Read Murder Alfresco #3 for Free Online Page B

there? Did they know her?”
    “I’ve spoken with them, and I’ll be speaking with them again, I’m sure. Once again, I will point out that, as a material witness, you possess far more information about this crime than those who were not at the scene, including the winery owners. I urge you not to share that information with anyone, just as I will not be sharing information unnecessarily with you, the owners of the winery, or anyone else. We’re playing poker, McCoskey, and the stakes are high. Somebody out there knows everything about this crime, but they’re holding their cards close. If we go around showing everything we have, it makes it that much harder to bluff.”
    “So, for example, you won’t tell the owners of the winery—”
    “Anything more than is absolutely necessary. Exactly.”
    “And you won’t tell anyone I found the body.”
    “I see no advantage to advertising your involvement. However, with the perpetrator at large, there is certainly a potential disadvantage to doing so.”
    “You mean he could see me as a threat.”
    “You would only pose a threat if you had proprietary information, such as the ability to identify a suspect. In your case, you may have seen the perpetrator’s vehicle, but that information has already been passed on. Harming you at this point would serve no purpose.”
    “But if that was the killer leaving Vedana, and if he did see me when he clicked on his lights, he might wonder if I saw him.”
    “It’s possible, but that’s a lot of ifs.” Steve rapped his knuckles on the edge of the desk decisively. “I think our guy has more to worry about than a witness whose testimony would be of extremely negligible value. A good defense lawyer could discredit that kind of ID—a glimpse of a speeding car at night with headlights blinding you—in about ten seconds. No, if I were him, I’d be either watching or running. Let’s just try to keep a low profile and not invite problems.”
    “Right.” Sunny imagined the murderer somewhere, remembering her face in a flash of headlights. He wouldn’t know who she was, or where to find her. The link between them was safely severed. “Who are these Vedanas anyway?” she asked. “Why don’t they have a gate on their driveway or any security? I smashed the front window of their winery without so much as a dog barking.”
    “Vedana isn’t their name, it’s a Pali term meaning sensation.”
    “I thought it was Spanish for window.”
    “That’s
ventana,”
said Steve. “As I understand it,
vedana
is related to the Buddhist concept of
samsara.
Sensation is one of the things that makes us want to be alive, thus triggering desire and attachment, which keeps the wheel of consequence and suffering turning. That’s
samsara.
Speaking of windows, the owners were nice about the window you broke, by the way. Their insurance is covering it.”
    “That’s big of them, since I had to sit with the dead body and wait for the police, not them. Since when are you an expert in Pali terminology, by the way?”
    Steve looked away, trying to hide a smile. He coughed. “I’m not, but Sarah Winfield is.”
    “Pretzel-girl Sarah? I thought I saw you hanging around the yoga studio more than usual.”
    “Just pursuing my practice,” said Steve. “
    “I’ll bet.”
    Steve grinned for a second before he caught himself and assumed a more serious expression. He looked at his watch. “I need to wrap this up. I’ve got reporters waiting.”
    “Okay, but just tell me what the next step is.”
    He made a matter-of-fact face. “Well, the next step is I do my job and hopefully find the perpetrator or perpetrators. You go home, get some rest, and try to forget any of this happened.”
    “Unless I remember something important.”
    “Bingo.”

5
    Coming home never felt so good . Long shadows darkened the street when she hoisted her bike out of the back of the truck and walked it down the overgrown path to the front door. She locked it up next