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Chapter 4
The tea kettle whistled.
"No, nothing," Agnes said.
"Let me get that, Mrs. Bellows." Harper stood up from the kitchen table, motioning for Agnes to stay in her chair.
"Cups are in the cupboard over there," Agnes said, pointing with her cane. "You can add a shot of something stiff if you like. My boy Simon puts it on the top shelf so I can't reach it anymore, but you're welcome to it."
"Thank you, no. Just the tea is fine," Harper said.
"And it's Miz Bellows, Detective. But you can call me Agnes. Bastard husband knocked me up and took off, so I dumped his name as fast as he dumped me. 50 years ago, that was."
As Harper pulled the tea cups down, he could see out the window to Agnes's garden. The yard was large and surrounded by a low fence. Weeds choked the flower beds that ringed the yard and a bed in the center of the yard was no more than a patch of brown twigs and stalks. It was the height of spring, but you wouldn't know it from the garden.
He poured tea for the both of them. Agnes spooned sugar into her cup and gently slid the bowl across the table, but Harper sipped his drink hot and straight.
"So you told the officer who stopped by that you saw the girl talking to your neighbor, Mrs. King. That was after the kids set off the fireworks."
"Irma's not exactly the chatty kind, so I'm sure there wasn't much of a conversation."
"Agnes, what can you tell me about Mrs. King?"
YOU ARE READING
How Does Your Garden Grow
Mystery / ThrillerWhen Detective John Harper learns that Lilly Sumner, his dead daughter’s best friend, has been found delirious, covered in someone else’s blood, and mumbling fragments of a nursery rhyme, he must unravel the strangest, darkest case of his crumbling...
