Free Death Through the Looking Glass by Richard; Forrest

balloon from the town dock?” Lyon gave the burner a five-second ignition. The loud whoosh of flame startled Barnes, and he drew back from the car window. The balloon quickly rose as the small boys gaily waved.
    â€œHey, this is neat-o, mister!”
    Lyon nodded and tried to remember at what altitude he had been flying that morning. He decided to compromise at six hundred feet. It was a windless day, and drift was minimal. As he leveled the balloon, he looked seaward for the distant marker buoy.
    He distinctly recalled having given a 170 bearing over the radio. He took a reading from the small pocket compass. It was unmistakable. The buoy lay 190 degrees off the town dock.
    Lyon threw the switch underneath the carriage, and the hum of the electric typewriter immediately ceased. Danny Dolphin was becoming hopelessly confused. The morning’s balloon trip at Lantern City had only complicated the situation, and now further progress with his naïve dolphin had become impossible.
    â€œYou try to keep them in the barn and they come through the front door,” Bea said from the hall.
    â€œWhat are you talking about?”
    â€œGirls. Girls with hardly any clothes on. The bereaved widow has shucked mourning black for more attractive attire.” She opened the door to admit Karen Giles, dressed in a brief tennis dress with ruffled panties.
    â€œI’m in trouble, Lyon, and I need your help.”
    Her hands began to steady after the second sherry. Lyon could envision his imaginary dolphin snorting with a disgusted flip of his tail and heading downstream toward the sea.
    â€œI don’t believe I’ve ever seen a stuffed toy that big,” Karen said with an echo of her youthful tone.
    The six-foot Wobbly doll stood in the corner by the fireplace, with a nonchalant paw on the mantel. “He’s loyal and can keep a confidence,” Lyon said. He looked at her, huddled on the leather chair, grasping the glass with both hands. “You said you were in trouble.”
    â€œThe police were back this morning. They kept pressing, asking me all sorts of questions about our life together and the divorce.”
    â€œI told them. They would have found out sooner or later.”
    â€œWhen I went to the club after they left, one of them followed me.”
    â€œIt stands to reason that when a husband is murdered, they are going to look at the wife very carefully.”
    â€œIt’s more than a look. I think they consider me a suspect.”
    â€œWhat do you want me to do?”
    â€œMake them leave me alone.”
    â€œRocco and I are good friends, but the case is being handled by the State Police.”
    â€œI could retain you.”
    â€œI’d be breaking some law or other.” Lyon looked out the window and down toward the river below. In the distance, a canoe with two occupants held to the main current of the stream.
    It was a distant memory. “ Come on, Went! For Chris’ sake, don’t twist the paddle — in and out, in and out.” The canoe turned a bend in the river and was lost from view.
    He turned back to Karen Giles. “I suppose I’m already indirectly involved. I’d like to see the discrepancies cleared up. Have you talked to Gary Middleton since Sunday?”
    â€œI was going to get to that. I called him this morning, and while we were on the phone the police arrived to take him to the barracks. You know about Gary and me?”
    Lyon nodded. “When Bea and I talked with you, you mentioned that Tom was involved in some large financial transaction, that he’d been borrowing money to invest. Do you know any of the details?”
    â€œNo, not really. Recently Tom hadn’t kept me informed about his business transactions. I know only that it was something on his own and not with the firm, and that he was involved with someone else.”
    â€œWho?”
    â€œI don’t know, except that he was scared to death his partner was