Pushing Up Daisies

the top, it was covered in roses of Castile. He took them to the doubting Thomases in town, who fell to their knees at the miracle. When he dropped the flowers, the Virgin's image was on his cloak.'

'You believe that?' she asked.

'I didn't say I believed it. It was a souvenir. And the candle was cheaper than the Zapata T-shirt.'

'Come to think of it, I bought soap on Bourbon Street once that was supposed to wash away evil spells. I had to repeat this one line over and over while I was lathering up. Is there any writing on the medallion, you know, like a prayer or incantation?'

'You bought spell-removing soap at Marie Laveau's and you're giving me grief about someone twenty-six popes have recognized? Let me see.' The front was easy, Con ella todo, sin ella nada. 'With her, everything, without her, nothing.' The back was trickier, a lot of microscopic writing. I squinted at the tiny, imprecise lettering. I zoomed in on the picture.

'Something she was supposed to have said to Juan Diego. 'Let not your heart be disturbed. Do not fear the sickness. Am I not here, who is . . . your mother?' Holy shit.'

'It says that?' Lucy asked.

'Up to the holy shit part. Don't be afraid, little baby? Am I not here? Your mother? Some poor Mexican woman buried her child with this medal. Someplace she knew it wouldn't be disturbed. A place that wouldn't cost her anything, that she could visit as often as she wanted.'

'Did the Peacocks have any regular help?' Lucy asked.

'Not inside, only garden help. And even that stopped as they got older.'

'That's not much help,' she said. 'Ever find out what became of the real sister?'

'No. I can't believe I keep getting suckered into telling O'Malley stuff, when he volunteers nada.'

'What did Hillary say?'

'I haven't seen her. I have been working, you know. I'm more likely to bump into Gerald Fraser at the diner.'

'That reminds me. Dave Melnick knows him. Well, not really. Knows of. Dave's at the Cop Channel now. I bumped into him and he asked about you, so I told him about your case, and he e-mailed me some stuff. Your Fraser's some kind of hero cop. I don't think they're going ahead with it, but he was researched for an episode on a missing girl. Want me to forward what Dave sent me?'

'Great.' Maybe I'd try to see Hillary and Gerald this week.

'Jeez, 'Am I not here . . . who is your mother?'' Lucy repeated.

'Yeah,' I said, 'but where?'

CHAPTER 25

Only one eye was open when I heard the door downstairs. If Anna was here already, I'd overslept.

'Meez Paula?' she called.

'Up here,' I mumbled. A steady rain had fallen all night and was falling now. Maybe subconsciously I knew gardening was out, so I slept in.

Still in my jammies, I made my way to the kitchen and, zombielike, started the coffee. Anna put down her voluminous handbag and her packages and just stared.

'Don't you need to grind those beans first? Why don't you let me do that while you get dressed?'

I yawned and nodded. Fifteen minutes later, I was back. The smell of the coffee stoked my appetite. When Anna offered me one of her four heavily buttered Portuguese rolls, I wolfed it down.

'This is delicious,' I said, mouth stuffed.

'You need to eat more. You are too skinny.'

I repeated my mantra. 'I'm not, I could lose a few.'

'Says who? Some magazine?' She pushed another roll toward me, but I passed.

'When the man holds the woman, he doesn't want to feel bones. It's true.' She nodded sagely, and who was I to question the words of an experienced courtesan?

Revived by the caffeine, my brain was functioning again. I reached for more coffee and noticed the time on the coffeemaker—6:34.

'Anna, isn't this a little early for you?'

'I got a ride. I was waiting for the bus in the rain, and someone offered me a lift.' She mumbled something in Spanish and looked agitated.

'Is there something you want to tell me?' I asked.

'It is nothing,' she said. Anna lifted the coffeepot and offered me more, launching into the nonstop Spanish she knew I couldn't keep up with. One thing I was able to understand, 'Boca cerrada, no entran moscas.' Loosely translated it means, 'Flies can't enter a closed mouth.' Or 'keep your mouth shut.' She retreated to my office and closed the door behind her. I kept my mouth shut; maybe she and Hugo had had a spat.

With all this rain, gardening was definitely out; tramping around in the muck isn't good for the soil, and anything planted in this goop probably wouldn't survive. Instead, I decided to tackle a less pleasant but necessary task.

Guido Chiaramonte's heavy machinery—the chipper and the riding mower—had already been returned, but I still had a lot of smaller items that belonged to him. Hand tools mostly—dibbles, augers, coas—many more than I had reason to own in my one-woman operation. I dreaded it, but I'd bring them back myself.

It was too early to leave for either Halcyon or Guido's, and I'd started to regret Anna's buttered roll, which was already settling on my hips, so I embarked on another less pleasant but necessary task—cardio. By my calculations and according to the heart-rate monitor Lucy had given me, I'd need fifty minutes on the rowing machine to work off that baby, and I dreaded it. Cardio was boring. The best experience I'd ever had on a rowing machine was the time I accidentally caught Ben-Hur on television and did my workout to the chant of ramming speed, but I didn't own the movie and thought it unlikely I'd get lucky twice.

I bailed after thirty minutes and went a few rounds with the punching bag. The smack of leather hitting leather brought Anna out, armed with a heavy-duty stapler—God knows what damage she could inflict with that thing—but she quickly retreated when she saw it was just me and not a return visit from our prowler.

She was still sequestered in my office by the time I was ready to leave. My anorak hung over the banister. I grabbed it and my keys and yelled to her that I'd be back after lunch. I rooted through the backpack to make sure I had the cell.

'If Hugo or Felix calls they can reach me on the cell, okay?'

'Si, si, si, but I am leaving soon.' Then more Spanish too fast for my gringo brain to decipher.

The rain had eased from blinding to driving. At Halcyon, a black Lincoln I recognized as the Stapleys' was parked at the side of the house. I called out for Richard a few times, but was eager to get out of the rain, so I hustled over to the green house and started packing up Guido's tools. Early on, Hugo had cleverly suggested we put colored tape on the handles of anything we'd borrowed to make sure it was returned to its rightful own er. I picked through two large Rubbermaid containers for tools with orange tape on the handles, Guido's color. I peeled off the tape, and gave them each a swipe with an oiled rag before loading his into a single container.

The rain had picked up again, and the sound of it on the green house roof was like artillery fire. Or what I imagined artillery fire was like. But I still had an hour to spare, and nothing more to do, so I ran from the greenhouse to the never-locked back door. Inside the mud-room I shook off the anorak and stamped the rain from my shoes, checking the time again. Not enough time to start a new project but too much time to spend with Guido Chiaramonte.

Looking around the tiny room for a second time, I noticed the small framed needlepoints were bordered with roses. I made a mental note to look up the quotes; even without knowing their origin, the sentiments about sisterhood were moving.

I went inside the house and up the stairs to Dorothy's library. As soon as I entered, I could sense something was different. The fine layer of dust that had covered everything when Neil and I were there was disturbed. Not