The Bee Balm Murders Read Online Free PDF Page B

balm to put in the two glass vases on the parlor mantel. The elaborately painted vases had been a wedding present to her mother from a rejected suitor. She wondered, briefly, if something more formal than bee balm might be more appropriate, then decided she liked the carefree look of the gaudy, unkempt flowers.
    The bee balm was humming with bees, and she felt mildly selfish taking part of their livelihood away. She was snipping carefully, avoiding the busiest flowers, when Sean McBride’s pickup truck pulled into the pasture.
    She hastily filled a watering can from the garden faucet, set the long-stemmed flowers in it, and hustled over to her front-row seat.
    He backed his truck a safe distance from the hives and went around to the rear where he kept his beekeeping gear.
    “Morning, Mrs. T. You hear about the body in the playing field?” Sean shook out his white suit. The slight breeze billowed out the legs and arms so the suit looked, for a moment, like his shed skin. Ecdysis, Victoria thought. A snake slipping out of his skin. A crab leaving its hard shell. She envisioned, for an instant, Sean as a nightclub stripper, an ecdysiast, and smiled at the thought. He paused, waiting for her response.
    “I’m sorry, I was distracted,” said Victoria from her front-row seat.
    “They found a body in the playing field this morning.” He leaned against the lowered tailgate of his truck and slipped first one foot, then the other into his new skin.
    “Yes, I heard. Orion Nanopoulos got a call early.”
    “Staying with you, is he? How’s that working out?” Sean thrust his arms into the sleeves of the white suit and pulled it over his shoulders.
    “He seems agreeable. I told him it was to be only a temporary stay.”
    “I understand Nanopoulos is laying his cable in the trench where they found the body.”
    Victoria nodded.
    “Seems like he knew the guy. Didn’t tell the cops.”
    Victoria felt a wash of pride at the efficiency of the Island grapevine. “He’s spoken to Casey, and will be talking to the state police tomorrow.”
    Victoria shifted on the hard bench. “When you saw him at the Farmer’s Market, was that when you first met him?”
    “Never seen him before. Heard about him, though. Someone you don’t want to mess with.” Sean reached into the back of the truck for the next prop.
    “He’s a perfect gentleman,” said Victoria. “Courteous, considerate.”
    “Figured he would be to you, Mrs. T.” He started up the smoker and pumped the handle a few times. Before slipping his hood over his head he gazed at her, light blue eyes focused, not on her, but through her on some distant horizon. Once his hood was in place, Victoria had trouble understanding what he said next, and wasn’t sure she heard correctly. It sounded like, “Wouldn’t surprise me if he knew more than the identity of the corpse.”
    “What do you mean?” she asked.
    But Sean had turned his attention to the bees and didn’t reply.
    *   *   *
    Early the next morning, Victoria walked to the police station. Casey was standing at the top of the stairs, scooping out feed for the ducks and geese.
    “I don’t know why I feed them. All they do is make a mess and get in the way.” She dropped the scoop back into the galvanized container and snapped the lid into place. “What’s on your mind?”
    “The investigation into the murder.” Victoria climbed the steps and she and Casey went inside. Casey sat behind her desk; Victoria took her usual seat.
    “State police problem, Victoria.”
    “Surely they can use our help.” Victoria crossed her hands over the top of her stick.
    “We’ve got our own problems,” said Casey.
    “Mrs. Sommerville’s complaint about the rooster?”
    “That’s important to her. We’ve got to deal with it.”
    “But a man has been shot to death.”
    “Not our job,” said Casey.
    “We can contribute a great deal.”
    Casey stood up. “Victoria, the selectmen asked me to check up on a complaint