Falafel Jones - The Kewpie Killer Read Online Free PDF

him? Looked at me?” He shook his head in apparent disbelief.
    “He calls you Pops.”
    “Lady, everybody calls me Pops. I just told you to call me Pops. You think we’d get anything done around here with folks calling me Mr. Popslowski every time we speak?”
    “Sorry, do you remember seeing that Farmer the other night – before he died.”
    “No, not that I remember. Weather was nice… we had a good crowd.”
    “Anything unusual happen?”
    “Yeah, a man died.”
    I had that one coming. Ask the wrong question and you get the wrong answer. “That man had a ticket stub from a complimentary ticket. Can you tell me how those are distributed?”
    Pops sighed as if he was losing patience with me. “Lady, we mail a bunch out every season. Didn’t you get one? Isn’t that how you got in that night?”
    “Is there is a list of recipients?”
    “Of course, Leonardo keeps one. How else would we know where to send them?”
    “Sorry, just have one more question.”
    “You apologize a lot. Shoot.”
    “The death last night was the second at the carnival in two years. Do you have anything to say about that?”
    He stood up, put his hand on the trailer doorknob and paused. Then he said, “Yes. No comment,” and went inside.
    I turned to walk away and saw Brenda, the Bearded Lady outside the trailer. She sat at a collapsible picnic table under a nearby canopy. When she caught my eye, she waved me over.
    “I hope you don’t mind me waiting for you to finish with Pops. I want to talk to you… need to tell someone – and you were nice to me the other night.”
    I sat across from her at the table. “Tell me what?”
    “I lied to you.”
    She came this far on her own, so I sat and waited for her to continue.
    “I didn’t leave the grounds to meet a local boy. That Farmer was my Dad. I was out in the field looking for him.”
    “I don’t understand.”
    “I left home at 15. It was just Dad and me. He didn’t approve of… certain decisions I made… or the life I chose. I ran away to be the person I have to be but couldn’t find a place to fit in. Couldn’t go forward and couldn’t go back. Then, I found the carnival. No one here treated me like a freak. They took me in and I became the bearded lady. I found happiness here and could be myself.”
    “So why was your father here? Did he come looking for you?”
    “No. He wanted nothing to do with me. When Leonardo found out my father lived nearby, he said family was very important and suggested reaching out. I refused. Leonardo must have put my father’s name on the comp list and sent him a ticket.”
    Brenda paused to wipe her eyes. “I saw him at the gate and went to talk with him. When he realized it was me, he got mad and walked away. Then I found him drinking and tried to talk to him again. He ran off. I did my show, went to look for him and found him dead. I couldn’t tell anyone who he was or they’d know about me. I’m a different person now and want my privacy, but couldn’t keep this to myself.”
    Brenda lay her face down on the table and covered her head with her hands. Her body shook as she cried. She didn’t seem like she was going to stop anytime soon but I needed to know one more thing.
    I reached across the table and put my hand on her shoulder. “Brenda… Brenda? Did you give your father a Kewpie Doll?”
    The question seemed to have jarred her. She stopped crying and lifted her head from the table to look at me. She wiped her eyes with her hand, smearing her make-up. “No. He would never want a Kewpie Doll. Why?”
    “The police found a farmer Kewpie Doll next to the …him. Do you know where he might have gotten it?”
    Brenda sat up and faced me. “We give out Kewpies as game prizes but if he won a game, he’d have selected something else - like a beer mug. I don’t know why he’d have a doll.”
    “Would he wear a gold tractor on a necklace?”
    “That would be too girly for him. Why? Did you find one?”
    “Brenda,