5 Buried By Buttercups Read Online Free

gone.
    “There you are,” Al greeted her. He introduced her to his team of detectives that were investigating the two homicides.
    “You taught me botany at Queen’s.” The grungy detective from the park said. “You probably don’t even remember me.”
    Peggy tried to put the name—Tanner Edwards—to the face. It seemed she should remember something about him, but she’d taught hundreds of students in her time. His blond hair and blue eyes weren’t familiar to her. She might recall his work in her class later.
    “No, I’m sorry,” she finally said. “But it’s nice to meet you again.”
    “That’s okay. I’m glad you’re here to help with this, Professor,” Tanner said. “If ever your knowledge was needed, this is it.”
    Al also introduced Detectives Molly Bryson and Dan Rodriguez.
    They took her to a large room where pictures and other information about the victims were displayed on a whiteboard.
    “We found the first victim, John Spindler, near Park Road Books a few weeks ago. As far as we can tell there was nothing special about him. He was in his early sixties. Married. He has a son. He worked at a bank,” Al explained.
    She looked at the man’s picture on the board. “And he was killed with poison from an angel’s trumpet.”
    “That’s right,” Detective Rodriguez fingered his thin mustache as though it were a new addition. His thick black hair was trimmed close to his head, emphasizing his intense, dark eyes. “The medical examiner said he had a high concentration of it in his blood. She said death would have come very quickly. We figure whoever killed him did it right there.”
    Peggy looked at the next man on the board. She could barely recognize the face of the dead man she’d seen that morning. “And this is the man from this morning?”
    “Yes. John Tucker.” Al said.
    “Anything up with the names being the same?” Peggy wondered.
    “Probably not.” Detective Molly Bryson wore her dark red hair combed back from her forehead. Her blue eyes reminded Peggy of the color of monkshood, another poison. “We think it’s doubtful the victims were targeted. It was most probably a crime of convenience.”
    “They grabbed the first person they saw that was handy,” Dan explained.
    “Molly doesn’t like the weird cases,” Tanner said with a smile.
    “Nobody likes the weird ones,” Molly defended herself.
    “Mr. Tucker was in his sixties,” Al continued. “He had a wife and a son. He worked as a manager at a local trucking firm. The medical examiner just confirmed that he was killed by the poison in buttercups. He was also injected with the poison.”
    “Protoanemonin,” Peggy supplied.
    They all looked at her and she smiled.
    “You can see they were staged with the plants on their bodies,” Molly went on.
    “So I think it’s safe to call this a serial killer,” Tanner added.
    “No one wants to hear that,” Al told him. “I’d better not hear that on the news tonight. We’re holding back enough information that no one should be able to pick up on it—at least for right now.”
    Molly shrugged. “Unless they realize that two men around the same age and general description were murdered and left outside in the same area. Park Road Books isn’t that far from the park on Queen’s Road.”
    “Maybe that’s another part of this,” Tanner said. “Both have something to do with parks.”
    Peggy looked closely at the two men on the board again. They both had brown hair, and according to their description, brown eyes. They had similar builds. Both were wearing suits and ties.
    “So what poisonous plant comes after B?” Molly asked.
    “What did you say?” Peggy narrowed her eyes as she looked at her. Her words were so close to Nightflyer’s.
    “I’m just saying.” Molly shrugged as they all stared at her. “If this is really alphabetical, the next one will be killed with a plant that starts with C, right?”
    “There could be hundreds of choices,” Peggy