The Garden Girls Club first meeting was a huge success! They spent several long minutes admiring each other’s fabulous green hats. The hands-down favorite in the group was Lucy’s. It was a Forest Green saucer hat made of wool felt. Three colorful Peacock feathers circled the top with a fourth feather poking out of the side and straight up in the air like an antenna.
Dot pulled a brown clipboard from the floral knitting bag that was sitting beside her on the floor. She was ready to get down to business. “Have any of you given thought to what you want to donate from your garden and who we should visit first?”
Ruth nodded her head. “Since I know almost everyone in town and who’s shut in, I’ve already come up with two. Dale Simpson had knee surgery last Monday and he’s still stuck at home. The second would be Maude Smith. She just got over the flu and she’s still too frail to get out. Her daughter’s been bringing dinner by her house for almost a week now.”
The group of five agreed to meet up Sunday after church with their bags of fruits and vegetables and visit their first two homebound.
With that settled, they moved on to other important matters. Gloria turned to Ruth. “Were you able to find anything else out about the dead man they found back behind the school?”
A quiet hush settled over the table. They were all ears, waiting to see if Ruth was able to get more information out of Officer Joe.
Ruth shook her head sadly. “No. I couldn’t get anything out of him. I tried every angle but he clammed up every time I tried to talk about it.”
Margaret drummed her short stumpy fingers on the table in front of her. “Yeah, my guess is it’s some guy that hooked up with a married woman and her husband found out about it.”
Gloria shook her head in disgust. “That’s a terrible thing to say. We don’t know anything about this man!”
It was an open and shut case in Margaret’s mind. “Yeah, well. That’s my theory on the whole thing,” she decided.
Ruth crossed her arms and leaned back in her chair thoughtfully. “We should take a run over there. Check out the scene of the crime and all that.”
Lucy moved the large chunk of cinnamon donut she’d just popped in her mouth off to the side, giving her chipmunk cheeks. “Thath a terrible ideo.”
Gloria was up for it. Sounded pretty exciting. After all, it’s not like the body was still there or anything. “Let’s take a vote. Who’s in favor of taking a trip out to the crime scene?”
Three of the five raised their hands. “You’re outnumbered.” Gloria looked at Lucy and Dot. The two scaredy cats in the group. “But you can stay here if you’re too afraid.”
Dot stiffened her back. Dorothy Jenkins was not a scaredy cat! “I am not afraid so you can count me in,” she said.
Gloria was surprised at Lucy’s hesitance. She was normally the most adventurous of the bunch. “Lucy, you’re usually the first one up for any kind of adventure. What’s wrong?”
Lucy shivered as she shoved the rest of the donut in her mouth and looked around the table. “It’s just something about dead bodies, especially murdered dead bodies that gives me the willies.” Everyone was staring at her. Her shoulders slumped in resignation. “I guess I’ll go, too,” she mumbled reluctantly.
The group cleared the table and headed to Ruth’s minivan. Two blocks later, they were sitting in the empty elementary school parking lot, staring in the direction of the woods out back.
Ruth swallowed hard. Somehow it looked sinister now, even in broad daylight. Just the thought of a killer, only days earlier walking the streets of their little town, dragging dead bodies off into the woods, made her shiver….
Gloria could see some of them were having second thoughts. Determined not to let them change their minds, she grabbed the handle of the door and slid it open. She hopped out before anyone could utter a single solitary protest.
Margaret slid out right behind Gloria as the rest of the group followed behind.
The Saturday afternoon sun warmed the air. It seemed a little less ominous now that they were actually outdoors.
The women huddled in a small cluster beside the van as they gazed warily in the direction of the woods. Gloria sighed. It was apparent that she was going to have to be the one to take the lead.
With a firm resolve, she made her way over to the sidewalk. Her sturdy shoes clicking loudly on the cement sidewalk as she walked. Hopefully the killer wasn’t nearby. Her feet were making a whole lotta noise. She glanced down at the noisemakers. She should have picked a better shoe to wear when investigating the scene of a crime. No matter now. The troops were starting to follow and she didn’t want them to have any excuse not to press on, she thought.
When they reached the bottom of the hill, her resolve vanished into thin air as a shiver of fear inched down Gloria’s spine. The woods looked a lot different down here than from up there.
Gloria hadn’t been back here since her kids were young. She vaguely remembered the tall pine trees that dotted the land. Behind it was a small stream near the back of the school property. Years ago, her sons Eddie and Ben would come back here in the winter after the creek froze so they could go ice skating. Those were the good ole days. When it was safe to let your kids go out alone. Before dead bodies started turning up in the woods.
Gloria paused but only because she wasn’t quite sure of the exact location of where the body had been discovered. Ruth took a step forward as she came up beside Gloria. “I did hear someone say the body was found no more than 20 feet into the woods, directly behind the double doors on the back side of the school.”
Gloria looked up at the school. She took a few steps sideways until she was in line with the doors at the top of the hill. Before she could change her mind, she forced herself to move forward and into the woods. Pine needles crunched under the weight of her shoes as she stealthily made her way to the edge of the forest. The rest of the group slowly followed her lead.
When Gloria got to where she guesstimated was 20 feet, she stopped. The ground beneath her feet grew soft and mushy. At first, nothing looked out of place. She studied the area for several moments. She was just about to give up when she noticed a teeny, tiny shred of yellow police tape clinging to a nearby tree. She walked over and peeled it off the tree bark. The rest of the group was hovering nearby. “This is it,” she announced.
The other four shuffled over to take a peek around Gloria’s shoulder. Gloria bent down to inspect the ground nearby. Mere inches from where they were standing was a huge, red splotch coating the earth. “Looks like blood.”
Lucy swallowed nervously as she took a step back. “This is creeping me out!”
As Lucy backed away, Margaret moved forward. She knelt down to get a closer look. “Yep,” she confirmed. “That’s definitely someone’s blood.” She rose to her feet as they all stared down at the angry spot.
“So now what do we do?” Dot, the ever-sensible one asked.
“You don’t think the killer is watching us right now, do you?” Gloria peered into the woods. “I mean, every crime show I ever watched on TV has the killer going back to the scene of the crime.”
“That’s a comforting thought.” Ruth turned to go. “I don’t know about the rest of you but I’m ready to get out of here!”
The group quickly followed Ruth’s lead.
Gloria was the last to leave. She took one final look around before heading back out of the woods and into the clearing. She looked down at her shoes. They were caked with gooey mud. She shook her head in disgust. Wouldn’t you know it’s one of my favorite pair!
Just then, something caught her eye. Something shiny and it was wedged halfway under a nearby rock. She bent down to get a closer look.
It was a piece of jewelry. Gloria lifted the rock and plucked the charm from the damp earth. She turned it over in her hand. Judging by the shininess and the fact that it wasn’t all dirty and corroded meant it hadn’t been there very long. Maybe only a few days or so. Quite possibly left here the same day the killer dumped the body right next to it.
She rolled the small charm between her fingers as she examined the pattern up close.
“Hey! Are you coming with us or are we just gonna leave you here?” Ruth demanded.
Gloria jerked her head up. The girls were standing just outside the woods, huddled together in a small circle as they stared back at her.
What if the killer noticed the charm was missing and decided to come back and get it? Gloria shoved the little trinket in her pocket and hurried to catch up with her friends.
Margaret motioned toward the woods. “What were you doing back there?”
“Just scraping some mud off my favorite shoes,” she half-fibbed.
After they got back in Ruth’s van, Gloria did something strange. Something she never would’ve done before this very second. “Can you lock the van doors?” she asked Ruth.
Ruth raised her eyebrows as she clicked the locks down. “What’s that all about?”
Gloria shook her head without answering. She wasn’t sure yet what she wanted to do about her find. Whether she should tell the group about it. She decided to mull it over first.
Back at the restaurant, Gloria made her way to Annabelle. Lucy’s Mustang was parked right next to her. She looked at Gloria sideways. “Did you find something back there in the woods?”
Gloria glanced around to make sure the others were out of earshot. “You have a minute to come back to my house?” she asked. “I have something to show you.”
Lucy nodded. “Sure, sure. Yeah, I’ll follow you home.”
Out of the small group of friends, Gloria was closest to Lucy. They had known each other for decades. Their children grew up together and before their husband’s died, the guys would spend nearly every weekend in the winter ice fishing on Lake Terrace in a ramshackle old shanty they dragged out there every year after the lake froze.
While James and Lucy’s husband, Gary, were gone all day, the girls would spend the afternoon shopping and having lunch in the city. Gloria liked the other three just fine. It’s just that she had a special bond with Lucy.
When the girls got to the house, they made their way into Gloria’s cozy kitchen. After James’s death, Gloria decided she needed to brighten the place up. She and Lucy spent an entire afternoon painting the large country kitchen a light yellow. Buttercup to be exact. Yellow was Gloria’s absolute favorite. It was such a happy color.
Puddles jumped up on Lucy’s lap as soon as she sat down at the kitchen table. She nibbled on Lucy’s elbow to say hello. Lucy petted the affectionate fur ball as she studied her friend. Something was definitely up.
Gloria poured two glasses of iced tea and uncovered a plate of freshly baked peanut butter cookies to appeal to Lucy’s sweet tooth. “Oh… your famous peanut butter cookies. My favorite….” Lucy took a huge bite of cookie before eyeing Gloria suspiciously.
“You found something out in the woods, didn’t you?”
Gloria took a sip of tea and nodded. “Promise to keep this just between the two of us for now?”
Lucy’s head bobbed up and down, her mouth full of cookie.
Gloria reached into her pants pocket and pulled out the small charm. She laid it on the table in front of Lucy.
Lucy grabbed the reading glasses from her purse, slipped them on and picked up the charm for a closer inspection. She turned it over in her hand as she studied the small, shiny trinket.
“That’s a really unique charm.” She looked up at Gloria. “You think it might belong to the killer or whoever dumped the body?”
Gloria shrugged. “That’s what I was kind of thinking. I found it right next to the blood stain. It was wedged under a rock,” she explained. “The cops must’ve missed it during their investigation.”
She took the charm from Lucy. “See how clean it is? It hasn’t been lying on that dirty ground very long. If it doesn’t belong to one of the investigators, it must belong to the killer,” she reasoned.
She stared out the window, deep in thought. “I wonder if there’s any way we can find out who was out at the crime scene. Like if there was a female investigator assigned to the case,” she wondered out loud.
Lucy reached for cookie #2. “I bet Ruth could find out.”
“Yeah, you’re probably right but I don’t want to tell Ruth about the charm.”
Lucy grinned, her cheek bulging with the freshly baked goods. “Oh, I can handle Ruth. If you tell her there’s no way she can find something out, she makes it her personal mission to do exactly that.”
Gloria smiled at her friend. She was right. Ruth would go out of her way to prove you wrong, especially when it involved nosing around in someone else’s business.
Lucy glanced up at the kitchen clock. “I gotta get going. Bill’s coming over soon.” She grabbed one last cookie and her purse before heading to the door. “We’re going skeet shooting.”
Gloria looked at her doubtfully. “Have you ever shot a gun before?”
Lucy shook her head. “Uh-uh. But it sure sounds like fun!”
Gloria watched Lucy’s red Mustang race down the driveway. She shook her head as she smiled at her crazy friend. She’s definitely hit her midlife crisis.