Poisoned Petals (33 page)

PEGGY TOOK A DEEP BREATH and said a silent word of gratitude for the right ideas. It probably helped that Naomi wasn’t the mastermind behind the plot. She got caught up in the whole thing as part of her feelings for Abekeni. But it was no time to be soft on the girl. There was still too much to find out. “But you suspected, didn’t you?”

“When Reverend Appleby died, I was worried. I didn’t think Abekeni had anything to do with it until I heard about the hyacinth.”

“Then you were afraid?”

“Yes.”

“Did you give him any other information?”

“Not about Reverend Appleby.” Naomi glanced up at her. “But I told him about the cottonseeds you found I heard you talking about it. He wasn’t surprised.”

“And one of you called the police about Holles?”

“Yes.”

“And what happens tomorrow?”

Naomi looked scared, her pretty face drawn. “You told me you knew! You tricked me!”

“A jury won’t believe you
didn’t
know what was going on. You’re going to have to speak to the police and help them stop whatever is supposed to happen next. If someone else dies, you could be held responsible for two deaths.”

“I can’t betray Abekeni,” Naomi sobbed. “He only wants what should have belonged to him from the beginning. It’s fair.”

Peggy went to the phone and dialed Al’s number. “Fair has nothing to do with it. Luther never did anything to hurt Abekeni. He didn’t even know about him. And I don’t think it would be fair for another man to go to jail for what Abekeni did, do you?”

“No.”

“Then tell me what’s next on the list?”

“He worked with his father on Feed America. He knows the program. He thought they’d let him take over when his father was found incompetent. He didn’t know Holles wanted it.”

“So he decided to frame Holles for Luther’s murder?”

“Yes.”

“And when Darmus is released because the police think Holles is responsible?”

“Then he’ll take over for his father. He and his mother have already talked to several members of the Council of Churches. They know him.”

“And Darmus?”

“He doesn’t plan to hurt him, if that’s what you mean. Abekeni only wants the money so we can go away together.”

“You’re too bright a young woman to believe that,” Peggy charged. “Abekeni killed Luther. He doesn’t care who gets hurt to get what he wants.”

Al finally picked up on the other end of the line. “Do you know what time it is?”

“It’s me, Al. I have something important to tell you.”

“Peggy? What’s so important it couldn’t wait until tomorrow?”

She told him about Abekeni and Naomi.

“Are you sure this time? I think I heard Rimer say something about charging you for the wrong hunches.”

“I’m sure. And Naomi is willing to tell you what she told me in exchange for consideration from the DA.”

Naomi nodded slowly.

“So you don’t need to keep Holles Harwood any longer.”

“We don’t have him. Your friend Sam told us they were together when Luther’s death took place. Then we found out the cottonseed DNA didn’t match.”

“What?”

“That’s right. Dr. Ramsey got a call. He said the DNA didn’t match.”

Peggy considered his words. Abekeni knew something about biology, but he didn’t know enough to use cottonseeds from the same plant. “So Darmus won’t be released?”

“Not unless you
really
have a different answer this time.”

“I think I really do. Can you meet us at the precinct?”

Al agreed to meet them there in twenty minutes. Peggy hung up as Naomi’s cell phone started ringing.

“It’s Abekeni.” Naomi saw the number on the display. “What should I do?”

“Nothing. Just ignore it. Let’s go to the police station. We need to get this whole thing straightened out.”

Naomi put her shoes and jacket on while Peggy got her pocketbook and keys for the truck. Her computer was chiming with a message, but she ignored it and left her room.

“He’s calling again.” Naomi showed her the cell phone. “Maybe I should answer it. He might get suspicious.”

“I think he’s more likely to get suspicious if he talks to you. You might say the wrong thing.”

Naomi agreed, and the phone stopped ringing. She shivered as they hurried downstairs. “I’m afraid anyway. Abekeni is very perceptive. He might already know I’m about to betray him.”

“I think that’s unlikely.” Peggy locked the kitchen door behind her as they stepped out into the breezy night. “We’re only a few minutes from the precinct. We’ll be fine.”

Peggy opened the garage door, the wind creaking in the newly sprung oak leaves and whispering through the rafters on the house. It was coming from the south, tantalizing with a hint of ocean air that reminded her of Charleston.

She glanced up at the house. The light was still on in the sitting room. She wished she’d thought to bring her father with her. It felt like the devil himself was after her. It was fanciful, but she would have felt safer with him there.

She got behind the wheel of the truck, hurrying Naomi to get into the passenger side. The engine started easily. She turned to look at the rearview mirror. Abekeni’s face was looking back at her. He smiled and held a small caliber revolver up to the window.

Naomi screamed.

Peggy wanted to scream, but the sound was trapped in her throat. She thought it might be nice sometime to be the one who screamed and covered her eyes. Sometimes it might be nice to slink down on the floor and not look at what was going to happen next. But that wasn’t what life had in store for her.

Instead, she rolled down her window, acting much braver than she felt, and stared at Abekeni. “Does your mother know about any of this?”

He threw back his head and laughed. “Of course not! She was happy getting a few thousand dollars a month from him. She was still willing to take his leftovers.”

“But not you?”

“No. Not when I figured out a way to have it all.” He nodded at the key in the ignition. “Turn off the truck.”

Peggy did as she was told for now. But she watched him carefully, waiting for any chance to take advantage of a chink in his armor.

He went back and closed the garage door as Naomi plucked up her courage and got out of the truck. “I wasn’t going to say anything. You have to believe me.”

As a partner in crime went, Peggy thought, she’d take Steve any day. Naomi folded like a dry geranium when confronted. No wonder Abekeni didn’t want her in Charlotte.

“It sounds like you’ve already said something.” He smiled at her in a sad, strange way. “I’m afraid it’s too late to go back to the way it was before.”

“What are you going to do?” Peggy asked. “Keep us trapped in the garage forever? My friend, Detective Al McDonald, is waiting for us at the uptown precinct. When I don’t show up right away, he’s going to come and look for me.”

“How long do you think that will take?” he asked her. “And when he finally comes looking, how long until he finds you here in the garage?”

It seemed like a simplistic plan to her, but she kept her opinions to herself. If he wanted to do something so easy, that was fine with her. The garage was a little damp and cold, it would make her sinuses uncomfortable for a few days, but it certainly wouldn’t kill her.

“Why did you come looking for Naomi?”

“When she didn’t answer the phone, I thought something was wrong. When I saw the two of you sneaking out of the house, I
knew
it.”

“Please,” Naomi begged, “I’ll do anything you ask. Please don’t hurt me.”

He stroked her hair with a gentle hand, but the gun didn’t waver. “Get back in the truck, please.”

He tied them both with some rope he found on the side wall with the tools. Then he took their cell phones and put them in his pocket.

Naomi started crying piteously.

“Don’t worry.” He hushed her. “It will be over very quickly.”

He reached around Peggy, who was tied to the steering wheel, and started the engine. “They say asphyxiation is an easy death. No pain. You just go to sleep.”

Naomi begged and pleaded. Peggy glanced at Abekeni. “You don’t want to do this. Please reconsider.”

“I’m sorry you got in the middle of all this.” He sounded very sincere. “But I can’t leave you two to run around and tell everyone what you know.”

He opened the windows in the truck and closed the doors. He smiled and kissed Naomi, who cried and begged him again to change his mind, asking him to take her with him. “Good night, Naomi. Take deep breaths. Make it easy on yourself.”

Peggy examined the knots in the rope that held her to the steering wheel until he turned off the lights in the garage and shut the door behind him. It was completely dark, impossible to tell how to negotiate the ropes. She leaned her head back against the seat and waited.

“Don’t give up,” Naomi urged her. “We may still have a chance if your friend comes looking for you. Try not to breathe.”

Peggy laughed. “Not breathing is a little hard. But you don’t have to worry. The carbon monoxide from this truck isn’t going to kill us, because there isn’t any.”

“What are you saying? Are you already delirious?”

“This truck is electric,” Peggy explained. “As soon as we think it’s safe, we can turn on the lights and get out of here. I want to make sure he’s gone and not still watching, until he thinks we’re dead.”

“Thank God!” Naomi cried out. “You’re a genius, Peggy.”

“Thanks. But I really didn’t do it to save my life except in a roundabout way.”

“It doesn’t matter. It means I’ll get to turn in that selfish, stupid, immoral—”

“That’s true.”

“How long should we wait?”

“I’m not really sure. I can’t see my watch.” Peggy figured it didn’t matter how long it was. Until they got free of their ropes, they couldn’t get out of the truck unless she wanted to try to drive that way. The chances were, insurance wouldn’t cover her backing through the garage door, even if it
was
an emergency.

So she concentrated on the ropes and told Naomi to do the same. The rope was the thin, plastic-coated kind that was difficult to get apart when it was tied tight. She’d used it to tie up trees a few years back after a bad ice storm.

Peggy thought about everything Abekeni said while he was getting rid of them. He didn’t know about Holles being released yet or that his cottonseed evidence wouldn’t hold up to forensic investigation. But when he did, he was going to realize Holles was still an obstacle.

She couldn’t help but notice how cold and methodical he was about killing her and Naomi. She had no doubt he would be as cold about killing Holles. She was surprised he didn’t think about it in the first place. Perhaps he thought the police might be too suspicious if another Feed America director died right away.

What would his plan be? She considered some ideas while she worked on the knots he used to tie her to the truck. How would he try to get rid of Holles?

“I got the knot out!” Naomi said in triumph.

“Quick!” Peggy encouraged. “Turn on the light so I can see my hands. We should alert the police. Abekeni might try to kill Holles when he finds out his plan to frame him for Luther’s death didn’t work.”

But Naomi opened the truck door and got out. “I’m sorry, Peggy. I know you mean well, but I can’t do this to Abekeni. You don’t realize how terrible his life has been because of his father abandoning him. I’m going to apologize. Maybe there is still time for us to get away.”

“Don’t be silly, Naomi! This is your only chance to straighten things out.”

“I’m sorry,” the girl said again as she took the keys from the ignition in the truck and put them in her pocket. “I don’t want to hurt you, just slow you down a little. With any luck, Abekeni and I will be gone before anyone finds you here.”

“Well, you’ve done it now, Margaret Anne!” Peggy said in the quiet that was left after Naomi was gone. She was still tied to the steering wheel, but now the truck wasn’t running, so she couldn’t back through the garage door even if she wanted to.

What was left? There was always an alternative if one looked for it. She continued to stretch and strain to get her hands free. Then she recalled that the garage door opener was in her pocketbook. She didn’t think about having to use it, smug in her knowledge that her position wasn’t lethal. She only had to figure out a way to get it out with her pocketbook on the floor.

She pushed off one shoe and used her foot to feel around in her pocketbook. She felt the garage door opener, but she couldn’t pull it up with her sock on. She took off her other shoe and used her left foot to take the sock off her right foot.

She got the sock off and used her toes to grab hold of the opener. She was trying to push it up her leg to her lap where she could push on it with her elbow, but it kept sliding down her leg.

She pushed hard on it with the ball of her foot and heard the sound of the garage door opening behind her. She didn’t know how it was possible, and she didn’t care. All she had to do was figure out how to attract some attention and get out of the garage.

Peggy thought about ways to get attention from people in the house. She tried beeping the horn and was immediately sorry she hadn’t checked it out sooner when she’d noticed there was a problem. It wouldn’t work at all.

“All right,” she promised herself. “That’s on my to-do list as soon as I get out of here.”

But without the horn, what was left?

She knew her father was still awake. If she could get him to notice that something was wrong, that might do it. The only other creature in the house likely to hear her was Shakespeare. She didn’t know how well her voice would carry, but she started yelling for him. “Shakespeare! Come on, boy! Come on, Shakespeare! Come on, boy!”

She whistled and called until her lips were too dry to pucker up. Even then she kept calling. Dogs have very sensitive hearing. Shakespeare knew Steve was coming when he left his house. She knew he could hear her calling him from the yard.