Violets and Vengeance

Lacey Pinkerton is excited to attend the annual Mayfield Marathon. Her best friend, Elsie, is running in the race. Elsie’s been training for months and she’s ready to push through that finish line ribbon. The day promises to bring lots of cheering and excitement but when one of the top runners goes missing, an emergency search uncovers the tragic truth. Was it a terrible accident or foul play? Lacey plans to get to the bottom of it…with the help of her handsome detective boyfriend, of course.

“I think your bird has a crush," Lola announced as she strolled into the flower shop. She glanced around to check for customers, and once deciding the coast was clear, she gave my shop assistant, her new husband, a kiss.

I was still focused on her greeting. "I assume you mention the crush to remind me that the crow I feed and take care of is much fonder of you." Lola was the type who often required strokes and compliments, so I probably wasn't far off. The fact that Kingston had obsessed about Lola for the last three years didn't seem to stop her from bringing it up.

"I'm not talking about that crush, which, by the way, is highly understandable." Lola pulled off her baseball cap, shook her red curls and put the cap back on.

"Someone woke up with a big head this morning," I said.

"Nope, I was just adjusting the hat because it was pulling on my hair," Lola said.

Ryder glanced over at me from the potting table where he was placing delicate violet plants into pots. We exchanged amused smiles.

Lola hopped up on the stool at the work island. "There's another crow he's been stealthily checking out from the tree outside the antique shop." She picked up one of the rose petals that had fallen from the birthday bouquet I'd just arranged. She pressed it to her nose. "They still smell sweet even after they've left their home base, the flower." She rubbed the petal against her neck for a little fragrance. "How do you tell them apart anyhow?" Lola asked. She tended to jump from topic to topic, and if I wasn't paying extra careful attention, I lost the connection. Like now.

I pulled out my wedding bouquet notebooks for a potential client I was expecting any minute. "Tell what apart?" I asked.

"Crows," she said sharply as if there was no reason I shouldn't have been following her train of thought.

"You can't," Ryder said. He was the knower of all things, but, on this subject, I was an expert.

"It's possible but it's very hard to do," I said. "They're not like peacocks or orioles where the male has distinctively bright colors. Male crows are slightly larger, but you'd have to compare them side by side to really notice the difference. However, I assure you that Kingston knows whether his new friend is male or female."

Lola had picked up a second petal and was rubbing it on her wrist like someone might do to try out a new perfume. "I wonder if that's why women were destined to wear makeup and men were allowed to stay natural. Maybe men just have better natural colors than women. I'll bet if you were to offer a female peacock a few of the bright blue and green male feathers they'd find a way to attach them. They could be like feather extensions. Could be a good business. Although, I guess female peacocks probably don't have bank accounts."

I looked over at Ryder. He was finishing up with the last of the violets. "How do you keep up with this?" I asked him. "It's like watching the world's craziest ping pong match."

"I've found that if I keep track of everything she says in one conversation, I can retrieve the information when necessary," Ryder answered back.

Lola shrugged. "I'm sorry if you can't keep up with this superior level of curiosity."
"And the head keeps growing," I muttered.

Lola hopped off the stool. "Just thought I'd warn you. Don't blame me if your bird flies off with his new girlfriend and you never see him again." With that, she blew a kiss toward Ryder and walked out the door.