Murder on Jack Pine

Monday 8:24 A.M | March 23rd, 2023 | Framingham, MA

Lucas Spruce was entombed in an extremely old, yet incredibly healthy rhododendron, carefully pruning the deadwood, and cutting back any and all overgrown branches.

He took great pride in his work. Especially considering that last week, to celebrate his twenty-eighth birthday, he had successfully launched the start of his own landscape company: Spruced Up Landscaping.

He wasn’t thrilled with the name, but his enthusiastic eleven year old sister came up with it, and begged him to use it. Being a supportive older brother, he listened to his his sister’s advice, and had the name painted in bold, spruce green on each side of his white, 2017 GMC Sierra — which he had purchased from his old boss, who taught him everything he needed to know about landscaping, for an incredible price.

With a high school principle for a mom, and a big city lawyer for a dad, the path of becoming a self-employed landscaper was never part of the plan his parents hoped for. His mother always pushed him towards a life of extensive education, and teaching, while his father constantly tried to pull him into joining the family business.

Lucas loved and appreciated his parents, but ever since he was six years old, when he first started helping his dad throw mulch on the beds of his childhood home during the summer, and helping his mother tend to her gardens, his heart found a new love.

Now, twenty-two years later, after working for five different landscape companies across Massachusetts, he was finally ready to begin operating his own family business.

During his years as working as a landscape laborer, Lucas quickly came to realize just how cutthroat the industry can be when it came to acquiring loyal clients.

That hurdle was the main reason holding Lucas back from branching out on his own.

Luckily, his previous employer, who sold him his new work truck for pennies on the dollar, treated Lucas as if he was his own son. The man was in his sixties, and was beyond ready to retire, and enjoy the rest of his years tending to his own land, rather than someone else's.

He had also given Lucas his long, loyal list of clients.

It was a jackpot worth millions.

Thirty-Nine Jack Pine road was Spruced Up Landscaping’s first job of the new season.

It was a newly acquired client that his previous boss had yet to meet with in person. Another generous gift given to Lucas by his old friend. Owning your own company meant that you needed to build strong customer relationships if you had any hope of becoming, and remaining a success.

Considering the vast amount of landscape companies in the state, if your customer relationship was fragile, you would be dropped without any hesitation, and forced to seek out new clients to replace the ones you lost.

Losing clients meant losing money. Lucas had no intention of doing either.

Two days ago Lucas called the phone number for Thirty-Nine Jack Pine, hoping to engage in a conversation regarding what the client would like to have done. On the last ring, just before the line went to machine's voicemail, the call was answered.

The conversation lasted a brief ten minutes, and the deep, tired, cracked voice on the opposite end of the phone meticulously instructed Lucas on the specifics that needed to be done.

The job ranged from the heavy pruning of shrubs, trees, and perennials. Fifty new plantings of various sized, and colored annuals. The removal of six dead boxwoods, which needed to be replaced by five, six-foot arborvitaes. Twenty yards of black forest mulch. Edging. Fertilizing. Compost installation. Seeding. And mowing.

It was a lot of work, but nothing Lucas couldn't handle with a few days time.

Lucas had never been to this property before, but he was familiar with the street.

It was an old, secluded, dead end road lined with Victorian era mansions, each with a lot bigger than the last. Thirty-Nine sat at the end of the cul-de-sac, and held the crown for the largest lot on the street. He knew that it would not be an easy, or quick job, and that the houses on Jack Pine normally required a crew of workers to successfully landscape.

Lucas had no crew, yet was eager to accept the challenge. If he could prove himself with Thirty-Nine Jack Pine, he could use that confidence, and the referral to easily acquire any client he desired.

It was a proving ground of sorts, and Lucas was ready to showcase his talents.