The Gardens of Digby Green: Flu Bug
Rose’s red calendar lay open on the kitchen table. Ray chucked the ad circulars into the waste basket, and reached for his wife’s purse. Dropping into a chair and opening her business checkbook, he tore out a deposit slip, to use with the payment a customer had mailed. He tucked those in his wallet, then wrote checks for the utility bills and trash service. Finally he opened the envelope from Roseland Garden Center. Scanning the itemized charges, his attention stuck on Miniature Roses, potted.
“There wasn’t a single miniature rose in the shop, and they’re billing her for forty-five of them?
I’m not going to let them scam my wife!” He stood, and took her car keys from the counter.
A few minutes later he parked the Chrysler Imperial behind Roseland Garden Center, walked through the rear entrance, and followed directions on a sign to find the manager’s office. The man left his door open, so Ray knocked on the frame and was beckoned in.
“I’m Ray Wilkinson,” he said, “and my wife owns Rose’s Roses on Dixie Way. What I would like to know is why you’re billing her for miniature roses when there’s nothing like that in her shop.”
The manager blinked. “I don’t understand. The plants she ordered were delivered on Wednesday.”
“No, they were not. There isn’t one miniature rose in her shop. I would like an explanation.” Ray stepped closer to the manager’s desk.
Rolling his chair backward, the manager replied, “If there’s been a problem with Mrs. Wilkinson’s order, why hasn’t she phoned me about it?”
“Because,” Ray leaned over the front edge of the desk, “sometime on Wednesday, she disappeared. I want to speak to your delivery driver.”
“Ordinarily, that’s Tim, a very reliable employee, but he was out with that flu bug that’s been going around, and I assigned the job to a new man, Digby Green.”
The Gardens of Digby Green is a serialized story that posts on Fridays.
Next week, part thirty-five, Taking Steps.
Find a link to purchase Heartland Treasures anthology here.
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