Strolling Into Danger (A Seagrove Cozy Mystery Book 6) by Leona Fox Read Free Book Online Page A

seen the Strongman?” she asked.
     
    “Earlier, over near the office,” he said. “Why?”
     
    “After my conversation with Rupa,” she made the symbol for quotes with her fingers when she said the word conversation, “I heard Pabelin’s sister crying and I went to talk to her. She saw the Strongman watching us and slammed the door right in my face. Then, when I walked away he followed me.”
     
    “Why the air quotes around the word conversation?” he asked.
     
    “Because no real conversation should be punctuated by dishes being thrown to the floor,” Sadie said. “That’s why.”
     
    “And when did the Strongman stop following you?” he asked.
     
    “I got fed up with feeling scared and decided to confront him,” she said.
     
    “But he slipped away between two trailers before I even turned around. He was surprisingly ghost-like for such a muscled man.”
     
    “I had noticed he has the ability to appear and disappear with very little fanfare. He’s there and then he isn’t. But what’s funny is he doesn’t seem to want to speak to me. Not that that is unusual, many people are uncomfortable talking with the police, but usually they fade away and don’t turn up again. This guy keeps hanging around.”
     
    “He’s intimidating,” Sadie said. “But Roman has regular goons as bodyguards. Why is a circus performer acting like protection?”
     
    “Probably because he can,” Zack said.
     
    “He’s one of the few performers with that kind of bulk. Come on, let’s get out of here.” He took her hand and led her toward the big top.
     
    “Wait,” Sadie said, pulling back.
     
    “Didn’t you want to talk to Rupa?”
     
    “No,” he said. “You got me the answers I needed. I have no desire to get brained with a frying pan.”
     
    “So what do you think?” Sadie asked as they were driving back to downtown Seagrove.
     
    “Who killed Pabelin? Was it Maestro Street?”
     
    “I don’t think so,” Zack said. “As completely reprehensible as his behavior is, I don’t think he’s our murderer. There is no motive. At least not a believable one.”
     
    “So Winston then?” Sadie asked.
     
    “Winston? Oh, they call him Win. And yes I think probably so. Although Rupa is also on my short list.”
     
    “When I was talking to Pabelin’s sister, I didn’t have time to get her name, she said Pabelin insulted Maestro and that gives him motive, or that Winston – Win.” Sadie stopped dead remembering the woman dying in her arms.
     
    “It wasn’t when that she said, it was Win. She was trying to tell me Win did it.” She looked up into Zack's face blinking tears away.
     
    “Tell me again,” he said.
     
    “When Pabelin ran into me on the sidewalk, after she fell, she kept saying ‘when.’ I thought she was asking when something was going to happen. But I think I understand now. She wasn’t asking when, she was telling me Win. Winston. Winston killed her.”
     
    “Or she could have been trying to leave you a message for him,” Zack said. “We can’t jump to conclusions.”
     
    “But you think he did it, and I think he did it, and Pabelin pointed us in his direction,” Sadie said. “So how do we prove he did it?”
     
    “I don’t know,” Zack said. “We’re still missing vital evidence.”
     
    “You know,” Sadie drawled, “Lucy is very similar in stature to Pabelin. I bet with a black wig, fortune teller clothing and the right make-up we could pass her off as Pabelin from a distance.”
     
    “And what good would that do us?” Zack asked although Sadie could tell from his expression he had an inkling of what she was thinking of.
     
    “It’s been done a thousand times in the movies,” She said.
     
    “Bring the dead woman back to life and take the murder unawares. Say Winston is in the middle of his act and Pabelin appears below him. That could shake him into doing something stupid, like confessing. It works in the films.”
     
    “Yes, and aren’t