Murder in the Rose Garden: A Scent with Love Cozy Mystery (Scent with Love Cozy Mysteries) Read Free Page A

went
quiet for a moment and replied, “Take all the time you need, Beth.” He cleared
his throat nervously. “I’m here if you need me; if you need anything just call
and I can come out to help you.”
    “Thanks,
Andy, I’ll let you know if there is anything you can do… Look, I have to go,
someone’s at the door.”
    Beth put
down the phone and let out a deep sigh. Andrew Anderson had been more than just
a boss to her: they had been lovers for four years and had been on the brink of
marriage when she found out that he had been cheating on her with Julie
Sanchez, his twenty-two-year-old secretary with thick curly brown hair, red
pouty lips and a perfectly shaped pair of silicone boobs.
    Beth had
been heartbroken. She had spent weeks mailing wedding cancellations while her
mother had tried to convince her that what she had with Andy was worth saving, but
Beth was not the “ forgive and forget ” type. Julie had eventually run off
to South America with a twenty-eight-year-old musician who looked like the
poster boy for a Calvin Klein advert and Andrew was left to wonder what could
have been between him and Beth. It was not easy at first and Beth had
considered finding a new job but the thought of leaving the job she had worked
at since leaving college scared her too much. In the first year after the break-up
working together had been awkward but as the years had passed they had forged a
business relationship. Andrew still loved her in his own way and he had even tried
to patch things up a few times in the last two years but Beth was not
interested. She had embraced the single life and was quite happy living alone
in her rented one-bedroom apartment overlooking the Boston harbor.
    Beth got up
and answered the door. She collected her bottle of wine from the waiter who had
walked down from the bar and sat down at the kitchen table with the black
ledger Jack had given her and her chicken sandwich. She spent hours going over
the financials, months and months of poorly captured financial records. She
found that the shop had a large order book which ranged from small orders for
local residents, a bunch of roses here and there and larger bouquets for
functions, to large weekly orders from the local hotel, Millie’s, and several
large contracts with Magical Weddings, a local wedding planning company run by a
woman called Sylvia White.
    Beth was
shocked. With so many large orders it seemed odd that Scent with Love was
experiencing financial difficulty. The financial records highlighted
significant expenditure on an external consultant named P. Pots; the ledger
entries were vague and lacked the details given to all the other entries but
one thing was clear: P. Pots was the single biggest monthly expense at Scent
with Love and there was no clear indication as to what service they were providing.
    Beth took
off her glasses and sipped the last of the wine from her glass, closed the
ledger and decided to call it a night. She took a quick shower, climbed into
bed and drifted off to sleep with the calming sound of waves crashing against
the rocky cliff next to the pier in the background.  
    ~
    A bell rang,
the flower shop door swung open and a bubbling brunette swanned in. It was nine-thirty
and Hannah King was late for work.
    “Morning,
sorry I’m so late; had a bit of trouble getting the kids to school this
morning.” She walked into the back of the shop, hung her handbag in the closet
and made two cups of coffee.
    “You must be
Elizabeth. Look just like your mom, you do.”
    Beth smiled
and took a sip of warm coffee. “Most people call me Beth.”  
    Beth had
opened the flower shop at nine a.m. and set about compiling an inventory of all
stock items, assets and furniture. If she was going to sell the place for a
good price, she needed to get a better handle on what the place was worth and
all of this information would assist in compiling a comprehensive valuation. The
shop was busier than she had expected—there was a