Free Sudden Vacancies by James Kipling

the flowers only had negligible amounts of Scopolamine on them, it was still a serious problem. Anyone who bought one of these flowers would be at risk of being harmed and more vulnerable to injuries or attacks.
    As the investigation went on, the police had to turn away several clients who came to pick up their flowers. The police informed people that they would receive full refunds on their orders and that the flower shop was being investigated as part of the murders that had recently taken place.

Chapter 19
     
    “Mr. Williams, how do you explain this?”
    “What do you mean? I didn’t know about any of this stuff on these flowers! I’d been working with the same vendor for the last couple of years and I’ve been getting shipments twice each week. I was supposed to get one later today too.”
    Upon hearing this news, Detective Young arranged for the new shipment to be delivered as normal and tested. If this shipment didn’t contain the toxin then it would prove that Tommy might legitimately be a person of interest.
    However, all shipments that were coming into the hotel were being screened with security purposes in mind and there was no way to isolate the flowers from other employees. Therefore, the police department was forced into screening these flowers off-site.
    A full toxicology screen was run on the flowers and they all showed the presence of the toxin. Although this seemed to point towards someone other than Tommy being responsible, the police department still wanted answers.
    “We need to talk for a moment,” Michael said. “What can you tell me about this vendor that you’re getting your flowers from?”
    “It’s the same vendor that my family has been using in Akron. Do you want to call them about it?”
    “I don’t know that I need to talk to someone else buying these flowers. I’m more interested in getting direct answers. In fact, if I try and contact this vendor right now then maybe I’ll get something.”
    Tommy had been using Rose City Flowers as his vendor for years. It was the same company that his sisters were using because they found that the vendor was extremely effective in terms of getting more flowers out without delay.
    The vendor was based out of South Korea. Many of its flowers were located in the northern part of the country and had hundreds of acres of land for growing them. Its state of the art shipping methods helped to make it easier for these flowers to survive while in transit.
    However, there had been recent concerns over the security of their fields. That’s because the field’s northern-most border was only two miles away from the designated border with North Korea.
    Michael used the phone directory in Tommy’s office and located the vendor’s number. However, the office’s lines were jammed with several people at the same time. Was this because people were just trying to order flowers or was it because the office was shoddy and didn’t have enough lines for all its vendors to get in touch with?
    While Detective Young was trying to get through to the flower vendor, Tommy got a call that really changed things. That is, a call that Tommy would have normally taken was received. Since Tommy was still technically in police custody, Michael took the call on his behalf.
    While waiting to dial again, the phone rang. He chose to answer the phone himself. Tommy told him that he’d take care of it but Michael overruled that. After all, he was the one who was in charge here with the investigation.
    A plain Midwestern accent came from the other end. “Hey Tom, what’s going on?”
    “Excuse me, this is Michael, Tommy is not here at the moment. Is there a message you want to leave?”
    Obviously, he did not want to say anything about him being associated with the police or else he might startle the caller.
    “Yeah, I wanted to know if he’s okay and if he got the same funny smells out of his flowers as we did. I even talked with another florist in Detroit that uses the