by all of this! I’m supposed to go to Publix this morning, but I think I’m not going in. I’ll call them. Thank you, Darlene! And tell Mark I said thank you, too!”
I dressed quickly and tidied up the house. And I put up a large pot of coffee. The day would be fueled by caffeine. Then I called Publix.
“Is Andrea in?” I asked.
“Not until ten,” came the answer.
“Well, it’s Holly Jensen. I can’t come in this morning. We’ve had a tragedy and I have to be home.”
“Oh! I’m so sorry! What happened?”
“I am not supposed to comment. I mean, I’m sorry, I can’t comment because it’s a police matter. Anyway, if Andrea has any questions, just ask her to call me, please?”
“Sure thing.”
I knew that within thirty minutes every single person who worked or shopped at Publix was going to know something big and really terrible had happened on the island. And that it had something to do with me.
The doorbell rang at nine. It was Mark Tanenbaum, Darlene’s husband. He was a nice man with age-defying looks, a very successful lawyer and in amazing shape for his age, which I guessed was somewhere around fifty.
“Good morning,” he said. “May I come in?”
“Please! And thanks for coming!” He followed me to the kitchen. “Coffee?”
“Yes, please. Just black. By the way, your garden is unbelievable.”
“Thanks.”
“How’s your momma?”
“If I told you, you wouldn’t believe it.”
“Really? Is that a good thing?”
“She’s fine. She’s with Leslie and her husband in Las Vegas.”
I poured two cups and put one in front of him. Then I sat down.
“Las Vegas. That’s a crazy place, eh? We had an ABA meeting out there a few years back. It was like, wow!”
“That’s what they tell me,” I said.
He took a small notebook from the chest pocket of his sport coat and a pen from another.
He took a sip of the coffee and said, “This is really good coffee. Starbucks?”
“No, Folger’s. This is some mess,” I said.
“Well, Darlene told me what she heard on the wire, but why don’t you tell me what happened in your own words and then we can see what to do.”
I gave him the sequence of events, but I didn’t tell him about the more mystic aspects of my bees or that they might be responding to my pleas for help in ways that they could. It just sounded too crazy. But I did tell him about the bees dropping tiny bombs on Sharon’s car and about them bearding. And I told him about Sharon’s personality and how I thought she was way too uptight. And I mentioned her strawberry allergy.
“So it’s clear there was no friendship between the two of you.”
“No.”
I told him about my relationship with Archie’s boys and Archie and that I had been good friends with Carin. I might have mentioned something about Sharon being a complete paranoid, germophobe, and perfectionist. Maybe.
“She wouldn’t let the boys bring library books home because they had been touched by other people who might have filthy germs,” I said.
“Really. Wow,” Mark said.
“I know,” I said. “Wow.”
“Criminal law isn’t really my area of expertise, but until we’re sure you need one, I’ll represent you on the house. I’m not going to stand back and watch an old island family’s daughter get pushed around, and that’s what happens if you don’t have legal representation. I don’t think any charges have been filed, but I will stay on it and find out.”
“Oh, Mr. Tanenbaum, I can’t tell you how much I appreciate this.”
“Call me Mark. Mr. Tanenbaum is my dad.” He smiled and I thought, What a lovely man. “In the meantime, talk to no one. Do not give a statement to the police or the press or say a single word on social media, understand? As far as I can see it, I don’t think any crime has been committed here.”
“Good. Mark? Why was she in my yard?” I asked.
“I don’t know. No good reason I can think of. Did anyone see her?”
“I don’t know. I was out on a date with Ted Meyers.”
“No kidding. Well, in your best interest, I’d say no canoodling with him, either, until this is all sorted out.”
“That’s a shame,” I said, thinking, I finally have a fish on the hook and I have to release him?
“Look, Holly, you don’t want to get into a he-said, she-said thing with the chief of police, temporary or not. Basically, from here on in, I speak for you. And I think for you. Here’s