Reservations for Murder - Tim Myers [20]
“Nobody does,” Alex agreed. “So, the husband-and- wife potters are next, right?”
Armstrong nodded. “I think I want to tackle them one at a time. Would you do me a favor, Alex? Would you go get one of them, I don’t care which one, and tell them I want to see them? I need to make a phone call while you’re doing that.”
“Sure thing,” Alex said. It would give him a chance to talk with the potters, and perhaps that would even help in his own investigation.
Marilynn Baxter was working on the potter’s wheel, forming the clay gracefully into a bowl right before Alex’s eyes. The spinning motion of the shifting clay was mesmerizing. How did she do it? He watched another minute before approaching Craig Monroe.
Instead of the summons he’d been ordered to give, Alex said, “She’s really good, isn’t she?”
Craig nodded absently. “One of the best I’ve ever seen, including me. I just wish ...”
“What,” Alex prodded.
“Nothing,” Craig said abruptly as he moved back to a drying rack starting to fill up with gray-shaded pieces. There were all kinds of items displayed there, from pitchers to bowls to plates to whimsical little pinched figures, all made of clay.
Craig was just moving a bowl when Alex said, “By the way, the sheriff sent me out to get you.”
“That’s right,” Craig said as he nearly dropped the bowl. “He said he wanted to talk to us.”
“One at a time,” Alex added.
That brought a burnish to Craig’s cheeks. “We talk to him together, or we don’t talk to him at all!”
Alex said, “Hey, don’t take it out on me, I’m just the messenger.”
Craig walked over to Marilynn and said something Alex couldn’t hear. Her hands faltered for a moment, and the delicate structure collapsed.
She tried to make a joke of it as the onlookers gasped. “Earth to earth, and all that,” she said as she peeled the remnants of the clay off the wheel. “That’s all for now, folks. We’re going to take a little break. Don’t forget, everything you see behind me is for sale.”
As Marilynn cleaned her hands in a bucket of water, she said, “I’ll get Shantara to watch the booth while we’re gone. We can’t make any money if we don’t have anybody here selling our wares.”
Craig said, “The sheriff wants us one at a time, and he wants to see us now!”
“He’s just going to have to wait,” Marilynn said calmly. “Shantara! Could you come over here?”
Shantara joined them and readily agreed to take over their sales while they were gone.
As the three of them walked to the inn. Alex said, “I don’t know what the sheriff’s going to say about this. He only asked me to get one of you.”
Craig started to snap a retort when Marilynn put a hand on his shoulder, “He’s in luck. Today’s special is two potters for the price of one.”
Alex said, “Do you mind me asking how well you two knew Jefferson Lee?”
Did Craig flinch at the question? He couldn’t tell for sure; the hot afternoon sun was in his eyes.
Marilynn stepped in and said, “We’ve done a few fairs with him in North Carolina and parts of Tennessee, but we traveled a lot more than he did.”
Craig grunted, “Jefferson liked to stay close to home. For everything.”
The man was definitely on edge. Alex decided it might be a good time to give him a shove. “Did you have any reason to hate him, Craig?”
The man started to speak when Marilynn interrupted coolly, “Who’s running this investigation, Alex, you or the sheriff?”
“The sheriff is, of course. I just couldn’t help wondering about it from the way your husband’s been acting.”
“It’s none of your business then, is it,” Craig said before Marilynn could stop him.
“You’re absolutely right,” Alex agreed, smiling.
They were on the front porch by then, and the couple hurried in ahead of him.
Armstrong didn’t look all that surprised that they’d come together.
“I just need one of you right now. That way the other can go back to your booth,” he said.
Marilynn said, “That won’t be a problem. We have someone watching it for us. Don’t you think it would be more efficient if you talked with both of us at the same time?”
“Ma’am, I