When Katy and I left Betty’s, she went back to work, and I came to Petal Pushers to do the same. The afternoon was slow, and I had actually sent Wendy home. She was a great employee, so it made me happy to be able to give her an unexpected afternoon off. Both she and Cynthia were great employees. Not only were they dependable but they were super friendly, which went a long way with customers, especially brides, and they had a lot more natural talent in flower arranging than I did. I was lucky they were both also patient in teaching me flower arranging skills, and I was slowly getting better.
Since it was slow, I was practicing some of the flower arrangements Susan had drawn up. She had really missed her calling as a florist, because she put together a few flower combinations I'm not sure my mother would've even thought of, and they looked amazing. They would help in both the originality and appearance categories.
I was fiddling with the height of some goldenrod that was adding a vibrant yellow to a softer bouquet of a shrub rose and some fountain grass. It didn’t sound great on paper, but the goldenrod really made the shrub rose colors pop.
I was so intent on what I was working on that when I heard the door open, I startled and looked up to see Sheriff Blackford standing in front of me.
My stomach dropped because I figured he was there to tell me to butt out. Unless he was buying flowers for his wife, this probably wasn’t a social visit. Sheriff Blackford wasn’t into visiting me just to chat. It was usually to tell me to stay out of police business and I wondered if Dale had told him that he’d asked me to help find Susan’s killer. I took a deep breath to prepare myself to be on the receiving end of a stern lecture.
"Hi, Sheriff Blackford. Did you come in to get flowers for your wife?" I said brightly, with false enthusiasm.
"Actually, I came to talk to you," he said in that even, no-nonsense tone of his.
Figures, I thought as my stomach churned. While I didn’t always listen when the sheriff told me to butt out, I did have a healthy respect for authority and tried to be a rule follower. Like most people, I didn’t like to get in trouble, and I was afraid that’s what was about to happen.
"You know, if every time you came in here to talk to me you took your wife home some flowers, she'd be very happy," I suggested.
"You do have a point there," he said, taking me by surprise. "Put together a small bouquet you think she would like, please."
"Sure. Any preference of flowers?"
"Just something pretty. Can you work while I ask you some questions?”
So much for me distracting him from the real reason he was here. Though he did owe me a favor for suggesting he take his wife flowers. She was going to be really happy when he came home with this bouquet.
"I'm pretty good at multitasking," I said as I walked over to the small cooler on the sales floor and opened it, looking at what flowers we had available and trying to think of what to put together that would wow Mrs. Bradford.
"I wanted to talk to you about Susan Merriweather."
"I heard you suspect foul play." I figured there was no reason not to be direct with my questions since he hadn’t bitten my head off yet. I was pretty sure he already knew, or assumed, I was interested in finding out who would want Susan dead.
"I won't even ask where you heard that from, but I will ask that you not spread it around. To answer your question, yes, all signs point to murder," he said softly.
I turned to face him, a few flower stems I had already pulled from the cooler in my hand. Frankly, I was shocked that he'd said that. He normally was very tightlipped, not wanting to share a single thing with me. He gave a tight grin, as if he could tell I was surprised by his admission.
"Don't think I'm going to start telling you police business, but you were there when her body was discovered. I know you talked to Dale, and with your penchant of nosing into police matters, I figured you had already put two and two together."
"I did, and I'm not the only one."
"What are you talking about?"
"Did you see the Granny Gossip website?"
"Granny Gossip?" Sheriff Blackford repeated, and I swear to goodness he rolled his eyes. “I have no idea what you’re talking about. Please, enlighten me.”
"Someone started a website to report news, since we no longer have a paper."
Sheriff Blackford gave a small shake of the head. "Have you heard any rumors about Susan?" he said, apparently not wanting to go down the Granny Gossip road right now.
"Are you asking me for help, Sheriff?"
"This is a one-time thing, let me be clear on that. But you did spend a lot of time with her from what I was told, leading up to this year’s Fall Harvest Festival, and you do tend to hear things."
"Like the fact that Dale upped Susan's life insurance by seven hundred fifty thousand dollars a few weeks ago? Is that the kind of stuff you want to know if I hear?"
The sheriff's right eyebrow rose farther than I would've thought possible as I put the flowers that I selected for his wife together, wrapping them in the trademark pink and white striped tissue paper that was the Petal Pushers brand. I went the extra mile and tied them with a pretty one-inch ribbon that normally cost fifty cents extra.
"Where did you hear that?"
"My friend Katy heard it at her salon from Kathy, whose mom heard it from a friend of hers, whose daughter is the receptionist at the insurance company here in town."
It was really hard to keep a straight face as I explained it to the sheriff, and I could tell he wanted to roll his eyes again. I’m sure he wanted to make some kind of comment that this was how rumors got started.
“I also heard from Dale that he thinks Gerald Stack or Nikki Wainscot disliked his wife and might have wanted to see her out of the picture.”
Sheriff Blackford didn’t answer, but he did let out a large sigh. Something he did a lot when he was around me.
"If you hear anything else, can you let me know?"
"That'll be fifteen ninety-five and yes, if I hear anything else I will let you know. Though I thought this was a one-time thing, you coming in here asking me questions."
Sheriff Blackford pulled out his credit card and I ran it through the machine, giving him a paper to sign and then his receipt.
"Against my better judgment, I think it might be easier on me to just accept the fact you will probably stick your nose in where it doesn't belong, regardless of what I say. But let me tell you one thing. You better keep your eyes and ears open and not do anything dangerous. I won't have a repeat of what happened last time."
"You know my friend Willie has decided to stay here permanently?"
"Don’t change the subject, and good to know. Don’t put yourself into dangerous situations.” He pointed his finger at me. “Thanks for the flowers."
The sheriff headed out and I leaned against the counter, still having a hard time believing that he had come in here for information. Katy wasn’t going to believe this when I told her. I kind of felt good that he didn't completely see me as a troublemaker interfering in his business. I couldn't wait to tell Trevor. I almost felt like an honorary detective, though I wasn't sure Sheriff Blackford felt the same, even with his newfound friendliness. I would just have to show that I could make myself useful and not be in the way. He had essentially given me his blessing to snoop, and I knew if I didn’t take advantage of it now, he might change his mind. Maybe if I found out information that helped the case, he would realize I was a valuable community asset.
Now to decide where to start. Dale had told me he felt Gerald Stack and Nikki Wainscot had it in for his wife. I couldn’t see the principal of an elementary school being a murderer, so maybe I should start there and cross him off my list.
I hadn’t been to the elementary school since, well, I was in elementary school. I bet Gerald Stack could use some flowers to brighten up his office, and maybe in turn he could tell me what his problem was with Susan Merriweather.