Murder in the Marigolds by Dale Mayer (good books to read for 12 year olds txt) 📗

Table of Contents

Cover

Title Page

About This Book

Prologue

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Chapter 27

Epilogue

About Nabbed in the Nasturtiums

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Author’s Note

About the Author

Copyright Page

About This Book

A new cozy mystery series from USA Today best-selling author Dale Mayer. Follow gardener and amateur sleuth Doreen Montgomery—and her amusing and mostly lovable cat, dog, and parrot—as they catch murderers and solve crimes in lovely Kelowna, British Columbia.

Riches to rags … Chaos has never been so supreme … Now a suspect herself … No calm in sight …

Being a suspect in the murder of her ex-lawyer is not the fun Doreen thought it would be. And, of course, she’s been ordered to stay away from the case, … but she can’t help being interested. So she enlists Mack’s brother, Nick—her new lawyer—to help.

Mack’s first priority is to clear Doreen as a suspect. No one in their right mind would seriously believe she’d done the deed, of course. … But, the fact is, she had both motive and opportunity, so clearing her of suspicion isn’t the walk in the park that Mack would like it to be. Especially not when she insists on sticking her nose into his case, where it doesn’t belong.

And just when Doreen is certain things can’t get any worse, answering her doorbell shows her that this nightmare has just started. Who just walked into her life? None other than her soon-to-be-ex-husband, … Mathew …

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Prologue

Saturday Morning …

Three days later Izzy and Isaac, after promises were made to stay in touch, had been dispatched to Vancouver and a family who awaited their joyous reunion. Martin would be in jail for a very long time. He had finally confessed that he couldn’t take his eyes off Izzy, when he was down on the coast for a trip stocking up, and had managed to snatch the girl from her parents and had kept her with him ever since. Nobody had been any the wiser, and, when Isaac had been born, Martin just made up lies about how he’d arrived, and everybody had basically accepted it.

If Izzy hadn’t caught Thaddeus and hadn’t put that message on his leg, she might still have been a captive there. It just didn’t bear thinking about.

As soon as she got dressed and made her way downstairs, Doreen made coffee. Three days had passed since all that. Three days and her shoulder was finally nowhere near as sore. It still hurt to lift her arm above her head, but at least the oozing of blood had stopped, and it wasn’t the gut-wrenching agony that she’d been dealing with. The pain was much lighter now, much softer, more distant. As she sat outside on the deck, she heard a vehicle drive up. Mugs immediately woofed a welcome. She looked down at him and laughed. “It’s Mack, isn’t it?”

Mack, instead of coming through the house, walked around the back, then smiled at seeing her. He had something large in his hand. She looked at it and asked, “What the devil is that?”

He lifted it up, and she saw that it was a table—he’d been carrying it sideways. He plunked it down on the deck beside her, and she cried out, “Where did you get that from?”

“One of the guys at work was getting rid of it,” he said. “I said that you needed it, and he immediately offered it up. I’ve got the chairs in the back of the truck too.” He disappeared and made two trips, carrying two chairs at a time. She just froze. Finally she had a table with four chairs sitting on her deck. She stared in amazed delight.

“It’s just beautiful,” she said. It was glass and acrylic, and it looked lovely. It was also the nicest outdoor set she’d ever had since living here. She immediately moved to sit down at the table with her coffee and grinned up at him. “Now, if only there was something to eat. And more coffee. I’m almost out.”

He sagged into the chair beside her and stared at her. “I doubt it’s that bad but if it is, I can stop and pick up a pack,” he said. But something was strange about his voice.

“I’m really happy you came,” she said, “and thank you so much for the table and chairs.”

He nodded, but he was slightly distracted. He motioned at her shoulder that had been nicked by a bullet. “How are you doing with that shoulder now?”

“I’m better,” she said, cheerfully lifting her cup and taking a big drink. Mack just glared at her. “Okay. It still bothers me. But not like it did.” When he remained silent, she worried. “What’s the matter?” she asked, her gaze sharpening. He shrugged and wouldn’t meet her eyes. “More coffee’s in the kitchen, if you want a cup.”

“I’m fine,” he said.

“Uh-oh.” Something was really wrong. “And that means something pretty ugly is going on.”

He nodded. “There is, and you’ll hear about it soon enough,” he said, his fingers tapping the table.

“What’s the matter?” she asked.

“Have you—” And then he stopped.

“Have I what?”

He sighed. “You know the marigolds in the flower garden down at the big Welcome to Kelowna sign? The old one? There’s talk of a new one north of the airport.”

“Yeah, the one that I spent a lot of time on, trying to design a layout for the city? It was a pretty bunch of flowers, as I remember. I can’t remember all of them, but some lovely marigolds were there, I think. They are tearing that one down? So that’s why the contract didn’t go through. Or maybe I misunderstood, and they were designing the new one.” She frowned at that thought. It did explain why that scenario never moved ahead.

He nodded. “Yeah, that one. We found a body there this morning.” He shrugged. “It’s the first I’ve been there and was quite surprised the