. “So, does that mean you know, or you don’t know?”
“Not sure I do, you know,” she said. Her voice turned muffled, as if she had put a hand over the
