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“You did learn something important. You learned about Margaret.”
It was him. It was him that had sent them to the ball. She wondered if the other two attorneys knew about it at all.
“She was a special friend to you, wasn’t she?”
Mr. McNally put down his fork. “She was,” he said with a sigh. “She spent forty years of her life doing so much work for charity without a single word. Many times, she would go and volunteer at places just to see if the money she was donating was actually doing the job it should.”
“Like a secret shopper?”
For the first time since she’d arrived, Mr. McNally looked amused. “Exactly. She would then come back and have me a send a list of instructions with her next round of donations. Margaret always wanted to get to the heart of the matter.”
“That’s wonderful,” said Piper, before slowly bringing one hand to her chest. “But it still makes me wonder why she left the clues for Dawson and I. She must have met so many good people in the projects she started. Why didn’t she put them in her will?”
“Oh, she did,” Mr. McNally said easily. “As I’m sure you heard last night, she left provisions for all of the projects she was involved with, along with a number of specific bequests to individuals.”
“But Dawson and I were the only people left with clues to solve?”
“You were.”
“But why us?”
McNally let out a gentle laugh. “Why does it snow? Why does it rain? Why do some plants grow larger than others? I don’t know. She never said. I told you before, there must have been something about you two that just captured her attention. I can’t give you any more than that, because I don’t know any more than that.”
She believed him. He wasn’t playing games with her or keeping secrets. She took her first bite of one of the sandwiches. “Delicious.”
Mr. McNally looked pleased.
Piper swallowed and settled properly in her seat. “So, if it’s not breaking any rules. Why don’t you tell me more about Margaret? The fun stuff that others wouldn’t know. I’d like to understand the person that’s more or less taken over my life for the last few days.”
Mr. McNally smiled, and she could see that smile reaching all the way up to his eyes. It wasn’t perfunctory. It was genuine. “Fun stuff. Okay, so you know that Margaret was an author, but do you know she actually worked at the zoo as a teenager? She helped take care of the giraffes.”
“Really?”
He nodded. “Oh yes. She was obviously very junior at the time, but used to love going back to see them, even for years after she left.”
“Wow. Okay, so that was unexpected.”
He started on one of his cakes, a tiny chocolate muffin. “You’ll realize that with the greenhouses she had a real interest in plants and flowers. Vegetables, too. She used to send for specimens all the time to try and grow the plants for herself.”
“What was her favorite flower?”
“Orange Gerberas,” he said it without a second’s hesitation. He held up one hand, “But in winter she liked the sweet scent of Clematis cirrhosa, the jingle bell plant. It used to grow around a trellis at the front door of the old property.”
Piper was thoughtful for a few seconds. “I didn’t notice it when I visited.”
“Oh, it’s gone now.” There was a tinge of sadness in his voice.
“Why didn’t she write any other books?” asked Piper. “She must have had ideas for stories. I understand she worked with her husband on the first book, but did she really never try again?”
“Ah.” Mr. McNally put his fork down. It was clear he was taking some thinking time. Eventually, he sighed and said, “Can I let you into a secret?”
Piper nodded.
“She did write books again. But not as a children’s picture book author and not as Margaret Smith.”
“She did?”
He winked at her. “She wrote some middle grade books that turned into young adult, but were also read by adults.” He whispered a name across the table that made Piper drop her teaspoon.
