It Takes Two to Strangle by Stephen Kaminski Read Free Book Online

attorney looking too closely into his financial affairs.”
    The men stopped speaking as a harried father pushing a toddler in a grocery cart stopped to select a box of generic raisin bran cereal. The boy was clutching a strawberry in one hand and a flyer for the county fair in the other. He smashed the two together, leaving a bright red stain over the words “Big Surf Shows.”
    “I heard Lirim’s wife died in an accident,” Damon said after the father and son moved on.
    “She did. Tabby was a really nice woman. Too nice for Lirim.”
    “Did she travel with you?”
    “On occasion. They have a place in West Virginia outside of Morgantown. Tabby would come out once or twice every summer. She always cleaned Lirim’s trailer up real nicely if you can imagine that.”
    “Too bad for Clara about losing her mother.”
    “I guess. I don’t know how close they were. But the accident was tragic. Tabby got hit by a drunk driver late at night near their house. Or at least Lirim thought it was a drunk driver.” He smacked his hands together. “The police found her crushed body inside a smashed up car on the side of a gravel road. None of the trees along the road was damaged, so they decided it was a hit-and-run. They never tracked down the person who hit her.”
    Jim turned in the aisle and selected a box of protein bars. “Sorry for unloading on you. I guess I just had to tell someone other than the police. I told Detective Sloman and the female lieutenant everything about the IRS this morning. Victor would’ve told them anyway. I wouldn’t be surprised if he tries to pin Lirim’s murder on me. But I suppose Lirim’s money skimming does make me look like a suspect, especially with these scratches I got from Bertie’s cat last night.”
    Jim answered Damon’s quizzical stare. “I share a trailer with Bertie Mangrove and two others. Bertie manages one of the food stands and her cat Christof lives with us.”
    “Bad timing for a scratch,” Damon replied.
    “You’re telling me. I thought the lieutenant was going to arrest me on the spot. I have to go. Now that Lirim’s gone, I’m moving into his trailer once the police clear out, and I told Victor to give me all of the files from the past year. I need to get up to speed now that I can.”
    Damon was left standing in place, contemplating how Jim could bear to sleep in the bed of a murdered man just after he was killed.

    Chapter 5

    Back at home, Damon unpacked groceries, and then dialed Gerry. Jim Riley said he told Gerry his story, but he may not have provided as much information to Gerry as he revealed to Damon. Damon caught the detective just as he was about to take a dinner break after nine hours of interviewing carnival workers. Gerry accepted Damon’s invitation to come over for a quick bite.
    Ten minutes later, Gerry trudged through the front door, looking significantly more worn down than he had in the morning. He passed through the kitchen, flopped down on the leather sectional in the family room and accepted the bottle of lager Damon held out.
    “I hadn’t thought about dinner yet, so I just put on spaghetti and popped some frozen garlic bread into the oven,” Damon said.
    “Sounds perfect. Thanks.” Gerry took a long pull from the beer and set it on a nearby coaster. “Let me tell you, there weren’t many tears shed today. I don’t think a single person at Big Surf could stand Lirim.”
    “Including Jim Riley, I just ran into him at the Safeway,” Damon said and gave Gerry a synopsis of their conversation.
    “I have to admit he has a pretty good motive. Jim Riley has all of his money tied up in this carnival business, but his partner and partner’s henchman are skimming. Sounds pretty damning to me, especially with those scratches on his arm.” He turned to face Damon who had seated himself on the opposite end of the sectional. “I asked him why he couldn’t have gone to the police, or back to the IRS after they started skimming again. He