Read Online Knot the Usual Suspects by Molly MacRae - Free Book Online Page B

that’s the sad sum total of what I know about Hugh.”
    â€œYou can explain that when you speak with the officer. In the meantime, what I want to know is—”
    â€œFinding her name in his
sporran
doesn’t prove that she knows anything,” I said.
    â€œI know that.”
He might have briefly ground his teeth. “Thank you, Ms. Rutledge,” he said, teeth still gritted. “Ms. Buchanan, please, answer this one question—what did Hugh tell you about being in town for Half-baked Blue Plum?”
    Silence followed his question. A silence louder than the clodhopping boots of ten thousand deputies. A silence into which Clod put his metaphorical foot one clomp further.
    â€œWhat?” he asked, looking genuinely perplexed. “Half-baked—that’s what everyone calls it, isn’t it?”
    â€œNo, Coleridge, it isn’t.” Ardis used the tone of voice she’d perfected through her years of smacking desks with rulers. She’d told me she reserved it for answering questions that tested her patience and the validity of the phrase “there are no stupid questions.” “Many people love the craft fair,” she told him now. “Many of the craftspeople depend on their sales from weekend fairs like this one for the extras others of us take for granted—music or dance lessons for the children or grandchildren, for instance.”
    â€œI meant no disrespect.”
    â€œOf course you didn’t. Ten has a booth at the fair this year,” Ardis said, calling Joe by his childhood nickname for Tennyson, something she and very few others could get away with. “Did you know that? Flies, lures, and watercolors.”
    â€œI didn’t know.”
    â€œKumihimo braiding, too,” I said. “He’s really good at it and it’s cool.”
    Clod gave me a look.
    â€œIt is. And it’s not just a booth. He’s in charge of all the booths this year. It’s a big responsibility and a heck of a lot of work. You should stop by this weekend and check it out. Stop and say hey. I know he’d appreciate it.”
    â€œColeridge will no doubt be on duty all weekend,” Ardis said, “busy working on this terrible case. And that brings me back to your question, Coleridge. You asked what Hugh told me about being in town for Handmade Blue Plum?”
    â€œYes, ma’am.”
    â€œDoesn’t it fall into the category of hearsay evidence?”
    â€œIt might be helpful to the investigation.”
    â€œHunh.”
    â€œMs. Buchanan, what did he say?”
    â€œNot a blessed thing.”
    *   *   *
    â€œDo you think he believed you?” I asked after Clod left.
    â€œPossibly not.”
    â€œAre you okay? Do you need to take some time?”
    â€œNo, hon.”
    â€œI’m sorry about Hugh. He was . . . he seemed . . .”
    Ardis nodded. “That’s it exactly. We really don’t know anything about Hugh beyond ‘was’ and ‘seemed.’ I only knew him ‘when’ and you didn’t know him at all. And I wasted the time I spent with him over lunch yesterday wagging my own chin. Catching him up on people I
do
know something about.”
    â€œ
Did
Hugh say anything to you about being here for Handmade Blue Plum?”
    â€œDo you think I would
lie
to Deputy Coleridge BlakeDunbar?” A glint of humor kindled in her eyes, then flickered out. She bounced the eraser end of a pencil on the counter as she became thoughtful. “No, he didn’t. It’s hard to remember if he said much of anything at all.” She bounced the pencil a time or two more. “So, what is it about the fair, or what’s going to be
at
the fair, that’s interesting enough to bring Hugh McPhee back to town after all these years?”
    â€œOr
who’s
going to be there.
If
Deputy Dunbar is right—because we don’t know why Cole thinks