I MUST HAVE SAID TOO MUCH

Since last week’s blog, I’ve gotten at least a dozen inquiries about that dead body found in a locked room at The Pegasus and how that murder could have anything to do with Binyamin’s return. Well, Miriam certainly didn’t know—not at first anyway.

Phoebe glanced left and right before lowering her voice to a whisper. “He’s dead, Miriam, brutally murdered yesterday, beaten with some sort of club, although the authorities have yet to find the weapon.”

She continued after a dramatic pause. “He died in his room at The Pegasus, a jagged cut at the back of his head.”

My hand grabbed the back of my head, and I winced as if I too had been cut there.

“The Pegasus?” I asked in a barely audible squeak. “That shabby waterfront flophouse where Binyamin stayed until his ship sailed for Rome?” I didn’t mention I knew someone else who was staying there now. Why open another pair of parentheses?

“That very one.”

“Why on earth would he be there?”

“I don’t know,” she said with a shrug. “Ask Isis. All I know is he didn’t come to work after Wednesday.”

“So how was his body discovered?”

“Someone saw on the floor a river of thick, dried blood coming from his room. Did I mention the door was locked from the inside? It took a dozen men to break it down—”

“A whole dozen?”

“Well, I’m not sure about the number, but that’s when they heard the droning. A window must have been left open because the floor and walls were covered with bluebottle flies.”

Poor Miriam! Binyamin’s homecoming was excitement enough. Now a dead body! Someone she knew. Someone who hated her. Check out The Deadliest Sport for release this fall: http://www.junetrop.com/the-deadliest-sport.