Chapter 5

Chapter Five

I headed back to town, stopping by Chuck-N-Cluck to pick up our lunch before I drove to our office downtown.

When I walked in with the food, Neely Kate was at her desk with her phone against her ear and writing in a small notebook. The wooden box was on the side of her desk, all cleaned up, but it still gave off a slight musty odor.

"That's as far back as it goes?" she asked into the phone. After a moment, she said, "Okay, thank you, Phyllis! I owe you a cupcake." She hung up and set her phone on her desk. "I got a list of the homeowners."

I stopped next to her desk and pulled out the box with her fried chicken meal. "Do I want to know how many people have owned the Thatcher's house?"

"It's not that bad," she said, not wasting any time as she opened the box. She grabbed a chicken breast and took a big bite.

I carried the bag with my meal over to my desk and sat. "I've found that your definition of not that bad and mine are often very different."

"Fine," she said with a groan. "There have been six homeowners, but considering the house is nearly ninety years old, that's not bad."

"And one set of those six owners is the Thatchers?" I asked.

"Yep, so that leaves five homeowners to find," she said. "Easy peasy."

Against my better judgment, I decided to play along. The majority of the cases we'd investigated in the past had been at my friend's urging. I could see plain as day she needed the distraction.

But it was more than that…

I had to admit that something deep inside me needed this too.

Restlessness had been running through my blood. Maybe it was all this dredging up of my past, or maybe it was because my life seemed consumed with diapers and bedtime routines. And while I loved every single minute of it—I wouldn't trade my life for anything —there were moments when I needed more.

The need had been there for a while. I'd tried to ignore it, telling myself I was tired, and what I really needed was more sleep. But it had persisted—a yearning for something I couldn't explain.

"Okay," I said, looking her in the eyes. "We'll do this. Together."

She practically bounced out of her seat with excitement. "Really?"

"Yes, but we have to set some ground rules."

"Okay."

"First, we can't let our jobs slip. It's March, and we're starting to get busy. Bruce Wayne's got to keep his crew working, which means we can't fall behind."

"I'm good with that."

"Second—and this is important—if this gets dangerous, we stop."

"Of course," she said dismissively.

"No, I mean it. I've got four babies to think about, and you have two. We can't be putting ourselves in danger."

She grew serious. "You said two babies."

"That's right, which brings me to number three: you have to make an appointment to see the doctor."

Her face paled. "Rose, I'm scared."

I wheeled my chair closer to hers. "I know you are, and I'm scared for you , but this is gonna be a high-risk pregnancy, and you need to start your prenatal care right away. I'll only do this if you make an appointment."

Tears filled her eyes, but she nodded. "Will you go with me?"

"Of course!" I assured her. "That is, if Jed doesn't."

She looked away. "He won't." She was silent for a moment. "I'm not sure he's gonna forgive me for this."

"He will, Neely Kate. He's scared too."

Her gaze swiveled back to mine. "You talked to him."

I gave her a sassy smile. " Someone had to try to talk sense into the man."

She laughed, but then her smile fell. "He told you everything?"

"Not everything, but enough that I understand why he's scared." I considered bringing up his idea about me forcing a vision of her future, but decided now wasn't the time. She needed other information first.

Her lips pressed tight. She was silent for several moments before she said, "Can we not talk about it right now? I just want to enjoy my greasy chicken and track down who to talk to about the jewelry box."

"Sure," I said, "but you're making a doctor's appointment as soon as you finish eating. Then we'll start tackling this mystery."

Neely Kate kept her end of the bargain and got the first available appointment the next Tuesday morning. As soon as she hung up, she grabbed her paper with the homeowners' names and started searching for the first name on the list.

I took new photos of the box and uploaded one to an internet search engine to see if I could find a similar one. The search proved fruitless, not that I was surprised.

"I think this was hand carved," I said, examining it again. "Not mass produced. I'm guessing it would mean something to whoever owned it."

"But why would they bury it?" she asked.

"That seems to be the question," I said. "Maybe it was a time capsule. They were really into those around the bicentennial in the 1970s."

"Or maybe they killed someone and buried their heart like in that Edgar Allen Poe story."

I gave her a blank stare. " Or …maybe it was a teenage girl who broke up with a boy and buried the notes he wrote to her. We might never know. If we find the owners, they might choose to keep it to themselves."

"Oh my stars and garters!" she exclaimed. "You're right."

"It's a possibility. Do you still want to do this?"

She pursed her lips, considering it, and then let out a long breath. "Yeah. I do."

"Okay," I said because I still wanted to pursue this as well. "I've considered posting photos to Facebook and asking if anyone knows anything about it, but I'm afraid someone will fraudulently claim it." I looked up at her. "Which means I think we should stick to talking to previous homeowners, if possible. If we don't get anywhere with the homeowners, we can try the Facebook route as a last resort."

"I agree," she said, beaming. "Because I've just found the people who sold the house to the Thatchers."

"Do we know where they live?"

"No," she said, "but the wife's on Facebook. Lauren Abernathy. She works at Little Bo Peep's Boutique."

"That's the kids' clothes store in the new strip mall out by the nursery," I said. "We can go out there and check in with Maeve. I need to see if the plants for the Beetham job arrived today, and I want to see if she's still coming to Mikey's soccer game."

"We'll be there," Neely Kate said, then sobered. "At least Daisy and I will."

"Jed's gonna get used to the idea, Neely Kate. He just needs more time."

"Yeah. You're right." But she didn't sound totally convinced.

We wrapped up what we were doing, then went to check on a job site before we headed to the boutique.

"I've been wanting to check this place out," Neely Kate said when I pulled into the parking lot. "I hear they have some really cute girls' clothes."

Daisy was always dressed to the nines, often wearing sparkles and bows, while I was lucky to get Hope in clothes that matched—as evidenced by this morning's struggle. Once we walked in, I instantly knew I couldn't afford this place, even if Hope would be willing to wear ruffled skirts and headbands with bows.

I walked to the counter and smiled, suddenly realizing that I probably didn't look like I belonged. I had dirt stains on my jeans, and I was still wearing my work boots. Neely Kate hadn't gotten very dirty this morning and had changed into a pair of cute ankle boots.

"Hi," I said. "I'm looking for Lauren Abernathy."

The woman behind the counter looked worried. "I'm Lauren."

She looked like she'd lost weight since her Facebook profile picture had been taken, and all her recent public posts had been memes about how crappy men were. I was guessing a breakup.

"Hi, Lauren. I'm Rose Gardner, and this is Neely Kate Carlisle."

Neely Kate, shuffling through a rack of girl's toddler clothes, looked up and waved before turning back to her searching.

"We're landscapers," I continued, "and we're working at your previous home on Olive Drive."

Panic filled her eyes. "I told Roger not to pack that sewage pipe with concrete."

"What?" I asked in confusion, then shook my head. "No. That's not why we're here." Although I made a mental note to tell the Thatchers they might need to have their sewer pipe examined. "Today when we were digging, we found a wooden box buried on the side of the house. We were wondering if you knew anything about it."

Her eyes narrowed. "A wooden box? What's in it?"

"It's locked," I said, glancing back at Neely Kate, who had pulled a couple of items from the rack and hung the hangers from her other arm. I was surprised she wasn't front and center asking questions, but maybe the lure of the cute outfits was too strong. I turned back to face Lauren. "It's about a foot long, about half as wide, and it looks hand carved. At the current homeowner's request, we're trying to find out who might have buried it so we can return it to them. I'm guessing you don't know anything about it."

She shrugged. "I've never seen anything like that, let alone buried it."

"What about your husband?" I asked. "Could he have buried it?"

Her mouth pinched. "That would require the no-good lazy asshole to actually pick up a shovel."

"So that's a no?" Neely Kate called out from the clearance rack.

"That's definitely a no."

"I thought your husband covered the sewer line with concrete," Neely Kate said as she pulled a dress off the rack and examined it.

"As if," Lauren snorted. "His brother did all the work while Roger sat in a lawn chair in the yard, knocking back his beers." She shook her head. "Roger ‘supervised.'" She used air quotes.

"Could Roger's brother have buried the box?"

She shook her head. "No way. There isn't a sentimental bone in that man's body."

"How long did you own the home?" I asked.

"About ten years."

"Do you have any kids who could have buried it?"

She shook her head. "We never had kids. Roger didn't want ‘em."

"A neighbor or a friend?"

"Nope. I guarantee you that no one buried any kind of box in my yard when we lived there. But maybe the couple who lived there before us. I think they were the Elgers."

"Thank you for your time," I said.

Neely Kate walked up to the counter with several items of clothing and set them down, holding up two shirts. Soccer was spelled out across the front of each of them in red sequins. "I'm getting these for Ashley and Hope to wear to Mikey's game. I got one for Daisy too."

"You don't need to do that, Neely Kate," I said, feeling guilty, but I knew Ashley would love it. And Hope would wear hers because it matched Ashley's.

"Of course I don't," she said with a wave of dismissal, "but I can get my nieces things from time to time. And besides, they were on clearance."

"Well, thank you."

After she paid far more than I would have for six items, we headed back to the car. Still, I had no judgment. Neely Kate had always cared more about the way she looked than I did, and Ashley was more like her than me. More like Violet. This was a good reminder to pay attention to that. I wondered if I should have searched the clearance rack for something for Ashley. Violet had left some money to the kids, but I'd refused to use any of it for day-to-day purposes. I was saving it for their future college education. Maybe I needed to rethink that.

But not today.

There were only a few cars in the parking lot when we pulled up at the nursery I'd founded with my sister Violet. When Violet had gotten sick, Maeve took over managing the shop, and thankfully had stayed on. Maeve was behind the counter with her laptop open in front of her when we walked in, and her face lit up when she saw us. She was in her sixties but didn't look it. In fact, I was pretty sure she looked younger than she had when I'd first met her nearly six years ago.

I'd met Maeve through my then-boyfriend Mason Deveraux. She was a widow, and she'd been lonely in Little Rock. She'd moved to Henryetta to be closer to her only living child, but when Mason had moved back to Little Rock three years ago, she'd stayed in Fenton County to run the plant nursery. She'd told me she had more friends here than she had back in Little Rock, so it hadn't been a hard decision, especially since Mason was a workaholic. Besides, she and I had grown very close. She'd become the mother I'd always wished for, and my kids called her Nana Maeve.

I was incredibly lucky to have her in my life.

"What are you two up to today?" she asked, walking around the counter to greet us. She was wearing jeans and a flowy floral top with her Gardner Sisters Nursery apron over both.

"We dug up a box on a jobsite," Neely Kate said. "We're trying to find out who it belongs to."

Maeve grinned. "You girls are solving a mystery? It's been a while, hasn't it?"

"Too long," Neely Kate said.

"I thought I'd stop by and see if the Beetham's plants showed up today. Bruce Wayne will be starting their job in a couple of days."

"They delivered them about an hour ago. I think Anna's out back, looking over the order right now."

Anna was Bruce Wayne's wife, and he'd met her after she'd started working at the nursery several years ago.

I glanced at the wall clock. "If there's anything missing, can you have her call me? If the greenhouse gets the order wrong, we'll have time to get it fixed before Bruce Wayne's crew starts working."

She frowned. "Anna tells me there've been problems with some of Bruce Wayne's new hires."

While we liked to work year-round, there were times when we didn't have enough work, so it wasn't uncommon for some of the new guys to move on to more steady jobs. Which meant Bruce Wayne was always looking for new workers come early spring. "We only had one quit so far, so that's better than last year, but I know a couple of them aren't working out as well as he'd hoped."

"Good help is hard to find," Neely Kate said.

"That's true," Maeve said. "Anna's amazing, but the other people I hire don't seem to last long." She smiled. "Moving on to happier things. Is Mikey excited about his game tonight?"

I laughed. "If you'd call him waking us up at the crack of dawn and asking how many hours were left until his game excited, then yes."

She laughed. "I love that little boy. He goes through life excited about just about everything."

Warmth flooded my chest. Her description fit him to a tee. "He sure does."

"Well, tell him that Nana Maeve is definitely coming, even if I'm a few minutes late, but I'll have something special for him after the game." She winked. "And for the others too."

"They'll be excited, but you know they're excited just to see you . In fact, Joe said he's taking us all out to dinner after the game. Would you like to join us?" I turned to Neely Kate. "You, Jed, and Daisy are welcome too."

"I'd love to come," Maeve said. "And Mikey's gonna have his own cheering squad at the game."

She was right, and after my lonely, loveless childhood, it felt like a dream come true.