The Case of the Quizzical Queens Beagle by B R Snow

Author:B R Snow [Snow, B R]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: cozy mystery
ISBN: 9781942691457
Published: 2018-03-09T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter 17

I headed back to the main tent, gave the scowling Josie a grin and a finger wave as I walked past our seats, then continued up the aisle and found Chief Abrams near the entrance.

“Not willing to face the music yet?” he said, laughing as he nodded in Josie’s direction.

“No, I thought I’d give her a few more minutes to cool off,” I said, grinning. “Where did she go after the clowns got her?”

“I found her hyperventilating outside,” he said. “When she calmed down, she grabbed a couple more funnel cakes and went back to her seat. You do know you’re going to pay for this, right?”

“I do,” I said. “But it was so worth it. I just had a chat with Wanda, the aerialist.”

“What did she have to say for herself?”

“Quite a bit, actually,” I said. “She doesn’t buy the suicide story.”

“You don’t think she was involved?” Chief Abrams said, gesturing for me to follow him away from the entrance so we could speak without being overheard.

“No, I don’t,” I said. “Samantha considered Wanda her surrogate mother.”

“What about the brother?”

“Samantha broke his heart,” I said.

“Interesting. Always a good motive,” he said. “They were in a relationship?”

“I don’t think so,” I said. “Apparently, Samantha wasn’t shy about sharing her affections.”

“I see,” he said, nodding. “So, Samantha was close to several of the other performers?”

“According to Wanda,” I said.

“She didn’t happen to mention any possible suspects, did she?” he said, waving to a group of people who were making their way through the crowd.

“I floated the question, but she didn’t bite,” I said. “But I got the feeling she had definitely somebody in mind.”

“Okay, that might be helpful. What’s your take?”

“At the moment, I’m leaning toward jealousy. If Samantha was making the rounds with all the men who work here, one of them could have done it as payback for breaking their heart.”

“Or maybe the girlfriend of one of her conquests,” he said, glancing over at me.

“That’s an interesting thought. But the woman would have to be pretty strong to throw her off the boat like that,” I said, then an idea popped to the surface when I remembered Wanda’s warmup routine. I frowned and stared off into the distance.

“What is it?” the Chief said. “You’ve got that look.”

“No, it couldn’t have been her,” I whispered.

“I’m gonna need a bit more, Snoop.”

“I was just thinking about strong women and landed on Wanda. I watched her warm up backstage earlier, and she’s incredibly powerful,” I said, still frowning. “No, it couldn’t have been her.”

“Is she close to her brother?” he said.

“She certainly seems to be. And protective.”

“And she decided to take Samantha out because she broke her brother’s heart?” the Chief said, giving it some serious thought. “Yeah, I can make that work. We’ve certainly seen stranger things.”

“No, I don’t like it,” I said, shaking my head. Then I caught a glimpse of someone sitting by himself about halfway up one of the grandstands. “Well, what do you know?”

The Chief followed my eyes and spotted the man right away.

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