by Jude Pittman
Kelly recognized the old, black poncho. Instinct told him what to expect. He dropped to his knees, reached out and pulled back the poncho. Jake stiffened and growled.
Anna Davis' pupils were rolled back under swollen lids. Her blood-gorged tongue filled her mouth. Kelly fought waves of nausea and gulped air. His hands clenched into fists. It only took a couple of minutes for him to pull himself together and get to his feet.
"Let's go, boy." He cleared his throat with a strangled cough. "We've got some calls to make."
Jake fell into step and they crossed to the box in front of the refreshment stand. Kelly flipped the master switch. Bright light flooded the barn and spilled across Anna. Jake growled and Kelly stroked his head. "Easy now." He settled his hand on Jake's back. "I need to call the county." Kelly pulled the phone out of his pocket and dialed the Tarrant County Sheriff's Department.
Seconds later, a crisp efficient voice said hello.
“This is Kelly McWinter. Security guard at the Indian Creek Flea Market. And I’ve got a dead body inside I just found on my two o’clock walk-through.”
“Routing a patrol car now, sir. Please wait for them.
“My cabin's up at the entrance. I'll open the gates and wait out front for it to get here.” Kelly pocketed his phone and turned to Jake. "Come on boy, let's get up the hill."
At thirty-eight Kelly still had the smooth, well-paced gait of an athlete and only a practiced eye would notice the stiffness in his left leg—a souvenir from a stray bullet.
All clouds had been swirled away by the storm's wind and now moonlight bathed the cabin in an eerie gray and orange glow, fitting for this night. Kelly opened the main gates and headed for the cabin. He settled into an old rocker on the porch to wait. Jake flopped at his feet. Silence covered the flea market like a blanket. Even the crickets were still. Mechanically, Kelly set the chair to rocking. Pictures of Anna flashed through his mind, a kaleidoscope of memories tracing the years he'd spent at Indian Creek.
Time passed and in the distance a siren sounded. Kelly squinted northward and spotted flashes of red and blue lights. Minutes later, a patrol car turned into the yard and pulled up to the cabin.
A young deputy, just a kid with short blonde hair trimmed close to his ears, jumped from the car and strode to the porch. His brown and tan uniform was immaculate.
"Are you Kelly McWinter? I'm Deputy Johnson." He didn’t wait for an answer. "I understand you've got a body here."
"That's right." Kelly rose and crossed the porch to meet the officer. "She's down by the refreshment stand. I checked to make sure she was dead."
Johnson narrowed his eyes. His right hand, resting on the butt of his holstered gun, stiffened.
"Nobody ever tell you not to touch a corpse?"
Kelly smiled. He remembered the first time he'd been called out on a homicide.
"Hey, it's all right." He kept his voice low and friendly. "I used to be on the force myself. I know the drill."
Johnson relaxed a bit but kept his hand on the holster. "Okay, just so's you didn't contaminate anything."
The county ambulance pulled up with squealing tires. Two men in white overalls jumped out. A veteran with stooped shoulders and a mop of thick gray hair climbed into the back of the van and handed a large black case to a well-muscled, young Mexican.
Johnson walked over to the van, said a few words, and signaled Kelly to lead the way down the hill.
Kelly took them in through the double doors and approached the refreshment stand.
"Over there." He pointed.
The younger medic stepped into the circle of light that beamed from the ceiling, set his case beside Anna's feet and started unpacking.
"Watch what the hell you're doing?" The harsh voice boomed through the silent barn. The young medic startled and tumbled into Anna's cash box. It skidded across the cement.
A stocky cop with short legs and long arms stomped onto the scene. "Can't you see this is a friggin' crime scene?" The cop's thick, bulbous nose quivered and his cheeks puffed out. The red-faced medic bent to retrieve his case and the cop turned to Kelly.
"I'm Sergeant Adams," he said. "You the guy that reported this?"
"That's right. I'm the security guard here. I found her when I made my two o'clock rounds."
"Okay, I'll get to you in a minute."
Adams was a hard ass but Kelly sympathized. If there was any chance Anna was still alive, the medics would have priority at the scene. But there wasn’t any chance and plenty of vital evidence could be destroyed in the first few minutes of an investigation. An over-anxious medic was the defense attorney's best friend. They'd been known to smear fingerprints, brush off hair and fibers and wipe away any sign of bodily fluids. Kelly’d seen it all, including an over-anxious medic starting CPR on a cold corpse.
Adams and Johnson stood over the body, talking in low voices. Kelly watched as Adams bent down, lifted the poncho then dropped it back in place.
"Only an idiot would think there was any life left in that," he snapped and turned back to Johnson. "Go call the CID, then wait out front to show the lab boys where to bring their stuff."
He turned to the medics. "You might as well get your shit out of here," he growled. "You can stick around out front until the coroner arrives, then shove off."
The senior medic, an old-timer who looked like he'd been through this before, shrugged and motioned to his partner to step away from the body. Johnson pulled his cell out of his pocket and pressed a button to call the criminal investigations division, a team of forensic experts and the county coroner.
Kelly walked over to Adams stood, frowning at Anna's body.
"Tell me what you know about this. Let's sit down over there." Adams turned and marched over to one of the picnic tables. Kelly rolled his eyes and followed him. Adams slid onto one of the benches and Kelly eased his long frame onto the other one.
Adams took out a notebook.
Kelly propped his arm on the table and turned his mind back to the start of his rounds. Jake, who'd stood back from the group of strangers, padded over, sank down and rested his nose on Kelly's boot.
"I was doing last rounds," Kelly said. "That'd make it about two o'clock when Jake here raised his hackles and started growling."
Jake heard his name and lifted his eyes to the sergeant.
"You don't know Jake." Kelly reached down and stroked the dog's head. "He doesn't make a fuss without a reason, so I was edgy. There's not much goes on around here after the barn's closed up but sometimes we get kids messing around. This wasn't like that though. Jake knows the difference between kids and trouble and something was damn sure setting him off."
"Whereabouts were you when this happened?"
"About half way down that aisle." Kelly pointed toward the last row of tables. "At first I couldn't see anything but when I trained my flashlight on the refreshment stand, I spotted what looked like a bundle of rags dropped in the aisle. I clicked the beam on high and that's when I recognized Anna's poncho."
"Did you hear anything?"
"Nope, not a sound, except Jake here. He was riled something fierce."
"Okay, then what?"
"Well, like I said, I recognized that old, black poncho of Anna's. She wore it all the time. So I took off down the aisle like a bat out of hell. The poncho was wrapped around her face and I pulled it off. That was tough." Kelly squeezed his eyes shut for a moment. Then he continued. "There was a red scarf sunk so deep in her neck, I thought she'd been slashed."
"Did you touch the scarf?"
"Just the edge. I pulled her skin back a bit, to make sure but there wasn't a chance. Then I headed for the phone, got the county dispatcher and gave her the details, and Jake and I went to the cabin to wait for your deputy."
"You got any ideas who did this?"
Kelly shook his head. "Just the obvious one that comes to mind from seeing her cash box broken open and coins scattered around the ground." Kelly leaned across the table and fixed his eyes on Ada
ms' face. "It don't make a lot of sense, y'know? If all he wanted was money, why kill her? For that matter, what was she doing prowling around down here at that time of night?"
"He?" Adams questioned.
"He…her…whatever. I guess strangling's kind of fixed in my mind as something a man would do."
"Do you know of anybody who might've had it in for Ms. Davis?"
"Hell, no. Anna was kind of an eccentric. She drank like a fish, ate like a bird and God only knows how old she was. I liked her a lot but she was a bit of a tartar, especially when she'd been hitting the bottle. Still, I can't see any of the Indian Creek folks having it in for her. They pretty much took Anna in their stride."
"We'll be wanting a list of her friends and associates from you. Deputy Johnson will attend to that. In the meantime, it'd help if you could think of someone who might know about anything out of the ordinary happening around here."
"Well, these folks are pretty closed-mouthed with strangers but you might talk to Frank Perkins. You'll find him either up at the Hideaway or down at the bait house. If anybody farts on the creek, Frank knows all the details."
Adams looked up from his notebook and nodded. "We'll talk to him. What about strangers? Was there anybody who paid particular attention to Anna or asked a lot of questions about her?"
"Anna had a bit of a ruckus with one of the shoppers over at her stall this afternoon."
Adams lifted his head and fixed his eyes on Kelly. "Tell me about it."
"There was a young woman showed up here about four o'clock. A real looker. For some reason, this woman rushed into Anna's shop and flung herself right on top of Anna's chair. I don't know whether it was deliberate or not. All I know is when I got there, both Anna and the woman were tangled up on the floor and the woman was out cold."
"Did you recognize her?"
"Nope. She wasn't from around here, not the flea market type. I figured she might've been an antique collector. Anna had a lot of collectibles in her stall."
"Description?"
"She was around twenty-five, about five-six, around a hundred and ten pounds, plenty of curves in all the right places. Her hair was long and silky and so blonde it was almost white. She wore it straight down her back, held in place with one of those silk scarves."
Adams scribbled in his book. Finished, he looked up and nodded. "Go ahead."
"I spotted her soon after she came through the front entrance. She was a knockout. That's what drew my eye. But then I noticed the way she acted. It was kind of funny."
"What do you mean by funny? You mean drunk?"
"No, nothing like that. More like she was trying to hide from somebody. She kept looking back over her shoulder and when she realized I had my eye on her, she scooted into the crowd like a flushed quail. Her whole manner was suspicious. That's why I followed her down to Anna's."
"Did you happen to notice if anybody was paying any special attention to this woman? Is it possible she was being followed?"
"Nope. Nobody paid her any more attention than what she'd normally get, given her looks and figure."
Adams jotted a few more lines in the book then twirled his pen again.
"The woman?" Adams nudged.
"I kept my eye on her but didn’t make it obvious. When she got next to the refreshment stand, she stopped for a bit and stood there looking kind of nervous. She'd pulled the scarf out of her hair and was kneading it with her fingers."
"What color was that scarf?"
Kelly nodded. "I know where you're going with that," he said. "It was red and yes, it could've been the one that's wrapped around Anna's neck. I'd have a hard time swearing to it though. I didn't give it more than a casual glance at the time."
Kelly paused and Adams tapped his pen on the table. "What happened next?"
"Not much. I got there right after she and Anna went down. The fall knocked her out and after I got Anna back in her chair, I turned to talk to the young woman. She'd gotten to her feet by then."
"Did you get her name?"
Kelly shook his head. "She took off before I had a chance."
"You let her go without asking any questions?"
"I wasn't thinking about questions at that point. I needed to check Anna out and make sure she was okay. Besides, she hadn't done anything except fall into a chair."
"What did Anna have to say?"
"Not a damn thing. I picked her up, brushed off her dress and asked her what happened. She wouldn't say a word, just looked up at me with those big brown eyes of hers, set her teeth on her lip and tuned me out."
"Did you get the impression Ms. Davis knew the young woman?"
"I don't know. There was something going on between them but as to whether it was recognition or just plain shock, I couldn't say." Kelly stood up and shook down his pant legs. "That's all I can tell you. I'd never seen the woman before and I don't expect you'll find anybody around here who had. Now, if you're through with me I'd like to get back to my cabin. I need to call the owner and let him know what's been going on."
Adams closed his notebook. "Okay, go ahead but keep yourself available."
Kelly nodded, signaled Jake and they headed up the hill.
Kelly's first priority was a pot of coffee. That done, he picked up the phone and dialed Shorty.
"I've got one hell of a mess out here," he said when Shorty's voice came on the line.
"Wad'ya mean, mess?"
"Someone's murdered Anna."
"Murdered. What're you talking about? I thought you were supposed to be down at the barn making rounds?"
"Where the hell do you think I've been? I found Anna's body in there about two hours ago. Some son of a bitch had taken a scarf and damn near squeezed her head off."
Kelly's hands tightened on the phone. The events of the night had taken their toll. He moved the receiver away from his mouth took a deep breath, flexed his shoulders then put the phone back to his ear. "Sorry, Shorty. I guess I'm stretched too tight."
The anger in Shorty's voice had been replaced with concern. "Not a problem, Kelly. Sounds like you've had one hell of a night. Do you want me to come over and give you a hand?"
"No. There's nothing you can do now. The place is crawling with cops. I've already told them everything I know. I'll just grab some coffee and wait until they've finished up down below."
"You'll make sure they lock up once they get done in there?"
"Don't worry about that. They'll seal the place up tight. I'll make sure though."
Hanging up the phone, Kelly eased out of his chair and stretched. His hands grazed the ceiling and he flexed his fingers against the tile.
"It doesn't look like we'll get much sleep tonight," he muttered to Jake. "Guess we might as well make ourselves comfortable while those boys take care of business."
Coffee mug in hand, Kelly pulled out one of the kitchen chairs and parked himself at the scarred, old oak table he kept in front of the window. Several cars had arrived while he was on the phone. He leaned against the window and watched an old geezer unload a stretcher out of the back of the coroner's wagon.
Jake curled up at Kelly's feet. He rested his snout between his paws but he kept a close eye on the front door and his ears perked, on full alert.
Time dragged. Kelly moved across to the black leather couch and stretched out to wait for Adams to let him know when to lock up again. Kelly drifted into a restless sleep. Jake's bark startled him awake several hours later.
"What's up?" His feet hit the floor and he was off the couch in one smooth motion.
Knuckles rapped against the door and Jake started to growl.
"Easy, boy," Kelly soothed the dog as he strode across the room and opened the door.
"Well, I'll be a son of a bitch," a loud gravelly voice greeted Kelly's stunned face. "I called Adams a damn liar when he told me who'd called this one in."
Kelly stood and gaped at the large black man filling his doorway. "Gus!" Finding his tongue, Kelly reached out and threw his arms around the so
lid, burly form of his old friend and former partner.
Augustus Graham—known to only a few very good friends as Gus—returned the hug. "I knew you'd moved out of the city but we hadn't heard from you in so long, I'd given you up for lost," he said.
Kelly nodded toward the table. "Have a seat. I'll grab you a coffee."
Gus moved across the room and took a chair, while Kelly stepped into the kitchen.
"Coffee's been on for a while, so it ought to be just right for you." Kelly set a large mug on the table and pulled out the other chair. "Damn, it's good to see you."
Gus took a swig and propped his elbows on the table. "Some of the guys were hurt when you dropped out of sight the way you did, but I understood. Like as not I've have done the same if it had been Betty instead of Lynda."
Kelly flinched at Lynda's name but Gus kept talking. "I always figured you for a city boy, never expected to find you down here with the Creek rats. What's it been? Four or five years?"
"Five. Sometimes I can't believe it myself. I guess I needed to get clean away from everything once the trial was over."
"That was rough."
"It's not that I was trying to duck you guys. I just couldn't help it. Every time I saw one of you guys with your wives, I went nuts. There were just too many memories. I had to buy myself some time to deal with them."
"I know." Gus' voice caught and he coughed, loudly clearing his throat. "I've missed you," he said, fingers drumming the table.
"Thanks, Gus. I'm dealing with the past a little easier now but it's still raw. Maybe one of these days we can take on a couple of platters of ribs over at Angeles and sort of catch up on things."
"Sounds good." Gus smacked his lips. "I haven't had a plate of those ribs since I left the city. My mouth is watering just thinking about them."
Gus shifted back in his chair and the atmosphere changed. It was time to get down to business. "So, what can you tell me about that woman down there?" he asked and jerked his head toward the window.
"I can't tell you a hell of a lot more than what I've already told your associates." Kelly shook his head. "Have you been briefed?"
Gus nodded.
"Then you've already got everything I know. Once the Hideaway opens, there'll be a bunch of the flea market crowd in for morning coffee. I'll wander over and see if anybody knows anything."
