Read Online It Takes Two to Strangle by Stephen Kaminski - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Stephen Kaminski
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printed out the two stories on the accident and hunted through a range of small papers looking for references to Tabby or Lirim. No other stories referenced Tabby, but Damon found an editorial in a small local paper that Lirim had written a year prior to his wife’s death.
It was a sharp-tongued dismissal of an article pertaining to the storage of utility vehicles on personal property. From Lirim’s response, Damon gathered that the original commentary focused on the diminishment of property value and general eyesore caused by homeowners parking commercial vehicles in their yards. Lirim admitted that he was such a homeowner and avowed that he should be entitled to do “whatever the [blank] I want” with the land he owned.
He provided his own story as an example of “the stupidity” of the author’s argument. Lirim unabashedly stated that he owned a carnival business. During the winter months, he parked his trailers and equipment in an empty lot he rented at an abandoned airfield. But those same winter months provided his only opportunity for heavy repairs and maintenance. He had a “well-kept work shed with an oversized garage door” next to his home in Cheat Lake, but the larger vehicles and rides didn’t fit inside. They were housed in his yard while he worked on them.
Damon visualized a run-down house and trim shed surrounded by an assemblage of hulking metal skeletons strewn over the snow-covered grass ostensibly under the repair of a bleary-eyed Lirim Jovanovic.
On Damon’s way home, Gerry returned his call. Damon filled him in on the details of his breakfast with Toma.
“We’re the ones who asked him to come down to Arlington,” Gerry said. “Margaret is interviewing him in an hour.”
Damon asked him about the cut clothesline. Gerry said he hadn’t learned of it until after their pasta dinner the previous evening. But Mrs. Chenworth’s information wasn’t wholly accurate.
The police confiscated a nylon clothesline, but it had been neatly wound inside a storage box attached to the outside of a trailer, where the carnival laundress normally kept it. Everyone who worked at the carnival or was familiar with its operations probably knew she kept it there. When the police interviewed her on the day of the murder, she hadn’t thought about the clothesline. But after the rain slowed, and the police were gearing up to search the grounds in detail, it came to her mind. The police hadn’t specifically told anyone that Lirim was strangled, but word passed around the carnival staff just as it had gone around the Hollydale community. The owner of the clothesline checked the storage box to see if it was still there. It was, but felt lighter. She estimated that about three feet in length had been cut.
Gerry verified that the cut was clean and likely the result of a controlled tool such as wire cutters or heavy duty kitchen scissors, rather than something crude like a knife which would have frayed the end.
Damon wondered whether he could rule out any of his internal suspects based on the fact that the clothesline had been inside of a storage box where an outsider may not have known about it. Possibly Jordan Hall. Maybe Clara, but maybe not.
Damon recounted to Gerry his library research and Gerry seemed interested. “Thanks a lot, Damon. You’re really helping me out here.” Damon felt like he was helping, but wasn’t sure whether his “assistance” was more of a blessing or a burden to Gerry, who may have been too considerate to ask Damon to stop pestering him.
Chapter 7
When Damon arrived at the picnic facility to set up for the Fourth of July party, a small congregation of volunteers was already staking down a blue-and-white striped canopy over a large flat area. The volunteer work crew would push together folding tables under the canopy to form a large surface for pot-luck picnic food. Grills would be wheeled into place a short distance away. Damon had secured confirmation of three
It was a sharp-tongued dismissal of an article pertaining to the storage of utility vehicles on personal property. From Lirim’s response, Damon gathered that the original commentary focused on the diminishment of property value and general eyesore caused by homeowners parking commercial vehicles in their yards. Lirim admitted that he was such a homeowner and avowed that he should be entitled to do “whatever the [blank] I want” with the land he owned.
He provided his own story as an example of “the stupidity” of the author’s argument. Lirim unabashedly stated that he owned a carnival business. During the winter months, he parked his trailers and equipment in an empty lot he rented at an abandoned airfield. But those same winter months provided his only opportunity for heavy repairs and maintenance. He had a “well-kept work shed with an oversized garage door” next to his home in Cheat Lake, but the larger vehicles and rides didn’t fit inside. They were housed in his yard while he worked on them.
Damon visualized a run-down house and trim shed surrounded by an assemblage of hulking metal skeletons strewn over the snow-covered grass ostensibly under the repair of a bleary-eyed Lirim Jovanovic.
On Damon’s way home, Gerry returned his call. Damon filled him in on the details of his breakfast with Toma.
“We’re the ones who asked him to come down to Arlington,” Gerry said. “Margaret is interviewing him in an hour.”
Damon asked him about the cut clothesline. Gerry said he hadn’t learned of it until after their pasta dinner the previous evening. But Mrs. Chenworth’s information wasn’t wholly accurate.
The police confiscated a nylon clothesline, but it had been neatly wound inside a storage box attached to the outside of a trailer, where the carnival laundress normally kept it. Everyone who worked at the carnival or was familiar with its operations probably knew she kept it there. When the police interviewed her on the day of the murder, she hadn’t thought about the clothesline. But after the rain slowed, and the police were gearing up to search the grounds in detail, it came to her mind. The police hadn’t specifically told anyone that Lirim was strangled, but word passed around the carnival staff just as it had gone around the Hollydale community. The owner of the clothesline checked the storage box to see if it was still there. It was, but felt lighter. She estimated that about three feet in length had been cut.
Gerry verified that the cut was clean and likely the result of a controlled tool such as wire cutters or heavy duty kitchen scissors, rather than something crude like a knife which would have frayed the end.
Damon wondered whether he could rule out any of his internal suspects based on the fact that the clothesline had been inside of a storage box where an outsider may not have known about it. Possibly Jordan Hall. Maybe Clara, but maybe not.
Damon recounted to Gerry his library research and Gerry seemed interested. “Thanks a lot, Damon. You’re really helping me out here.” Damon felt like he was helping, but wasn’t sure whether his “assistance” was more of a blessing or a burden to Gerry, who may have been too considerate to ask Damon to stop pestering him.
Chapter 7
When Damon arrived at the picnic facility to set up for the Fourth of July party, a small congregation of volunteers was already staking down a blue-and-white striped canopy over a large flat area. The volunteer work crew would push together folding tables under the canopy to form a large surface for pot-luck picnic food. Grills would be wheeled into place a short distance away. Damon had secured confirmation of three
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