Jessica and Seth take a detour form a road trip to visit Seth's southern Cousin Buford. Buford, a botanist, is entangled in a dispute over the rights to his perfume tree with a perfume company he's working with, while courting Evelyn, who has previously been lovers with Seth's other cousin Robert, and Sergeant Lindley of the state police. And soon, Buford ends up dead.
Tropes:
- Ambiguous Syntax: Buford refers to himself, Seth and Rob as "we cousins" in a way which makes it vague whether he and Robert are cousins or brothers.
- Corrupt Corporate Executive: Zigzagged with Nina Larson. She is aggressively trying to get the tree, hiring spies and hitting on Buford's lawyer at least partially to try and compromise his loyalty, but she did make a fair agreement for the tree with Buford in good faith (and spent a lot of money on advance advertising) and he's the one who first decided to break it for vague reasons. The fact that it's indicated that Nina risks being fired if she can't secure the tree also makes her more sympathetic.
- Crazy Jealous Guy: Sergeant Lindley is unhappy that his ex left him for Buford, to the point of committing murder and framing Evelyn.
- Dirty Cop: Sergeant Lindley turns out to be working for Nina to look for the tree, although he argues that he's acting as a collection agent of the legitimate owners and isn't breaking the law. Jessica points out that whether or not this is true he's also guilty of killing Buford.
- Emo Teen: Kendall's son Billy is a bit surly.
- Fat, Sweaty Southerner in a White Suit: Buford, although he isn't too sweaty. He's portrayed as being in the wrong in some ways, but a good man in others.
- MacGuffin: Buford's missing rose tree drives the plot.
- Pen Pals: Buford and Jessica have corresponded for years about gardening.
- Pink Means Feminine: The sultry Nina has a pink dress suit on in her first two scenes.
- Recovered Addict: Robert has had alcohol problems in the past and is a year sober.
- Scatter Brained Senior: Dr. Travis, the local physician, is older than he is sharper
- Secret-Keeper: After Buford's death, his assistant Kendall Ames is the only one who knows where the tree is.
- Short Cuts Make Long Delays: What was meant to be just a brief visit with Buford on the way to somewhere else turns longer once he dies.
- Simple Country Lawyer: Subverted with Dan Wilkes. Nina lampshades the trope when she meets him (commuting she'd expected someone like that to be Buford's lawyer) and Dan replies that he inherited Buford as a client form his father, who apparently was a more tradition simple country lawyer.
- Southern-Fried Genius: Buford is a brilliant botanist and a man with a thick southern accent.
- Spanner in the Works: Seth, who spots the signs of murder, which the scatter-brained Dr. Travis probably would have missed if he'd been the one on the scene, something the killer had taken into account causing him to make sure he was on duty so that he could spot the signs of murder if Travis missed them to ensure that Evelyn would be framed.
- Starving Artist: Margaret is a playwright, and when Buford accuses her of spending on luxuries, she retorts that said luxuries are cold water and pizza meals she can barely afford.
- Vorpal Pillow: Buford is smothered with a pillow as he lies in bed.
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Write Who You Know: Buford's stepdaughter Margaret is a playwright whose one play apparently contained unflattering versions of Buford and her mother. This backfired badly on her, as Jessica tells her that it took away from the interesting plot of the play itself and Buford refuses to loan her any money out of anger about this.
