diff --git a/src/connector.c b/src/connector.c
index 4eec5d72..bb3fea45 100644
--- a/src/connector.c
+++ b/src/connector.c
@@ -1226,11 +1226,17 @@ out:
 	return ret;
 }
 
-static void client_message_processor(ckpool_t *ckp, json_t *json_msg)
+static void client_message_processor(ckpool_t *ckp, char *buf)
 {
+	json_t *json_msg = json_loads(buf, 0, NULL);
 	int64_t client_id;
 	char *msg;
 
+	if (unlikely(!json_msg)) {
+		LOGWARNING("Invalid json message in process_client_msg: %s", buf);
+		goto out;
+	}
+
 	/* Extract the client id from the json message and remove its entry */
 	client_id = json_integer_value(json_object_get(json_msg, "client_id"));
 	json_object_del(json_msg, "client_id");
@@ -1242,18 +1248,8 @@ static void client_message_processor(ckpool_t *ckp, json_t *json_msg)
 	msg = json_dumps(json_msg, JSON_EOL | JSON_COMPACT);
 	send_client(ckp->data, client_id, msg);
 	json_decref(json_msg);
-}
-
-static void process_client_msg(cdata_t *cdata, const char *buf)
-{
-	json_t *json_msg = json_loads(buf, 0, NULL);
-
-	if (unlikely(!json_msg)) {
-		LOGWARNING("Invalid json message in process_client_msg: %s", buf);
-		return;
-	}
-
-	ckmsgq_add(cdata->cmpq, json_msg);
+out:
+	free(buf);
 }
 
 /* Send the passthrough the terminate node.method */
@@ -1365,7 +1361,8 @@ retry:
 	/* The bulk of the messages will be json messages to send to clients
 	 * so look for them first. */
 	if (likely(buf[0] == '{')) {
-		process_client_msg(cdata, buf);
+		ckmsgq_add(cdata->cmpq, buf);
+		umsg->buf = NULL;
 	} else if (cmdmatch(buf, "upstream=")) {
 		char *msg = strdup(buf + 9);