Excerpt of Mulch Ado About Nothing by Jill Churchill

Chapter 1

Note on Jane Jeffry's kitchen door:

Jane, you got flowers but you weren't home. I've got them.
They're beautiful! Where are you?
Shelley

Note on Shelley Nowack's kitchen door:

Shelley, just phoning in my summer PTA excuse. Couldn't
hang up to answer the door when I was begging off. I want
my flowers.
Jane

Note on Jane's kitchen door:

Just ran to drop off a couple books before the library
police send out a squad car for them. What's the occasion
for the flowers? I wouldn't dream of opening the card, of
course.
Shelley

Note on Shelley's door:

Had to drive to Jenny's house to give Katie lunch money.
What kind of flowers? And don't you dare open the card!
Jane

Note on Jane's door:

Sorry, I wasn't gone. I was washing the dog after he got
loose and rolled in something revolting. I want to know
why you're getting flowers.
Shelley

Note on Shelley's door:

I want to know, too. I've got to make a smash and grab at
the grocery store or we'll have stale bread and
crystallized jelly for dinner. Mike's getting cranky about
having so much mac and cheese.
Jane

Note on Jane's door:

I haven't opened the note yet. But I've held it up to a
strong light and the envelope is too thick to read
through. I'm following you to the grocery store.
Shelley

Note on Shelley's door:

Didn't you hear me honking at you in the parking lot? If
you didn't drive twice the speed limit, I'd have caught up
with you. So I came home and you aren't here. Do you have
flower preservatives? They're goingto need it if I'm ever
going to see them. I'm going to sit in a lawn chair in my
driveway until you get home.
Jane

Jane didn't do quite what she'd threatened, but she
settled in to read the paper on the top step of her
kitchen-door deck. When Shelley's minivan turned in'not
quite on two wheels, but almost'Jane flung down the
paper. “Where are my flowers?” she demanded.

“In the kitchen,” Shelley said. “I'll fetch them for you.
What are they for? Who are they from? What have you done
to deserve flowers that I don't know about?”

“I have no idea,” Jane said. She hoisted herself up,
grimacing at a twinge in her knee, and went into her
house, leaving the door open for Shelley, who reappeared a
moment later, almost concealed by a huge flower
arrangement.

“Oh, they are beautiful!” she exclaimed as Shelley set
them on the kitchen table.

“Read the card,” Shelley said, shoving it at Jane. The
card looked a bit worn and was scorched on one corner.
Jane started laughing. “What's so funny?” Shelley demanded.

“What a spy you'd make! You spent the day trying to find
out what the message was and didn't read the envelope. The
flowers are for Julie Jackson, that stylish woman who
lives at the same number address as mine, but two blocks
west. You know, the one who's doing that garden class
we're starting on Monday.”

They looked at each other for a long moment, then Jane
said, “Have you tried steaming the envelope open?”

Their “better selves” prevailed and they didn't steam open
the envelope, but instead Shelley drove to Julie Jackson's
house with Jane clutching the flower arrangement and
sniffing the heady odor of the white lilies in it.

Shelley said, “You've got pollen from the lilies all over
your face. You look jaundiced.”

Jane tried hanging on to the arrangement with one hand
while hastily brushing her face off. “Better?” she asked,
looking at her hands, which were bright orange with pollen.

Shelley had just turned the corner on the street they
needed and slowed almost to a stop. “Jane, look.”

“Look? I can't even see around these flowers. What?”

“There's a police tape around Julie Jackson's yard. And
three police cars and an ambulance.”

“Oh, no!”

Shelley pulled over to the side of the street one house
away. Jane got out and set the flower arrangement on the
grass and dragged a tissue out of her pocket to wipe more
pollen off her face. Two people came out of the house Jane
and Shelley had been heading for. A woman who looked like
Julie Jackson and a man who was a head taller than she and
wearing a suit that looked too hot for such a warm day.

A uniformed police officer was following them, almost
herding them out of the house. “Rats!” Jane said. “I just
caught a glimpse of Mel inside that window by the door.
What do you suppose is going on? And who are that couple?”

Shelley, having no more information than Jane, said
nothing. They just stood there, transfixed and wondering
what to do with the huge flower arrangement.

Detective Mel VanDyne had spotted Jane as well, and came
out the front door a moment later. Scowling fiercely, he
had a brief word with the unknown couple and the officer
with them and turned and headed toward Jane and Shelley.

“What are you two doing here?” he snapped. “Gawking?”

He should have known from the sizzling silence that met
this inquiry that he was going to be sorry for that
remark. But he compounded the looming problem by adding in
an unfortunately demanding tone, “Well?”

Jane said coldly, “I don't normally carry around a huge
vase of florist flowers when I'm just out for a ‘gawk.'
Perhaps you've noticed that about me over the years? These
flowers,” she said, pointing at the arrangement, “were
delivered to me by mistake and were meant for Julie
Jackson. Shelley and I were merely bringing them to her.”

Shelley was about to butt in, but thought better of it.
Jane was doing fine by herself. She picked up the flower
arrangement and handed it to Mel.