A Beeline to Murder

Tips for Maintaining a Strong, Healthy Beehive ? Plant lavender, sunflowers, and such herbs as basil, thyme, and sage near your honeybee hive. When the food source is close to the hive, the hive tends to grow robustly in less time than if the bees have to fly off in search of food. Also, flowering food sources keep the bees on or near your property, where they will pollinate your garden vegetables, flowers, and fruit trees.

? Avoid using pesticides to control pest infestations on your flowers, as the chemicals will poison your honeybees.

? Place the hive on an elevated stand or platform, and off the damp ground, to aid with air circulation, help prevent frames from molding, and keep marauding animals from molesting your bees. And don’t forget to control ants.

? Keep the hive dry, and face it toward the east and southeast for warmth, dryness, and light.

? Use a screened bottom board under the hive. It allows mites (which harm bees) to fall through to the ground, thus ensuring the mites will perish and will not reenter the hive.

? Feed your bees, especially if the autumn and winter seasons have been harsh, to prevent starvation.





Chapter 2


An herbal tea made of meadowsweet, chamomile, or peppermint can calm an upset stomach.

—Henny Penny Farmette Almanac





Abby watched as Virgil Smith wiped his mouth on a paper towel from the toilet’s dispenser as he dashed past her and through the back door of the pastry shop to the van. Poor guy . . . looks pitiful. Newbie driver for a newbie coroner’s investigator. . . I wonder how that’s working out for the county.

When Virgil returned, his face still had not lost its greenish cast, but at least he had donned examination gloves and slipped sanitary booties over his shoes. He rolled in the gurney, fingers clamped over the sterile body drape, the hand wraps, and the body bag. Once he neared the corpse, he seemed dumbfounded as to how to get the body from the floor onto the gurney.

Exchanging a look with Kat, Abby already knew what her former partner was thinking . . . and it was best left unsaid. Virgil didn’t seem cut out for this line of work. He probably wouldn’t last too long as a driver of the dead. His lack of experience might also explain the assistant’s foul mood.

“Well, with the coroner’s go-ahead for the transport, shall we help Virgil get the body on the gurney?” Abby asked.

Kat nodded.

“We’ll do a three-man lift. I’ll take his feet,” Abby said, dropping to the floor, onto one knee. She slipped her hands around the chef’s ankles and tightened her grip. Kat and Otto positioned themselves on either side of the chef’s shoulders. Virgil secured the gurney.

“Ready?” Abby asked. “On the count of three. One, two, and three.”

As they shifted the body upward, onto the gurney, a ping sounded against the tile floor. Otto huffed to catch his breath, while Kat helped Virgil adjust the body on the transport bed. Kat then joined Abby, who’d already dropped back down on her hands and knees to examine the floor.

What had caused that sound? Where was it? Abby ran her gloved hand as far as she could under the stainless-steel island, feeling back and forth with her fingers as they advanced as far as they could under the structure, while Kat searched the other end with her flashlight. Finally, Abby felt something—a small object.

“Feels like maybe a screw,” she said to Kat. “Bring over your light.”