Hushed Up--Myrtle Clover Mystery #15

Chapter Eighteen

She turned to see Rowan there and smiled. "Thank you, Rowan. This is technically my funeral outfit, but I decided it should have other purposes."

He tilted his head to assess the ensemble. Then he slowly nodded. "There is absolutely no reason to limit that outfit to the realm of funeral services. It suits you well." He added in a low voice, "As long as it's not bad luck! Wouldn't that be horrible? If we had yet another grisly death in Bradley?"

Myrtle said crisply, "Perish the thought! Two is more than enough."

Rowan leaned in a little closer. "What do you think about Martin's arrest?"

Myrtle asked, "What do you think about it?"

Rowan said, "I'm completely shocked. I mean, totally shocked through and through. If there was one thing I thought was obvious, it's that Martin loved his mother very much. He always spoke of her in such fond terms. He seemed so devastated by her death." Rowan frowned. "I do hope this isn't going to hold up any remuneration I'm owed for the funeral reception. Wouldn't that be awful?"

Myrtle said, "I suppose we'll have to see. I'm not convinced Martin had anything to do with his mother's death."

Rowan's eyes opened wide. "But I hear there was evidence. I mean, there was evidence at Tallulah's house that implicated Martin. That's the scuttlebutt, anyway."

Rowan was the sort of person who knew everything going on in a town. How he knew about police evidence, though, was unclear.

Myrtle shrugged. "Maybe there's evidence, maybe not. Martin says he wasn't there." She knew Rowan would be spreading the information all over town. Maybe Martin would still be able to live and work in Bradley when he left the jail if Rowan spread an alternate version of events.

Rowan's eyes bugged out. "Really? Well, you're the mother of the police chief, so I'll take your word for it. I suppose evidence can also be faked, can't it?"

Bianca walked by then and looked at them curiously. Rowan waved a cheery hand and as soon as Bianca passed by, he said, "That poor girl. Do you know how absolutely awful Lillian was to her? She acted as if Bianca was some sort of half-wit or something. Terrible, terrible behavior."

Myrtle clucked over this and then innocently added, "I heard Lillian wasn't too kind to you, either, some of the time."

Rowan blinked at her and then burst into laughter. "Red should take you on as his partner, Miss Myrtle. Oh my goodness, how do you find your information?"

Bianca again passed curiously by and Rowan waited until she was out of earshot again. "I can tell you Lillian wasn't fun to work with. She wasn't just a perfectionist with her own staff; she was a perfectionist with mine, as well. When she started carping at one of my employees, I'd really had enough. Only I am allowed to fuss at my staff and they hadn't done anything fuss-worthy. So I started recommending a competing florist in Iva to folks who were putting on events."

"But not for this one," said Myrtle.

"Oh, no. No, because Lillian was a member of the garden club so of course they needed to use her shop for the flowers. Lillian would never have forgiven them, otherwise."

Myrtle said, "I take it Lillian didn't appreciate having business go elsewhere. Did she know why it happened?"

Rowan nodded. "She was a smart cookie. She figured out I'd been the one who'd sent people to other florists."

"And she retaliated," said Myrtle.

"Absolutely! She was positively vicious. Livid."

Myrtle said, "She approached you about it? Argued with you?"