Poisoned Petals Read Online Free PDF Page A

She wanted to be left alone to cry and pound the bed. It seemed to be the only way to properly mourn Darmus.
    Paul walked the liaison to the door, and they spoke quietly for a few moments. When she was gone, he came back to the side of the bed and took his mother’s hand. “Are you okay, Mom? Can I get you some water or something?”
    “I’m fine.” She squeezed his hand and gave him a watery smile. “When can I go home?”
    He took a deep breath and squared his shoulders a little beneath the dark blue uniform. “The doctor might want you to stay overnight.”
    “What for? A little smoke and a few cuts.” She waved her hand. “Get my clothes.”
    “You could have a concussion. It took a lot of force to blow that door off.”
    “I wasn’t standing in front of it. I wouldn’t be here at all except that I went in after Darmus.” She choked on his name. It was stupid, ridiculous, to think he was gone . “Has anyone called Luther?”
    “I’m sure someone did. Let’s worry about you for a change, huh? How are you feeling?”
    “Like I need to go home.”
    Her son, who looked so much like her, shook his head. “You never let up. Can’t you admit you were hurt back there and get some rest for a few days?”
    “There’s too much to do. Luther will need help planning the funeral. He’s not in the best health. People need to be contacted. Rosie—”
    “Who’s Rosie?”
    “Rosie?” She wasn’t thinking when she blurted out that name. She hadn’t seen Rosie in twenty years. Darmus had mentioned her a few weeks ago, and they’d talked about her for the first time since college.
    He had terrible regrets about that time in his life. After being the good, hardworking brother who held his family together for so many years, he lost it for a while when he first started college. He binged on everything. It was as if he was trying to make up for his lost youth.
    His marriage to Rosie was a spur-of-the-moment insanity that seemed doomed from the beginning. Unfortunately, it was over before Darmus returned to his rational mind. He’d told Peggy that day in his garden when they’d talked about Rosie that he’d spent years afterward trying to make up for his indiscretions.
    “I don’t know what made me think about Rosie,” Peggy told her son. “She and Darmus were married once, but that was years ago. I doubt if she’ll want to know what happened to him.”
    “Why haven’t I ever heard her name before?”
    “I don’t know. We were good friends in school, at least until she broke up with Darmus. They were only married a short time. I don’t know what happened to her after that. I think she left school and went home. I started dating your father, and I lost track of her.”
    A beam of sunlight from the window caught the brass badge on Paul’s shirt and raised the fire in his hair. He had his father’s calm temperament, despite his red hair. Becoming a police officer was a sore point for them after John’s death. After losing her husband to violence, she didn’t want Paul to follow in his footsteps. She even suspected Paul might be out for revenge of some kind, since they never found his father’s killer.
    But they’d managed to mend those fences and move on with their relationship. It wasn’t easy. It had taken learning not to wince when she saw him in uniform, and learning to control her worry that he’d become a victim, too.
    “It happens,” he concluded finally. “There are lots of people I went to school with who I don’t see anymore. Things change.”
    She smiled. These words of wisdom came from a child who once argued with her that cows laid eggs. “I know. Still, maybe I should tell her. Maybe I thought of her for a reason.”
    There was a knock on the door, and Steve Newsome poked his head in, fighting with a bunch of green and yellow balloons to see into the room. “How’s it going? Is it okay to come in?”
    Peggy loathed thinking of Steve as her boyfriend. But she didn’t have a