Read Murder at the Book Fair for Free Online

phones as part of our retirement gifts, we still rely on our house phone
to call each other. Some habits are hard to break.
    "Finished already?"
    "Yeah. The janitor did
it."
    "There wasn't a janitor
mentioned."
    "You had to read between the
lines to find out about him."
    "You ready to solve this
thing?"
    "You aren't going to wait on
Frank to tell us there has been a murder?"
    "Do you have any
doubts?"
    "No."
    "Then are you ready to solve
this thing?"
    "If I say 'no', does that
mean you'll go alone?"
    "No, I'll call Heather."
    "What about Jennifer?"
    "Jennifer doesn't have any
experience solving murders."
    "Neither does Heather. There
hasn't been a murder in Hilldale since she and Dan took over."
    "Maybe they're not looking in
the right places for the bodies. Now, are you ready to head to Frankfort tomorrow?"
    "I guess so. I'll have to
find someone to feed my cat."
    "You'll have to get a cat
first."
    "They're too much trouble.
Maybe I'll get a dog first and find someone to walk my dog."
    "You work on that when we get
back. You up to packing a bag?"
    "Why? Are we going back to
Gatlinburg after we solve the murder?"
    "No, I don't know how long it
will take us in Frankfort , and how many people we need to
talk to there. There's Portwood's lawyer, and Portwood's brother and sister.
And since there was a good chance he was murdered at the book fair, I want to
talk to people who were there. Those in charge and other authors. So we might
stay there and talk to all those people and then head on to that place Portwood
is from. You know it's well over two hours from here, don't you?"
    "Most places are more than
two hours from here.  And it's going to take more than a few hours if we talk
to all two hundred authors. See you tomorrow, and you're driving this
time."
    "Fine. And we won't talk to
all the other authors. Authors who write children's books usually aren't
murderers. Look at Aileen Stewart. I doubt if she would kill an ant. We'll
probably narrow it down to the ones who were near Portwood. I've already
trimmed Lynwood Montell from my suspects list."
    "What about Bill Noel?"
    "I think I'll leave him on
there for a while. He can't say he was in on or around Folly when it
happened."
    "What kind of a fool names an
island Folly anyway?"
     
    +++
     
    I was enjoying my last peaceful
evening for a while when Frank called.
    "Cy. Frank. I didn't wake
you, did I?"
    "No, I just got through
instructing my assistant as to the proper way to peel my grapes. So, what's the
verdict?"
    "The verdict is guilty, but
it will be up to you to find out who's guilty."
    "So, he didn't die of carbon
monoxide poisoning?"
    "Well, he did and he
didn't."
    "You mean he was bleeding
from a gunshot wound when he keeled over from the poisonous gas?"
    "Something like that. See, he
died from carbon monoxide, but if that hadn't gotten him another poison in his
body would have taken care of him. Someone certainly wanted to hasten his
demise. And not only was he given a slow-acting poison, but he was given a mild
sedative, too. The sedative didn't have anything to do with his death, but it
would have made him sleepy eventually.  If it happened in his garage, he might
have gone to sleep before the carbon monoxide did its thing. All I can tell you
is that the body wasn't moved after death. Wherever he was found was where he
died."
    "So when was the poison
administered, and how?"
    "I can only guess at the
first, but the second was in some kind of food or drink. If I had gotten him
sooner I could be more accurate. All I can say is that it could have been
sometime Friday night, but more than likely it was between breakfast on
Saturday morning and sometime Saturday night, and it was given to him in
something he ingested and digested. Food or drink, not medication."
    "I guess that means Lou and I
are suspects. We saw him on Saturday."
    "You question Lou and have
him question you. Either you can find the murderer quickly, or eliminate two of
the suspects."
    "And that will