weekend in Key West. He eyed my bag, as though fearing I might toss it in the trash, so I pushed it toward him. “Be my guest.”
Being hungry enough to eat just about anything, I downed half the sandwich, then wrapped the rest for another day-actually for another person. Marco and I went up front so Lottie could take her lunch break and found her on the phone and Grace in the parlor, bustling between several tables of customers, pouring tea and coffee and replenishing plates of scones.
“Our regular supplier is out of anemones,” Lottie told me as she ended her call. “I’ll have to shop around for another source.”
“Didn’t we place an order for anemones recently?” I asked.
“That was a few weeks back,” Lottie said. “Now that I think about it, I don’t recall receiving that order. I’ll have to check the records.”
“Aren’t anemones sea creatures?” Marco asked.
“Flowers, too.” Lottie shook her head, chuckling. “When I first came to Bloomers all those years ago, I placed an order for
The phone rang and she picked it up. “Bloomers Flower Shop. How can I help you?” She listened a moment, then said, “Hold on.” Then she handed me the phone. “Detective Maroni.”
I took the receiver from her. “Hi, Detective. This is Abby.”
“I’d like you to come down to the sheriff’s office to take a look at a lineup. Can you be here in an hour?”
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Marco drove me around the square to the tan brick building on Indiana Street that housed the sheriff’s department. It was located next to the New Chapel Savings Bank and across from the entrance to the courthouse. Once inside the building, we went through security; then I was taken to a room no wider than a hallway, where I sat in front of a one-way glass mirror, Detective Maroni beside me.
“Any questions before we start?” he asked.
I nodded eagerly. “Did Dwayne Hudge confess to the kidnapping?”
“I meant questions about the lineup.”
“Oh, I understand how that works. What I need to know is whether Hudge was operating independently or hired to do the job.”
The detective gave me a look of disbelief.
“Don’t worry,” I assured him. “As I mentioned in my interview, I’ve helped with investigations before, and after all, this is my case, too, so I’d appreciate it if you’d brief me.”
He rose and said into an intercom, “We’re ready.”
Fine. I’d get my information somewhere else.
Six men, all of similar height, weight, coloring, and clothing, down to their hooded sweatshirts, filed into the room on the other side of the glass, then turned to face the glass. Behind them, height markings were painted on the wall.
“Take your time,” Detective Maroni told me. “If you want to hear a voice or have them say a phrase, let me know. Mainly, we need to know if you’ve seen any of these men in your shop or outside your shop, or otherwise near your person.”
I studied the men for several minutes. “I’ve seen number three before. His face is very familiar.”
“Okay. Anyone else?”
I took a long look at each one. “Just number three.”
He stood up. “Well, then, thanks for your time.”
“Is the third man Dwayne Hudge?”
“No, he’s one of my deputies.”
No wonder he looked familiar. Number three was the cop who’d threatened to arrest me if I led the protesters onto Uniworld property.
Okay, then. Feeling a bit foolish, I left the room and found Tara waiting outside with her mom. Tara seemed relieved to see me and gave me a fierce hug. “Was it scary?”
“Not at all,” I told her. “They can’t see you behind the glass. You can only see them.”
The detective called her in then, allowing Kathy to accompany her. I sat down on a bench against the wall just as Marco strode up the hallway toward me. He radiated such virility, confidence, strength, and genuine concern for me, I couldn’t help thinking that I’d made a mistake starting a minus column. I’d delete it the moment I got back to the shop.
He sat down beside me. “How did it go?”
“I wasn’t much help. I picked a cop out of the lineup.”
“Don’t sweat it. That happens. People see cops around town in uniform, but don’t recognize them in regular street clothes.”
“That was probably it.”
“Ready to go back to the flower shop?”
“Tara’s in there now. I’d like to wait to see how she does.”
“No problem.”
I leaned back against the wall. “I tried to find out if Hudge had confessed, but Detective Maroni didn’t want to share that information with me.”
“Did you really expect him to?”
“Abby. Hi!” Jillian cried, sailing toward me. She was bundled into a stylishly short white faux fur coat and warm Ugg boots, with a jaunty new beret on her head. “You’ll never guess why I’m here.”
“For a lineup,” I said as Jillian eyed the bench, trying to decide if it was clean enough for her posterior.
“For a lineup,” she said one second behind me. “Wait. How did you know? Is that why you’re here? Not you, Marco. I know why you’re here. I heard about your-wink, wink-bodyguard duties.”
Marco had his arms folded across his chest and was staring up the hallway in the opposite direction, pretending not to be there.
Jillian wedged herself in between us, causing Marco to sidle to the far end of the bench. Then she nudged my boot with the toe of her Ugg. “Kind of a sneaky way to move in together, isn’t it, Abs? I mean, why not just get married and be done with it? That’s what Claymore and I did. You have to step off the cliff one of these days. Right, Marco?”
I grabbed her boot at the ankle and tried to wrestle it off her foot, while she held on to the bench to keep from sliding onto the floor. “Jillian, if you say one more word about us getting married-”
“Let go of my Ugg!”
“-I’ll tell Claymore you’ve decided you’re ready to have babies. Lots of them.”
It was merely a guess that Claymore had broached that subject, but it had the effect I wanted. My cousin sucked in her breath in horror. “You wouldn’t!”
I released her boot. “Try me.”
She glared at me as she tugged the boot in place, but when I merely glared back, she finally said grudgingly to Marco, who was now standing a few feet away trying to be invisible, “I’m sorry. I take it all back.”
Marco gave her a nod, and went back to not being there.
Jillian decided to remedy that. “Seriously, Marco, if you and Abby want to live together, it’s cool with me. I won’t say another word about it.” She winked at me.
“That’s it,” I said, pulling out my phone.
The door opened and the detective ushered Tara and Kathy out. “You did an excellent job,” the detective said to Tara. He saw Jillian and wiggled his finger at her. “You’re next.”
