Read Online Clowns and Cowboys (A Miranda and Parker Mystery Book 3) by Linsey Lanier - Free Book Online

were cops. “We’re private investigators,” Miranda told her. “A member of your staff hired us.”
    The woman rubbed her arm. “Oh? Who?”
    “Mama, I’m hungry.” The smaller boy pounded his little fits on the table. He couldn’t have been older than four and his brother beside him three. Both had their mother’s curly brown hair.
    “In a minute, Grigori,” she told him.
    He poked his lip out in a pout while the woman busied herself setting out plastic plates and utensils.
    Miranda used the distraction to dodge the question. “We’d just like to talk to you a few moments about the deceased.”
    She laid a plastic fork next to the younger boy’s blue plate. He picked up the plate and started to lick it.
    “No, Vasya. Put it down.” She glanced at Miranda. “I’m not sure what I can tell you.”
    “Did you work closely with him?”
    “Me? Well, we weren’t in the same act, if that’s what you mean. I assist my husband. He’s the human cannonball.”
    A real human cannonball? “That’s impressive.”
    Keeping her gaze down she half smiled. “We were all in a few dance numbers together, but most of the cast is in those.”
    Miranda blew out a breath of frustration and nodded to Parker. Maybe he could loosen this woman’s tongue. She was female, after all.
    Parker shot her one of his to-die-for smiles. “How well did you know Tupper Magnuson, Mrs....?”
    “Varga. Dashia Varga.” She was unmoved by Parker’s charm or maybe just too busy. Without looking up or offering a hand she laid out napkins for her sons. One blew away and the smaller boy ran after it.
    She sighed aloud and folded her arms. She didn’t run after him but kept a watchful eye on the boy to make sure he didn’t stray too far. “I knew him pretty well, I guess. As well as I know most of the other performers. We’re all family here.”
    “What was he like?” Miranda asked.
    She turned back to face them. “Tupper? Oh, he was a joker. A funny man. He was a clown, you see.”
    “So we understand,” Parker said in a practiced tone that made you want to say more.
    Mrs. Varga pushed her hair back again and smiled wistfully. “Most clowns, you know. They’re only entertaining in the ring. Tupper, he was on all the time.”
    “You mean he was a phony?” Miranda said.
    “Oh, no. He was very genuine. He cared about everybody. That was real. I just meant he could always make you laugh, no matter how down you might be.”
    Miranda pursed her lips at Parker. She could tell he was thinking the same thing she was. Didn’t sound like the type of guy to commit suicide.
    Just then the flap on the RV door pulled back and a man appeared with a plate of hotdogs. He was tall, thick-necked and muscle-bound, and dressed in a black leotard like his wife. He might be the human cannonball but he could have doubled as the strongman.
    Not the type you’d want to meet in a dark alley.
    At the sight of the dogs, the older kid jumped from his seat and started hopping up and down. “Oh, boy! Oh, boy!”
    “Quiet down now. Grigori, put that in the trash,” the man said to the younger one who was waving the runaway napkin he’d fetched off the ground. The man set the dogs down on the picnic table and frowned at Miranda and Parker. “You didn’t tell me we had guests, Dashia.” He also had an accent.
    “These are private investigators, Yuri,” his wife told him. “They’re here about Tupper.”
    There was a look of shock on his face, then his expression turned dark. “I hope you can find out what really happened to him.”
    Miranda eyed his face trying not to stare. He was bald, with thick black brows. He couldn’t have been more than mid-twenties but a long scar ran from one side of his head, down his forehead and across his nose, which was wide and flat. Another scar ran down the side of his neck. Miranda knew scars. She had a couple of her own that would never go away and so did Parker. The cannonball’s looked particularly