Jewels in the Juniper - Dale Mayer Page 0,60

and the two of them walked to the garden. Thaddeus somehow had ended up on the pile of rocks she’d cleaned out when she had been weeding. His perch was precarious at best, but he was watching Goliath steadily. She stepped up closer to the plants, checking how they were holding up. Then she got the hose and gave them more water.

In the heat, transplants always suffered. It was much better to transplant in the spring or the fall, on a cool cloudy day, but beggars couldn’t be choosy. She’d take what she could get for free right now. As it was, she’d gotten a lot of beautiful plants for nothing but a little sweat equity. At least one side of the garden was now flush. She could wait a couple years and just move things over and match it all against Richard’s side of the property, but it would be nice if she had some things over there now. And, of course, a few older things were there, and that side was planted more heavily than the side she had put all the new plants in. Maybe she had enough now.

She pondered that as she wandered up and down the garden, gently soaking it all. She still wanted the big patio blocks to get down to the garden, and maybe a little square down there at the end, where she could put a chair and watch the creek. There was room.

Closer to the creek, she eyed the height and noted it was back up to the highest point she’d seen it yet. It was fascinating to watch the ebb and flow of water. It wasn’t an ocean with a moon affecting its tides. Instead, it was water melting up in the mountains and other tributaries flowing into her little creek to make it the river it was just a few blocks away, but still the ebb and flow of majestic motion just fascinated her. As long as it stayed well below the height of her basement or down below her garden level, she was okay with it doing its own thing. She shut off the water to her hand nozzle and walked to the creek to see if the pathway was still clear. And, of course, it was.

She smiled and looked from the creek, staring back at her gardens, her eye critical as she studied the health of the plants, the layout of the planting, as well as that of the other side. Though she did get that other side weeded, she hadn’t done any transplanting yet. She’d figured she would divide and conquer those big perennial masses come fall. And that would give her a little more time to decide on a better layout. What she should do was map what she had planted in the ground now, while she knew what it was, because, if the transplants suffered, she would have to cut them off a few inches aboveground and wait until they came out next spring. So it was quite possible she would completely forget what she had put in the ground.

Chapter 21

Tuesday Early Morning …

Doreen woke up the next morning with an odd question in her head. How had Aretha found out her husband had stolen and was selling the jewels? She whispered it to herself out loud in the quiet room. All the animals were still sleeping in an array around her. She checked her watch to find it was only six. But that one statement kept playing in her head, over and over again.

It was possible her husband had told her. But, if that were the case, why leave her that letter at the end of the day? Doreen frowned, not sure whether she should contact Aretha and ask for clarification or just assume it was her husband taunting her with the information. And, if she did know, why hadn’t she done anything about it? Why hadn’t she gone to the police? Or had he been paying her to keep quiet?

With her thoughts going around in circles, Doreen tossed and turned in bed, wishing she could go back to sleep, only to finally give up and hop into the shower. She stayed under the hot water longer than necessary, just because it felt good. Her muscles hadn’t produced the aches and pains she had expected, probably because of what she’d experienced when she had been doing Penny’s garden not all that long ago. Maybe she was getting used to it, and her body