Read Online April Fool Dead by Carolyn Hart - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Carolyn Hart
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was happening on the island? All right, no matter what effort it required, she wasnât going to give up her search for the person responsible. It was true that sheâd hoped to find out the identity of the trickster to save herself from a difficult moment with Emma. Yes, that mattered. Every time she thought about Emmaâs Rollsâ¦And it mattered that her store, her wonderful mystery bookstore, was unfairly embroiled in what was sure to become an island-wide scandal. But there was much more at stake here. Annie stared at the broken glass, sparkling in the late-March sunshine, and wondered what other violence would be spawned by the flyers.
Leaning her stack of posters against the fender, she unlocked the car. She spotted a box of Kleenex on the backseat, grabbed several sheets. Carefully, she picked up the wrapped brick, deposited it gently on the floor of the passenger side. Fingerprints were unlikely. But she would take care not to destroy possible evidence. She yanked out more tissues, used them to wrap the larger pieces of glass. There was a stack of her own WHODUNIT flyers on the passenger seat. She spread out a couple of the flyers on the floor mat and used a handful of tissues to brush the smaller pieces of glass and thehard-to-see splinters onto the floor. As for the jagged remnants in the window, sheâd deal with those when she was home and had access to gardening gloves.
She gave a final sweep to the leather seat, tossed the posters, a roll of tape, and a file folder onto the passenger seat, and settled behind the wheel. But she made no move to turn the key in the ignition. Instead, she stared at the folder. Should she start at this end of the islandâEmmaâs house had a superb ocean view, thanks to Marigoldâor follow the noxious clues in the fake flyer, or opt for Frank Saulterâs familiar face?
Undecided, Annie picked up the folder, flipped it open. It was amazing how much information Barb had garnered while she and Max were at the cemetery. Barb, in her organized fashion, had divided her report into five parts. Annie reread Barbâs introduction and her notes:
Background Material
in re Bogus Flyers
Flyers (hereinafter designated F1) patterned after the Death on Demand Whodunit contest have been found throughout the island, including the shops on the boardwalk by the harbor, the local schools, the library, Parottiâs Bar and Grill, the hospital, the country club, the largest churches as well as the business district near the ferry dock, including The Island Gazette and the police station.
Scrawled in the margin in Barbâs flamboyant writing: âPete Garrett is furious. He took the flyers at the police station as a personal affront.â
Annie murmured, âYou and me, Pete.â She almost skipped past a description of the cemetery gathering, but one sentence caught her eye:
â¦the second flyer (hereinafter designated F2) has been found only at the cemetery. F2 flyers were bundled next to the grave of Robert Tower.
Only at the cemetery. Annie frowned. She rustled through the folder, found flyers F1 and F2, held them side by side. Odd. It was Clue 1 in F1 that led the curious to the cemetery. There were, however, four more clues in F1. Shouldnât the F2 flyers have been available at all those places as well?
She shook her head impatiently. Dammit, she kept treating the exercise as if it were truly a contest. But the fact that the F2 flyer was found only at the cemetery was surely the clincher that the entire contest was a sham. The point of the fake flyers wasnât to lead people to the secrets or possibly even to crimes hidden in the lives of those targeted. The point wasâ¦What was the point? Malicious mischief? Or a passion for justice, no matter the cost?
Justice.
Annie turned the key, drove slowly toward the end of the alley. Through the broken window, she heard the crunch of the tires on the oyster-shell road. Okay, maybe somebody
Leaning her stack of posters against the fender, she unlocked the car. She spotted a box of Kleenex on the backseat, grabbed several sheets. Carefully, she picked up the wrapped brick, deposited it gently on the floor of the passenger side. Fingerprints were unlikely. But she would take care not to destroy possible evidence. She yanked out more tissues, used them to wrap the larger pieces of glass. There was a stack of her own WHODUNIT flyers on the passenger seat. She spread out a couple of the flyers on the floor mat and used a handful of tissues to brush the smaller pieces of glass and thehard-to-see splinters onto the floor. As for the jagged remnants in the window, sheâd deal with those when she was home and had access to gardening gloves.
She gave a final sweep to the leather seat, tossed the posters, a roll of tape, and a file folder onto the passenger seat, and settled behind the wheel. But she made no move to turn the key in the ignition. Instead, she stared at the folder. Should she start at this end of the islandâEmmaâs house had a superb ocean view, thanks to Marigoldâor follow the noxious clues in the fake flyer, or opt for Frank Saulterâs familiar face?
Undecided, Annie picked up the folder, flipped it open. It was amazing how much information Barb had garnered while she and Max were at the cemetery. Barb, in her organized fashion, had divided her report into five parts. Annie reread Barbâs introduction and her notes:
Background Material
in re Bogus Flyers
Flyers (hereinafter designated F1) patterned after the Death on Demand Whodunit contest have been found throughout the island, including the shops on the boardwalk by the harbor, the local schools, the library, Parottiâs Bar and Grill, the hospital, the country club, the largest churches as well as the business district near the ferry dock, including The Island Gazette and the police station.
Scrawled in the margin in Barbâs flamboyant writing: âPete Garrett is furious. He took the flyers at the police station as a personal affront.â
Annie murmured, âYou and me, Pete.â She almost skipped past a description of the cemetery gathering, but one sentence caught her eye:
â¦the second flyer (hereinafter designated F2) has been found only at the cemetery. F2 flyers were bundled next to the grave of Robert Tower.
Only at the cemetery. Annie frowned. She rustled through the folder, found flyers F1 and F2, held them side by side. Odd. It was Clue 1 in F1 that led the curious to the cemetery. There were, however, four more clues in F1. Shouldnât the F2 flyers have been available at all those places as well?
She shook her head impatiently. Dammit, she kept treating the exercise as if it were truly a contest. But the fact that the F2 flyer was found only at the cemetery was surely the clincher that the entire contest was a sham. The point of the fake flyers wasnât to lead people to the secrets or possibly even to crimes hidden in the lives of those targeted. The point wasâ¦What was the point? Malicious mischief? Or a passion for justice, no matter the cost?
Justice.
Annie turned the key, drove slowly toward the end of the alley. Through the broken window, she heard the crunch of the tires on the oyster-shell road. Okay, maybe somebody
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