Free The Begonia Bribe by Alyse Carlson Page B

jealous,” Cam said.
    “I wasn’t jealous,” he said.
    “Mmm-hmm,” she said, knowing it would make him nuts. She took the wine to the kitchen, uncorked it then poured them each a glass, and starting the sauce pan while she was at it. Most of dinner was ready, but she needed to melt lemon butter for the crab.
    “So what did you find out?” she called.
    Rob was putting on music in her front room.
    “Well, the studio keeps a log of gifts. The secretary said it was to send thank-you cards. Unfortunately, there are several anonymous ones each month. On the plus side, he goes through them sort of fast—the liquor gifts, I mean. So whoever sent this, sent it in the last week. But since they were intent on murder, it was probably sent anonymously. Anyway, all the bottles were taken in for prints and testing of the contents.”
    “I guess that’s something.”
    “It’s a better start than they had. The whole world seemed to hate the guy.”
    “Though nobody would admit it,” Cam said.
    “Yeah. There’s that,” Rob said.

CHAPTER 6
    C am arose at 7:30 the next morning and showered, but before she’d even put her contacts in, Evangeline called in a state of panic.
    “Cam! You’ve got to get here as fast as you can! It’s awful!”
    Cam thought it must be related to Telly’s death. She worried the press had leaked something. “I can be ready in fifteen minutes, but walking will take another fifteen.”
    “No! I’ll be there! See you in a few.” Evangeline hung up before Cam could respond. Cam was going to tell Evangeline she sounded too upset to drive, but before she knew it, Evangeline was waiting at her door. The short but erratic ride downtown proved Cam’s impulse was right; she was a little queasy by the time they parked.
    Evangeline swerved and talked, looking more at Cam than the road. “The dogwoods! Someone took a hose to them! They’re destroyed!”
    “A hose destroyed the trees?” That sounded implausible.
    “Not the trees. All the flowers those boys put up.”
    Cam breathed easier. It was bad, but not something they couldn’t recover from. “Benny and Dylan only spent about two hours on those yesterday. There are lots of flowers left—all but two boxes, I think.”
    “And the flowers!” Evangeline looked up. Cam had learned this was an effort she made to keep herself from crying. “A lot of those are lying flat, too.”
    “That’s horrible!” This was significantly worse. “The flowers were worth hundreds of dollars!”
    “I don’t look forward to requesting more from Nell. And all the work! What kind of monsters would do that to those gorgeous flowers?”
    Cam liked that Evangeline cared as much or more about the work and beauty as the money, but they still had a problem. “So what should we do?”
    “I hate to bring in the police. Their presence would call such attention to the problems we’ve been having. I was hoping you might investigate. You did such a great job with . . . well . . . you know.”
    With the last fiasco.
Cam knew. That had involved two murders. At least she didn’t have
that
investigation on her plate this time. Surely a little vandalism wouldn’t be hard to investigate, but Cam had a full agenda with the things she’d been hired to do. And the murder that
had
happened might be a press fiasco, even if she wasn’t meant to be solving it. She wasn’t sure she had the time or the energy for a vandalism investigation.
    “I’ll brainstorm and see if I can figure out a way to flush them out,” she said.
    “Oh, good. I knew you wouldn’t disappoint me.”
    Cam wasn’t sure she’d agreed to that much, but she’d do her best. When they arrived, she saw the dogwood flowers had indeed been ruined by what Cam thought must have been a high-powered hose; that and at least half the flowers that had been planted had been trampled.
    “How do we proceed?” Evangeline asked as they crossed the grass.
    “I think we should see what Benny and company can