Iris: Planted Flowers Series, #2

By Anna K Payne

Isolation. Confusion. Hope.

Iris lives a life of efficiency. Everything about her shows her as controlled and orderly while only the handsome neighbor’s dog brings a smile to her face. She loves Brutus and will talk to Callum if it means she can spend time with Brutus.

Iris receives an anonymous gift one evening at work. Brutus reacts to the gift and she discovers a crude piece of art in it. Callum finds it is created with a blood-based paint and she becomes part of a murder investigation. Reluctantly she accepts help from her neighbor.

Can Callum and Brutus protect her?

Distrustful and lonely, Iris seeks to hear God’s voice in a small group of women. Will she be able to trust again? Can they find the murderer before he comes after her? Can she find hope and lasting love?

Iris, Message from God, is the second book in the Christian Cozy Mystery series, Planted Flowers. Each of the women find a deeper relationship with God and hope to build a network of support in the group. The trials and dangers they experience bring them closer to each other and to God, opening them up to the men in their lives.

Join Iris to find her message of hope. Buy now.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AP Creations Publishing
• Release date: May 19, 2017
• ISBN: 9781386034742

Anna K Payne

Anna K Payne loves a mystery. Her favorite movies include one-liners and things that explode. Her relationship with her Savior is her number one priority and her family come second.  But her passion and vision is to inspire hope, encourage others, love richly, and listen well through the strength of Jesus Christ. She seeks to inspire and encourage through her devotionals and cozy mysteries as well as aiding her family of writers publish their own books. https://www.instafreebie.com/author/AnnaKPayne

Book preview

Iris

Planted Flower Series

by

Anna K Payne

AP Creations

Published by AP Creations

Copyright © 2016 by Anna K Payne

All rights reserved.

Printed in the United States of America

Dedication

To my kids who I talked plots and motives with for hours, thank you for your patience and enthusiasm.

Chapter 1

You need to be more careful how you treat people. Not everyone appreciates your tone of voice. Iris looks over at her administrative assistant. She can’t believe how many times Winifred has spoken about this and she doesn’t understand. She is quiet and efficient which is why Iris hasn’t fired her yet. But she is always nagging at her to be nicer.

You can ignore me if you like, but one day you will yell at the wrong person. I spend half my time trying to calm people down after they’ve listened to one of your tirades. Winifred takes a breath. You work in Public Relations, for heaven’s sake. Shouldn’t that extend to the people you work with? Iris stares at her and Winifred stomps back into her office shaking her head.

Iris slams a few folders around on her desk and finally stands and stalks to the window. She straightens her jacket, satisfied that she looks efficient, calm, and controlled. Winifred is right. She is the assistant vice president of Public Affairs for a large company. She should be nicer to people. It is just so hard when they do stupid things.

She looks down and notices a spot of mud on her skirt again. A smile grows on her face as she remembers Brutus jumping on her legs this morning. Iris shakes her head. He is a sweetheart. He loves it when she speaks to him and pats his head and scratches his ears. He is a good dog, the type she wants to own, if she had the time. She works all day, and has evening meetings and dinner meetings. She barely even has the time to buy groceries.

Having Brutus living next door is almost like having her own dog. And her neighbor, Callum, isn’t too bad either. He is quiet, nice looking, and he generally leaves her alone. He always seems to be walking Brutus when she is leaving in the mornings or coming home in the evenings. The memory of his hand accidentally touching her hand this morning makes her smile.

Sitting down again to review the social media for the company, Iris finds a message from Rose. She immediately frowns. This Planted thing is taking up too much of her time. There are meetings every week and now she has been paired up with another member for prayer. Iris nearly snorts but then she catches herself. The last woman hadn’t had any time to meet and their communication extended to several text messages. Iris is fine with that.

Iris emails back that she is quite busy this week and doesn’t see how they can meet before the next meeting. It is Monday morning and the meeting is Tuesday night, plus he has a dinner meeting tonight.

With that email out of the way, Iris turns back to Facebook and notices a posting by someone with her company name tagged. It’s a video. And the comments are not work appropriate. Grimacing, Iris clicks the link to watch the video.

The video is as bad as she thought it would be. The girl slurred the company management and their way of doing business. She slipped in a few sentences about company clients. She takes note of the girl’s name, April Morales.

Iris opens a chat window to Winifred. Find out where April Morales works and who her supervisor is. Then set up a meeting with her supervisor in my office today. She hits send.

She hears Winifred grumble something that sounds like, Now, what? and then the chat message appears on her screen. I will do that. Is there a particular time? You have the 10 a.m. call, the 11:15 a.m. call, and then the lunch presentation. You have from 1:30 p.m. to 3 p.m. open this afternoon but you wanted to spend that on the new marketing campaign for social media.

See if the supervisor can meet me at 1:30 p.m.

Okay.

Iris hears Winifred typing with an unusual amount of force. Then she hears her make a phone call asking some person to come to the office at 1:30 p.m. Iris nods her head and looks at her calendar for the day. The 1:30 p.m. appointment appears.

Iris picks up the phone to initiate her first call. She is still concerned about the video but it can wait until this afternoon.

Chapter 2

Iris stands behind her desk with her arms crossed staring at the man in front of her. He is visibly sweating. He keeps placing his hands in his lap and then on the arms of the chair. Iris is fed up with him already.

April Morales works for you? A chat window appears on Iris’s monitor out of sight from April’s supervisor. Be nicer, it says. Iris involuntarily frowns harder. The man squeaks out, Yes.

What’s her position? Iris motions for the man to speak.

He swallows several times. She answers the phones and does some filing. She’s part-time.

Iris decides that April isn’t committed to the job, and thinks it is a good idea to make her an example to the other employees. They have to learn they can’t bad mouth the company in such a public manner.

Have April come to my office immediately. He looks like he wants to protest but Iris cuts him off. She’s at work right now, correct? He nods.

Great, send her up here immediately. Iris makes a shooing motion with her hands. Right now.

He jumps up and almost runs out of the door. A few seconds later Winifred appears in the doorway. Her eyes look sad.

Don’t bother, Iris says and turns away. Winifred returns slowly to her desk.

Iris can’t understand how she always knows Winifred isn’t happy with how she does things. But Winifred doesn’t understand how she needs to maintain control. People have to follow the rules. Otherwise chaos will ensue and the company image will be shattered.

Iris remembers one of the women in her Planted group asking how we know God loves us and why He loves us? Iris hadn’t understood. She is a Christian and attends church at least once a month. She believes in God and tries her best to be good. Why is she thinking about this?

Oh yes, because of that email from Rose asking to meet and pray. She had joined the group so she will have friends outside of work. She was lonely and felt she needed something more. But to get together to pray? That seems weird.

Iris tries not to think about it, as she needs to concentrate on the April issue.

Chapter 3

Iris is deep into the social media campaign by the time a timid knock sounds on her door. Iris calls out, Enter, and doesn’t bother to look up while she finishes.

When she finally does look up she sees before her a young girl in her early twenties. Her face is wearing an expression of fear, defiance, and something