Free A Motive For Murder by Katy Munger Page A

in
contentment. The free lunch was putting him in a good mood. “If
you’re really digging for the dirt on Morgan’s death, you ought to
talk to Martinez,” he said helpfully.
    “Among others,” Paulette added.
    “Oh yes?” Auntie Lil waited to hear more. The
synchronistic effect she had feared might work against her was
working for her instead. Paulette and Jerry seemed to be in a race
to cast aspersions on as many other people as possible.
    “You mean the fight?” Paulette asked Jerry, raising
her eyebrows. He nodded back mysteriously.
    “What fight?” Auntie Lil demanded.
    Herbert remained silent, watching his companions. In
this way, he could pick up nearly as much useful information as
Auntie Lil could with her mouth going.
    “With Paulette here,” Jerry offered with a wicked
smile.
    Paulette looked grim. “I wasn’t talking about the
fight with me. That was just a small misunderstanding.
Besides, I wasn’t the only one he fought with during the six weeks
of rehearsal,” she retorted, eyeing Jerry back.
    The accompanist countered by thoroughly confusing the
issue. “True,” he admitted. “Morgan did have a knockdown-drag-out
with Martinez about the interpretation of the play and the demands
he was making on his son, after he fought with Paulette here over
driving his son too hard in rehearsal.”
    “His son is not a dancer,” Paulette offered in her
defense. “Never has been.”
    “And he also fought with that know-it-all board
member,” Jerry finished. “The one who is always lurking around the
halls trying to run everything.”
    “True,” Paulette agreed. “I thought he was the
president at some bank somewhere. Doesn’t he ever actually go there
and work?”
    “Hans Glick?” Auntie Lil said. “Fought over
what?”
    Jerry and Paulette shrugged simultaneously, but
Paulette spoke first. “Everything, I’d say. They argued all the
time. Some ongoing thing. They’d meet in the halls outside the
rehearsal rooms while I was trying to improve the poor boy’s
technique. We could hear them arguing outside the door.”
    “I play rather quietly,” Jerry explained. “Helps the
mood, you see. They were arguing over contract negotiations.
Couldn’t really hear the details, though God knows I tried.” He
gave a bright smile and popped another shrimp into his mouth.
    “I see.” Auntie Lil bit into her gooey hot dog,
sending a waterfall of pungent chili tumbling off the other end.
Paulette groaned and licked her lips as she watched Auntie Lil eat,
unaware that she had moaned out loud.
    “So he argued with Glick over the contract terms and
with Martinez about the demands of his son’s role,” Auntie Lil
said. “Was that all he argued about with either man?”
    “What else would they argue about it?” Paulette
answered too quickly and Auntie Lil knew she was lying. Especially
when she exchanged a glance with Jerry. A signal had been sent and
received.
    “That’s all?” Auntie Lil repeated.
    “What else?” Jerry echoed with a shrug.
    “How badly did you argue with Morgan?” Auntie Lil
asked Paulette.
    Paulette flushed lightly. “We had harsh words a few
times. He claimed I was trying to cripple his son.”
    “But you convinced him it was the best thing for
Mikey?”
    “Hah!” Jerry shoveled a forkful of crispy clams in
his mouth and munched with divine satisfaction. “She backed down
when he threatened to have her canned.”
    “Jerry!” Paulette glowered at him and her thin smile
faded to an ominous frown. Her eyes gleamed as if she were
searching her brain for equally incriminating information on
him.
    “Who do you think could have killed Morgan?” Auntie
Lil asked quickly. If they began to fight with each other, all of
their energy would go into the battle. She needed their attention
for just a few minutes more.
    “A lot of people,” Paulette and Jerry answered almost
simultaneously. They burst into what they considered to be wicked
laughter. To Auntie Lil and Herbert it