Aretha Moon and the Dead Hairdresser: Aretha Moon Book 2 (Aretha Moon Mysteries) by Linda Ross (reading books for 7 year olds .TXT) 📗

“Were you selling her drugs?”

He tried to hit me, and I slapped him.  I thought he was going to cry.

“She was a regular.  Now let me go!  I didn’t do nothing.  I tried to sell her some the night before and she didn’t want nothing, so I came by that morning.”

“Whoa,” I said.  “You saw her the night before, the night she was killed?”

“Yeah, I was in the alley out back when she came out to smoke a cigarette.  I asked if she wanted anything, and she said no.  Now get off me.  You weigh a ton!”

I realized the crowd had shifted and was standing around us now.  Momo’s voice cut through the din.  “Aretha, what on earth are you doing brawling with an elf in the street?”

I ignored her and fixed the elf with my most serious stare.  “What time did she come out?”

“Jesus, lady, I don’t know.  It was after eight, I guess.  I went home after that.”

A hand came down on my shoulder, and I looked up to see Leonard in his police uniform.

“Oh, God,” he said.  “Not you.  What are you doing, Aretha?  You’re beating up an elf.”

“He saw Kara behind her salon the night she was killed,” I said.

“Is that true?” Leonard asked the elf.

“Yeah, man, but I didn’t sell her nothing.  She wasn’t buying.”

“All right,” Leonard said.  “Let’s get in the car and sort this out.”

He put us in the back seat of the police car and called the station.  Then he turned and wrinkled his nose.  “Why do you two stink?”

“We rolled in some horse manure,” I said.

“Great.  Just what I wanted in my car.”  Leonard sighed.  “As God is my witness, I don’t know why I get all the weirdos.”

Jimmy showed up a few minutes later with two uniforms, and Leonard turned us over to him.

“You were fighting in the street with an elf?” Jimmy asked in disbelief as he slid into the front seat.

“He’s not just any elf.  I saw him outside the salon the morning I found Kara, and he says he saw her around midnight the night she was killed.  And before you ask, the smell is horse manure.  We rolled in it.”

“I’m not even going to ask,” Jimmy said.  “Aretha, meet Duggie Grupman, one of our purveyors of drugs.  Were you selling Kara a little fentanyl, Duggie?”

“Look, I don’t do that anymore.  I just made an exception for Kara, because she was a good customer.  I just happened to come across a little bit that night and I went around to see if she wanted any.”

“How did you know she’d be there?”

“I saw her pull up earlier.  Then some other broad came, so I waited until she left.  I knocked on the back door then, but no one answered, so I waited.  After a while Kara came walking down the alley from that direction.”  He pointed to the north.  “I asked her if she wanted anything, and she said no.  So I left.”

“What was she doing when you left?” Jimmy asked.

“She was smoking a cigarette in the alley.”

“You didn’t see a man there?”

“No, I didn’t see anybody.”

“Okay,” Jimmy said.  “In the spirit of the season, I don’t think we need to charge anyone.  Duggie, you can leave.”

Duggie practically jumped out of the car.  He looked back long enough to say, “Lady, you’re one sick guppie.”

“Did he say guppie?” I asked Jimmy.

“Sounded like it.”  I could tell that Jimmy was trying not to smile.

Jimmy drove me back to his house so I could shower before the party at The Spyglass.  And he couldn’t stop giving me the business all the way.

“I could still run you in on an assault charge,” he said.  “Bodily harm to an elf.”

“He was a bad elf,” I said for the tenth time.

After I was showered and changed into a clean pair of pants and a beige sweater, Jimmy drove me to the office and let me out.  “I’ll pick you up later,” he said.

“We’ll be going down to the brewery for the party if you want to join us,” I said.

“Maybe later.”

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

The office was buzzing with chatter, but it quieted when I walked in.

I hung up my coat and Carl said, “Is it true you beat the crap out of one of Santa’s elves?”  Then he laughed.

“Never mind, Moon,” Lorenzo said.  “You found the killer, and we’ll have a great story.  You can beat up as many elves as you want.”

“Gee, thanks,” I said.

I made my way to Thelma, and she said, “Who picks a fight with one of Santa’s elves?”

“I didn’t pick a fight.  Well, I guess I sort of did.  But he was there out back around the time Kara was killed.”

“Did he see anything?”

“He says he didn’t, and I guess I believe him.  But if he’s right, then Kara was still alive at midnight.”

Rose had been hovering near us, and now she came up to me, practically glowing.  “I’m just so relieved,” she said.  “It’s just wonderful that Kara will get justice. I never did like that man.”

“Hopefully the police can build a case,” I said.

“Well, I don’t see why not if they have the murder weapon.  It must have been so exciting when you found it.”

“Yeah,” Thelma said dryly.  “Exciting doesn’t begin to describe it.”

Rose smiled and headed back to the table where Lorenzo was about to open the champagne.  As usual, she looked ravishing in gold linen pants with a matching blouse cinched at the waist with her braided belt.  A gold and silver cardigan completed the outfit.  And then there was her perfect hair.  I self-consciously touched my own hair