The Traveling Corpse (2 page)

It was soft and definitely not box-shaped. It
felt … fleshy … but not warm like flesh. She steeled
herself and explored further, all the time thinking it had to be a
mannequin, a joke, a prank, a—something besides what her nurse's
training was telling her that it was. It was an arm, a woman's arm.
How can this be?
She slid her fingers down the limb and
closed them around a delicate and deathly cold hand. Annie had
spent years as a hospital nurse, so it was natural for her to try
to find a pulse. There was none.

“Bingo!” Just then three players yelled
out.

Bingo!
Annie thought.
Bingo! I
think I've hit the jackpot of … of—trouble!

She felt faint, but she also knew she needed
to keep her self-control, the only thing keeping her from yelling
out,
Murder!
Instead, she forced herself to remain quiet,
thinking,
Screaming will surely cause a commotion and upset all
these old Bingo players. You'll have fifteen heart-attacks on your
hands before you can say… well … Bingo!
Glancing up at
the stage, she was glad to see that Karl was watching Jiggs and two
other Call-Back Workers counting out twenty dollar bills to a trio
of simultaneous winners.

A suspicious thought popped into her mind.
Only yesterday, Barb had told her a rumor that her husband, Brad,
had told her. He was on the Board of Directors for the park. He
told his wife that the Board was quietly investigating a problem
with the Bingo leadership. Hushed questions were being asked about
whether or not Karl might be skimming money from the games each
week. Armed with that bit of knowledge and a dead body, Annie
quickly decided,
Tonight is not the best time to go hunting for
Valentines.

As calmly as possible, Annie picked up one of
the boxes she had pulled out previously and bent down to put it
away. She took a quick peek. Part of the torso and the right arm
and hand of a petite woman was all that was visible. A box covered
the face and shoulders and a large plastic bag over her legs and
feet trailed off beneath other supplies. Expensive jewelry caught
Annie's eye. On the index finger, there was a large ruby ring
surrounded by tiny diamonds. Around the delicate wrist there was a
heavy gold chain bracelet. She also noted that the fingernails on
the right hand were polished bright red, and they were not chipped,
indicating a recent manicure. And those certainly looked like
designer jeans to Annie.

She had never been so scared in all her life.
Putting a hand to her left temple, a gesture she did habitually
when she was troubled, she said a quick sentence prayer
, Lord,
it's Annie down here. I'm scared. Guide me, please. In Jesus' name,
Amen.
A sense of peace and reassurance began to flow through
her. Thinking quickly, she concluded,
Whoever is in that drawer
is dead, and if she is dead, she can wait in there a little longer,
maybe until Bingo is over. After all, it's not like she's going
anywhere!

Her nimble mind was flying, and a chill ran
through her bringing goose bumps as she realized she had serious
cause to be alarmed.
If there is a dead body in there, then that
means there is probably a live murderer around here, probably right
here in this room. Possibly he's watching my every move right this
minute!
As fast as she could, Annie piled the remaining boxes
back on top of the dead woman, shoved the drawer in under the stage
and somehow managed to walk to the kitchen without stumbling.

Tall, elegant Barb was shocked when she saw
her friend. “Annie, what's wrong? You're as white as your hair! Are
you feeling okay? Do I need to call an ambulance?” Annie put a
finger to her lips and collapsed onto a metal folding chair in a
corner of the kitchen. Barb was puzzled but moved to shield her
friend from the stares of the other kitchen volunteers. Herb Harris
was more interested in Annie than watching the brats and hot-dogs
he was grilling. Mac stopped washing a pan, straightened up from
the sink and stared. The twins, Dolly and Molly, let the trays full
of wrapped pieces of cake they carried tilt at precarious
angles.

Barb demanded in her hushed but authoritative
school teacher voice, “What happened out there? You look like you
saw a ghost!” She grabbed a pack of paper napkins and used them to
fan her friend. “You were only gone a few minutes! What did you do
in that short amount of time that upset you so?”

Purposely speaking loud enough for others to
hear, Annie summoned up the strength to ask, “Barb will you get me
a damp towel? I don't know what came over me. I could use some
fresh air.” Barb hurried to wet a tea towel and then helped Annie
out the back door of the kitchen and on to the screened patio. A
gust of wind caught the door and blew it wide open. Garlands of
Spanish moss hanging from the nearby live Oak trees danced wildly.
A storm was brewing, and Barb was brewing with curiosity.

“Annie Andersen,” Barb warned as soon as they
were outside, “tell me what happened to you or I'll … I'll—”

Annie cut in, “Barb, you said I looked like a
ghost. Well, I didn't see a ghost, but, believe me, and I certainly
hope you will believe me, I did see a dead body! Or at least I saw
part of a dead body!”

Barb's attitude quickly changed to amazement
as Annie told her about feeling the arm of a dead woman in the
storage drawer. She trembled, “I'd have screamed if I'd touched a
dead person!”

“No, you wouldn't have, Barb. That would have
been the last thing to do. Not with all those old people sitting in
there!” Annie warned.

Barb pointed out, regaining her humor,
“They're not any older than we are.”

“Oh, well, I guess you're right. But I just
didn't want to scare them. Look at how upset I am, and I was a
nurse for over forty years!”

“Well, you certainly scared me. You've got to
call the police.”

“I will, of course,” Annie assured her, “But
I didn't want to use the kitchen phone. I didn't want anyone to
overhear me calling a law officer.”

Surprised, Barb asked, “Why didn't you want
anyone to know you were calling the police? That seems like the
first thing you should do.”

“Think about it, Barb. The murderer could
have been there watching me.”

“Oh, I didn't think of that. That's downright
scary, isn't it?”

“It is,” Annie admitted. “And I
am
scared. If he were watching me, and I'm not sure whether it's a he
or a she, he doesn't know if I saw the body or not. I tried to be
careful not to show any emotion. I thought I'd be safer that
way.”

“That was using your head,” Barb praised her
friend. “What do you want to do now?”

“Please, take me home. I'll call the police
from there.”

The two senior women hurried across the paved
courtyard which lay between Old Main and the Shuffleboard Building.
Just as they neared Barb's electric golf cart, a jagged streak of
lightning cut through the night sky. Thunder clapped so close that
it jolted them. “I know we need to hurry,” Barb cautioned, “but
we'd better take a few minutes to let down the sides on the golf
cart or we'll be soaking wet once the heavens open up.” They tore
at the Velcro tapes, and the clear plastic sides unrolled and
dropped down. “Just snap a few of the front snaps and some along
the bottom edge, enough to hold the side curtains from blowing
out,” Barb instructed. “Don't take time to do them all. Then hop in
and zip up.” When they were snug inside, she pushed the pedal down,
and they drove noiselessly out of the courtyard.

“My long skirt feels good tonight,” Annie
sighed, tucking the denim material around her legs. While most of
the women in the park dressed in slacks or Bermuda-length shorts,
she often wore a Granny dress, an easy fitting, floor-length cotton
dress or jumper. Annie had explained earlier to her friends, “I
just like to wear dresses, always have.” Her friends had smiled
back politely, not convinced that dresses were better than shorts
or slacks for casual wear.

The strong wind pushed against the little
cart making it hard to steer. Then a deluge of rain suddenly
blanketed them. Another streak of lightning was followed by a
jolting boom. Immediately, all of BradLee Park was swallowed up in
darkness. Once again, an electrical storm hit with fury; a frequent
happening in central Florida. As she slowed down and strained to
see her way with only the little headlights to guide her, Barb
complained, “Tampa area and central Florida get more electric
storms than anyplace else in the nation.”

“I know we do,” Annie groaned. “And when the
lights go out then the phone lines usually go dead, too! Whatever
will we do? I need a telephone, and I need it now.”

With a quick movement, Barb swung the
steering wheel to the left and said, “Change of plans. We'll go to
Verna and Von's instead.”

“Why there?”

“Von has a cell phone.”

Strange as it seemed, few of them in their
‘gang' of four couples who were all close friends had not made the
leap to cell phones as of yet, with the exception of Von who had
one for emergencies only. They were content with their
‘land-lines'.
Why would anyone actually want to be reachable
twenty-four hours a day?
was the general consensus when they
discussed it amongst themselves. They laughed at the notion of
answering a call while on the golf course or at the pool. Wasn't
that part of the point of getting out of the house and enjoying
recreation? That you were ‘off duty' and good news or bad, it would
have to wait?
These youngsters nowadays,
they concluded,
are wound way too tight. Everything has to be now, now, now!
Even a phone call couldn't wait.

“I do wish that Art were here or at least
that I could talk to him now. And your Brad, too.” Annie said.
“Both of our husbands have such level heads; they'd know what was
best to do in this situation.”

“Hey, girl, I think you're doing just fine
with all the stress you're under. And the fellows should be back
from that shuffleboard tournament soon.”

Annie asked, “Did Mr. B go with them?”

Mr. B was Brad's father, Barb's
father-in-law. He was the original ‘Brad' in BradLee Park, and Lee
was a nick-name for Leah, Barb's mother-in-law. When their only son
enrolled at Florida State University and decided he wanted to be an
electrical engineer and not a truck farmer, the B's sold their farm
in southern Michigan and moved to central Florida. At first they
ran cattle on their newly purchased land northeast of Tampa.
Friends and family visited and enjoyed spending winters in this
friendly, economical part of the state. So, the Bradkowskis bought
a small travel trailer to use as a guest house. More came. From
that innocent beginning, Brad and Lee Bradkowski slowly turned
their cattle ranch into a beautiful retirement park filled with
manufactured homes set on spacious lots.

Answering Annie's question about Mr. B, Barb
said, “Yes, he felt up to going. He wasn't playing, though; this
tournament wasn't for pros, and Mr. B's a pro, you know,” Barb
added proudly. “Only amateurs competed today. He likes to go
whenever Brad is playing, hoping his son will be able to turn pro,
too.”

“Mr. B always has a good joke or two to tell
so Brad should have a good story to share with us when he gets
home,” Annie commented.

“We can all use some cheering up after what
happened to you tonight.”

Annie agreed and then added, “I think they
were going to eat after the tournament at that famous restaurant,
the one that's named for some Florida tree. You always have to wait
to get a table there.”

“True, but they'd be getting to the
restaurant early, before the big rush; so I don't expect them to be
late getting back.”

“I hope you're right,” Annie murmured. “I'd
sure like Art's support right now.”

“You don't want to wait for them to get here
before you call the police, do you?”

“No, I think I'll explode if we have to keep
this secret much longer!”

The howling wind grew louder, making it hard
to hear one another. They fell silent and sat forward, straining to
see their way through the storm. The wind made Annie nervous; she
had never liked wind ever since she lived through a deadly tornado
in the Mid-West when she was a ten year old child. Now, she had the
same sick feeling in the pit of her stomach as she had then, but
this time it wasn't caused by the storm.

 

 

* * *

 

 

Tuesday Evening, 6:30
P.M
.

 

It was a great relief to both women when they
finally drove under the shelter of Vigeaux's carport. There was
enough room on the wide cement drive for Barb to pull her golf cart
alongside Von's Lincoln Town Car. They were happy to be protected
from the heavy rain as they wiggled out of the side curtains. They
had to pound hard on the side door of their friend's manufactured
home to be heard over the storm. When Von finally came to the door,
he hurried them inside away from the stiff wind that was now
blowing the rain sideways into the carport.

“Quick!” said Annie to Verna and Von without
waiting to greet her friends, “May I use your cell phone. Please,
it's really an emergency!”

The Vigeauxs looked at Barb for an
explanation, “She needs to call the police. She really does.”

“You're welcome to use it, but it's in my
car. We'll have to go outside. And, oh, you need to call the
sheriff, not the police. BradLee's in the county, not the
city.”