Nerds Who Kill: A Paul Turner Mystery Read Online Free PDF Page B

said.
    “Well, no. Last night she was talking about how happy she was. She had moods like all of us, I suppose, but she was mostly up. She wouldn’t tell joke after joke at a gathering or anything like that, but she was always pleasant. I’d never dream of her committing suicide.”
    Turner asked, “What did she bring for her costume?”
    “She didn’t enter the competition. She was one of the judges. She thought costumes were kind of silly. Why ever do you ask?”
    Turner said, “She was found in a Xena, Warrior Princess outfit.”
    Murkle’s jaw dropped an inch and a half. “Xena? I didn’t even know Muriam had such an interest. Wouldn’t that be a little … young for her? I suppose age doesn’t matter. Although it is odd. I never heard of her having any kind of costume, much less that.”
    “Would she have brought a broadsword with her?” Turner asked.
    “Impossible. She was not into violence. Why do you ask about broadswords? She wasn’t … oh, dear. How awful.”
    The detectives let Ms. Murkle begin to process the information provided by her own insight. Turner figured that most people thought they knew their friends fairly well. Most of the time we run in fairly standard ruts. Details about the entertaining we do for ourselves could quite often be startling to those closest to us.
    After several moments, Fenwick said, “We also found a red feather plume thing near the body. Was there a particular significance to that?”
    She explained what Jeff had already told Turner. Murkle added, “Over time, Muriam got sick of the silly things. She had this huge supply. For years they’ve been selling them in the dealers’ room at all the conventions. She donates the proceeds to her favorite charities.”
    “So they’re readily available,” Turner said.
    “Oh, yes. Her fans loved to see her with them. It was the only thing she’d sigh over. That’s the most negative I ever saw her get, a bemused sigh. One of her series characters was so identified with the feathers that people identified her with them.”
    “Did she have family?” Turner asked.
    “She has two grown children. I believe one lives on the east coast and one lives in France.”
    “Where does she live?” Turner asked.
    “She has several homes. One in the upper peninsula of Michigan, one in New York, and I believe a condo in Palm Springs. And she always spends a month in Colorado in January for a vacation.”
    “Was she married?”
    “Not currently,” Murkle said. “She never spoke about her ex-husband. The divorce was years ago. I don’t think they talked much. The children are far beyond the age for any custody dispute and she certainly didn’t need alimony. She never remarried. She never spoke about dating anyone and I’m sure she would have mentioned to me if she was seeing someone. She never seemed very interested in personal relationships.”
    “Any problems with people here at the convention?” Turner asked. “Did she have any enemies?”
    “Oh, no. She was the most popular person here.”
    Fenwick said, “You hear about jealousies between writers.”
    “She was involved in none of that. And this convention was far more than just writers. We have fans. Thousands and thousands of fans. This convention covers the entire spectrum of fantasy and science fiction. Movies, games, comics, everything. She may have been a big star, but she wasn’t the only star. She was absolutely gracious and charming at the special dinner we gave for all the stars Thursday night. In fact everyone was charming. It was marvelous. The whole convention was a huge success.” She paused. “Until now. What are we to do? Is there something I can do to help?”
    Fenwick said, “We may not be able to talk to everyone who came in contact with her, but we have to try. We’ll get beat cops to begin interviewing fans who stood in line to have books autographed. Could you give us a list of the people who knew her best and perhaps begin to help get them