A Crabby Killer Read Online Free Page A

ongoing feud since Tom and Mae had been in kindergarten. No one remembered what the feud was about, but that didn’t stop them from acting antagonisticly toward each other.
    Claire suspected the reason for the way they acted had less to do with the feud and more to do with their inner feelings. Feelings that maybe the two of them didn’t care to admit they had because they were too invested in their family feud.
    Mae scowled at Tom. “What do you mean an ‘incident’? I wasn’t that late.”
    “It’s not about you being late,” Jane cut in. She took a deep breath and Claire figured she was trying to find the words to tell Mae about their discovery.
    “Oh, for crying out loud, just tell her. She’s a big girl,” Norma huffed at Jane, then turned to Mae. “We found a body in the crab kettle.”
    Mae gasped. “A body? You mean a dead person?”
    Norma rolled her eyes. “Yes. A dead person. And I’d still like to know who it is.”
    Claire noticed Dom preening his brows while he watched Mae’s reaction. Did he know something about Mae and the dead man? Surely he didn’t suspect her of killing the guy. How would she get him in the pot? And she looked so surprised that Claire was sure she didn’t already know a body was in there.
    No one killed someone over spilled jam and besides, if Mae had killed him, she wouldn’t just come sauntering down the pier toward them—and the body—would she? Claire’s mind flashed on some of her old cases where that was exactly what the killer had done—blend into the crowd of on-lookers because it was the last thing the investigator would expect.
    “Step aside.” Claire’s nephew and Mooseamuck Island chief of police, Robby Skinner, pushed his way through the gathering crowd. “Whats going on?”
    Claire pointed to the kettle and he stepped over and looked in, his face sagging. “Oh, no, not another one.”
    Claire grimaced. Mooseamuck Island hadn’t had a murder in over a hundred years, and now there had been two in one year ... and the year wasn't even over yet.
    “What do you know about this?” Robby looked at her.
    “What do you mean? Why would I know anything?” Claire said defensively.
    “Well you are here …”
    Claire sighed. “I don’t know anything about it. I’m here because I’m on the festival committee and we were down here doing our inspection when we found him like that.”
    “Was he boiled?” Norma cut in.
    Robby peered into the pot again. “I don’t think so. There’s no water and he doesn’t look … um … cooked.”
    “Yech,” the crowd said.
    “Okay, I need you all to stay where you are,” Robby commanded. “I’m going to have to call the mainland and get a homicide detective over here.”
    Claire’s heart pinched at the look on Robby’s face. His experience with homicide investigation was limited to the one murder they’d had several months earlier. He’d done a good job then, but he still wasn’t trained in homicide detecting.
    Claire could tell he wanted to be in charge, but murder was serious business and Robby knew they needed an experienced detective. Hopefully, the one they sent from the mainland would give Robby leeway to do a lot of the work … and hopefully, Claire could help him. She just hoped they didn’t send that annoying Frank Zambuco again.
    “How do you know it’s a homicide?” Norma interrupted Claire’s train of thought.
    Robby’s brow ticked up. “What? You think he just fell into the pot and died on his own?”
    Norma shrugged. “Stranger things have happened. Besides, who would want to kill someone in the middle of the Crab Festival?”
    “That’s a good question.” Robby surveyed the crowd. “We’ll need to find out just when the time of death was and then we’ll need to know where all of you were at that time.”
    “Well, it couldn’t have been any of us,” Floyd Farner piped in from the back.
    Robby squinted in his direction. “Why not?”
    Floyd flapped his hands against his