Read MURDER on the ROCKS (Allie Griffin Mysteries Book 2) for Free Online Page B

too close to the couch, and in fact looked as though it hated the couch and had backed up away from it as far as it could without taking down a wall or two. The impression in the seat told the whole story. It was obviously Arthur Chapman's favorite spot in the house.
                  He plopped into this very chair and she sat on the couch, careful not to slide back too far. She felt the broken corpse of a spring dig uncomfortably into her leg and shifted awkwardly as she spoke and he watched.
                  "Mr. Chapman–, can I call you Arthur?"
                  "Art."
                  "Art. Now, I know you delivered shoes to Ms. Reilly. Could you tell me how that worked?"
                  "It worked by means of a fuel injection system in an internal combustion engine. The force from combustion moves pistons and these help drive the engine."
                  She stopped shifting in her seat and stared at him. Then she smiled sweetly. "Art. You are a thorough pain in the fundament, you know that? Can you please just level with me? I got nothing to go on here and I can really use your help."
                  "If you're not a cop, then what are you?"
                  She closed her eyes to remain calm, and then opened them slowly. "I'm Allie Griffin from Verdenier. I've been in the news recently. I helped solve the murder of a Verdenier woman a couple of months ago. And now I've been asked to help out here."
                  "Asked by whom?"
                  "By a friend."
                  He sighed through his nose. "You are an attractive young woman and that's why I'm going to continue talking to you." He leaned forward. "Does that make you uncomfortable?"
                  "A little. Does it make you uncomfortable that if I catch you undressing me with your eyes, I'm going to poke them Three Stooges-style?"
                  He leaned back, a bright smile growing on his face. "I met Honey Reilly at one of the Mardi Gras parades we have here. It was a long time ago. Maybe ten years. I can’t remember, I'm sorry. We were all standing there, shivering. It was a nasty season. You live in Vermont long?"
                  "Most of my life."
                  "Well then you know Mardi Gras here ain't like it is in New Orleans. All those people exposing themselves. You try exposing yourself here and you may not be able to get what you exposed back in again. Anyway, everyone was huddled close together watching the parade and catching those beads. All of a sudden, one of the floats broke down right in front of us. The car just crapped out right then and there and came to a sudden stop. The whole parade had this Mother Goose theme going on and this broken down float was all about Little Bo Peep. So it stops. Now it'd only been going, what, two miles an hour? If it was three I'll eat my hat. But two miles an hour was enough, cuz when that baby stopped, Little Bo Peep herself took a tumble over the fake wooden fence they'd built for her to lean on. And she had one of those crooks that shepherds use and that got caught on a sheep's behind. Did I mention all the sheep were real people dressed up as sheep?"
                  "You didn’t mention that."
                  "Well they were. So Little Bo Peep actually falls off the float and is dangling there by the crook which is hooked into a sheep's behind. I ran up there. I don’t know why I ran up there. I just did. You do crazy things in a crisis."
                  "Crisis?"
                  "Well, yeah, of course it was. What if that were you up there on that float? Wouldn’t you consider it a crisis?"
                  "I guess."
                  "Well then stop interrupting me and let me finish. So I run up there and Little Bo Peep is screaming. And some of