Crime Writer Margot Kinberg

As this is posted, it’s only one month until the release of Scene of the Crime! I must admit I’m excited about it. Here’s just a taste:

Joel and Laura Williams were a block away from Maggie’s Diner. They hadn’t been there for brunch lately and had promised each other today would be the day. “It might be a mistake, though,” Joel commented. “It is Parents’ Weekend, and you know how this place gets at that time.”
“I know. Oh, well, we’ll see how crowded it is. We can always go somewhere else if it’s too bad.” Laura suggested. She pointed as they approached the restaurant. “What is that? Is that police tape?”
Joel pulled into a spot at the end of the parking lot. “That’s exactly what it is!”

Laura and Joel got out of the car and looked around. A group of people were huddled in one corner of the lot, talking with a couple of uniforms. Near them was an untidy heap of signs and banners. There was another uniform at the restaurant door. It was hard to see inside, but Joel imagined there’d be an officer in there doing interviews. He remembered those days. Now, he turned to Laura. “Guess we’d better go somewhere else to eat.”
“Yeah, looks like it.”
They were turning towards the car when Joel noticed someone coming out the door of the diner. He held up one finger and told Laura, “I’ll be right back.” She gave him the “once a cop, always a cop” look and responded, “I’ll be here.”

Donna Crandall smiled for the first time that morning when she saw Joel Williams heading towards the door. He’d already left the force when she came to Tilton, but they’d met several times since then; he was a friend of her boss, Captain Bert Schneider.  She walked over to meet Williams, and they shook hands.
“How’ve you been?” she asked.
“Doing well, thanks. Looks like you’re in the soup.”
Crandall gestured at the activity behind her. “Yeah, you could say.” She paused a minute. “Someone found a body.”

Williams raised his eyebrows and waited for Crandall to say more if she wanted to. “Yeah,” she finally went on. “There was a protest here” – she pointed towards the signs on the ground – “and one of the people who put it together ended up dead.”
“Wasn’t a Tilton student, was it?” There was a limit to what Crandall could tell him, but Williams couldn’t help wondering if it was someone he knew.
“We don’t think so.” Crandall shook her head. “Victim didn’t have a local address, and one of the other protesters told us he was an out-of-town activist.”
“Oh, right, of course!” Williams shook his head in frustration with himself. “That state representative – Kauffman – was here.”
“Yeah, that’s what the protest was about. He’s not exactly popular around here.”
“That’s one way to put it,” Williams smiled a little. “Do they have a name?”
Crandall paused and chewed her bottom lip for a moment. “His name was Max Ingle.”
“Ingle?” Williams swallowed and his eyes widened a bit.
“Why? You know him?”
“I interviewed him a couple of times. He was a part of a study I’m doing. Damn!” This was going to be hard, and Williams wanted some time to think. “Listen,” he glanced at his watch. “You must have your hands more than full, and I need to get going.”
“You knew him? Could you come into the station? We’ll want to talk to you.”
“Yeah, of course.”
“Thanks. We need background on this guy.”
“Sure.”

“I’m sorry,” Joel told Laura when he got back to the car. “I took longer than I thought I would.”
“Let’s just go.” He could tell it was going to be a quiet ride. He was just about to get in the car when he heard someone shouting his name. He looked up.
“Dr. Williams!” One of the protestors was walking towards Joel. With him was one of the uniformed police who’d been interviewing witnesses.

“Hi, Brandon.” Brandon Graves was one of the people Joel had been interviewing for his study.
“Dr. Williams, please! I need some help!”
“What’s going on?” Joel looked at the officer standing next to Brandon.
“You know this person, sir?” The cop addressed Joel.
“He’s involved with a research study I’m conducting.”
“They think I did this – that I’m a killer!” Brandon’s voice wavered a bit. “They want to arrest me. I didn’t do it, though.”
“What do you mean?”
“We’re just asking questions at this point,” the officer reassured Joel. “Nobody’s under arrest.” Joel nodded his thanks and turned back to Brandon. “OK, first of all, don’t panic. The police ask everyone a lot of questions. It doesn’t mean they’re ready to make an arrest.”
“But can you help me? I didn’t do anything!”

 

Interested? You can pre-order Scene of the Crime on Kindle right here. Both Kindle and paperback versions of the book come out on 1 July!!

 

*NOTE: The title of this post is a line from The Temptations’ Get Ready.