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

was capable of killing—under the right circumstances.
    “Including me,” Fred said with pride. “Not that I killed him, so don’t go getting any ideas, but the man cheated. He liked to poach and he was always getting called out for foot faults.”
    “Are we talking pickleball stuff?” I asked? I knew next to nothing about the game.
    “Fred’s right,” Walter interjected. “Humphrey liked to come over to your side of the court and poach the ball and he was a mean son of a gun. He liked to poach your women, too.”
    This was news to me. I had no idea that Walter, aka Mr. January, had a woman.
    “Are you dating someone, Walter?” I asked with a smile and a little poke in his arm.
    “I am now. Her name is Martha Mederios. She’s a recent widow and Humphrey told her to keep away from me because I wore those diapers for adults and had a few accidents on the court.” Walter’s coloring became crimson. “That’s an out and out lie. I had a bladder infection for one week. One week, and the man used it to ridicule me. Martha’s a nice lady and she saw through him, but he just liked to stir things up and embarrass people. It’s not right.”
    “What about you, Howard? Any run-ins with Humphrey Bryson?”
    Howard Wronkovich was a stern man. I don’t think I had ever seen him smile. He was the newest resident to the community and always wore a starched shirt under a sweater vest. Never married, he lived with his parents until they died. Howard was a good-looking man and I could see him being a threat with the ladies in Humphrey’s eyes—especially since his star turn as Mr. June.
    “If I had any run-ins with the man, I would prefer to keep them to myself,” Howard said primly.
    “Tell Alex what you know, Howard. It might help her catch a killer,” Fred urged his friend, but Howard was having none of it.
    I decided to let it go. Maybe I could catch Howard alone at some point and see if I could prod whatever information he had out of the man.
    “This is all very helpful, but did any of you ever notice Mr. Bryson having an argument with anyone? Or doing something that would, well, would get him killed?”
    “Everything he did would get him killed, including jingling those damned coins in his pocket all the time, and he argued with everyone about everything.” Fred scratched his head and then looked up at me. “He really liked that Marie Dupre and boy, did that get her husband’s dander up. She’s a looker all right, but a new couple joined the pickleball league a couple months back and he took a real liking to the wife. What the heck is her name?”
    “Phyllis. Phyllis and Lester Holt,” Howard said a bit too quickly. I wondered if Howard also had an eye for Phyllis.
    “Right, right,” Walter said. “She’s the one with the wild red hair. Yeah, she’s a real looker, too.”
    I glanced at Howard and saw him turn pink. It seemed there just might be something out there that got Howard all riled up after all. I was going to have to meet this Phyllis and Lester Holt.
    “Anything else?” I asked looking at the three men.
    “He was on the town council over there in Pirates Cove and if you got on his wrong side, come winter you’d find all the snow from the street pushed right in front of your driveway leaving you stuck.” Fred shook his head in disgust.
    “And in summer,” Walter added, “your street wouldn’t get sprayed for mosquitoes and you know what a pain that is. Like I said, he was a mean bastard. Sorry, Alex.”
    “No offense taken,” I smiled.
    “I’ll tell you another thing,” Fred said, “that new guy, Lester, the two of them got into it over some crap Humphrey pulled on the court a few weeks back and Lester told him to knock it off and to watch out cuz he, Lester, planned to run for town council and Humphrey would be off the board. Humphrey just glared at him and said, bring it on. Next thing you know, Lester’s house is packed in with snow and he missed an important match with