Murder at the Book Fair by Steve Demaree Page A

at
least once while we're at the book fair."
    "What about this time?"
    "You mean eating? Well, if
you don't count the fact that our tables were right next to each other on
Saturday, we ate lunch together on Thursday after we dropped our books off, and
then went and grabbed a bite to eat on Saturday before we both headed home. Why
so many questions about Cereal?"
    "You don't know,  do
you?"
    "You sound like something's
happened to him."
    "Something has. He's been
murdered."
    "Someone shot him. Who would
want to do that?"
    "I imagine his brother or
sister would entertain that idea, but I'm not saying whether he was shot or
not."
    "You're not kidding, are
you?"
    "I'm afraid not."
    "If this was in a book, if he
was shot with a small caliber gun, it's usually a woman. A more powerful gun
usually means a man did it. They say poison is a woman's crime. A man would hit
him over the head, shoot him, or slide a knife into his gut."
    "What about if he was pushed
off a balcony?"
    "Where was Cereal near a
balcony? Did he go somewhere after I left him, before he headed home?"
    "I don't know. I didn't check
his gas gauge."
    "Well, I'm sticking to my
guns. S0, if there was a large hole in him, more than likely a man did it, but
if he was poisoned, my guess is cherchez la femme."
    "You've mentioned poison
twice now. Why poison? Most people who are murdered aren't poisoned."
    "Oh, I guess it's the author
in me. I read a lot of Agatha Christie growing up and a lot of her victims were
poisoned."
    "So you think maybe I should
include her on my list of suspects?"
    "From what I understand, I
think she had a great alibi for last Saturday."
    "But let's compare the
likelihood of poison or shooting someone. If he died at the book fair, there's
much more chance of him being poisoned, because of all the witnesses. Some
people will turn if they hear a gunshot. Poisoning someone doesn't make a lot
of noise."
    "Well, I can tell you he
wasn't killed at the book fair. Remember, he and I went to eat together
afterward."
    "So you didn't poison him
until afterward."
    "Ordinarily I would admit to
the crime, but you seem to be serious, so I'm not admitting to poisoning him
just in case he was poisoned."
    "I'm just saying that either
a man or a woman might have chosen poison if there was a crowd around. And some
women can be violent and shoot guns as well as men can sometimes."
    "You sound like a man with
three ex-wives."
    "More like a cop who has
worked a lot of murder cases. But I'll go ahead and tell you, this time the guy
was poisoned. Whether a man or a woman did it, we still don't know. That's why
we're out and about talking to everyone who knew him."
    "Are you really a cop?"
    "Over thirty years
worth."
    "And someone poisoned
him?"
    "So the autopsy said."     
    "And there were a lot of
people around when he was poisoned?"
    "I don't know about that. We
just know that he was poisoned sometime between late afternoon on Friday and
Saturday night when he got home."
    "I see. And you know that I
was around him part of that time, and so you came to see me."
    "Something like that. I'm not
saying you did it. I'm checking with anyone who was around him during that
time. Maybe you saw someone or something suspicious."
    "Not that I can think of.
Like who or what?"
    "Well, we think poison was
put into something he ate or drank. At least that's usually the case. If we
include every time he ate between Friday afternoon late and Saturday night,
that would include the authors' reception, Saturday morning breakfast, which I
assume he ate in the hotel dining room, goodies volunteers brought to him
during the book signing, lunch, dinner after it was over, and maybe a snack
after he got home. You were around for most of those times."
    "Pretty much all of them,
except we didn't eat breakfast together on Saturday morning and I didn't go
home with him. I went on over to the convention center Saturday morning and
helped myself to some pastries the committee set out for us. I like