Dead and Berried (The Early Bird Cafe Cozy Mystery Series Book 3) Read online

  “This has to be about the cutest thing I’ve seen in a long time. What made you decide to get a puppy?”

  Iris was beaming. “When I was researching about guide dogs for my friend Marigold, I saw that they needed foster parents for the puppies. I volunteered to foster a pup from the guide dog program. So, meet Poppy. She’s eight weeks old and I’ll have her until she’s about a year and a half old.” She watched Lily and Rosie interact with Poppy with a satisfied smile.

  Rosie was wiggling all over, trying to sniff Poppy and getting down on her front paws in a play bow. Lily put Poppy down and she immediately peed on the floor. “Hope you have lots of rags for cleaning up all the accidents at your house, and my shop.”

  Iris wiped up the puddle. “I’m prepared. Looks like you have a customer heading in. Do you want me to hang around until Daisy gets here?”

  “That would be great.”

  Iris took one more swipe over the wet spot and picked up Poppy with a pleased expression.

  The door jingled and Lily looked up to see a leggy brunette sashay into her store. Lily watched as she looked around, picking up different flowers and smelling them before carelessly discarding them to fall on the floor. Lily’s nostrils flared and she pasted a false smile on as she walked over to offer help.

  “Is there something special you’re looking for?” she asked in a carefully controlled tone.

  The woman screamed. “A bee! A bee in the flowers. I’m deathly allergic, get rid of it.” She rummaged around in her purse and pulled out an EpiPen.

  Lily caught the bee in a cup and released it outside. Taking another look at the woman, she thought, A bit of a drama queen. She glanced at Iris who was rolling her eyes so far it looked like they would get permanently stuck.

  The brunette looked at Lily. “Thank you. I’m looking for Lily.”

  Lily’s brow wrinkled. Do I know this person? Instead she said, “It’s your lucky day. That’s me. What can I do for you?”

  “You’re Lily? Lily Bloom?”

  “The last time I checked in the mirror, it was me. Do I know you?” Lily tilted her head as she studied the woman.

  The woman looked intently at Lily. “I feel like we’re sisters. My name is Carla. Carla Sullivan.” She looked expectantly at Lily, waiting for recognition.

  “Nope. Not sisters. Have you ever been in my shop before?”

  Carla wandered around, humming to herself. Suddenly she turned. “It’s time.”

  “Time? Time for what?”

  Carla held out her left hand displaying the shiny diamond ring on her finger. “Time to order my wedding flowers of course.”

  Lily thought this was an odd conversation but business was business and it brought in all types.

  Lily guided her to seat in the small room for meetings. “Come on in and have a seat. When is your wedding?”

  Carla gazed around the room filled with baskets of flowers and photos of wedding arrangements. “Next weekend.”

  “That’s not much time to get everything done,” Lily blurted out.

  “I’ve been engaged for over a year.” She sat down, giggled and confided in Lily, “I thought this day would never come.”

  Lily had her notebook open and was writing down the information she had so far. It wasn’t much. “Do you have any idea what kind of flowers you want?”

  “Not really.”

  Lily was having difficulty keeping calm. This was like pulling teeth and Lily was starting to feel like pulling out Carla’s and maybe shoving her out the door. “How about a color? We could start there.”

  “Red.” Carla said with conviction. “Blood red.”

  That’s creepy, thought Lily. “Maybe roses? Roses come in many shades of red, they have a wonderful scent and they hold up well in a bouquet.”

  “Red roses. Yes, that’s exactly what I want. Nothing else, just red roses.

  “No baby’s breath or greens?”

  “Nope. Do you have some roses I could have now?”

  “I could manage that.” Lily set her pad down and stared at Carla. “Do you have a location? Number of people coming?”

  Carla studied her fingernails. “Location? For what?”

  Lily clenched her left hand so hard her nails dug into her palm. Through gritted teeth, she replied as sweetly as possible, “For the wedding?”

  “We haven’t decided yet. There won’t be too many people, maybe ten. Are you coming?”

  Lily ignored that last question. This person had some issues and Lily wanted to stay as far away as possible.

  The door jingled as Ryan walked in. Lily couldn’t wait to tell him about this wacko customer. Before Lily could flash him a warning look, Carla jumped out of her chair.

  “Ryan dear. Come over here. We’re finalizing the flowers for the wedding.”

  Lily shook her head. Do I need to get my ears checked? she wondered. How does Carla know Ryan? Then it dawned on her. Wedding? Ryan? Could Carla be Ryan’s ex—or at least Lily thought she was an ex—fiancé? Carla was pulling Ryan into the small meeting room. His face turned paler than white columbine glowing in the moonlight as he put his hand out to steady himself.

  Finally he found his voice. “What are you doing here?”

  Carla affectionately punched his arm. “You’ve always been such a joker, honey.” She looked at Lily and shook her head. “Men.” Then she focused on Ryan again. “You’re not getting cold feet now are you?”

  “Cold feet? For what?”

  “Ryan,” Carla whined. “Stop teasing. It’s not funny anymore.” She patted the chair next to her. “Sit here and we can finish up telling Lily about the flowers. Oh, and by the way, she’s just like you described her.”

  Ryan looked at Lily shaking his head in total confusion. Lily’s mouth was pressed into a tight grimace.

  Carla continued, “So, we’ve decided on red roses. Is that okay with you?” Carla stood up. “I’ll let you sort out the money part, I have to go find a wedding dress.” She gave Ryan a quick peck on his check, picked up her bouquet of roses and sashayed out just like she had arrived.

  Lily stood up with her hands on her hips. “What. Is. Going. On?” she asked, drawing out each word in a cold fury.

  Ryan took Lily’s hands. “Believe me. I haven’t talked to her or heard from her in over a year. She walked out with my best friend, Adam, and that’s the last I heard from either of them.”

  “What did she mean about me being just like you described?”

  Ryan’s head fell. “I have no idea. I’ll talk to her and get it straightened out.”

  Lily stopped him. “No. Let me try to sort this out. She obviously has some delusional issue playing out in her head and it might be easier for me to get more details. You know, woman to woman.”

  “I don’t know Lily.”

  “Listen, Ryan. I don’t want you anywhere near that wacko. We’re doing this my way.”

  Lily walked over to the Make Your Dreams Come True Bridal Shop and found Carla with an armload of dresses. “We need to talk.”

  “Not now Lily. Can’t you see I’m kinda busy?”

  Lily grabbed her arm. “Now. Before this charade goes any further.”

  Carla dropped the dresses. “Charade?” Her voice took on a venomous tone.

  “You walked out on Ryan. You can’t just waltz back in like nothing happened.”

  Carla laughed. “Is that what he told you? Adam warned me this might happen.”

  Lily looked around the store and saw that everyone was staring. She pulled Carla outside.

  Once outside, Lily worked on staying calm and focused. “Let’s get this cleared up. First, who is Adam?”

  “Adam is Ryan’s best friend. I admit, I made a bad choice, but it was just a fling and it was over before it even started.”

  “Did you ever consider that Ryan might not see it that way?”

  Carla stuck her face right up to Lily. “He’ll get over it. Why are you even getting involved? This should be between me and Ryan
, don’t ya think?”

  Lily stood back in exasperation. “I thought it would be easier for you to hear it from me, but I can see I was wrong. For the record, Ryan is over you. Why don’t you just go back where you came from, wherever that slimy little rock is?”

  Carla’s mouth fell open. “You’ll regret that, Lily Bloom.” Carla stalked off to her car.

  Well, that went pretty well, Lily thought as she brushed her hands together and watched Carla get in her car, slam the door and pull out of the parking lot, dinging an oncoming car.

  Lily hurried back to her shop to explain everything to her curious mother and sister. “That’s quite the way to start the day. I’m going to take Rosie home and pick up some flowers at Jack’s greenhouse. Are you okay here for a while, Daisy?”

  “Sounds like you scared off our customer, so no wedding plans to figure out.” They all laughed.

  Lily left with Rosie to get her errands done, arriving back with the shop in chaos. Blue lights from several marked and unmarked police cars were outside her shop. Her heart stopped. Did something happen to Daisy or Iris?

  The bell jingled as she walked in and everyone turned to stare at her.

  A cop she had never seen before stepped toward her. “Lily Bloom?”

  She nodded, unable to find her voice, unable to process what the problem was.

  “I’m Detective Stewart. You’re under investigation for the death of Carla Sullivan.”

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