Short story, from a science fiction anthology?

[WorriedDaughter1]

I'm looking for a story I had read about thirty years ago when I was in my early teens. I only remember a few details.

It begins with a girl found dead in a room with a
orchid near her and two men (officials?) who have come to check. It seemed to me as though there had been some illness spread through the world some years earlier, so people who carried the illness had to live away from the others and this girl was one of the carriers. One of the men wanted to declare it suicide but the other man was sure it was a murder. It turned out finally that the dead girl was the second man's daughter and had been forced to move away with her mother once they got the illness. He knew that she had been murdered because of the orchid near her; he had taught her as a child to never pluck one of those, so having one with her meant that there had been someone else in the room before she died.

I think it was in an anthology of science fiction, but it might just have been general short stories.

I've been trying to remember its name, but I'm drawing a blank.

Anyone?

I tried googling for you because i know how frustrating it is, but your post is the top result on Google.

Can you remember anything else about it? Will anybody else you know have read it and might remember, like a sibling?

Ooh I've read a few retro sci fi anthologies so was hoping to help but this doesn't ring a bell. Sorry OP!

Reminds me of start of Day of Triffids.

You'd probably have more luck asking on a book-search website. Abebooks.com and Science Fiction and Fantasy Stack Exchange are both very helpful.

Has a vaguely Orson Scott Card ring to it.

Might be worth posting on a Facebook group ?

Thank you to everyone who thought about it!

@BemidjiMinnesota, I read it while staying with an elderly aunt who lived alone, so unfortunately there's nobody I can ask.

@PippaPegg, I have read a number of sci-fi anthologies since then, but have never come across this story!

@TartanTexan, I don't think it's the Day of the Triffids, though I've only read an extract from that and not the whole book. My story read like a complete short story though, not a chapter from a longer book.

@sueelleker, I'll try Abebooks. I've posted there about other books and generally found what I was looking for.

@DGRossetti, I'll investigate Orson Scott Card, just in case this is one of his.

Possibly it's one of Asimov's Black Widow mysteries?

I looked at the synopses of the Black Widower stories, but it's not any of them either. Thanks.