September Fair Read Online Free PDF

Ashley was ungrateful and uppity. “Entitled,” he had called her. I had never met Ashley in person—I’d planned to interview her immediately after the butter carving—but had on occasion ran into her parents when stopping by the Recall office. They were pleasant people whose life, by all accounts, rotated entirely around their only child. “They’re going to be devastated.”
    “That’s an understatement. So how’d she die?”
    “I don’t know. It started out everything was fine. Ashley was waving at the crowd, smiling like royalty, she stepped up in the booth, and the sculptor followed her. Everyone was snapping pictures, me included.” I indicated the camera still dangling at my neck.
    “They’re in there for not more than five minutes, the sculptor carving and Ashley posing, and the lights in the whole building go out. Actually,” I said, realizing something that had eluded me, “all the power went out. I know because the ice cream machines stopped whirring, too. When the power came back on, Ashley was dead in the booth. And her skin was the brightest red I’ve ever seen. It was gross.”
    “Probably the goat people offed her. They’re always conniving for their piece of the dairy market. You said this happened just this morning?”
    “Yeah.”
    “Well, let’s see ’em.”
    “What?”
    “The pictures. You said you were snapping them right before she died. You probably captured her last breath.”
    My stomach turned. The camera suddenly felt heavy around my neck, like a yoke. I took it off and handed it to her, and as she turned it on, I remembered the feeling that I had watching Ashley through my viewfinder just before the lights went out. “You know, I noticed something odd about Ashley just before the building lost power.”
    “Probably her guardian angel leaving her. No reason to stay if the girl’s about to die.”
    “No, that’s not it. Go to the last picture.” I leaned over Mrs. Berns’ shoulder as she scrolled through the photos. The thumbnails displayed the image of a lean young blonde in perfect health, a crown glittering on her thick hair. “That one.”
    Mrs. Berns selected the last photo in the lineup and enlarged it as much as the small camera screen would allow. “It’s of the back of her head.”
    “I know.”
    “What could possibly be odd about the back of someone’s head?”
    I shook my head, frustrated. “I’m not sure. I didn’t quite have it when I took the shot. It was more of a sensation than a formed thought, and then the building went dark and I lost it in the commotion. Maybe if I upload the photo to my computer and enlarge it.”
    “Maybe, but it’ll have to wait. We need to go.”
    “Where?”
    “To the scene of the crime, Mira! You’ve gotta cover it for the paper. People’ll be dying to know what happened.” She laughed dryly at her word choice. “So turn that frown upside down, and let’s hit it.”
    “No.”
    “You can’t just sit here and mope. If there’s as many people around as you said, no one can pin this one on you. She probably just choked on some flying butter, and you’ll feel better once you find out it was some freak accident.”
    It would be nice to know she wasn’t murdered, which I was ashamed to say was my first thought. “You know I swore no more murder investigations the same time I gave up drinking,” I said, starting to cave.
    “We’re not investigating. You’ll be doing the job you were sent to the fair to do: write articles about Battle Lake.”
    “I don’t know …”
    “I saw some deep fried Nut Goodies on a stick on my way over here,” she coaxed.
    I sat up straight. “You didn’t.”
    “I did. Let’s go. I’ll buy you one.”
    I sighed. I hated being cheap, but not enough to do anything about it. “Fine. But you’re going to tell me all about this redecorating Jed’s done at my house. And we’re not doing any investigating.”
    “I’m sure we won’t need to.”
    And with those optimistic