A Crabby Killer Read Online Free PDF Page B

Claire liked Sarah, but he also knew that she liked justice above all and if she thought Sarah had killed the strange man, she would have no qualms about stating her suspicions to the police, or even trying to prove them herself.
    Dom took another bite of cannoli and chewed thoughtfully. His parakeets, Romeo and Juliet, tittered in the cage next to him.
    “You don’t think Sarah did it, do you?” he asked the birds.
    Romeo tilted his head and looked down at Dom with intelligent black eyes. “ Tweetstigate .”
    “Yes, I am going to investigate.” Dom smiled. He must really be getting lonely. The bird’s strange tweets were starting to sound like words.
    He got up and looked in the drawer for a sprig of millet to clip to the side of the cage. Romeo, recognizing the drawer as the place where the millet treat was stored, paced back and forth on his perch, his green wings flapping. Juliet was more sedate. She never tweeted out words like Romeo did. In fact, she paid little attention to Dom. Right now, she was leaning against the side of the cage with her head tucked underneath her aqua and white wing, ignoring him.
    Dom opened the cage door and clipped the millet spray onto the side. Romeo flew over, attacking the spray with his beak and sending seeds flying around the cage.
    Juliet drew her head out from under her wing. Her shiny, black eyes darted from Dom to the millet spray.
    “Go ahead. It’s for you, too,” he encouraged.
    Juliet stretched her wings and sauntered over to the spray. Dom noticed that Romeo shuffled sideways to make room for her. What a gentleman.
    Dom closed the door, leaving the two birds to eat their treat while he resumed eating his. Romeo flew to the side of the cage, his little pink claws grasping the bars as he hung upside down and looked at Dom quizzically.
    “ Cheeplaire. ”
    “Yes, Claire could be a problem, couldn’t she? But what can I do about it?”
    “ Tweenup. ”
    Dom raised his brows at the bird. “That might not be a bad idea.”
    Claire was a good investigator, but Dom knew she could really throw a wrench into the works and that could be a problem if she suspected Sarah. There was only one way to prevent that. As much as it pained him, Dom was going to have to team up with Claire to investigate the case. He just had to come up with some way to persuade Claire that it was her idea.

6
    C laire looked over the railing at the edge of her garden for the twentieth time that day. Finally, Dom was sitting on the bench that overlooked Long Sands Beach where he usually sat when he wanted to contemplate things. She got in her Fiat and hurried down the hill.
    She pulled in the parking lot casually, as if she had just happened to see him sitting on the bench while she was driving by. The truth was she'd been looking over her railing most of the afternoon, trying to catch him at just the right time to put her plan into action.
    Dom turned at the sound of her approaching footsteps.
    “Oh, hi, Claire. What brings you here?” He gestured for her to sit beside him on the bench and she did. He tipped the pink-striped bag he held in his hand toward her, offering her a pistachio which she declined. Pistachios were not part of her health regimen unless they were raw, which these were not.
    “So, that was some find at the festival, huh?” Claire asked.
    “Indeed, it was.” Dom picked a pistachio out of the bag. “Do you have any idea who that guy was?”
    Claire shook her head. “No idea at all.”
    “What about Robby? Have you talked to him? Does he know who it was?”
    “You know how close-mouthed he can be. He hardly ever gives me any clues anymore.”
    “But we did get one clue at the crime scene,” Dom said.
    “That’s right. The victim was seen down at the dock where the tour boats are.”
    “Yes. I wonder what he’d be doing there?”
    Claire shrugged. “Who knows? Do you think his death had something to do with the boat tours?”
    Dom’s brows tugged together, forming a