Page 67 of The Botanist's Assistant
“Whatever she said, I don’t think you can trust her.”
Margaret studies the small woman in front of her. “Why is that?”
“Because she killed him, of course.”
“May I help you?” a voice interrupts.
Margaret and Purdy turn to see a young man with a military-style haircut and ruler-straight back appear behind the mail counter. The new clerk. How much has he heard?
“We were just saying that whoever got this job must want to kill the person who worked here before for leaving such a mess.” Purdy gestures at the disheveled room. “I don’t blame you one bit. It’s a thankless job, isn’t it?” She takes Margaret’s arm and tugs her toward the door. “We’ll just get out of your hair. Good luck.”
“That was close,” Purdy says when they’re in the hallway. “From now on, how about we communicate only with notes? We can leave them on each other’s cars, then destroy them afterward. I have a Mini Cooper, space 147, and, of course, I know what your truck looks like.”
“All right,” Margaret says.
Purdy squeezes Margaret’s hand. “I’ll get you that list as soon as I can. Oh, this is exciting.”
33
A Guy Who Knows a Guy
Margaret can keep it fromCalvin no longer. When she gets back to the lab, she tells him about the Amazon guide’s refusal to supply them with leaves without additional pay, although she omits the part about Veronica Ann’s relationship with the man.
“That’s an obscene price,” Calvin says. “Did you tell him it was for cancer research?”
“He knows.”
“What are you going to do?”
“I’m not sure.”
“We need to think.”
“I’m aware of that.”
“Wait! I have an idea. I’ll be right back.” Suddenly, Calvin is hurrying out the door, his body canted forward as if he were walking into a stiff breeze. Forty-five minutes later, he’s back.
“I can get seeds,” he announces triumphantly. “Our seeds,” he clarifies, as if Margaret thought they might start cultivating poppies or peonies in the lab. “It will take a while, but we could grow the bush ourselves.”
“How would you get seeds, Calvin?”
“You know how they try to drive us smokers underground thinking we’ll finally give up?”
Margaret murmurs an assent.
“Well, it turns out outcasts do what outcasts do and move into back alleys, abandoned houses and empty doorways.” He pauses. “One of the guys I smoke with here knows a guy who knows a guy who’s on the dark web and he hooked me up. The guy can send us ten seeds for a hundred dollars.”
“That’s smuggling. It’s illegal.”
“Technically.”
“We could get five years in prison for it.”
“Prison?” Calvin squeaks. “The guy never mentioned that.” Calvin swallows, his Adam’s apple bobbing like a cork on a fishing line. “I can’t go to prison. Do you know what they’d do to me in there?”
“I don’t think it would be good,” Margaret agrees, although she might do all right if there were things in prison that needed cleaning and organizing. She imagines there would be.
“Why does everything I touch go wrong?” Calvin howls.
