A Beeline to Murder

With the magnifier, Abby looked intently at Jean-Louis and then again at the fisherman. Her instincts told her something was significant, and even though her eyes and her brain kept searching the image, they weren’t latching on to what it was. She lifted her gaze to look over again at the sleeping Philippe. The brothers shared obvious similarities, including the same angular jawline, dark brows, thick hair, and muscular build. Both men were handsome, personable, and in the prime of life. But their differences had set them on different life paths.

Of the two, Philippe seemed more courteous, quicker to smile, less extreme in his mood swings. She had wondered whether Jean-Louis had been using drugs, which might account for his temperamental outbursts. No analysis had been noted. Had the pressures of potentially losing the business and losing his lease, his dissatisfaction in his personal relationships, or something else driven him into a world of drugs? Had he used them with reckless abandon? The tox screen results weren’t included. She would check on that. Alternatively, had Jean-Louis crossed paths with someone who shared his short fuse to anger? Whatever it was in his makeup that had compelled him to make different choices than Philippe had made had led to this moment: one brother now slept in restful repose, while the other lay lifeless on a cold slab in the morgue.

Abby reached for a small envelope sealed with red tape. She opened it, and then she pinched the small earring retrieved from the pastry shop and examined it closely. Laying the earring aside momentarily, she thumbed through the police report to look for references to it and to ascertain whether or not there had been a follow-up with a jeweler. She found the report of her own statement about it:



She heard a ping while helping to hoist the chef’s body onto a gurney, whereupon she and Officer Katerina Petrovsky searched for the source of the sound and located the earring—but only one.





At the very least, she would take it to the jeweler tomorrow.

As she dropped the earring back into the envelope, the thought occurred to her that it was already tomorrow. The sun would soon be up. Her chickens would be pecking each other, relieving the stress of being locked inside the chicken house, while Houdini was already sounding his gravelly call. The animal world might be waking up, but Abby needed sleep. Two or three hours should be enough. She began packing the items back in the boxes. She’d leave a note for Philippe.





Tips for Planting a Fairy Ring



A fairy ring is a landscape design element featuring a tea rose ringed by several flower beds. You can use a white tea rose and plants with gray-green foliage or choose a red tea rose with pink or purple flowers. The gradation from the tall tea rose in the center to the shortest plants of the outermost ring creates a spectacular visual effect.





? Plant a white hybrid tea rose bush, such as an Honor, Iceberg, Pascali, or Caroline de Monaco, to create an anchor for the surrounding rings of plants. The tea rose should be the tallest of all the plants in the fairy ring.

? Create concentric flower-bed rings around the rosebush using shorter plants, such as white bearded irises, white bellflowers, sweet woodruff, and dusty miller. The rings should be placed a foot apart.

? Finish with a final flower-bed ring of even shorter plants with white blooms, such as spirea, baby’s breath, or ageratum.





Chapter 8


If you enjoy listening to songbirds, it might interest you to know that the male is generally the singer, since he uses song to attract a mate and defend his territory.

—Henny Penny Farmette Almanac