Pickled (An Alex Harris Mystery) Read Online Free PDF Page A

That’s all it was, trust me, playing around. That pickle they found in his mouth had more get up and go than old Humph, but like I told you, he liked to think he was pulling one over on the men in this town and on the pickleball league and the truth was all he could do was play grabby ass, but if it got Sid’s contract back, so what?”
    “But it didn’t get the contract back, did it. Did you talk to him again after I broke up the fight?”
    “We planned to meet about an hour later. Sid always goes right to bed after a party. He gets a few beers in him and can’t stay awake. And that cherry dessert was pretty powerful. I told Humph to give me an hour and we’d meet at our usual place.”
    “Your usual place?” I couldn’t understand why this beautiful woman, who had to be twenty years Humphrey’s junior, would let a letch of a man paw all over her just to get a contract back. Surely she didn’t have feelings for him.
    “We liked to meet down at the beach, after dark. Whenever I needed something or, more likely, whenever Sid’s business needed something, such as another piece of land for expansion, I’d meet up with Humph. Let’s just say it was the price to pay for doing business in this town.” Marie gave a disgusted snort. “So, as soon as Sid and I got home last night, I put him to bed, waited a bit and drove down there. I waited for about forty minutes and when Humph didn’t show up I left. It was freezing. I figured Humph couldn’t get away from Sophie so I just went home and got right into bed.”
    “Did your husband know what you did in order to help his business?”
    “No. Absolutely not. If he did, he’d kill—forget I said that.” Marie Dupre placed a well-manicured hand on my arm. “Sid is clueless. I’m sure he didn’t know anything.”
    “And now with Mr. Bryson dead, what will happen to the contract?”
    “The entire town was in an uproar about Humph sending business to another state. With him dead, Sid can count on having his snow plow business back.”
    And Marie didn’t have to play with Humphrey Bryson anymore. How very convenient.

 
     
     
Chapter 8
     
     
    The pile of suspects was growing. So far I talked with three people and all three were now placed firmly on my list of most likely candidates for Humphrey Bryson’s murder. First, I had his wife. A fragile looking woman to be sure, but one who knew her husband better than most and certainly had to have had a clue as to the way he conducted his business. Next was Sid Dupre. The man had warned Humphrey over and over about coming on to his wife and Sid had said himself that Humphrey had gone too far. Plus, I had to wonder, was Sid Dupre as clueless as his wife claimed about what she and Humphrey Bryson were doing? I actually had another good reason for Sid to want Humphrey dead. Sid owned a successful business and seemed to live a good life. Losing a big contract had to hurt both his pride as well as his pocketbook. And then there was Marie, a beautiful woman who had been playing games with Humphrey far too long. Maybe she got tired of sitting in a dark car with the man while he got his jollies.
    I made my way back to Indian Cove along the same route I had traveled earlier. The snow had finally let up and it was a quick drive. It had been quite a while since breakfast so I made my way over to my parents’ house where I knew something good would be waiting. It was Sunday, after all, and my mother always made a big Sunday lunch even if it was just for her and my dad and Riley, their adorable Welsh terrier.
    My parents lived in the same house where my sister Sam and I had grown up and as I pulled into the driveway I saw that my sister must have had the same idea as me because her SUV was parked out front.
    “Alex, what are you doing here?” Sam asked as I walked into the kitchen. “I thought you’d be out detecting.”
    The words were out of her mouth before she could pull them back and my mother looked up from her