The Spirit in Question by Cynthia Kuhn

Author:Cynthia Kuhn [Kuhn, Cynthia]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: amateur sleuth;mystery series;cozy mystery
Publisher: Henery Press
Published: 2018-07-10T15:12:50+00:00

At the end of rehearsal, I asked Tolliver if he’d like to get a drink or some food. I was troubled about the things I’d realized on the way over. Mostly, I wanted to try and cross him off my list of potential suspects.

“Petal, you read my mind. Shall we go to the Gold Rush?” The bar was quite popular for their specials featuring fishbowl-sized glasses of beer. Since it was happy hour, the place would be packed with undergrads.

“How about the Hideout? Perhaps it would be quieter.”

He agreed and we walked the few blocks over.

The Hideout was comfortably shabby, relying on low lighting and candles to camouflage the signs of age. But the restaurant was charming in its own way, plus they projected silent black-and-white movies on the back wall nonstop and served free popcorn. Once we’d settled onto the red vinyl seats of the rounded booth and ordered, Tolliver sighed.

“I can’t believe it’s dress rehearsal tomorrow.”

“We made it!”

“Don’t say that!” He looked aghast. “We still have so far to go.”

“But we’re rounding the final...uh...base, right?”

“You mean we’re in the home stretch?” He smiled. “Indeed. Still, let’s not say that aloud and jinx it. We theater folk are superstitious, you know.”

The waiter brought our drinks—whiskey for him, diet soda for me—and a basket of fresh popcorn. We both took a handful.

“So Tolliver, I’ve been meaning to ask you. Do you have any thoughts on what happened to Jean Claude?”

He stopped chewing for a moment, his eyes wandering somewhere over my shoulder, then swallowed. “I’ve gone over and over it in my mind, but I can’t imagine a single soul in our company who would want to see him dead.” He lowered his voice. “I think it was an outside job.”

“Why?”

“Because I can’t imagine one of us doing it.”

I didn’t want to imagine it either, but it was a possibility.

“Unless...”

I waited.

“You know that Jean Claude has a reputation.” He readjusted his red glasses as he spoke.

“You started to tell me something about that at the reception. What was it?”

He picked up his glass, slammed the whiskey in one shot, and leaned forward. “He’s known for ripping apart the playwright’s work. Ferociously. He was even chased down the street by an angry dramatist at his last school.”

“Really?” He’d been tough on Tolliver’s script, but that seemed like part of the job. Perhaps the stories were really about clashing egos.

“Yes.” He sat back against the booth, appearing rather pleased with himself for having discharged the gossip. “I don’t typically concern myself with that kind of idle talk, you know, but it’s difficult to ignore when everyone is repeating it.”

“Do you feel that he did that to you?”

Tolliver drummed his fingers on the table as he thought. “I suppose I did, at times. But he isn’t the worst I’ve encountered, let’s put it that way.”

“Have you ever worked with him before?”

“Many years ago.” His eyes shone as he thought back to an apparently happier time. “In New York City, when we were all young and struggling desperately to make it big.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.