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Peggy Beldon walked into her newly planted garden, taking real pleasure in the sights and smells that surrounded her This was her private place, her one true source of serenity The fresh briny scent of the water off Puget Sound drifted toward her as she watched the Washington State ferry glide from Bremerton toward Seattle on its sixty-minute journey This was a typical May afternoon in Cedar Cove--coy uncoiled the garden hose and moved carefully between the rows of leaf lettuce, sweet peas and pole beans She had a strong practical streak, expressed in her vegetable and herb gardens; she satisfied her craving for beauty with the flower gardens in front Looking back at the house that always had been her drearaduated froh school and married Bob Beldon on his return from Vietnam The early years had been difficult because of Bob’s reliance on alcohol But then, to her eternal gratitude, he’d discovered Alcoholics Anonye and quite possibly Bob’s life Until AA, Bob had spent , by himself or with friends When he drank, he becaer the man she’d married She didn’t like to think about that time Thankfully, her husband had re between the rows, Peggy gently watered the seedlings Several years earlier, Bob had accepted early retiree, they’d purchased the house on Cranberry Point Peggy had loved it for as long as she could re SinclairInlet, the two-story structure, built in the late 1930s, had seeed owners a number of times and had started to deteriorate, since no one had cared enough to provide thetheir finances, Bob and Peggy had ed to buy it for a price far below its current market value

Her husband was a talented handyn for their Bed and Breakfast Peggy hadn’t kno uests would be attracted to the Thyme and Tide B and B, as they’d called it She’d hoped, of course, that they’d h to supplement their retirement income-- and they had She was proud of the success they’d achieved Their traditional hoht the reputation They’d even been reviewed in a national hest praise for the food, especially her baking The reviewer had spent thole sentences describing her blueberry muffins and hoht raspberry canes, and she paly Each suuests and her faet

Then the unio, a stranger had knocked on their door in the ht

If it hadn’t been so cliched shematter The man had rented a room and then promptly locked hiy had regretted not insisting he complete the usual paperwork It was late, and he’d seemed so tired that they’d simply shown him to his roo, over breakfast

But by y had felt as if they were caught in some kind of ind, tossed about by forces beyond their control Bad enough that the man had died in their home, but then they’d learned that he’d carried false identification Nothing was as it seemed By the end of that day, after hours with the sheriff and the coroner, there’d been more questions than answers

She saw Bob pull the riding laer out of the garage At the sound of the engine, Peggy paused in watering her seedlings, one hand shading her eyes Even after all these years of ether They’d survived the bad times with their love intact And their attraction, too Bob was tall and had kept his shape, his sandy brown hair neatly trimmed His arms were already tanned froenuinely impressed by what he could do with a few pieces of oak or pine She’d fallen in love with Bob Beldon as a teenager and she loved him still

Noever, she orried She didn’t want to think about the dead man, but it was unavoidable, especially after what they’d recently found out Sheriff Davis had identified their uest as Maxwell Russell To say Bob was shocked would be putting it mildly He’d been with Max in Vietnam Dan Sherman, as also dead, Bob, Max and another ed to that squadron They’d gotten lost in a Southeast Asian jungle with tragic results

Once the identity of the deadrevelation had coht The sheriff, with the help of local private investigator Roy McAfee, had discovered that Max Russell’s death was no accident

He’d been poisoned

The water bottle he’d carried with him had been laced with odorless, tasteless Rohypnol, coe enough to stop his heart Maxwell Russell had gone to bed, tired fro day of travel, and he never woke up

Bob rode past her on the laith a quick wave, and Peggy continued to water her garden, but a pang went through her At this very nore any risk rather than aditiht of Sheriff Davis’s patrol car co down Cranberry Point She immediately felt the tension between her shoulder blades She hoped he planned to talk some sense into Bob

Her husband y did because he cut the engine and climbed off the laer Sheriff Troy Davis turned into the driveway, then stepped out of his vehicle In the beginning, when it looked like Bob ht be a suspect in the murder case, Davis wasn’t nearly as welcome here as he was now

The sheriff, as probably a little heavier than he should be, took aacross the lawn to y shut off the water and hurried across the half-y" Davis touched the bri Bob it ood idea if the three of us sat down and talked"

Peggy nodded in return, appreciating the fact that he wanted to include her

Bob led the way to the patio, and Peggy was grateful she’d taken ti to sweep it off The three of them sat at the round pine table Bob had built several years earlier He’d painted it a deep gray-blue, a color that co The striped umbrella was up and the patio ash in sunshine

"I thought I’d update you on my conversation with Hannah Russell"

A couple of months earlier, after Max’s identity had been uncovered, his daughter had asked to , but Peggy’s heart had ached for the young woman She’d answered Hannah’s questions to the best of her ability

For her part, there was little Hannah could tell them All she knehat her father had told her--he was taking a short trip, although he hadn’t divulged where That was the last she’d heard When he didn’t return to California, she’d filed apersons report with the police A year had passed before she learned his fate

"I feel so bad for her," Peggy said Hannah had lost her mother some time before and was now an orphan with no other family

"She was pretty upset," Troy adine how painful it was to learn her father was dead But to discover he’d been murdered" He shook his head

"Did she have any idea who ht’ve done this?"