“Anyone tell you you’re over-attached to plans, son?” Major Goodall broke in from below. Tom frowned at him but didn’t answer. I tried.
“I don’t know exactly. The idea is the doctor and the lawyer will come. We’ll see who has more to offer for the return of the corpse and see what they want done with it. If they want it to disappear forever, or to be released directly to them, that will tell us a lot.”
“I don’t know that it will tell us anything. But looky, there’s your plan, Tom. Happy?” Major Goodall chuckled in the dark. I wrinkled my nose at him. It didn’t sound like much of one when said out loud, I supposed.
Tom stopped, hands on hips and frowning in the direction of the cemetery. “Well, where’s the body snatchers? This place gives me the creeps. Why’d they take him anyway?”
“The boy, Pete, was sure that Gerald had been murdered, and wanted to take the body before the evidence disappeared. I think that was about as far ahead as their planning went.”
“Takes a hell of a nerve to pull off something like that, no planning, and in daytime,” Major Goodall offered again. The pipe smoke smelled sweet and filthy at the same time. I was glad for the company.
“He happened to have chloroform in his truck. Said he makes deliveries and solves problems for Benny Franklin. Wonder if I should say something about having met his boss?” I doubted that.
“Won’t impress him. ’Sides, you’d have to tell him about the second time Tom broke his nose.” Major Goodall was laughing now, and Tom gave up being angry and chuckled a bit. I didn’t. Tom had been lucky to not be killed.
I walked to the front of the building, squinting into the darkness, hoping to see the lights of a car pulling in. No such luck yet. I walked back to Tom settling in next to Major Goodall, although he stood when I was near.
“Larry, I don’t like this meeting in the dark, with people who have most likely killed. You need to take this—” He extended his hand to me, something small and reflective in his hand. It was a tiny revolver, smaller than Tom’s hand, but it looked perfectly sized for my fingers.
“A pistol? Tom, I’ve never fired one of those in my life. I’m just as likely to shoot myself.”
“Well, don’t do that. The trick with guns is to only point at what you want to shoot.” I rolled my eyes. I’d shot a pellet gun a few times as a kid, but nothing more than that. My brother and daddy hunted, of course, but I’d never been much interested.
“Tom, I don’t really—”
“I don’t care, Larry. You put this thing in your purse, and don’t touch it for all I care, but if you don’t take it I’m going to leave. I don’t like any of this one bit.” He was serious, I could tell. I sighed and carefully put the gun, barrel down, into my little handbag. It wasn’t cocked, so there shouldn’t be a way for it to go off. I was not happy about this either.
Luckily, before any further conditions could be imposed, a light painted the front of the building. The beam waved over close to us. I turned and sauntered toward it, putting my hand up in front of my eyes.
“Who’s there?”
“Pete.”
“Good, come on over, Pete. We’ve been waiting for you.”
The light turned off, and Pete and Kitty rounded the corner, arm in arm. She was wearing my coat and looking happy and warm, which made me feel a bit warmer in the chill. I did so miss the fur collar though.
Pete paused for a second to tip his hat to me and was letting go of Kitty’s arm when he saw Tom and Major Goodall. He grabbed Kitty, pushing her behind himself and then glared at me.
“Who’re they?”
“I’m Tom. This here’s Major Goodall. Who’re you?” Tom asked a touch cheerfully from behind me, coming up to stand next to me. Pete kept his eyes narrow and his arm in front of Kitty.
“Pete. You didn’t say nothing ’bout bringing other folks in,” he accused.
“Tom’s my husband, Major Goodall is his… associate. I thought the more people the better, as far as I’m concerned.”
Pete didn’t look happy, but he let loose of Kitty, who waved shyly at Tom. She’d tried to claw his eyes out not that long ago, but she seemed to be a different girl now.
“Do you have a plan?” Tom asked Pete hopefully.
“Naw, not much of one. Gonna see who looks guilty and then bust ’em.” Pete shrugged, then straightened his tie. I shook my head. Great. We all had the same plan.
Tom and Pete had about lost interest in each other when Pete spoke up. “Say, I think I know you.” He was studying Tom’s face. Tom tried to shrug it off, then met his gaze.
“I hear that I look like a movie star,” Tom said, which was an absolute fabrication he liked to repeat.
“Naw, I’ve met you… you were with the little nervous guy who gave me a twenty a while back!” Pete looked downright gleeful. Tom looked trapped.
“I don’t remember that… why’d I give you such a fortune?” Tom was bluffing and I knew it. I was going to find out what happened that weekend he was missing the same way he was, it seemed.
“You were in a tight spot. You pretended to put a gun in my back and then paid me to carry my deliveries so’s you could get out of the basement.” Pete was flat-out grinning now.
Tom’s mouth opened and shut, then he took another run at it. “Well, much obliged I guess.”
Pete’s smile faded, and then they started finding places to look to ignore the other. Kitty tugged at Pete’s sleeve and pointed toward the little house I’d been gazing at a few hours earlier.
“Look, I think that’s Miss Beaulah’s place!” She half whispered it. Pete frowned.
“I wish you wouldn’t go there. You know she just takes people’s money.”
“No, she really does have the gift! She helped a bunch of girls at Miss Toogie’s find love and money and—” Pete cut her off.
“She’s a witch, Kitty!”
“Not really, never heard of a—”
“Let’s not speak on it.”
Kitty looked disappointed, and I smiled politely across the little space at them. Major Goodall didn’t budge an inch, kept right on leaning against the funeral home and smoking. I was sure he was watching something carefully.
After what seemed an eternity, I heard a car approaching up the gravel drive. It stopped, but the engine was left running.
Good, we could finally get this party started. The boys all stood up straight at attention, then looked to the corner that Kitty and Pete had come around. She and I moved a bit back, away from the building front.
I suppose I should have been at the front of this mob to greet Dr. Auger, our first guest, but it didn’t seem prudent at the moment.
“Hey there, who are you?” Tom called out.
“Dr. Auger, of course. What nonsense is this? Who’s in charge here?” I heard Dr. Auger’s annoyed voice call back, coming closer. Kitty pulled on my sleeve, to back up farther with her, so I obliged by going back a few feet, craning my neck to see anything in front of the boys. I heard another noise. Was that another car? Was Mayhew here early?
Kitty tugged again, and I turned to see what she was going on about. All I saw was white, and I smelled something familiar from the hospital. Chloroform I thought, right before I couldn’t think anymore.
16
Tom spit sourly and watched the stocky man get out of the ridiculously nice black sedan.
“Shoulda been a doctor. They all got nice cars,” he said to Goodall.
Goodall grunted and stood up.
“You’re not smart enough, hoss. You’ll have to make do.”
Pete laughed, and then headed with the two of them to the doctor.
“See here, what’s going on? I’m here to meet an irritating lady detective and I don’t know, some harebrained….” The fellow was sputtering. Tom reconsidered their approach. Three men you’d never met before advancing would’ve given him pause too. Tom stepped back so the light from the funeral home’s lamp would show him.
“That irritating
lady detective is my wife.”
The doctor had the good graces to look embarrassed.
“Sorry about that. I don’t have much experience with all this, this—”
“Blackmail?” Goodall jumped in. He had a smile on his face when he said it, but Tom saw Pete flinch at the word.
“Yes, actually, that is a good word for it—”
“Hey now, it’s not blackmail ’less you’ve got a secret!” Pete was truly affronted. He was looking at Goodall and the doctor now. This wasn’t going particularly well.
“Do you have a secret?” Tom jumped in.
“No! Of course not!” The doctor blustered back, hand on the door of his car. He’d covered the ground to get back there quicker than Tom had noticed.
“Here now, no one’s saying you have anything to hide. We’re trying to figure out the best way to get the good Mr. Eymann back to his grieving widow.” Goodall could be so diplomatic.
“Well, I don’t have anything to hide. I don’t know anything about how Gerald ended up wherever he is, and I resent any imp—”
“We got it, we got it.” Pete’s fists were still balled up.
“Yes, well. I’m here to see what it will cost to get some peace for Eugenia, so she can move on from this dreadful event.” The doctor was a few steps closer to them now, with a face that managed to make even his jowls look irritated.
“Gonna help her move on, are you?” Tom laughed, seeing the game.
“My feelings for Eugenia have never been a secret. She made a choice years ago and has had plenty of time to see what it cost her. And me,” the doctor added without bitterness. Tom reappraised him. This fellow was braver than he looked.
“All right, all right. We got it. You want to help the dearly departed’s missus grieve. How much would you be willing to pay for that?” Goodall asked, moving the conversation along. He couldn’t stand that emotional claptrap.
“I’m willing to pay up to $200, so we can get this farce over with.”
Pete looked at Goodall and barely lifted his shoulders in a shrug.
“All right, we’re interested in that offer. I’m going to have to ask you to wait until morning to collect the body, however. We have some business to attend to.”
“I don’t want to collect the body!” The doctor actually shuddered at the thought. “Just bring it here. I’ll—”
A gunshot rang out. Everyone’s heads whipped around in vain to see into the vast cemetery, and the doctor flew to the door of his car, wrestling it open.
“I’ll pay you upon delivery!” he shouted as he cranked his car.
Tom, Pete, and Goodall whirled and started shouting at the same time.
“LARRY!”
“KITTY!”
“Where’d they go?”
17
I came to—it couldn’t have been much later—in the back of a truck, or at least that’s what it felt like, bouncing around everywhere. I heard springs and gravel popping. I sat up, pleased to feel pretty good, more or less.
I felt someone to my left, a body? No, it was Kitty, and she was still out of it. I looked around in the darkness for anything that could have helped. There was a gurney and sheets…. I was in the back of a funeral home truck. I felt real motivated to get out of there.
“Kitty? Kitty, can you hear me?” I whispered, pulling on her, trying to sit her up. She didn’t respond, and I let her slump back down. I couldn’t have been down long. There was a little window to the front, so the driver could talk to whoever was in the back, I supposed, during more legitimate uses. I crept up to it and tried to peek at the driver.
The angle was such that I couldn’t make out who it was. I didn’t get much of a chance to look because Mayhew’s voice exploded almost in my ear.
“What are we doing? I brought you here to help me case the place, not kidnap anyone! What are we doing?”
“I don’t know! I’ll think of something!” the driver hollered back at him. He sounded young. Mayhew lit into him again, the second verse of the same thing, and I peeked out the windshield. We were in the cemetery still, driving toward one of the back corners it seemed. I didn’t like the look of it at all.
“The only good idea you’ve had was the dadgum oleander in the cough syrup. Everything else has been a disaster, absolute disaster.” Mayhew was grumbling now, and I stopped breathing.
“That was genius, huh.” He sounded proud. “You were supposed to take care of everything else, remember? I spent all morning freezing behind the bushes of my own house, making sure it worked! You said I had to take care of Gerald and you would handle the rest. Look how well that’s worked out! I got the funeral home to come out, Max to go sign the papers, and even talked to Ma!” It was the long-lost Marvin. I wasn't sure if he was more peeved about the amount of effort he'd put in or that he'd talked to his mother. It didn't sound like killing Gerald was on his list of grievances.
“How was I supposed to know that some idiot was going to steal the body? I showed up to check on progress, and what do I find? A missing body and a goddamn detective!” Mayhew was getting some steam up now too.
I scooted back a bit more. We were still in the graveyard, it looked like. Or a field nearby?
“A lady detective. She can’t be that scary.” Marvin actually snorted.
“There wasn’t supposed to be any detective!” Mayhew was properly wound up, and I didn’t like any of it.
“You’re the one who came and got me, I was having a great time—”
“A great time spending my money! You’re supposed to be laying low a few days, not burning through all the cash I gave you!”
“What’s it to you how I spend my money? It’s not yours, it’s— You know what I think? I think you were worried what Gerald was going to find if he went over his accounts. That’s why you called me. Not ’cause you wanted to make sure I inherited.”
Silence. Young Marvin had hit on something, it seemed.
“My management fees are entirely reasonable.” Mayhew shifted away from the middle window.
“Maybe we could exchange the frails for Gerald’s body, get this over with.”
“I think one of them is the daughter. I thought I heard her called Kitty.”
“No fooling? Well, not her then.”
I thought for a second, shaking Kitty again on the shoulder. We weren’t going that fast. I could jump out the back door without much harm. I couldn’t leave Kitty there, though. She was light, but there wasn’t a way to get her out of the moving car without hurting her. I thought again for a minute, then remembered the gun in my purse. If I still had my purse.
I felt around on the floor for my handbag. It had been wrapped around my wrist quite tightly, but who knew what had happened since then. I found Kitty’s little bag and kept groping. There it was…. Maybe I could…. The truck was slowing down. We were turning or reaching our destination, and whatever happened next was going to be a doozy. I decided to make it a surprise for my part.
I started banging on the wall, right behind the driver. The truck, gratifyingly, swerved a bit. I’d surprised him all right.
“I’M TELLING YOUR MAMA!” I hollered the first thing that came to mind. Then I kicked the back doors of the van open and jumped out, running toward the front of the graveyard so the driver could see me in his rearview. The truck slammed on its brakes, and I started running in earnest, toward the lights at the front of the funeral home. Where the hell were the boys at?
18
I heard Marvin open his door and holler, “She’s going that way!” but I was already on my way gone. There was a yell in return from behind me, and I realized I’d left Kitty alone in the truck.
They weren’t coming after me. Dammit. I cut over to the left a bit, and stopped, trying to look and see what was happening behind me in the light.
The truck was still stopped, and I couldn’t see Kitty, so she must have still been in the back. Marvin was standing on the running board, waving his arm in my general direction. He loomed
tall and vigorous.
After a second Mayhew came into view; he was careful to stay out of the headlights of the truck, I noticed. He came around the back of the truck, sticking his head in first to check on Kitty. He said something quietly to Marvin, who reached into the cab and came back out with a bottle and a cloth, which he handed over.
Mayhew disappeared into the back for a moment. They were making sure Kitty didn’t wake up, I realized. Marvin was listening at the door, nodding. He got back in the truck, and Mayhew stayed in the back. They didn’t want me at all. They were there for Kitty, and I had left her there to be taken, with no help.
Furious at them, and myself, I started heading back to them. Take advantage of a kid like that, I’d show them who they were dealing with. Kitty wasn’t leaving this graveyard if I had anything to do with it. Not on my watch.
The truck was heading to the back of the graveyard still. Whatever they were planning to do, it was there. I looked at all the graves I was fixing to run over and hoped the owners would forgive me. Stepping on someone's grave was a sin, but so were current events.
I took off toward the corner I had come from. They were taking the road back to the very back corner. There were fewer graves here, so there was less to hide between, but there were more trees available to use as cover. I got to a tree and stopped to catch my breath. I'd never run so much in my life.
The truck had stopped, and Marvin was going around back to open it up. I decided to make use of my gun, hoping the sound alone would stop them. I pulled the hammer back with some difficulty; I had to use both hands. Dammit, Marvin was opening the door and Mayhew was stepping out… BOOM.
I fired the gun wildly in their direction, and the thing nearly jumped out of my hand. I almost dropped it. Recoil, they called it, I found out later.
Marvin looked in my general direction and got into the truck bed. I took off for the next tree that was closer to them, hoping they weren't going to return fire.
Where was Tom? Why did I even bring him if he wasn't going to be the one doing the shooting?
The Case of the Ice Man Page 6
