The Traveling Corpse Read Online Free Page A

any happier about having to
come out in this weather than we are.” Both Art and Brad knew,
though, that nothing would keep them home if their wives needed
them; they’d be right by their sides.
    Art added, “And I’ll bet those deputies are
asking themselves, ‘What trifling thing has upset the little old
seniors tonight?’ You can bet it’s something serious, or Annie
would not have called the Sheriff’s department for help.”
    Â 
    * * *
    Â 
    Actually, Art wasn’t far from the mark.
Earlier, Maria Menendez, a trim, dark-haired, thirty-year-old woman
who had recently been promoted to the rank of sergeant, hung up the
telephone at the Sheriff’s Department. She then called her
assistant, Deputy Joe Juarez, and said, “We’ve got a weird one
tonight, and the moon isn’t even full!” Juarez, young and athletic,
was new on the force, and like Menendez, he was of Latin descent;
he was Mexican, and she was Cuban. Recently, he had hired on at the
county Sheriff’s Department after finishing a two-year criminal
justice course of study at a local community college. Neither of
the officers was thrilled to have to go out in a storm to answer a
call that seemed strange—a real lulu.
    â€œTell me again,” Joe asked his sergeant as
she got into his car, “Why didn’t that woman get a look at the dead
woman’s face? It was right there in the drawer, wasn’t it?”
    â€œIt’s the weird ones that make our job
interesting,” Maria Menendez answered as she fastened her seat
belt. “All I know is what that Andersen woman told me on the phone.
She claims she is a Registered Nurse, now retired and that there is
a dead woman in some storage drawer in BradLee’s Old Main
Clubhouse. She told me that she didn’t want to cause a panic at
Bingo; so she just slid the drawer back and called us. If she’s
actually a nurse, she must know a dead person when she sees
one.”
    â€œBut, she didn’t see a dead person. You said
she only saw a dead arm and hand!” Joe shook his head, not
convinced that this wasn’t a joke of some kind.
    â€œWell, my little friend,” Maria said to the
young deputy who towered over her 5 foot 3 inch slender frame, “we
may get wet, but we need to check this one out. Don’t put the siren
on. No need to upset the little old seniors yet. They’ll be put off
enough because their phones are out. We’ll be getting calls
complaining, ‘Why can’t you make the Electric Company keep the
electricity on?’ They’ll whine, ‘It doesn’t go off all the time up
North where we used to live.’ Personally, if they like their
precious North so much, why don’t they just stay up there?” Maria
ended decisively.
    â€œIf you’re not fond of retirees,” Juarez
said, “then you’re living in the wrong state.”
    â€œI know. Florida is God’s holding pen. It
isn’t that I dislike older people, it’s just that I’ve had some
unpleasant dealings with some of them. Maybe this case will make me
change my mind,” she responded as she drummed her fingers on her
thighs.
    â€œFrom the memo you just gave me,” Joe Juarez
said, “I wouldn’t bank on it.”
    They drove on without talking until Joe broke
the silence, saying, “Some of the lights have come back on over on
the west side of town. Maybe we’ll get lucky, and BradLee’s lights
will be on by the time we get there. That would make things easier
for us,” he said.
    Menendez answered, “Lights will certainly
make it easier to identify a body. But there is usually nothing
easy about solving a murder. However, it will be better if we’re
there to find the body than if Mrs. Andersen had tried to handle it
by herself. She probably did the cool thing. She actually sounded
fairly sensible on the phone. Well, here we are. For