The Proof Is in the Poison by Diane Kelly

Author:Diane Kelly [Kelly, Diane]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 2022-06-07T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twelve

I held up my phone. “Look.”

Kiki and Kate leaned in, their blond and black heads coming together like the yin and yang that they were.

“He could be the one, then.” Kate grimaced. “Yikes. We may have just been speaking with a killer.” In what was probably a subconscious act of motherly protection, she reached down to the stroller to drape a thin blanket over her son, which Dalton promptly kicked off with his crazy karate legs. Why do babies always look like they’re doing ninja moves?

Kiki made a sound that said she disagreed. “Nyaaaa. It can’t be Ronnie. I mean, the guy’s a kid at heart. He still believes in monsters.”

Kate tried again to cover her son with the blanket. “Maybe he is the monster.”

“If he were a monster,” Kiki said, “he’d be Cookie Monster. Besides, if he were the guilty one, wouldn’t he have ditched his bottle somewhere? Gotten rid of the evidence?”

“Maybe,” I said. “But maybe he knows other people use the same brand. Maybe he was afraid someone would have noticed his Gleam Dream in his bin, like we did, and that he’d only look more guilty if his bottle suddenly disappeared.” I returned my phone to my pocket. “I’ll pass this information on to the detective later, see if she thinks it’s worth pursuing.”

Moving on, my friends and I circled around the end of the row, passing the empty vendor booth. The convention was half over by then. I’d thought before that the vendor might have suffered some type of delay and show up late, but it looked like whoever had rented the stall had decided not to come to the convention at all. My flyer for Monday’s moonshine mixer still sat atop the table, a reminder of the happier, simpler time before Bert Gebhardt passed away. I walked over, grabbed the flyer, and folded it to stick in my pocket.

We headed toward Patrick Jaffe’s space. When Patrick and Kimberly saw me coming their way, they exchanged looks of surprise and trepidation, as if I were the angel of death approaching. They stood and greeted me hesitantly.

After introducing them to my friends, I asked Patrick about the steam train model contest. “How are you feeling?” I asked. “Confident? Seems to me you’re a shoo-in.”

He hunched his shoulders. “I’d say I’m cautiously optimistic. I won’t know for sure until the awards ceremony on Saturday.”

Kimberly offered a slightly different take, as well as a winning smile. “Stop being so modest, Patrick. You know you’re on track to win.” She turned back to me. “Even the other contestants have said so.”

They felt assured Patrick had locked the contest down. But did he beat Bert fair and square, or did he kill the competition?

I watched Patrick closely and said, “Shame what happened to Bert Gebhardt.”

A cloud seemed to pass over his face. “Sure is. Totally unexpected.” He cocked his head, running his gaze over my face in return. “Gotta say, I’m surprised you’re bringing it up. To be perfectly honest, I’m surprised you’d show your face around here.

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.