2 Landscape in Scarlet (9 page)

Whether the last
push
had been
pure
malice, or
merely
some effort to hide the body, she did not know.
Either way, someone had stood there and calmly watched a man die.
That meant deep hate and anger. Surely anyone who hated that much would be easy to find.

She paused after the food tents were inked in, trying to recall what had changed since yesterday. It was the cat rescue tent. It was gone, probably to the flea market where they were most Sundays. Juliet decided that she wouldn’t worry about their being gone from the scene. It was doubtful that any of the dedicated seniors
who were manning the booth, mossy pillars of society that they were, could be in any way involved with Comstock’s death and from their location, they wouldn’t have been able to see anything important.

“What are you drawing?” Rose asked, licking the last of the icing off her lips.
Rose didn’t often indulge in sweets since she tended to think of them as being the unnatural fruits of unclean living
, but the pumpkin cupcakes were especially good
and woman cannot live by carrot sticks alone
.

“Just a sketch of the booths,” Juliet answered, but didn’t offer to show it to her friend since the drawing was clearly not about art.
And Rose wouldn’t ask again since she expected artists to be sensitive
about work in progress
.
She added
,
“I should draw the giant pumpkins too. I like how they droop.”

A glance at the
finished
map confirmed that she
—
or Garret
—
needed to speak to Darby
and Harrison, if he was there all day
helping his girlfriend
,
and
the potter,
Samuel Levy.
Even with the strolling musicians
, crowds admiring large pumpkins
,
and zombie jugglers sometimes blocking the view, a
ny
of them could have seen Comstock when he staggered toward the bathrooms and might have noticed if he was followed
—
and by whom.

Less likely to have seen anything was Carrie Simmons, but Juliet supposed she would have to be questioned eventually.

“Oh no. The news people are back,” Rose murmured. “I wouldn’t mind so much but they scare the tourists and they never buy anything,” she said, echoing the conversation
Juliet had had with Raphael
the night before.

“Poor Garret. He doesn’t like them either.
They just get in his way.
”

“There goes Lulu. She hates the press
. She’ll probably hide
in the bathroom
until they are gone
,” Rose said
,
looking down to the end of the row where Lulu Weston was indeed walking away with a briskness she hadn’t previously shown. “I do hope her assistant is reliable.”

“What is his name?” Juliet asked
, glancing at the tattooed teen. Something about him reminded her of someone else
though her brain refused to place him
.

“Vinnie, I think. He seems like a nice boy. I’m sure he can handle things
at the booth
, or she wouldn’t have hired him.”

“Hm,” Juliet said, unable to tell if he was a nice boy or not, and truthfully not really caring about his personality, except as a potential witness to Lulu Weston’s activities the day before. “I’ll have to visit him later, if we get a break.”

“It is nice to have some young people around.”

Juliet nodded, though she found
“
young people
”
to be rather baffling.

Garret managed to stop by briefly. While Rose was busy with a customer, Juliet was able to show her drawing to the sheriff and
he
could see at once who would have had the best line of sight
on the route Comstock likely took before he died
. There was more than one way to get back to the bathrooms
behind the stable
s
even with all the tents in place, but anyone as sick as Comstock forcing their way through the crowded petting zoo or
forging a path
behind the food booths with their constantly manned barbecues would have been noticed. It was barely possible that someone could have worked their way through the maze and shoved some straw bales aside when they reached the far end, but it was most unlikely since it was always full of children and protective parents
who would have noticed a very sick man
staggering around and
probably
throwing up
. It made far more sense
for Comstock
to take the passage between the zoo and Madame Mimm’s
enclosed
tent.

Or to cut through Xander Lawson’s booth. But even in extremis
—
especially in extremis
—
would Comstock
have risked going near his enemies
?

“Well, I know where to begin my interviews,” he said softly, smiling for the benefit of the tourists
and news crew who wandered by, not recogn
izing the sheriff out of uniform
.
“Especially since the tarot reader isn’t here yet.”

“I thought I might wander down and talk to Darby and Carrie
when the crowds let up
. Harrison has been
at the booth
a lot too.
I just hoped they weren’t turned around the whole time watching the punkin chunkin.
If they were facing the square we might get lucky.
”

Garret gave her a more genuine smile since he didn’t much care for being cornered by the man-eater
and was just as happy to let Juliet feel
out
Carrie Simmons
.
Juliet found that Carrie’s conversation and opinions were almost always predictable and boring, rather like slopping another coat of beige paint on already cream
-
colored walls. Still
,
this was about murder. No rocks
—
not even the ones in her head
—
should remain unturned.

“I’ll start with Levy. His booth doesn’
t look all that busy,
”
Garret said.

“It wasn’t yesterday either.
Hopefully he can tell us something.
”

Fortunately, the news vans wanted to film reports at the location of the murder, so they had no reason to be near Juliet’s booth
though they tended to dog Garret’s footsteps
. Rather shockingly she sold out of stock just before one o’clock and decided that it was time to go visit Darby
since no one from the fourth estate was currently hanging about
.

The former veterinarian was having a slow day. Her smaller sculptures had been snapped up the day before and her few remaining pieces would probably not be purchased until the last moment when people had to make a decision about whether
they
liked something well enough to make it fit in their car.

“Harrison, you’re almost out of CDs,” Juliet said. “Congratulations.”

“Your idea about recording some spooky music was a good one. I also sold some of
the
other concert collections. It’s pretty neat since most people are into mp3 players these days.”

“Hello, Juliet,” Darby said, taking a seat. Her slightly clubbed feet were hardly noticeable, but they pained her when she stood for too long. “I saw you at the bakery this morning.
Are you mainlining pastry now?
”

“Pumpkin cupcakes,” Juliet explained. “They’ll be my ruin.”

“I guess you want to ask
us
about what we saw yesterday,” Darby said.

“Did you see anything?”

“Well, the balloon man sure looked drunk. If I had thought it was anything else I would have gone to help him.”
She looked guilty. Juliet understood.

“I know. Me too.”

“He must have been confused. If he felt sick, why didn’t he go to the first aid station?
They would have gotten him help.
”

“I have no idea.” Unless past experience had made Comstock wary of appealing to the police for
aid
.

“It was murder?” Harrison asked, his voice low.
“No one has said but
.
…”

“Yes. Poison. In his inhaler. He had asthma.”

“Was it something slow acting?” Darby asked with a frown. “Because I saw him use it a couple times in the morning and he seemed fine.”

“Taxine,” Juliet said. Darby
,
being a vet
,
would know about what the drug could do. “
A home
brew apparently done with crude apparatus.”

Probably she shouldn’t discuss the case, but there was no way that Darby
or Harrison
had had anything to do with Comstock’s death.

“It would act quickly being inhaled like that.
Faster than if it was ingested.
”

“Yes, we think
—
well,
I think
and
will
bet
you anything
the autopsy report will confirm
—
he must have taken a dose sometime during the punkin chunkin.
And that means that between twelve and two, someone
he either didn’t see or whom he trusted
tampered with or replaced the inhaler.
”

“We were watching the competition,” Darby confessed
and Harrison nodded
. “Business was slow since almost everyone was at the chunkin.
It was only because I wanted some water that I turned around and saw
Comstock
stumbling by.
”

“Was anyone following him?” Juliet asked.

“The killer
, you mean
?” Darby looked disturbed. “I
—
I don’t know. When I say everyone was at the chunkin, I don’t mean absolutely everyone. There were still a lot of people milling around.
”

“Let’s narrow it down some. Did you see Xander Lawson, Lulu Weston
,
or Madame Mimm follow him?”

“N-no. Though Madame Mimm was standing outside her tent
when he went by
. She was sure to have seen him. In fact, I think she may have said something to him.”

Juliet recalled that he had actually entered
Madame Mimm’s
tent before she left for the chunkin.
Could she have switched inhalers then?

“Good. Maybe he said something back that will give us a clue about what happened.”

“I hope so. This is dreadful. I’m just glad it didn’t make the news last night and scare all the families away.
The town needs this
fair
. We need this
fair
.
”

“Me too.
We all need a good f
estival
.
”

“Don’t know if it matters but I
saw
Lulu stop by Levy’s tent a little before noon. I got the impression they knew each other. She left fast when the balloon man came by.”

“That’s right,” Darby said. “He took off his coat and left it at Levy’s tent while he followed her to the concession stands.”

“Did they speak?”

“I
—
I don’t know. Sorry. The chunkin was starting.”

“Well, maybe someone at the food booths will remember if they spoke. Given how much Lulu disliked him, it’s possible that they had words.”