The Traveling Corpse (15 page)

“MORAL,” Verna finished, “nevah argue with a
woman who reads. It's likely she can also think!”

After the women stopped laughing, Annie asked
Verna what her bad news was.

“It's about Twila. Twila Thompson, that new
woman in BradLee. Her sister-in-law, Tilley, comes to Book Club.
She's says they are very worried about Twila because she hasn't
come home. It's been two days now. They didn't worry too much at
first because they thought she was just staying longer with her
friends on Sanibel Island. They didn't know the name of those
friends to call them; so last night they finally called the
Sheriff's office to report her missing!”

With a heavy heart, Annie said, “It's finally
happened! Someone is officially missing. I didn't want it to
happen, but I knew it had to come to this. Oh, dear! This is so
sad, but at last someone is officially reported missing. We'll get
more help now from the law.”

“And we're pretty sure the worst has happened
to her,” Barb added.

“It must have been Twila's hand I felt in
that drawer. Girls, we need to talk. We need to get right down to
business.” Annie turned to DeeDee, “First, you need to hear what
happened this morning. Are you feeling up to it?” When DeeDee
nodded, Annie continued, “Verna, why don't you tell her what you
learned from Kitty Kreeger? Then Barb and I can tell you what we
saw on the golf course.”

DeeDee listened with interest, making
comments and asking questions as the story unfolded. When they
finished, she said, “Y'all did so good, an' ya won't believe this,
but I learned something strange at the doctor's office!” They
looked at her expectantly, “I was sittin' in the doctor's waitin'
room when Jiggs comes in. His granddaughter dropped him off; she
lives in town, ya know. Anyway, he comes over an' sits down beside
me, an' we started visitin'. Well, I got him talkin' about Bingo,
an' after awhile I asked him how Karl Kreeger felt about havin' an
assistant to help him with Bingo. Jiggs sortta stiffened an' he
told me that Karl never spoke ta him about it—never even mentioned
it ta him atall! Not one little word! Don't y'all think that's very
strange? I don't believe he was tellin' me tha truth.

“Then tha nurse calls Jiggs in; so I started
readin' a magazine. I'm waitin' fer Doc ta pick me up; he went up
to K-Mart ta buy some stones ta edge our landscaping. Anyway, I'm
still sittin' thar when Jiggs comes out, an' he sits down beside me
again. He's waitin' fer his granddaughter ta pick him up; she
didn't want him drivin' after gettin' a shot. She's good ta watch
out fer her gramps since he lost his wife.

“I don't know what was in that shot he got,
but it sure loosened his tongue! He was on a talkin' jag. That shot
may have gone inta his bottom, but it sure did loosen his tongue at
his top end! I think he told me more than he meant ta about Karl! I
know we sometimes call him ‘Jolly Jiggs'; well, he certainly was
jolly—like a happy drunk, he was!

“You know that Jiggs has a little business on
the side, don't cha? He drives people back an' forth ta tha
airport. Well, this is the part he told me that I don't think he
wouldda told me before gettin' that shot: Jiggs said Karl asked him
ta pick him up at tha Tampa Airport an' bring him home on
Wednesday. He didn't say what time it was. Don't y'all think that's
strange? Why would he be needin' a ride only
back
from tha
airport?”

Barb questioned, “He just wanted a one-way
ride? Karl only wanted a ride
back
from the airport? Yes,
DeeDee, I do think that is strange. Very strange!”

“I don't think he could have flown anyplace
in that short of a time,” Verna reasoned. “We saw him at Bingo on
Tuesday night. He's retired. It's not like he would be making a
short business trip.”

“I think I saw him about 5:30 Tuesday
morning. That's when I think he carried away that body from behind
tha A/C units,” DeeDee added.

Annie was quick to sum up the situation:
“Twila's car is missing, and Karl needs a ride back from the
airport. And just how did Karl get to the airport?” She answered
her own question, “I think he drove Twila's car down there and left
it in the parking garage. Nobody would bother to look for it in
there for a long time.”

“That's right. It could very well be Twila's
car because a neighbor said she thought she'd seen it in Twila's
drive for just a little while on Tuesday afternoon. Do ya know what
I think? I think Twila drove home from Sanibel an' stopped at her
house for a few minutes. Then she drove on over ta tha clubhouse.
She doesn't have a golf cart, I don't think; so she'd have ta use
her car or walk.” Her friends let DeeDee go on with her reasoning,
“What if Twila met with Karl in Old Main? She tells him that she's
been looking at what records there are an' the figures don't add
up—that money seems ta be missing from tha Bingo funds. She
couldn't be certain because Karl would need money for expenses for
equipment, an' he didn't keep any books on what he spent fer
supplies. Now bein' questioned by a woman would surely upset Karl.
If he lost his temper an' hit her, an' if she accidentally died, he
couldda panicked an' hid her body in that drawer with all tha
decorations in it.”

Annie picked up the thread, “And when he saw
me looking in that drawer, he knew he needed to move the body; so
when the lights went out he quick-like pulled the body from the one
drawer and stuffed it into the other.”

“And that's how her shoe ended up in one
drawer,” Barb surmised. “The other shoe fell off when he pushed her
body along with the trolley under the stage.”

Verna was getting excited, and it warmed her
up. She pulled off her red sweater as she picked up the reasoning,
“Then aftah every one had cleaned up the hall aftah Bingo, he took
her out of that drawer and carried her outside. The tissue must
have dropped out of her pocket then. He didn't know what to do with
her body; so he stuffed her behind one of the A/C things, and then
he came back very early Wednesday morning. That's when her jeans
tore, and I found that scrap of material caught on the sheet
metal.”

Barb wondered, “Do you suppose we could get
Deputy Menendez to have somebody check the long-term parking garage
at the airport for her car? I don't even know what kind or color
car she drove, but the police could get that information if they
want to. Annie, why don't you call Menendez? I think you should do
it right now.”

Annie looked at her friends; they looked at
her, and she could read their minds. She reached for the telephone
on the end table. “I don't want to call 911; I'd rather call the
sheriff's office directly. Where's your phone book?” DeeDee pointed
to a shelf. As she thumbed through the directory, Annie said,
“Before I dial, will you bow your heads with me? I feel a sentence
prayer coming on: God, it's Annie down here and my dear friends
too. We are really involved in ‘Our Mystery.' Guide us, protect us,
and help us make good decisions. Thanks, God. In Jesus' name,
Amen.”

Her friends were encouraged by the length of
Annie's phone conversation with Sgt. Menendez. If the sergeant
thought Annie was being frivolous, she would have cut her off in
short fashion, but she didn't; she listened, and she asked
questions. Annie was smiling when she hung up. “I think she's going
to do it. She's going to ask Tampa police to check out the airport
after she determines Twila's license plate, car make and color. Now
that her brother and sister-in-law have filed a formal complaint of
a missing person, we're getting cooperation. Isn't that
wonderful?”

They all agreed it was great to be working
with the law instead of just trying to convince them that a crime
had been committed.

Annie brought out a legal pad and pen from
the tote she had brought with her. “I think we need to make notes
of what has happened so far—to make a time chart of of what we know
and of what we've found.”

The Golfin' Gals worked hard setting down the
facts and details that they knew. They stayed focused on the
matter; not one of them began to gossip. They were committed to
proving there was a body, and they thought that body was Twila
Thompson's. They also believed that Karl Kreeger was trying to hide
her body.

Verna speculated, “Do you suppose DeeDee's
right—that Karl lost his tempah and pushed her? Knocked her
over?”

“An' jest like in tha movies, she hit her
head an' it killed her!”

“If they were meeting on the stage, and he
shoved her, she could have fallen off the stage. If she hit her
head just right, that could have killed her,” Barb reasoned. “Maybe
broke her neck?”

Annie didn't think their ideas were
far-fetched. She rubbed her left temple as she said, “And like we
reasoned before, if no one finds a body, it's hard to prove there's
a crime. So, maybe, just maybe, Karl's been trying to hide Twila's
body. He's had to move it around a lot. This cold weather put a
damper in his plans.”

“That's right!” Verna said enthusiastically,
“He couldn't bury the body until just before they would pour the
cement or a fox or something might dig it up.”

“If he didn't bury it deep enough,” DeeDee
added, “those Sand Hill Cranes could expose it with their long
bills.”

“And that's why he's had to keep moving it.
He had to keep the body out of sight until he could bury it in the
cart path. Once cement was poured over the body, he was scot-free,”
Annie concluded.

 

* * *

 

After the four women finished jotting down
what they knew about the traveling corpse, they began to make a
second list about what they suspected of Karl Kreeger. Annie jotted
them down in the order her friends recalled the incidents:

Told his wife they were moving out of the
park; she doesn't want to leave BradLee.

He put his house up for sale; this seemed to
be a sudden decision.

Karl saw Annie open the drawer on Monday
night.

They knew he called the first half of Bingo
on Monday night, as usual. But they didn't see him when they went
back to Old Main with the deputies.

Karl never speaks about having an assistant
appointed by the Board of Trustees to Jiggs, who is his close
friend and Bingo worker. Maybe Jiggs is lying.

DeeDee saw a man the size of Karl lift
something up from behind the A/C units and head off through the
shuffleboard courts early Wednesday morning.

Told his wife he needed their golf cart on
Wednesday, a.m. and drove off even though Kitty had told him
earlier that she needed it that day.

His wife saw their cart parked in a driveway
of friends that were out of town. Could he have left the body in
the cart? The side curtains were down; so it wouldn't be easy for
anyone to see it unless they walked up to the cart.

Annie and Barb wonder if Karl saw them go
into the new bathroom on the golf course; that could be why the
body was moved from the restroom.

Annie and Barb saw a golf cart that looked
like Karl's parked half hidden behind a shed in a field with
ostriches and emus.

Wire fence was partially cut.

Jiggs drives Karl home from the Tampa airport
on Wednesday. They think Karl drove Twila's car to the airport.

 

After they finished their list, Verna asked,
“You know what we haven't considered? What about this? Maybe Karl
left the car in the airport parking lot, and maybe, just maybe, he
left her body in it!”

DeeDee gasped, “What a horrible thing ta do,
but it would be a smart way ta get rid of that body fer a few
days.”

I'll add it to our list:

Body may be in her car at Tampa airport.

 

Annie rubbed her temple with her left hand,
“But I don't feel comfortable about the track we're on, something
isn't right. We're not sure what time Jiggs picked Karl up at the
airport on Wednesday. It would have had to be late on Wednesday
because Barb saw the body in the restroom that afternoon, and I
caught a glimpse of him at the BradLee dinner.”

“They could have driven to Tampa after the
dinner,” Verna said.

“I suppose they could,” Annie agreed, “but I
don't have good vibes about that scenario. In fact, I have an idea
tickling my brain.”

“Oh, oh!” Barb exclaimed. “We're in for more
adventure! What is it?”

“I don't know about adventure. Actually, it
may be boring.”

“Things aren't usually boring when you're
involved, Annie,” DeeDee laughed.

“Tell us what you have up your sleeve,” Verna
urged.

Annie hesitated then blurted out, “I want to
go on a stake-out.”

“When?”

“Tonight.”

“In this cool weather?”

“I can't control the weather. It has to be
tonight. I think tomorrow will be too late,” Annie answered.

“Too late for what?” Barb asked.

“To see if Karl buries the body.”

“Where?”

“In that new golf cart path the men are
working on near Blue Number Five. I think the men are planning to
pour the cement tomorrow.” Annie went on to explain, “That's why we
need to go tonight. We should drive our golf carts over there and
park them where we can't be easily seen, but where we can see the
path near the tee and the field with the ostriches and emus. We
need to get there just after dark. You'll have to be very quiet.
You can't even cough or sneeze!”

Her friends sat there stunned into
silence.