Death on the Mississippi Read Online Free PDF

it’s damn sadistic,” Bea said.
    Dalton tried to smile. “One of my lesser pranks.”
    Pan stood, glaring down at her husband. “It’s not one of his jokes. They’re trying to get him and he won’t do anything about it.”
    â€œListen, space bunny,” Dalton said as he reached up and grasped her hand and pulled her back to the deck next to him. “They’re only trying to scare us.”
    She buried her head in his shoulder. “Well, they’re succeeding.”
    â€œAre you going to radio the Coast Guard and State Police?” Lyon asked.
    Dalton shook his head. “No way. Questions like that I don’t need.”
    Lyon stood in the pilot house with Bobby Douglas as the mate expertly navigated the cumbersome craft around several small rock islands. He handed Lyon a pair of binoculars. “Off the bow at two o’clock is where the resort property begins.”
    â€œThanks.” Lyon adjusted the field on the glasses and swept the shoreline until he focused on a man and woman walking down a broad expanse of lawn to the pier. In the background was a large main building, surrounded by a phalanx of cottages, outbuildings, tennis courts, gardens, and a huge swimming pool. Workmen occupied scaffoldings or operated construction equipment as the task of refurbishing continued. “Who’s that?” Lyon gestured toward the two people who now waited expectantly at the edge of the dock.
    Douglas throttled back on the engines and began to work the craft toward the pier. “The big guy is Sam Idelweise, the construction foreman. He’s the only one around here that does any real work. The Amazon in the bikini is …”
    â€œI’ve met Miss Loops,” Lyon said and wished that she hadn’t chosen a string bathing suit as greeting attire.
    As the houseboat pulled parallel to the pier, but before Dalton had a chance to secure the bow line, Sam Idelweise jumped aboard and began an earnest dialogue with him.
    â€œJesus Christ! You’d think Sam could hold his problems until we docked this scow,” Douglas said as he killed the engines and limped forward to complete the docking.
    â€œHi there,” Katrina said to Lyon. She reached for his hand as he took the long step to the dock. Bea smiled tightly and climbed ashore unaided.
    Dalton shook his head in an obvious end to his conversation with Idelweise and gestured to Lyon to join them. “Wentworths, meet Sam Idelweise. He looks like a drunken longshoreman, but he’s actually our construction foreman. Can’t build a damn thing, but he can smell a union organizer a mile away.”
    The large man wearing muddy work boots and dusty pants waved at them.
    â€œKat,” Dalton continued. “Take the Wentworths off and do your thing.”
    Katrina gestured toward a small cottage at the water’s edge. “The bedroom’s finished in that one,” she said as she took Lyon’s hand and led him across the grassy slope toward the building.
    â€œAm I supposed to watch?” Bea asked with an edge to her voice.
    â€œI’d love to have you participate,” Katrina said with a laugh. “You might learn something from my technique.”
    â€œI truly doubt that there is anything new in that area,” Bea said.
    Katrina turned from Lyon to look back at Bea. “My God! I just realized what you’re thinking. It never occurred to me that you’d believe Dalton.”
    â€œIt seemed in character.”
    â€œSenator Wentworth, I’m the sales manager for the Pincus Resort. Dalton thought it would be fun if you heard our sales pitch. When it comes to sex, why, sometimes I don’t even put out on the first date.” She hurried ahead of them toward the cottage.
    â€œPity,” Lyon said.
    Bea glared.
    Katrina Loops seemed able to slip into her marketing persona with ease. She took Dalton’s command literally and subjected them to the