1 A Small Case of Murder Read Online Free

‘pony’.”
    Admiral had lain down dangerously close to the only two legs of Tad’s chair touching the floor.
    Keeping an eye on the television, Tad plopped the chair down onto its four legs and got up to pour two cups of tea from a kettle warming on the stove.
    Joshua nodded towards the portable set. “What are you watching?”
    Tad set a mug with the tea bag seeping in the boiling hot water in front of Joshua. “Tess Bauer, she’s a local girl, went off to Pittsburgh and is with the station out there. She’s been doing an in-depth investigation into the drug traffic here in the valley.”
    Joshua took a sip of the hot tea.
    Much to Dog’s dismay, Tad tossed a cookie to Admiral. “She actually found a source willing to go on camera. They’ve been showing interviews with her all week.” With the remote resting at his elbow, he turned up the volume on the television. “There she is.”
    Joshua turned his attention to the portable set.
    The woman appeared to be barely out of her teens. Her hair, a reddish hue that matched that of freshly spilt blood, was a fraction of an inch longer than a crew cut. She wore a black top with spaghetti straps, which revealed a black widow spider tattoo on her bare left shoulder. Her stark make-up, including black lipstick, on her pale skin made her appear eerie. She wore a thick collar of dozens upon dozens of black strings, leather straps, and silver beaded necklaces; matching bracelets on her arms; and rings on every finger. Her hands were further adorned with black fingernails that looked more like the claws of a carnivorous beast.
    Observing her high cheekbones and facial bone structure, Joshua thought she would be pretty if it weren’t for the morbid make-up and attire.
    Journalist Tess Bauer contrasted her source’s appearance in a conservative pale blue women’s suit. With bangs chopped straight across her forehead, she wore her honey-blond hair straight down to her shoulders. Tess was what Joshua called handsome.
    “Her name is Amber. She doesn’t give her last name,” Tad told him.
    The interview took place in what appeared to be some-one’s living room. The conservative furniture didn’t appear to be what one would expect to find in a drug addict’s home.
    “Amber claims to have been involved in the drug trafficking here in the Ohio Valley,” Tess was saying from off camera.
    Amber’s expression was between that of a sneer and a smirk. “I don’t do the trafficking myself, but I’m real close to one of the top people.”
    “Who is that?” Tess asked from off-camera again.
    Amber said in a brisk tone, “Vicki Rawlings.”
    “We’ve talked about Victoria Rawlings before.” Tess was sitting in a chair with a forest of house plants behind her. “You said in previous interviews that Victoria, the granddaughter of the Reverend Orville Rawlings, is heavily involved in the drug trade in the Ohio Valley.”
    Amber appeared on camera again. “You might say she’s the manager and Reverend Rawlings is the CEO.”
    “Do you believe—” Joshua started to ask Tad, who held up his hand to hush him.
    “Now, as I told you before off-camera, Amber, you can’t make statements on-camera that you can’t prove.”
    “Oh, I can prove everything.” The girl slapped a micro-cassette tape onto the glass top coffee table. “Here’s your proof.”
    The setting changed. From behind the news desk, Tess Bauer spoke to her television audience. “I brought the tape that Amber had given me during that interview here to the studio. It contains a telephone conversation between Amber and a woman she identified as Victoria Rawlings. We will play that tape for you now.”
    “But—” Joshua tried to object only to be shushed again.
    The transcript of the telephone conversation on the tape was displayed on the screen while the audio played two women discussing a drug shipment they had delivered.
    “I never saw so much money in my life,” the woman identified as Amber was