BM03 - Crazy Little Thing Called Dead Read Online Free Page B

to my chair. The trouble with this arrangement was that Hambecker was effectively out of my line of sight. I could see him only if I swiveled my chair or turned my head to look directly at him. I was pretty sure he did that on purpose. I turned my attention to Tom, trying to convince myself that I didn’t care where Hambecker was.
    Tom leaned back, stretching his legs out to the side of my workspace. There wasn’t any tension in him either, and I might have relaxed if it wasn’t for the knowledge that Hambecker was behind me.
    Tom pulled a voice recorder from his pocket and put it on my desk. “MacGowan, I want you to walk us through what happened yesterday. Go slow; give us as much detail as you can.”
    I turned to look at Hambecker. His face was unreadable. I found that incredibly annoying.
    “You never did say why Hambecker is here.”
    A ghost of a smile appeared at the corners of his mouth. “I’m consulting.”
    I raised my eyebrows.
    “The dead guy is a person of interest.”
    “Who is, uh, was he?” I asked.
    “There’s a possibility that this death is related to a case the Feds are working on. Richard is here to look into that.” Tom looked like he had a stomach ache. “Can we get on with this?”
    I nodded and took a breath, casting back. I started with the drive into town and took them through what I’d seen until Tom arrived at the salon. There wasn’t much to tell since we hadn’t been in the shop for more than a minute.
    “I got gypped. I was supposed to get my hair cut.”
    “You made out better than the guy in the salon.” I swear Tom was making an effort not to roll his eyes at me.
    “Too true. That’s it. I don’t have anything else for you. Can I ask a question?”
    “Fire away,” Tom leaned back. “I don’t promise I’ll be able to answer it.
    “Why’d he have a diaper taped to him?”
    “We think they were transporting him and didn’t want to leave a blood trail. He had one taped to his back too.”
    “That’s gross. And weird. Did they happen to have diapers on hand, or did they have to go out and buy them? And did they think of that ahead of time and go out and buy them first or after the fact?” I narrowed my eyes. “Do you know who he is?” I threw the important question in at the end. With any luck it would be the easiest to answer, and Tom would tell me.
    “All good questions,” Tom said. “But I suggest you leave those questions to us. You’ll be giving yourself nightmares.”
    I snorted. “If finding the other two bodies didn’t give me nightmares then this won’t. There wasn’t even any blood on the ground.” Compared to the other two bodies I’d found a balding man in a bad suit with diapers taped to him was almost pleasant.
    “Whatever you say,” Tom said. “But I happen to know you aren’t as tough as you think you are.” He stood up. “We’ll call you if we need anything else.”
    “Don’t you need me to sign a statement or something?” I knew a bit about cops; they always made you sign things.
    “I’ll get this typed up and bring it by for you to sign. No need for you to drive down to the barracks. My wife would kill me if I pulled you away from the office during paste up.” Tom smiled. “Where is she, by the way? She’s usually here by now.”
    “Last I saw her she was at the coffee shop.” I indicated the restaurant below us. “Hang on. You’re going to type that up? Isn’t that a little below the status of the Captain of the barracks?”
    “When I said ‘I’ll get this typed up,’ what I meant was I’ll have an admin type it up. I wasn’t planning on doing it myself.” He moved toward the door. “I think I’ll have Vicki do it, she’s fast.”
    “Come on Tom, give me something here. Was the dead guy from here?” Just because I’d never seen him alive didn’t mean he hadn’t lived around here somewhere. “Why was he dressed in clothes that didn’t fit him?”
    Tom shrugged. “Couldn’t tell you.” He