The Traveling Corpse (10 page)

“Of course, it's fine with us,” Von
offered.

“We want to do anything we can to help,” his
wife added as she pushed her glasses higher on her nose. “You know
that.”

While they were waiting, Annie asked Brad,
“Did that Twila come to your workshop?”

He shook his head. “Paul was really
disappointed. He said she'd promised to be there. Nobody knew why
she didn't show. Doesn't look like she's very reliable.”

Annie looked knowingly at Art; then she
swallowed hard. She wondered about Twila, and where she was. The
question needed an answer, but she kept the question to herself for
now.

 

* * *

 

Sgt. Menendez brought Joe Juarez with her to
Vigeaux's house. After they greeted one another, the sergeant said
to the seniors, “I would like to ask you some questions, and with
your permission I want Joe to tape your answers so I'll have a
record of it.”

They all looked at one another and nodded in
agreement.

Juarez took a five by eight inch tape
recorder from a cloth carrying case. He looked at Von. “May I plug
it in? It will save the batteries.

Von pointed to a wall outlet.

Joe placed the recorder with its built-in
microphone on the coffee table where it could pick up any
conversation in the room.

Menendez looked around at the seniors, and
then asked, “You say you have evidence for us. What is it? Where is
it?

DeeDee, who liked to have fun, even with the
deputies, spoke up, “Yes, Ms. Sergeant, we certainly do have
evidence, but it is very cold evidence.”

The officer raised her eyebrows, “What do you
mean by cold evidence?”

Barb, who thought this was no time for
silliness, asserted herself, “We have four items that we believe
are most definitely related to ‘Our Mystery.' They are wrapped in
foil and hidden in the big freezer in the clubhouse kitchen. That's
why DeeDee calls it ‘cold evidence.'”

“And just why are they in the freezer?” Joe
Juarez asked. “Will they spoil?”

“No, what we found won't spoil,” Verna
answered, “It will keep.”

“Then why put it in there?” Menendez asked
again.

“Because,” DeeDee said, “My husband was
afraid fer Annie ta take tha stuff home. We don't want her ta get
hurt. When y'all looked in those drawers tha other night, you
tipped tha murderer off. When he saw you, then he knew fer sure
that Annie had seen tha body in that drawer an' called the law.
Before that, he jest wasn't sure.”

Brad added, “We don't know if they might hurt
Annie or not. We don't want to take any chances on our Annie
getting hurt. Look what he did to that other woman—the one we now
call ‘the body.'”

Menendez looked at Annie, who admitted, “It's
true, Maria, I am a little afraid. Any little strange noise spooks
me anymore. So, we, the eight of us, aren't telling anyone except
you two officers that we have found anything—about finding
evidence.”

The officer drummed her fingers on her thigh,
amazed to think that eight people could all keep a secret of this
magnitude for two days now. Again she looked at Annie, “Suppose you
tell us about your evidence,” the woman officer was firm but
pleasant as she spoke.

Annie told them what their gang had found: a
tissue with a lipstick blot on it; a light blue sneaker under the
stage; a matching one in a plastic bag in Drawer Number Ten; and a
torn scrap of light-blue denim material caught on an A/C unit.

After the officer noted the four pieces of
evidence, she said, “Now, I'd like you to review for me exactly
when and where you think the body was moved. Be exact. I want
details.”

Joe pushed the recorder closer to Annie, and
she began: “Move number 1 was Tuesday, that was yesterday—from
wherever she was killed which was probably on the stage of Old Main
or near it. We think it was between two and two-thirty that
afternoon. Then she was stuffed into that big drawer under the
stage. Whoever did it saw me open that drawer. He—I'm guessing it
was a man—didn't know if I'd seen the body or not, but he couldn't
take a chance.

“Move number 2: So, when the electricity went
off, he pulled the body out. One of her shoes fell off and stayed
in that plastic bag in the drawer which Barb retrieved. We believe
that he opened another drawer, an empty one and shoved the body
through the open end. As he closed the drawer, it pushed the body
further under the stage. That's why you officers didn't see it when
you were searching last night.

“Move number 3: It was too warm inside Old
Main to leave the body overnight. He had to get it outside where
the temperature was just above freezing. After the Bingo clean-up
crew left, he pulled the body out from behind that second drawer
and somehow she lost her other shoe, which DeeDee spotted this
morning, under the stage. As he carried the body out of Old Main
last night, a tissue with her lipstick blot on it fell out of her
pocket. Art found it early this morning near the door to the
bathrooms. When I saw the lipstick blot on it, I was sure that a
woman had used it. Because the floor was swept clean, we knew it
had to have been dropped
after
the Bingo clean-up crew left.
When the bad guy got outside, he pushed the body behind an
air-conditioning unit in the courtyard. That's where it spent the
night.

“Move number 4: Early this morning,
Wednesday, maybe a little after five o'clock, DeeDee saw a man
pickup something heavy, probably the body, from behind one of the
A/C units. He slung it over his shoulder and headed for the Shuffle
Building. He wouldn't stop or even turn around when DeeDee called
to him. The Davises and Art and I looked all around that building,
inside and out, and found nothing. We don't know where the body is
now. Maybe she is still in a golf cart or a car. Von had the wisdom
to go out to the courtyard in the daylight this morning to examine
the four units. That's when Verna found a scrap of light-blue denim
material caught on the sheet metal on the back side of one of the
A/C units.”

“That is a very complex story you have told,”
Juarez praised. “What do you think, Sarg?”

“I am impressed with their reasoning. Time
and a lot more investigating will tell if they are correct,” Maria
answered.

Then Art asked the question Annie had
proposed earlier, “Do you suppose the bad guy wants to bury her? If
you never find her body, it will be hard to prove there's been a
crime, won't it?”

“Correct. I've had several discussions with
my superior in the Sheriff's Department, trying to convince him
that a crime has possibly been committed. I need permission to keep
the case open. This evidence you have so carefully collected
doesn't prove there's actually a crime, but it does make your story
more credible,” Menendez said. She continued, “I notice that you
have carefully
not
mentioned who you think committed this
supposed murder, or why.”

The friends looked around at one another.
Barb spoke for them, “We hesitate to put a name to the ‘bad guy'
because we don't have any proof.”

“Sergeant,” Brad interrupted, “I'm Barb's
husband, and I'm on the BradLee Board. I told Barb some inside
information which may have guided the ladies—he gestured to the
women in the living room—as they analyzed the crime.”

“And, that was … ?”

Brad continued, “The Board has come to
believe that Karl Kreeger, the Director of our park's Bingo Games,
has been skimming money. We recently appointed a woman who is a new
resident here to be Karl's assistant. She has excellent business
credentials. We aren't interested in prosecuting Karl; we just want
to put an end to his sticky fingers. We had hoped to quietly have a
book-keeping system with checks and balances put in place, so all
monies are accounted for. He has run them well for over five years
and does an outstanding job of promoting our Bingo games throughout
the community.”

“And how did he adjust to having a woman
assistant thrust on him?” Menendez asked.

“We don't know,” Barb put in, “and nobody has
seen her, and there has been no missing person report filed on her
behalf.”

The two officers asked more questions. The
seniors filled in small details. Finally, satisfied, Sgt. Menendez
said, “That seems to wrap things up for now. I'd like to go over to
Old Main and have you show me where you found the scrap of
material, the tissue and the two shoes. Perhaps it's best if only
two of you go with Joe and me.”

Art suggested, “Annie, if you show them those
four places, I'll get the evidence from Doc. It will arouse less
suspicion if I go in the kitchen alone and ask him to get the foil
packages from the freezer.”

When the deputies drove out of the Vigeaux's
driveway, they had four pieces of evidence, but
no
body.
Annie said to Art and their friends as they watched the officers
leave, “They were a lot more interested in listening to our
theories this morning than they were last night, but we still
haven't convinced them that a crime really happened. Who knows?
They may be laughing about all this and saying something like,
‘That little-ole senior woman's got a screw loose!' But I don't.
All the screws in my brain are just fine,” she said as she rubbed
her left temple. “I've got to show them I'm not crazy! I'll be like
that cute saying that Nelly told us once at Coffee Hour: ‘A woman
is like a tea bag. You don't know how strong she is until you put
her in hot water.' Well, I'm in hot water now, and I
will
be
strong—with God's help and all of you to support me. Now I'm going
home to take a nap.”

 

* * *

 

 

The year before, in 1993, the resident owners
of BradLee Retirement Park could finally boast that their park now
had two, much used 18-hole golf courses. They paid for the new land
for the second 18 holes by selling golf view lots. To help keep
their golf fees down, volunteers ran the Pro Shop and did other
tasks like laying the cement for the cart paths. Women golfers,
with a lot of help from the men, held a huge rummage sale each
winter that netted over $30,000.00. Golf courses are expensive to
maintain. The Gold course was the newest, longest, and most
popular. The Blue, the original course, was executive length.

“Which course do you want to play?” Verna
asked the Golfing Gals.

“Tha Gold is always so busy. We'll probably
have ta wait if we want ta play on it,” DeeDee said, “an' it's
already the middle of tha afternoon, an' it gets dark early in
January.”

Annie added, “We don't want to be out here
too long since we've got the park dinner tonight.”

“Well, then, we'll tee-off on the Blue front
nine,” Barb decided. “We won't have to wait long; there's only one
foursome in front of us. Besides, I like to watch the ostriches and
emus there alongside the fifth hole.” The farmer who owned the land
adjoining the south end of their golf course raised ostriches and
emus and sold their meat which is prized because it is lower in
cholesterol than beef.

“I like ta watch ‘em, too, ‘specially this
time of year,” DeeDee said.

“What's so special about this time of
year?”

“It's their matin' season—goes from now ta
August, Doc says ya can tell when it's that time of year ‘cause tha
front of tha male ostrich's legs turn pink. His beak turns pink,
too; some days they are pinker than others. I don't know jest
why.”

“It's fun to watch that big male show off,”
Annie said. “He dances around and lifts up his wings, pumps them up
and down a little on his back. They look like huge black and white
fans that he doesn't quite open up all the way.”

Barb said, “There's a huge alligator in
Crescent Pond, but those big birds aren't the least bit afraid of
him.”

“Yah, he jest seems ta do his thing, an' they
jest do theirs!” DeeDee laughed. “Actually, Doc says those big
birds have a powerful kick an' that tha big toe stickin' outta each
foot can rip a person open. Ya don't wantta mess with ‘em.”

A crescent-shaped pond ran south along the
boundary of the fifth hole and curved around into a farmer's field.
A sagging wire fence divided the top of the water into two
sections.

“I wish people wouldn't feed that ‘gatah,”
Verna said as she hunted in her bag for some tees. “They should let
wild animals be wild animals. It's not safe to feed an alligatah,
and I don't think it's good for it, eithah.”

“There's one man,” Barb said, “I've seen him
myself, he throws chicken bones, and I don't know what else, out
there. He must save up his garbage and then bring it with him. When
he sees the alligator, he unzips a pocket in his golf bag, pulls
out a plastic bag, and goes over and dumps it near the pond. Guess
he likes to see the ‘gator go for it. Those pre-historic beasts can
run really fast when they want to. I think it's a very stupid thing
for him to do.”

“I do, ta,” DeeDee agreed. “That wire fence
doesn't look very sturdy ta me. If that ‘gator got riled up, I jest
bet he could push it down if he wanted ta.”

While Verna was pulling her golf glove on her
left hand, she said, “Oh, by the way, Von and I saw the crocodile
aftah you left this morning.”

Barb interrupted, “Don't you mean
alligator?”

“No. It's a crocodile, and it's swimming over
in Memorial Pond. Its head looks different than a ‘gatah's. From
the side, it almost looks like it has a pig's snout on the end of
its long, narrow nose. It was gliding through the watah. Von and I
watched and watched it. We'd nevah seen one in Florida before.”