A Carnival of Killing Read Online Free PDF Page A

definitely want you to be up when we go for Number 58,” she said. “Nighty night, lover.”
     
     
    The forecast for Friday morning was a temperature of twenty-five below zero augmented by a blast from the northwest that again would produce a wind chill of minus forty. For once, damn it, the forecasters were right. Bundled once more in my warmest ski regalia, I forced the Civic’s unwilling engine to turn over, scraped most of the windshield and persuaded the wheels to break free from the ice encrusted surface of the parking lot.
    Al and I were supposed to meet the Vulcan Krewe at 9:00 in the Vulcans’ Crowne Plaza Hotel headquarters. I decided to swing by the office first and found two women waiting at my desk when I arrived at 8:15. Both were wrapped in heavy, ankle-length coats, topped with bright-colored wool scarves and knit hats. At my invitation, they removed their hats, unwound their scarves and unbuttoned their coats.
    The olive-skinned brunette introduced herself as Esperanza de LaTrille, and the blue-eyed, fair-skinned blonde with her nose and cheeks reddened by the cold said her name was Toni Erickson. “Kitty said you wanted to talk to some Kates who were friends with Lee-Ann Nordquist,” said Toni. “We were with her the night she was … the night she died.”
    “Nice to meet you,” I said as I dug a reporter’s notebook out of the jumble on my desk. “Somebody else will be doing the follow story today because I’ve got another assignment but you can talk to me and I’ll pass your comments to the desk. First of all, I need the spelling of your name, Esperanza.”
    “First or last?” she asked.
    “Both.” She gave it to me and Toni offered the information that her first name was spelled with an “I” and that she was an “s-o-n” Erickson, not “s-e-n.”
    “Your paper got it wrong last year when they wrote about Klondike Kate’s,” she said. “Called me ‘Tony Ericksen,’ with a ‘Y’ and an ‘E’ like I was a Danish guy instead of a nice Norwegian girl.”
    “We’ll get it right this year,” I said. “Tell me about Lee-Ann and what the three of you did Wednesday night.”
    “Lee-Ann is … was … one of the sweetest people you’d ever want to meet,” Toni said. “She loved to be with people and to party, but she loved her little girl more than anything. I can’t imagine how Sarajane is going to live without her mom.”
    “Word is she’s with Lee-Ann’s parents,” I said. “Do you know if they’re the kind of grandparents who appreciate their grandkids?”
    “Lee-Ann left Sarajane with her folks every time she needed a baby sitter,” Esperanza said. “So I’m guessing they’ll give her a good loving home. But mama and daughter had a special relationship, especially after Sarajane’s daddy was killed.”
    That got my attention. “What happened to him?”
    “Afghanistan war,” Toni said. “One of those goddamn roadside bombs.”
    “If some families didn’t have bad luck they wouldn’t have any luck at all,” I said.
    “Tell me about it,” Toni said. “Lee-Ann’s father lost a leg in Vietnam. Stepped on a goddamn mine.”
    “Next you’ll tell me her mother lost an arm in some goddamn accident,” I said. “She didn’t, did she?”
    Toni and Esperanza both shook their heads. “So tell me about Wednesday night,” I said.
    They said the three of them got together about 8:30 and went to a party for the Queen of the Snows candidates in the Hotel St. Paul. They had a couple of drinks, danced a couple of dances with various men and had a good time.
    When that party ended, they moved on to O’Halloran’s Bar, a few blocks away on Wabasha Street, along with a couple of dozen other party-goers. Among them were some men in Vulcan costumes. The three Kates, all in costume, drank, joked and played a little friendly grab-ass with several men, including the Vulcans.
    “Lee-Ann and one of the Vulcans talked for a while at a separate table,” Toni said.