Deadly Secrets Read Free Page B

wanting a list of her friends and associates from you. Deputy Johnson will attend to that. In the meantime, it’d help if you could think of someone who might know about anything out of the ordinary happening around here.”
    “Well, these folks are pretty closed-mouthed with strangers but you might talk to Frank Perkins — you’ll find him either up at the Hideaway or down at the bait house. If anybody so much as farts on the creek, Frank knows all the details.”
    Adams looked up from his notebook and nodded. “We’ll talk to him. What about strangers? Was there anybody who paid particular attention to Anna or asked a lot of questions about her?”
    “Anna had a bit of a ruckus with one of the shoppers over at her stall this afternoon.”
    Adams lifted his head and fixed his eyes on Kelly. “Suppose you tell me about it.”
    “There was a young woman showed up here about four o’clock. She was a real looker.” Kelly gave Adams a teasing grin but the officer kept his eyes on his notepad. Kelly shrugged and continued. “For some reason, this woman rushed into Anna’s shop and flung herself right on top of Anna’s chair. I don’t know whether it was deliberate or not. All I know is when I got there, both Anna and the woman were tangled up on the floor and the woman was out cold.”
    “Did you recognize her?”
    “Nope. She wasn’t from around here—not the flea market type. I figured she might’ve been an antique collector. Anna had a lot of collectibles in her stall.”
    “Can you give me a description?”
    Kelly nodded. “She was around twenty-five, about five-six, around a hundred and ten pounds I’d say with plenty of curves in all the right places. Her hair was something long and silky and so blonde it was almost white. She wore it straight down her back, held in place with one of those silk scarves.”
    Adams scribbled in his book. Finished, he looked up and nodded. “Go ahead.”
    “I spotted her soon after she came through the front entrance. She was a knockout—that’s what drew my eye—but then I noticed the way she acted. It was kind of funny.”
    “What do you mean by funny? Did you get the impression she might be intoxicated?”
    “No, nothing like that. It was more like she was trying to hide from somebody. She kept looking back over her shoulder and when she realized I had my eye on her, she scooted into the crowd like a flushed quail. Her whole manner was suspicious. That’s why I followed her down to Anna’s.”
    “Did you happen to notice if anybody was paying any special attention to this woman? Is it possible she was being followed?”
    “Nope. Nobody paid her any more attention than what she’d normally get, given her looks and figure.”
    Adams jotted a few more lines in the book then twirled his pen again.
    Kelly grinned.
    “The woman?” Adams nudged.
    “I was keeping my eye on her but I wasn’t making it obvious. When she got next to the refreshment stand, she stopped for a bit and stood there looking kind of nervous. She’d pulled the scarf out of her hair and was kneading it with her fingers.”
    “What color was that scarf?”
    Kelly nodded. “I know where you’re going with that,” he said. “It was red and yes, it could’ve been the one that’s wrapped around Anna’s neck. I’d have a hard time swearing to it though. I didn’t give it more than a casual glance at the time.”
    Kelly paused and Adams tapped his pen on the table. “What happened next?”
    “Not much. I got there right after she and Anna went down. The fall knocked her out and after I got Anna back in her chair, I turned my attention to the young woman. She’d gotten to her feet by then.”
    “Did you get her name?”
    Kelly shook his head. “She took off before I had a chance.”
    “You let her go without asking any questions?”
    “I wasn’t thinking about questions at that point. I needed to check Anna out and make sure she was okay. Besides, she hadn’t done anything except