The Traveling Corpse (9 page)

The BradLee family stood as one and clapped
and clapped and clapped. Barb whispered to Annie, “Remember what I
told you—that the Board thinks Karl is skimming money from
Bingo?”

Annie nodded, “Yes.”

Barb continued, “Think about all the luxuries
Karl has been buying lately. Last month it was a new van and this
month he bought a brand-new golf cart. It's blue with gray side
curtains and his and Kitty's names are painted on the front in
gray.”

“It's a beauty,” Annie agreed. “The rest of
us that are lucky enough to have a golf cart have cream-colored
ones that are re-conditioned and came from some country club. One
key will start any of them.”

After they sat down again, Nelly took the
mike and asked DeeDee to come to the piano on the stage. Nelly
called out the names of those having birthdays that week and asked
each honoree to stand. DeeDee struck the opening chord, and
everyone joined her, singing: “Happy Birthday to you! Happy
Birthday to you! Happy Birthday, God Bless You, Happy Birthday to
you!” She played the familiar song a second time, and they sang to
those couples having wedding anniversaries

Nelly had a long list of announcements about
the many activities running in their park. It was nearly ten
o'clock, and the crowd was getting restless. Nelly had a reputation
as a good storyteller; so they stayed to the end to hear Nelly'
closing joke: “This is a true story. This summer I met a woman on
my trip to the Gaspe Peninsula. Her husband seemed to be a very
nice man, if a little exacting. The woman rolled her eyes and told
me, ‘When I married Mr. Right, I didn't know his first name was
Always!'”

 

* * *

As soon as Coffee Hour was over, the crowd
began leaving. Von joined Tom-Tom and his ‘Merry Men' and began
straightening the chairs under tables and sweeping out the room.
Doc headed for the kitchen, and Brad walked to the Annex for the
Board's workshop. Art and the four women began decorating the hall.
Barb, who was a natural organizer, and a very efficient one,
immediately took charge. Annie chuckled to herself; she didn't mind
that her friend was taking over her job. DeeDee winked at Annie,
letting her know that she knew that Barb was being Barb, probably
without realizing she was being pushy.

Barb said, “Some of you should start by
taking down the winter decorations on the stage so we won't be in
the way of Tom-Tom and his crew. The rest of you should sort out
these Valentine decorations and decide what goes where. Then when
the room is clear, Art, will you please get the ladder from the
storage room? You'll need to get the January decorations down
before we can hang the February ones.”

Verna, who loved anything red, held up a big
red heart and exclaimed, “Oh, I do love Valentine's Day. All this
gorgeous red; it's almost as pretty as Christmas!”

DeeDee took a snowflake cut-out off the wall.
Before packing it away, she waved it, saying, “Darlin' ya are tha
only kind of snow I want ta see an-y-more! My grands can go
sleddin' all they want; I'm stayin' right here in sunny
Flow-ri-dah!” The others cheered.

While they were working, Verna asked, “Are we
playing golf this afternoon?”

“I'd like to,” said Barb. “Are you up to it,
Annie?”

“It's a beautiful day, even if it is
chilly.”

“The weathah man said it's supposed to warm
up to 65 degrees this afternoon,” Verna said.

“That will feel good. Yes, I'll play if we
can go out later in the afternoon. I could use a nap; I hardly
slept last night.”

“Tee off at three o'clock, okay?” asked
Verna. “Can't be much later because it gets dark a little after
five.”

Annie nodded and DeeDee said, “Fine with me.
Will ya pick me up, Verna? Doc will need our cart ta get home
later.”

Since Barb and Annie lived near one another,
they usually rode together. Barb said, “I'll pick you up a little
after two-thirty.”

Annie thanked her. “That's great if we can
use your golf cart, then Art can take ours.” She turned to her
husband, “Are the fellows pouring cement this afternoon?”

Barb interrupted, “I thought you usually
worked on pouring cement for the cart paths first thing in the
mornings, why the change?”

“Something about the cement truck, when it
could come,” Art answered. “Also the cold weather held them up. I'm
not sure about this afternoon. We'll have to wait and see.”

“I'll be glad when the paths are finished. It
will be so much nicer to drive on cement instead of those bumpy
dirt paths,” Verna said.

“What I want is for them to finish the new
bathroom and take that old port-a-johnny away. Anymore, I just
can't make it around nine holes without a pit stop,” Annie
said.

Art explained, “Since we didn't pour cement
yesterday, some of the men worked on the new bathrooms. They might
have the double one on the fifth hole finished by now, not sure
though.”

“That would be lovely,” Annie said.

Von walked up to his friends. “Anything left
for me to do?”

Barb jumped in, “We're about done here, but
Annie would like for us to empty that tenth drawer and straighten
it up. You can help me. It really needs to be organized. And, by
the way, have you noticed that there are no Christmas decorations
in here?”

“There's so many more of them; they're stored
somewhere else. I think they're kept in tha barn,” DeeDee called as
she hung a cardboard cupid shooting a red arrow. “Do ya really want
ta do more work? I've a mind that we've done enough work fer taday.
Let's jest rest, then go play golf. I jest wantta get my mind off
everything nasty an' jest play! No more murders or mysteries! It's
jest too much fer a little old lady ta worry about!”

But Barb paid no attention to DeeDee's
complaint and kept right on emptying the drawer. DeeDee winked at
Annie again. They shared the little joke that when Barb was set on
doing something, it got done.

Barb pulled out the only plastic bag that was
in that drawer. There were some Halloween things in it, but there
was something else. She looked inside the bag, then quickly
squeezed it shut. She looked around the hall checking to see if
only their gang was there. Everyone else had left the hall except
the kitchen crew, and they were all behind the closed kitchen door.
She called, urgently, “Come here everybody. You've got to see this!
Look what I found.” Reaching down in the bag, Barb pulled out a
shoe. She held it up for them to see a blue denim sneaker.

“That's it!” screamed Annie. Then lowering
her voice, she said, “That's the mate to the one DeeDee found this
morning. Isn't it, Art? DeeDee?”

“It sure looks like a match ta me. Don't
touch it, anyone. Fingerprints, ya know. This almost proves fer
certain that a body was in this drawer. I'll get tha aluminum foil.
Then I'll slip it ta Doc so he can hide it in tha freezer with tha
other package.” Before heading to the kitchen, DeeDee cautioned her
friends, “Don't tell anyone. Annie jest might get hurt if anyone
bad finds out ‘bout our evidence.”

“Thank you,” Annie said. “I'm counting on all
of you to back me up when we tell that officer where Barb found
this matching shoe. I've just got to make the sergeant and her
deputy believe me. I
know
there's a body somewhere, and it's
probably still here in BradLee Park. But, where?”

“Hopefully,” Verna added, “finding that
matching shoe will give those deputies something to chew on! They
certainly haven't digested anything Annie's fed them so far!”

Barb suddenly decided she'd done enough with
the decorations for now; somebody else could finish the job. She
stuffed the last box into the drawer and said, “I think we're done
here. Does it look okay to you, Annie?”

“Good job,” she answered. “Thanks for
pitching in everybody; I appreciate your support. The room looks
very festive.”

Art said, “If we're done here, Annie, I'd
like to sit in on the rest of the workshop meeting. Join me?”

“Sure.”

“I have to wait for Brad, so I'll come too,”
Barb said.

“I may as well join y'all. Then I'll get Doc
to drive me home,” said DeeDee.

The Vigeauxs said they were heading home.

 

* * *

 

Because they lived close to Old Main, Verna
and Von usually walked to Coffee Hour. After the decorations were
all hung and their plans made for afternoon golf, they said
good-bye to their friends. As they were leaving the clubhouse, Von
said to his wife, “Let's go out the courtyard door.”

“Why do you want to go that way?” asked
Verna. “It's out-of-the-way.”

“I was thinking about what DeeDee told us
earlier, you know, about seeing something happen around the
air-conditioning units. It was dark when all that happened. I
wonder if she ever checked it out in the daylight? I'd like to take
a look,” suggested Von.

Outside, they studied the four big A/C units
which were quiet on this cold morning. Each unit had a large curved
chimney made of sheet metal on top of the square base. The chimney
directed hot air away from the overhang of the clubhouse roof. The
air-conditioners didn't fit snug against the wall. “There's not
much room between the wall and the A/C,” Verna observed. “Look,
Von, it would be a tight squeeze to get a body back there. And it
wouldn't be hidden very well, now would it?”

“No, it wouldn't be completely hidden, but,
remember, it was dark, and if you weren't looking for something
back there, you probably wouldn't see it—walk right by it. Besides,
nobody comes here except Security after the building's locked up,
and they didn't have any idea that they should be looking for a
body out here,” Von reasoned.

“Didn't both the Andersens and Davises drive
their golf carts here early this morning?” Verna asked, then
answered her own question, “I think Art parked here in the
courtyard, but Doc parked closer to the kitchen patio door.”

“But, remember, Verna, like Security, they
weren't looking for anything out here when they parked.” Von began
poking around the A/C units which were bolted into the cement just
outside the west side wall of Old Main.

“Looks to me like one of those big funnels
would be a perfect place to shove a body down into,” Verna
said.

“It does, doesn't it?” her husband answered,
“but she was laid out straight in that drawer. If rigor mortis had
set in, maybe you couldn't bend the body, and her feet would hang
out of the funnel.” He turned to examine the space behind the
units. “I suppose you could wedge a body back here, especially if
it were a small woman. Look, Verna, look here behind this A/C. If
you stuffed it back there, the body would be off the ground on top
of the A/C base and wedged behind its chimney.”

“That would be good,” his wife reasoned,
“because it would be harder for a fox to get at it.” She started
checking the other A/C units and soon called excitedly, “Von! Von!
Look at this! Look at what I found!” She pointed to a tiny scrap of
material which was caught on the back side of a metal chimney.
Under a rough piece of sheet metal there was a scrap of light blue
denim. Von pried it out with his pocketknife.

Verna fingered it carefully and said, “I
think this is torn off a pair of jeans, and it matches that light
blue canvas sneakah Barb just found. Somebody must have hid her
body here and left her overnight. Probably, when the murderah
pulled her body out this morning, this tiny bit of cloth got caught
on the chimney.” Verna headed for the kitchen as she said, “I'll
get some aluminum foil and give it to Doc to hide with the rest of
our evidence. Von, you were so smart to think to check out these
A/C units!”

“Thank you, darlin'. I'll go with you to the
kitchen. After you give that bit of cloth to Doc, we should find
the Andersens.”

Verna quietly walked up to Doc where he was
slicing meat. From the look on Verna's face, he knew this was no
time for a joke or smart remark. She opened her hand, and he saw
the scrap of material. All she said was, “Please take good care of
this.”

Realizing that it was more evidence to be
locked in the freezer, Doc said, “I'll get some foil.”

 

* * *

The workshop meeting was winding down as Von
and Verna pushed open the swinging door into the Annex and found
chairs at the back of the room.

Art, Annie, DeeDee, and Barb were all
surprised to see them come in the meeting after telling them they
were going home. They figured something important had occurred. As
soon as the business meeting was over, the friends moved to a
corner of the room, and the Vigeauxs told them about finding the
denim material caught behind an A/C unit.

“What a wonderful piece of detective work.
This is absolutely an important piece of our puzzle. Thank you,
Verna. Thank you, Von,” Annie said sincerely.

“I think it's time to call that deputy,” Art
said firmly.

“Come over to our house to use the phone,”
Verna suggested.

“Yes, it'll be a lot more private at our
place than using the phone here in Old Main,” Von urged.

“I don't want ta miss anything,” DeeDee said.
“I'm comin', too.”

“We'll be over, too,” Barb said, “as soon as
Brad finishes here.”

 

* * *

Brad and Barb arrived at the Vigeaux's just
as Annie hung up their phone. “I convinced Sgt. Menendez to come
and pick up our freezer-cold evidence,” Annie told them. “She said
she'd be over in fifteen minutes. Mind if we wait here?”