The Perils of Peaches (Scents of Murder Book 3) Read online

  “Her niece comes by to help her a few afternoons a week. Sweet girl. Vacuums, sets out Maisey’s pills, makes some meals and freezes them. All Maisey has to do is pop them in the microwave.” We took Hannah from her car seat, and I put her seat in the back of the Jeep while Momma held her.

  “I’m just glad you’re okay. My imagination was going wild.”

  We headed for the back door, and Momma pulled out her keys. “I know. You’ve got too much imagination for your own good. And I had your little girl with me, too. I can promise you one thing …”

  She paused while she turned the key in the lock. “I can promise you this. I’m going to take good care of myself. I know you and your sister worry about me. And if I’m ever on my own, well, I know you’ll be there just like Maisey’s family is for her.”

  “We just … we just don’t want anything to happen to you.” The air conditioning hit us with a blast when the door swung open, and I shivered. Hannah squealed in Momma’s arms.

  “Something will always happen to us, but we’re never out of God’s hands. And I’ll take good care of myself so I can help you take care of this little dumplin’.” The pitch of Momma’s voice went higher, and Hannah responded in kind and reached for Momma’s face.

  “I know you will.”

  “Oopsey, I left the diaper bag in my car.”

  “No problem. I need to get little Hannah-B home, so I’ll just grab the bag on my way out.”

  Momma hugged and kissed us both good-bye, and we left her with the promise we’d come for Sunday dinner.

  “You’d better come. I have some new recipes I want to try for y’all. And don’t tell Ben it’s health food.”

  “Don’t worry. I won’t say a word.”

  Chapter Twelve

  After what felt like a few blinks, the weekend came and went, along with Monday and Tuesday. Two more stops with Hannah, and I could go to the store for Mommy’s Morning. I had the file of typed medical reports next to me on the front seat to drop off at Bradley Medical, along with copies o-f the file on CD as Franklin had requested. Ben had taken the news better than I thought he would.

  “We’ll do okay. God’s taking care of us. We’ve got food, shelter, and each other.” With that, he pulled me into his arms and that was comfort enough. Still, being cast-off stung.

  I pulled away from the drive-through line at the bank after making the deposit for Tennessee River Soaps. “How about some croissants and fruit for Mommy’s Morning, Hannah? Does that sound good?”

  She squealed from her car seat. One thing she inherited from her daddy was a healthy appetite. I drove toward Finley’s Market, since it was closest to the store and I didn’t want to keep anyone waiting for longer than necessary. Ben and I didn’t usually shop at the family-owned grocery store, but Finley’s was closer to my shop than Wal-Mart, so I’d make an occasional trip here for one or two things.

  What Finley’s did have was an amazing bakery and deli.

  This morning Hannah’s car seat refused to unbuckle, so I tried to unclip the thing. I glimpsed a familiar sedan across the aisle from our Jeep. Eunice. She stood at the rear of her vehicle, and a young man was helping her put a grocery bag in the trunk. Then she pulled out something small—a plastic lunch baggie?—and handed it to him. They shook hands, and it seemed like she received something small and folded up in the exchange. The young man stuffed the bag or whatever it was into his jeans pocket and trotted back to the grocery store.

  Eunice glanced my way, and her jaw dropped in recognition. “Hey, Andi.”

  “Hello.” At last. The buckle cooperated. I pulled Hannah from her seat. “You’re not at the office yet?”

  “No.” Maybe she didn’t realize I’d seen her. “I had to pick up some cleaning supplies.”

  I met Eunice in the middle of the parking aisle. “I didn’t know Finley’s helps take your bags to the car for you.”

  She nodded. “It’s new, I think. What a nice young man. I gave him a tip for his trouble. All that cleaner and bleach and scrubbing pads and polish can get pretty heavy. You take care now.” She waved and headed back to her car. Hannah wiggled in my arms. At this rate, she’d be running all over the place by her birthday. “Hang on, Eunice! Take the reports and the CD, and save me a … stop”

  She was already backing out and driving off. I continued on my way to the store.

  What I’d just witnessed replayed itself in my head. I had no idea why she’d acted so jumpy when I saw her.

  Hannah and I entered the store and beelined toward the smell of baking bread. Luscious pastries lined a glass display case, and someone had stacked baguettes and Italian loaves for easy access at the end of an aisle. Not a good department for someone on a low-carb diet. Which, thankfully, I wasn’t.

  We found the croissants and I picked up a fresh fruit tray. This should go nicely with fresh coffee, and wouldn’t damage anyone’s diet too badly.

  I wanted to get another look at that young man before we left the store. Something didn’t seem right. Eunice claimed she’d given him a tip, when actually it appeared to me that he’d tipped her. I’d felt rather scatterbrained sometimes since becoming a mother, but not clueless.

  “Justin, wet cleanup in aisle five,” came over the store speaker. I drifted toward aisle five, with Hannah leaning across my body and reaching toward the basket I held. Yep, there was Justin. He hurried with a mop and a be-careful-not-to-slip sign. Nothing odd or criminal there.

  “Honestly, Andi,” I muttered to myself as I headed toward the registers at the front of the store, “you’ve got too much imagination.” Appearances could be deceiving. If Ben were with me, he’d say the levelheaded thing: Quit worrying about what everyone else is doin’, Ands. We’ve got enough going to worry about.

  Soon it was my turn to check out. Evidently the rational part of my brain hadn’t caught up with my mouth, because I heard myself ask the clerk, “Do you have carryout service now?”

  “No, we don’t.”

  “Oh, I was just talking to one of my coworkers, and she mentioned that you did. For tips.” Now Hannah was doing her baby-lean toward the brightly colored gum packets. I took a step away from the display.

  “Well, maybe she asked for a hand taking things out to her vehicle. My boy, Justin, always likes to show off how much he can lift.” The cashier eyed my two items. “You, um, aren’t wanting help carrying this to your car, are you?”

  I glanced at the croissants and fruit tray in front of me. “No, no. I was only askin’. You sound very proud of your son.”

  She beamed. “Yes, I sure am.” She reached for one of Hannah’s hands and played with her fingers. “Wasn’t so long ago he was little like this. Can’t believe he’s going to be a senior.”

  “They grow fast, so I hear.”

  The woman nodded. “Do you follow the Greenburg Wildcats?”

  I shook my head. “None of my friends have high schoolers.”

  “Justin’s on varsity defense. I’m so excited. I hear that some college scouts will be visitin’ the team practices later this summer. They’re talkin’ Division One schools too. You know, you ought to get season tickets for this fall. It’s a great date night with your hubby and the school spirit can’t be beat.”

  “I’ll have to mention that to my husband. Thanks.” I paid her for the croissants and fruit. Sure, he’d love the whole football night out thing. I wasn’t so sure I wanted to be stuffed shoulder-to-shoulder in a stadium, with my face painted and wearing Greenburg green.

  Yet the whole encounter with Eunice left me wondering all the way to Bradley Medical. Once again the voice of reason whispered that what I’d seen had a simple explanation. But she had lied about her tipping him. He’d given her a folded-up bill, or something that looked like it. I shrugged off the odd encounter.

  After I found an empty parking space in front of Bradley Medical, I unstrapped Hannah from her seat and took her in with me. I’d have to remember to bring her by to see Eunice and Barkha, too, after
I didn’t work there anymore.

  We entered the reception area and the air crackled. Eunice was saying something about how “we’ll all work together beautifully,” while Barkha stood by her office door, her fists clenched like she was ready to clobber someone.

  Dr. Tushar Gupta and Franklin Bradley were facing her down.

  “So,” Franklin said, as if that would defuse the situation, “Dr. Gupta will be joining us officially on July eighteenth.”

  “I thought you’d left.” Everyone turned to face me.

  “No,” said Barkha. “Dr. Gupta has accepted Mister Bradley’s offer for a general practitioner position here. This has happened rather quickly. Tushar, are you sure you’ve thought this through? Greenburg is nothing like Atlanta.”

  “I have.” He took a step toward her. “If you can broaden your horizons, so can I.”

  Forget the murder investigation for one second. I really needed to talk to Jerry. Until now, Jerry had had a wide window of opportunity that could very well slam shut on his fingers.

  Hannah chose that moment to deliver a wonderfully paint-peeling baby squeal. Franklin shuddered, both Eunice and Barkha smiled, and the expression on Tushar’s face told me Hannah had broken the moment he was trying to create. That’s my genius daughter.

  Barkha pushed past the men and rounded the reception desk area. “Hannah. Let me see her before my next patient.” She reached for her, and Hannah went to Barkha with gurgles. Someone came in behind us, hacking and coughing from a summer cold. Trudy, from the coffee shop.

  “Hi ladies. It seems my code is back, worse than ever.” Trudy sneezed, and blew her nose. A wayward tissue fell to the carpet. She picked it up, her bracelets clinking on her wrists, then made a beeline for the reception desk and Eunice.

  The men went into Dr. Bradley’s office, and closed the door behind them. I almost wanted to remind Tushar about what happened to the last man who’d used the desk and its chair.

  “Oh, you poor thing.” Eunice touched Trudy’s elbow. “Follow me.” They went to the little nook where a scale and blood pressure machine waited.

  I moved behind to the sacred area where Eunice controlled the goings-on of the medical group.

  I pulled open the top drawer of Eunice’s desk. I needed to write a note on a sticky tag that Eunice needed to put these typed medical reports into the patient’s medical records. Pens abounded in the desk drawer, but something else made me pause.

  A mammoth-size silver earring, identical to the one I’d found in Dr. Bradley’s bathroom, the one that Eunice denied owning. I picked it up and my heart beat faster. This earring wasn’t broken. The one I’d found in the bathroom had the back broken off. But Eunice had said she didn’t wear silver. More importantly, I’d given Jerry the broken earring I’d shown her the other day. It could not transport itself across town and into Eunice’s desk.

  Eunice scurried up to the desk. “Thank you, thank you …” She paused when I held up the earring.

  “Where’d this earring come from? It matches the one I found the other day, the broken one … in the closet in Dr. Bradley’s bathroom.”

  I took a wriggling Hannah from Barkha’s arms.

  “Andi, I have no idea how that earring got into my desk drawer. I don’t remember seeing it before now.” Eunice’s face paled.

  Before Eunice could say anything more, Barkha said, “I need to scrub. Which room did you put Ms. Daniels in?”

  “Room four,” Eunice replied.

  Barkha stepped away.

  “Eunice, I think someone was in that bathroom, waiting for Dr. Bradley. Can I see the list of his appointments for the day of the breakin?”

  “Sure, but the police already asked about that.”

  “Maybe someone’s covering her tracks. It would be easy as pie for anyone to round the corner of your desk, and stick the earring in there after she discovered she was missing one.” I didn’t want to believe Eunice had been in that bathroom, and while the idea was a long shot, it was plausible. People often asked to borrow a pen when they stood at the counter, and Eunice would get up and down from her desk often in the course of a day.

  I scanned the names of patients who saw Dr. Bradley on the day of his murder. Elizabeth Higgins—Mia hadn’t mentioned her daughter being ill, but maybe she’d brought her for a checkup. I couldn’t recall, and there was no reason for visit listed on the schedule. But I wondered if Terrance might have brought his daughter.

  Next was Roland Thacker. Yes, I remembered his appointment. A general physical exam. Nothing out of the ordinary. Trudy was there for her summer cold. Her sneezing attested to the fact, and the tissues she threatened to leave behind. No other names stuck out to me, and I wasn’t about to jot them down and nose through their medical records. No way would I start an investigation by snooping where I legally shouldn’t.

  “Well, I don’t see anything truly out of the ordinary here.”

  “I’ve thought about it every night myself.” Eunice grabbed a tissue from the box. “I can’t think of who would do something to him.”

  “Can you think back to that day? Did anyone come in, angry, or make a threat of any kind?”

  “I don’t remember. I really don’t. People didn’t always like his bedside manner, but that didn’t make them murderers. I mean, I know you didn’t particularly care for him.”

  “He always seemed to rub me the wrong way,” I admitted.

  “But the police aren’t questioning you.”

  “You’re right, they’re not. At least not anymore.” I glanced toward Dr. Bradley’s office door. Soon, that would become Dr. Gupta’s office. “But that day, I remember you said Dr. Gupta and Dr. Bradley argued.”

  “That I did.” Eunice sank onto her office chair. The front door opened, and in came another patient I didn’t recognize. Eunice checked him off on the list, then escorted him to the nook where she took vital signs.

  Hannah had turned into a wriggling bundle in my arms, and as she wriggled, a scent attacked my nostrils.

  “Eunice, I’ll be right back. I need to grab Hannah’s diaper bag.” We went out to the Jeep, and when we returned, Eunice was on the phone. Dr. Gupta and Franklin were in the reception area, chatting.

  “So we’ll see you in about two weeks, then,” Franklin was saying.

  “I look forward to it. Greenburg seems like quite a nice little town.” Dr. Gupta took his sunglasses from his shirt pocket. “I need to check out of my hotel.”

  He turned on a heel, slid on his shades and gave me a nod as he passed. I nodded back and tried to scurry for the main bathroom where I could change Hannah’s diaper, but Franklin stopped me. I nearly ran into him.

  “Is there something I can help you with?”

  “Not really, unless you can change a diaper. And I’ve only stayed because I was dropping off some dictations, and Eunice needed a hand for a moment.” The coarse Bradley demeanor had to be genetic.

  “You’ll be leaving as soon as you’re through?”

  “Oh, definitely. I have somewhere else I need to be.” I gave him a smile, the same one I used to give Dr. Bradley when he said something that made me want to throttle the man. Not that I would, of course.

  Before he could say anything more, I reached the bathroom and took Hannah inside. As I changed her diaper on the little table by the sink, I couldn’t help but feel that Franklin Bradley wanted me away, far away, from Bradley Medical. The man had secrets too. I was sure of it. Money, money, money was the motive I saw. Not much. Unless he’d left a trail of deceit that led straight to the doors of the medical office.

  Chapter Thirteen

  When Hannah and I arrived at Tennessee River Soaps a scant fifteen minutes later, I wished I’d had more time to talk to Eunice. She’d acted very strange about the earrings. Were they or weren’t they truly hers? But I didn’t have time to think about Eunice’s behavior any more than I did Franklin’s, because as soon as I set Hannah down to play within the confines of the plastic fenced play area on the s
ales floor, my trusty assistant Sadie arrived.

  The young woman, on the brink of turning twenty-one, was full of her plans and dreams and crazy in love with a young musician. She was chasing her own dreams in Nashville, but had come home for the summer.

  “Morning, Mrs. Clark!” She carried a plastic covered tray of what looked like sticky buns. “I brought this for Mommy’s Morning. I figured the ladies would like snacks.”

  “Thanks.” She’d always been a thoughtful young woman, even when I’d been her Sunday school teacher and taught the high school class. When someone had murdered one of my customers—in the store, no less, trying to make it look like an accidental allergic reaction—Sadie had been one of my staunchest supporters.

  Gloria was the first to show up early, subdued. Jenna had had a hard night. “I’m so tired.”

  “What happened?” I asked as Gloria placed Jenna into the play area where she giggled at Hannah.

  “I had to give Jenna three breathing treatments, and then we ended up in the ER. I’m surprised they didn’t admit her. And I tried to get some sleep once we got home around five, I really did.” She sniffed and dabbed at a tear. “I’m just tired of fighting, and Jenna’s whole life has been a fight since she came out of the womb.”

  “I’m so sorry. You didn’t have to come today, if you’re so tired. Do you have anyone that can watch her while you rest?”

  “My aunt, maybe. But she’s not in the best of health herself. My parents work all day, and so does Vic …” Gloria shook her head. “No, I can’t stay away. I can’t stay in the house all day. This is my one chance to get out besides grocery shopping.”

  “You know, I wouldn’t mind watching her sometimes. I am usually home one morning a week to get laundry done. You could always bring her over then. She and Hannah can play.”

  “You’d do that for me?”

  “Yes, I would. Thursday mornings I get the laundry done. If you want, you can drop her off after breakfast, and I can guarantee by lunchtime she’ll be ready to crash.”