Free 5 Merry Market Murder by Paige Shelton Page A

tell me something I really wanted to know. There’d been way too many murders in the Monson area recently, but we were typically a low-crime town, or so I’d thought. There was more going on in my community than I really knew, and I’d been surprised by some of the illegal activities Sam had told me about, though he hadn’t always shared perpetrators’ names.
    “He said no,” Sam said.
    “He didn’t. I can see he didn’t. You don’t want to tell me what he said, but can you give me a hint?”
    “No.”
    “Let’s see, he was accusing Denny Ridgeway of being the killer. Did it have something to do with the Ridgeways?” I said.
    “Maybe,” he said with a smile.
    Now he was getting information out of me. We’d sometimes dance around something, trying to get information from each other. Usually both of us caved, or each of us offered enough to the conversation to make the entire story become clear.
    I played along. “Because”—I smiled—“because Brenton had been acting strangely toward the Ridgeways since I saw him pull into the parking lot yesterday. He told you more about his relationship with the Ridgeways.”
    “Wait, why would he pull into the parking lot and not his loading/unloading area?” Sam asked. This was a legitimate question, not part of the game.
    I shrugged. “Lots of reasons, but his stall isn’t far from the front of the market. Maybe he prefers to go into the front.”
    “What would be some other reasons?”
    “He’d unloaded and then left, took a break. It happens a lot. We have to leave to do something. Neighboring vendors take care of customers for us. Jeannine helps out Brenton all the time. . . .”
    “What?”
    “Well, normally Brenton helps out Jeannine, too, but she had to ask Barry to help her—that was today, so that’s understandable, but I wonder if Brenton’s been away from the market a lot lately. If so, that might mean something or nothing at all. Those busy times happen to us all, but remind me to show you something in a second.”
    “Okay.”
    “Anyway, sometimes we just unload our inventory and then move our vehicles to the front lot. If we need to get out of there quickly and if we think most of our inventory will be gone, the front lot’s much easier to get out of than the back areas. I don’t know if it’s anything important, but your question about why he was coming in that way might be a really good one. You might want to find out if Brenton’s been up to something away from the market.”
    “I will. What did you want to show me?”
    “Wait, I still have more information to tell you. I should have told Vivienne, but I didn’t want to.”
    “Becca, Vivienne’s a great cop, and I’m not supposed to be questioning you at all. In fact, what we’re doing now isn’t the best of ideas. Tell me what you need to, but I’ll probably have you tell her, too.”
    “The reason I didn’t . . .” The reason I hadn’t told Officer Norton was to protect Allison, but that didn’t seem so necessary with Sam. “Anyway, that’s not important. It’s about the contracts between Bailey’s and the tree farmers. I think Officer Norton knew a little something about them but not the details. Did Allison tell you anything?”
    “No, but our time was cut short because of Brenton’s behavior, and I know she also talked to Vivienne. She mentioned that she’d send me some paperwork that might be relevant, but I haven’t seen it yet.”
    I was sure she meant the contracts. I told him about the odd similarities and differences between the two vendors’ paperwork, about the fact that the Bailey’s owners wouldn’t have ever promised exclusivity to two vendors; that wasn’t how they did business.
    “That’s great information, Becca. Thank you. I’ll get on that first thing in the morning. I should have gone back to talk to Allison, but I got caught up doing other things.”
    I think Sam was still pleasantly surprised when I was so forthcoming with any