Rosemary Harris - Slugfest: A Dirty Business Mystery

For Mary M. Simari

19212010

Whose favorite saying was Watch your back!

Special thanks to NYPD Det. Marco Conelli; bestselling author and NYC medical examiner Jonathan Hayes; Ed MacFarlane; Margaret Norton; and my fellow volunteers at the Philadelphia International Flower Show, Cheryl Carter, Laura DiPreta; and to all the beekeepers I know. Ive learned so much from all of you. Thanks for letting me pick your brains.

Many thanks to David Baldeosingh Rotstein for another inventive cover for a book with an unusual title, to my editor, Allison Strobel, for her support and insightful comments, and to my amazing copy editor, Martha Schwartz.

And as always, thanks to Bruce.

Flowers always make people better, happier, and more helpful; they are sunshine, food and medicine to the soul.

Luther Burbank

A cynic is a man who, when he smells flowers, looks around for a coffin.

H. L. Mencken

Contents

When I was eight, I was convinced I could disappear. Its not as crazy as it sounds. It wasnt as if I saw dead people or thought I could beam myself to another planet. I did it all the time. Grown-ups and teachers would smile and glide past me to torture another poor kid who hadnt cultivated this valuable skill.

It had been years since Id thought about this long-neglected talent, but I prayed it was like riding a bicycle as I crouched in a shed, hoping the person whod already killed two people would not see me or the women I was hiding.

You in there, little girl?

Four days earlier

Rolanda Knox was formidable. I could attest to that. I pictured her laying out her uniform with all the pomp and ceremony of a warrior going into battle. Freshly pressed dark blue material. Shoes, belt buckle, and badge so shiny she could start fires with them if she needed to. This would be a grueling assignment and shed need all her patience, experience, and powers of observation to ensure things went smoothly. Not that they ever did. No matter how prepared you were, something or someone always came along to gum up the works.

My names Paula Holliday. Rolanda Knox, who in my mind had earned the nickname Fort, had stared me down with a surprising ferocity two days before. Her actual words were talk to the hand, an expression Ive never really understood but which commands a certain respect when the hand in question is almost as big as your own head.

I wasnt listed in the official show directory, only in the addendum, and from her post at the entrance to Hall E, Rolanda had interrogated me as if Id been trying to gate-crash the Pentagon. Shed even subjected the printed insert in my badge holder to the low-tech spit-and-rub test to make sure it wasnt counterfeit. All weekend long Id bear the traces of her smeared thumbprint. Knox was a security guard; and in this day and age, no one was getting into her convention center without proper documentation no matter how long it took and who was tapping her toes and glaring from the back of the line.

The young man Rolanda was talking to must not have had his papers in order, but he was persistent. Hed be no match for her if it came to a physical confrontationbut that was unlikely. He didnt look stupid, just young and cocky in a T-shirt and baggy pantstoo certain the quick smile and boyish charm, which had probably earned him a 90 percent return rate elsewhere, would work on this woman, too. He was mistaken.

The wall of polyester dared him to pass. It wasnt just the wide expanse of fabric covering a well-muscled figure. And it wasnt the badge. Who was impressed by authority anymore? It was a steely look in the womans eyes that conveyed her dead serious attitude. Stopping this boy would be no big deal. Shed be like a water buffalo swatting at a cattle egret: barely breaking a sweat. Then, something the kid said caused a slight chink in the womans armor, but she held her ground.

Absolutely nothing, she said. Now, get that chicken chest out of my sight. But this time she dismissed him the way youd shoo away a pesky child.

He looked vaguely familiarpale, with straw-colored hair and a mischievous Tom Sawyer expression on his face that could get you to paint the fence for him and thank him for it. The faded T-shirt read Happy Valley, and tied around his waist was a denim jacket covered with dozens of souvenir patches. He could have been any of the young workers hustling around the Wagner Center on Manhattans West Side on this early spring morning, but he wasnt.

The boy scoped out the crowd, looking for an entrance with a less imposing gatekeeper or a sucker. He found me, just as my eyes lingered on him a second too long, struggling to remember where Id seen him.

Yo, Adrian.

That was it. The art museum. The morning before Id been jogging near the museum and couldnt resist the urge to run up the steps and wave my hands over my head Rocky Balboastyle. To my utter humiliation the spectacle of a thirtysomething-year-old woman pretending to be Sylvester Stallone had been witnessed by someone who peered out of the shadows and applauded. He was huddled in the doorway, surrounded by bags. Something told me he wasnt waiting for the Matisse exhibit to open.

I assumed he was a runaway. His belongings had been clustered around his ankles and his backpack had been punched down, probably used as a pillow. Like the jacket hed been wearing, one of the bags bore patches from colorful destinations not generally frequented by runaways and homeless kids.

Shes tough, he said, walking over to me and motioning toward Rolanda.

She lightened up toward the end. I thought you had her. What did you say?

I asked if last night had meant nothing to her. He shrugged. It was worth a try. Humor sometimes works wonders with authority figures. He said it like a kid who had experience getting around people with equal parts of charm and flattery applied liberally with a shovel.

It would hardly have affected national security to let him slip into the convention center; but, in fairness, Fort Knox was just doing her job. Who wanted to be the one to let in the psycho-killer because he seemed harmless and had playfully suggested theyd had a tryst the night before? The show would open to the public in two days. I advised him to wait until then and buy a ticket.

Cant. I need to see one of the exhibitors before the show starts, he said. Its super important.

What constituted super important for someone halfway between skateboard age and first-real-job age was anyones guess. How urgent could it be? Knox shot us a look that warned dont try any funny business, and I aborted the sales pitch before it came.

I dont have any extra badges. Im a one-woman show. Just manning a booth for a friend. And I dont know anyone else at the show well enough to ask.

I know a couple, he said, looking around, but they dont know Im here. He eyeballed the rest of the exhibitors in line, preoccupied, furiously fingering BlackBerrys or sucking on coffees to help them wake up. He quickly calculated the odds and stuck with me.

If you cant get me in, will you deliver a note for me? He took my silent intake of breath as assent. Perfect. He dropped his things on the floor and rummaged through his backpack until he found a scratch pad, pilfered from a budget hotel chain a half step up from the museums doorway. He pointed to my thick show directory. Can I borrow that to write on? He scribbled his note, then folded it over four times. Its private. You cant tell anyone.

Why was I such a softie? Where was the ruthless media exec who had trampled corn-fed kids like this on her way to the board room or edit suite in a previous lifetime? Okay, who gets it? I asked, holding out my hand for the note and the directory.