The Florist

Who Knew

            “You want me to dig into Nia’s grave?” Capri shrieked. “Have you lost your mind? The girl was just laid to rest!”

            “And I bought the plot, so you won’t have to worry about imposing on someone else’s territory. I give you permission to do so,” she said cheekily.

            “I’m not digging into my friend’s grave. Sorry.”

            “Not as sorry as you’re going to be if I decorate her tombstone with your brains.”

            “You’re planning to kill me anyway, so logically, that’s not even a viable threat.”

            Tristeza c****d her gun back. “Either you dig, or I will.”

            “And I would want to save you the trouble because …,” Capri responded sneeringly. The noise from the gun as a bullet landed at Capri’s feet made her jump in shock. “Are you crazy?”

            “Finally, we understand each other. Now, dig!”

            Capri thrust the shovel into the earth below as Tristeza sat on a nearby bench to supervise. With each bit of dirt she tossed to the side, Capri was glad that she called Mel’s cell phone in the midst of Tristeza’s confession. She could only hope that he picked up and was listening to the conversation. If not, the amount of time in listening to a lengthy voicemail could further delay a rescue team. She tried to think of a way to buy herself some time.

            “This doesn’t make any sense,” Capri said aloud. “You were friends with my parents, best friends. Why would you kill them? Why would you kill any of those people?”

            “Oh, Capricious. There’s so much you don’t know, things you couldn’t even understand.”

            “You said I’m a smart girl, right? I’m sure I can manage. I think I deserve the right to know why you took my parents from me.”

            “Because they took from me!” Tristeza cried. “You kids, you know nothing. All you know is that you always had each other. No one ever told you why.”

            “So you tell me. Tell me why. I want to know.”

            “Your mother stole my life, and your father owed me.”

            “What are you talking about?”

            “I’m talking about the fact that your mother couldn’t have children. I’m talking about the fact that I made a sacrifice.”

            “But they could have children! They had me!”

            “Oh, child, you came after many trials and tribulations,” Tristeza waved off. “Medical trials and tribulations.”

            “Medical?”

            “Your parents had been trying to have a baby for quite a time. After a while, your father suggested they go see a doctor, find out what was wrong. Like most people in this Godforsaken town, they went to Dr Van Boerne. He’s the one who told your mother she was barren. He was also the i***t who suggested she look into having a surrogate since he was the leading medical researcher of surrogate pregnancies in Louisiana.”

            Capri rested one hand on her hip while the other was supported by the sturdiness of a shovel stuck in the ground. “Surrogate pregnancy?”

            “When Flora and Freddie came to me with the idea, I thought they were nuts. But they were my friends and they kept saying that they wanted someone they knew, someone they could trust, so I … agreed to be their surrogate.”

            “Wait a minute. Are you … are you trying to tell me that you’re my biological mother?”

            “Can I finish?” Tristeza snapped. Capri rolled her eyes before allowing her to continue. “There are many different types of surrogacy. The kind your parents wanted was a gestational surrogacy where I would be implanted with one of your mother’s eggs that had been fertilized with your father’s sperm. Naturally, everything went without a hitch and I got pregnant. We were all very excited. We spent every waking moment together going shopping for baby clothes and toys and … planning the baby’s future. We were one big happy family.”

            “Okay. So what was the problem?”

            “About two weeks later, your mother got really sick. She was throwing up, she couldn’t keep food down, and she had a vicious fever. She told Freddie not to bring me around her until she was feeling better because she didn’t want to endanger the baby. So, he and I spent a lot of time together, like the old days. One day, Freddie cancelled on me to take Flora to see Dr Van Boerne. That … kook said she was pregnant! Of course, we were excited because they thought they were being blessed with two children. But, when they went with me to my next checkup, Dr Van Boerne and his team weren’t there. So Mrs Van Boerne, who we didn’t know was a doctor herself, offered to take a look at me. She discovered that the baby I was carrying was not Flora’s.”

            “You mean Van Boerne shot you up with some random guy’s sperm?”

            “Oh, no, it was your father’s sperm; it just didn’t fertilize Flora’s egg,” Tristeza disclosed as Capri’s face fell with her failure to grasp the explanation. Tristeza took notice. “Your mother was pregnant with you while I was pregnant with Nia.”

            Capri felt her heart stop before her butt crashed to the ground. She heard the shovel meet it descent as she did. Tears welled up in her eyes as she tried to say the only question spiraling in her mind. “Nia … was my sister?”

            “Half-sister,” she clarified while one lonely teardrop traveled down Capri’s cheek. “Mrs Van Boerne, the real doctor, checked your mom too. Found out that she wasn’t barren. Telling women who were perfectly capable of having children that they could not conceive brought about a payday like her husband and his team of con artists had never dreamed of. Living in a town full of unsuspecting, friendly folk was perfect for the scam.”

            “Why here? Why would they choose to do that here? And how did the wife not know what was going on?”

            “Because Anise is a Nolan native herself. We’re not raised to doubt our husbands, or so they say. But when she found out he was having multiple affairs from one of the girls he was screwing …”

            “Are you talking about Frances Rue Cowl?” Capri probed. “How did you know about that?”

            “Oh, honey, where do you think Nia adopted her social butterfly attitude from? I knew everything about everybody in my town. From the local doctor running around with his assistants to all the infidelities of my little boyfriends and …”

            “Boyfriends?” Capri screamed in shock. “What boyfriends?”

            “What, you think you and Nia were the only ones getting your little freak on?” she challenged. “What was I supposed to do, sit in a rocking chair and knit?”

            “No, that – that’s not what I meant. I’m just saying … you never introduced us to any boyfriends. You always said the relationships were never that serious.”

            “That’s because they were none of y’all’s business! My love life is my business. The only way y’all would have met any of them was if we got engaged.”

            “Well, tell me now. Who were these boyfriends?”

            Tristeza inhaled deeply. “Neil, Blake, Oscar, Samson …”

            “Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait … wait! Neil as in Neil Henry Barber, Blake as Blake Luis Gutierrez …”

            “And Oscar Ray Wallis and Samson Clyde Riley,” she finished. “They were all lying, cheating, sleazy individuals that needed to be disposed of.”

            “They were people, Tristeza, not garbage!”

            “Says who?” she challenged nonchalantly. “Their actions proved otherwise.”

            “So you killed them because they cheated on you?”

            “Because they continued to cheat on me. They never learned their lesson, no matter how many chances they were given.”

            “Hold up. Samson was married,” Capri remembered, “so how are you going to get mad at him for cheating when you were the other women in the first place?”

            “He was supposed to be leaving his wife, but he didn’t! He just kept adding mistresses like Prudence. Just like Oscar had Maggie, and Blake had Addie …”

            “Magdalene Bastille and Addison Joubert?” Capri connected. “You mean to tell me that you killed all those people out of jealousy?”

            “Well, it wasn’t because I liked them.”

            “What about Paige Susa?” Mel asked from the shadows. “Why’d you kill her?”

            “She shouldn’t have been fooling around with my niece’s boyfriend,” she shrugged.

            “The same niece you’re pointing a gun at?”

            “Would you rather I point it at you?” she said changing her aim.

            “I’d rather you tell me why you killed Max O’ Brien, victim #16, or Montgomery Sawyer, victim #15.”

            “Max was one of Nia’s little friends.”

            “What?” Capri hollered. “That’s a lie. I knew about everyone Nia dated. She never kept a secret from me!”

            “Oh, child, Nia kept plenty of secrets from you. Like the one about her seeing Detective Ward. Yeah, I knew about him. She called him chatouilles.”

            “Tickles?” Capri translated.

            “She said it was his fraternity line name.”

            “What kind of man is nicknamed tickles?”

            “The kind whose first name is Elmo,” Mel answered.

            “Well, detective, I imagine you’re not here to shoot the breeze, so you must be here to take me to jail.”

            “Indeed I am.”

            “Well, good luck because I don’t plan to sit in black and white stripes for the rest of my life.”

            “That’s all right. Prison jumpsuits are also available in orange,” Mel smirked.

            As the two continued to squabble back and forth, Capri noticed another figure emerging from the darkness. It was Franco! She slowly began to understand what was going on. Mel was using himself as a decoy. It was confirmation that her phone call was not in vain. Mel and Franco had been listening and it led them to her! Her insides sprung with glee though she tried to conceal it in attempts to keep up the ruse.

            “Aunt T,” Capri said drawing their attention. “You never told me why you killed my parents. So-and-so cheated on you and this one was a liar and whoever else was thief. My parents weren’t like that. They never did anything to hurt you.”

            Tristeza threw her hands up toward the sky in aggravation. “My goodness, girl! Didn’t you listen to anything I said to you? Your parents made a promise to me and they went back on it the second they had you!”

            “What promise?”

            “That we would always be a family! You knew Freddie was your father, but Nia never did. She had to grow up without one and that wasn’t supposed to happen!”

            “Let’s not neglect the fact that you fell in love with Freddie, didn’t you, Tristeza?” Mel asked to her and Capri’s surprise. “All that time you two spent together without Flora, you fell in love with him. Probably confessed it to him and as much as he cared about you, he told you that y’all would never be together. Isn’t that right?”

            “He should’ve been with me!” she cried. “I was there first. I was always there. There’s no reason I should’ve been neglected like I was.”

            “You weren’t neglected,” Capri said. “You were just his friend.”

            “To hell with a friendship! I knew Freddie before she did. I should’ve been with him. It should’ve been me the whole time! Me, me, me, me, me – ah!” she hollered as Franco tackled her to the ground.

            “And now it will be you,” he said while securing the handcuffs around her wrists. “It’ll be you going to jail, you seeing a judge, and you being convicted of eighteen murders so you can spend the rest of your life in prison.”

            “Y’all are acting like I’m the monster, but I’m not! I killed the monsters of this town! I did Nolan a favor.”

            “Be sure to tell that to the judge. Maybe he’ll reduce your sentence for good behavior,” Mel sassed. “You okay there, Franco?”

            “Oh, yeah. I got this. You get your girl. I’ll meet y’all at the car.”

            As Franco yanked Tristeza toward a paddy wagon, Mel jogged over to Capri. She struggled to stand to her feet, exhausted by the revelations in the conversation. He lent a hand and she supported herself on the sturdiness of his frame before falling into his arms. The warmth of his palm soothingly caressed her face as he spoke words that brought relief to her soul.

            “It’s over. It’s all over now. I told you I’d protect you.”

            A light chuckle left her throat. “I wasn’t worried.”

            Mel stepped back to create a small gap between the two of them. He wanted to take a moment to stare into the mystical set of eyes that transformed in the moonlight from their usual lime hue to dazzling neon. “Are you all right?”

            She shook her head. “I just found out that my best friend who I’ve always thought of like a sister really was my sister; and that a woman I’ve called aunt my whole life … took away the people who gave me that life.”

            “It’s been a hell of a week for you, huh?”

            “That’s putting it mildly.”

            “Well, what do you say after we book the crazy lady, we go home, and I make you a nice hearty meal?”

            “Perrin, I’ve been surrounded by the same four walls all week. Can we please go out to eat?”