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

constant flow of customers
throughout the morning and by the time lunchtime came around she was starving. Hannah
picked up the phone and ordered them some lunch from the diner.
    “Hi, Allison,
its Hannah from the flower shop…yes…could you send over two grilled chicken
salads please. Thanks.”
    The phone
rang again just as she placed the receiver down.
    “Scent with Love,
how can I help you today? ...Oh hi, Mom, yes I got the kids to school this
morning a little late but we managed just fine. Lucie is having a rough time at
the moment, misses her dad. Luke started walking yesterday…I made a video, I’ll
send it you via e-mail later this afternoon when I get home…thanks, Mom, love
you too.”
    Hannah put
down the phone and smiled at Beth apologetically. “Sorry about that, my mom has
been calling about a hundred times a day to check up on me since Ben ran out on
us. The kids have been struggling but we’ll get by.”
    Beth felt a
stab of guilt at the thought of selling the shop and leaving Hannah without a
job.

Chapter 3
     
    Beth sat on the wooden
bench at the marina next to the Fisherman’s Wharf hotel and restaurant building
waiting for the gray-haired woman who had shoved the note in her hand after her
mother’s memorial service. Expensive yachts painted in white and blue sat
docked next to small fishing boats with rusty red paint and decks cluttered
with fishing gear. Beth sat reading the names that were inscribed on the boats.
The yachts bore names like The Midnight Express, Lovely Laura and The Ocean Angel while the rusty fishing boats had names like Charger
and Piranha .
    The smell of
freshly caught fish hung in the air and gulls circled overhead, hoping for a
taste of fresh fish. It was a windy afternoon; the ocean air clung to her
cheeks, making them feel sticky, and her lips stung with the taste of salt. It
was a little after three in the afternoon. She had been waiting for the gray-haired
author of the mysterious note for fifteen minutes and she had started to doubt
if she was going to show up.
    A fishing
boat came in from the sea with its worn nets brimming with fish. The fishermen
on board looked tired. Their skin was a dark leathery shade of brown from years
in the sun and they smiled with big gaps in between yellow-stained teeth. Beth
admired their work ethic: they woke up before the sun, came back in the late
afternoon and worked late into the evening, gutting and cleaning the day’s
catch so that it could be sold at the early-morning fish market the next day. It
was a hard life, but they looked happy. The boat didn’t dock at the marina,
instead the captain steered it past the pretty buildings at the front of the marina,
towards the back where the docks and the warehouse buildings were located.
    At three-thirty,
Beth had tired of watching the fishermen so she decided to head back to the
flower shop to finish the afternoon shift—perhaps Hannah could take some time
off and fetch her kids a little early. It seemed like she could do with an
afternoon off; raising two kids alone couldn’t be easy. As she was about to get
up, a woman sat down next to her. Beth remained calm and continued to look out
at the boats in the marina, not daring to turn to face the woman sitting next
to her. The woman reached for her purse and took out a loaf of stale bread,
broke off small chunks, balled them in her hand and threw them out onto the
water for the hungry seagulls.
    “Hello,
Elizabeth, I’m glad you decided to come.”
    Martha Crawford
was a tall, stout woman with an enormous chest and a slim waist. She wore a
navy blue cotton shirt and matching blue slacks. She had a pair of black
leather flats and navy stockings on her feet. Her gray hair was cut in a
perfect bob with short bangs that brushed the top of her dark eyebrows that sat
on top of smiling honey-brown eyes.
    “You must be
wondering why I brought you here.” Martha spoke quickly as she continued to
throw bread for the hungry birds.
    “I have