The Traveling Corpse

by Double Edge Press

  “Well, we’ve done our duty, giving those depositions,” Barb declared after they were seated at a long narrow table in the restaurant, “but we didn’t get any reward for all our trouble.”

  Brad asked his wife, “Reward? What reward?”

  “Oh, there isn’t any money reward, not that I know of. I just meant I thought Menendez could have rewarded us with some information.”

  “Yes,” Verna said. “I’d like to know if they found anymore red hair or some of that blue cloth or, or, anything.”

  Von mused, “They must have been looking for something like that or else they wouldn’t have gone to the trouble of impounding Karl’s golf cart.”

  “They probably dusted fer fingerprints,” DeeDee said. Then another idea popped into her head, “Can a dead person leave fingerprints?”

  None of them knew for sure, but the general consensus of the group was, “Sure, why not?”

  Verna was looking at a menu. She lowered it and said lightly to her friends, “I don’t know why I bothah to look at this; I always ordah the ‘All You Can Eat’ special on Fridays.” Her seat faced the front of the restaurant. Recognizing the couple who just entered, she said, “Oh, look who’s coming!” They turned to see Tony and Tilley Tuckman waiting to be seated. Tony had on black pants and a gold Polo shirt with the logo ‘College of Wooster. Fighting Scots’ embroidered on the left breast pocket. Tilley wore purple slacks and a lavender T-shirt; on the front was a cutesy alligator surrounded by the words ‘St. Augustine Alligator Farm’.

  Art pushed back his chair and strode over to them. “Are you two alone?” he asked. “Why don’t you join us? We can pull a table up here on the end.”

  “Oh, thank you,” Tilley said. “It’ll be good for us to be with others who have some idea of what we’re going through these days.”

  Art and Von easily lifted a small square table and pushed it up beside theirs. As Doc was shaking Tony’s hand, he commented about the logo on Tony’s Polo shirt and commented, “I didn’t know you were from Ohio. We are too.”

  “I’m not, but I went to college in Wooster.”

  “Really? Our youngest daughter went there too. Great school; it’s not far from where I had my veterinarian practice.”

  “Goodness knows!” DeeDee added. “I tried ta get our daughter ta go ta school in the South, but she had a boyfriend in Ohio, and she was not about ta go very far from home. Later, I was so glad ta have her nearby, and I got so that I jest loved ta go ta Wooster’s football games in tha fall. That huge marchin’ band all dressed out in black an’ yellow plaid kilts was a sight ta behold when they’d come a-marchin’ down that long slopin’ walk from tha stadium gates an’ down onto tha field with all those bagpipes a-playin’. Must have had a dozen or more of them jest a-blowin’ their hearts out. Makes ya tingle all over!”

  Tony replied, “I’ve never been sorry I went to Wooster for my undergraduate work. Got a first-rate education, and that’s where I met Tilley. We were back up there last June for our 50th class reunion. Tilley bought me this shirt.”

  DeeDee admired it and then looking at Tilley, said, “I jest love those shades of purple an’ lavender together that ya’re wearin’.”

  “Thank-you. I thought they were pretty colors too, but I never thought I’d ever wear an alligator on my chest! But, isn’t he adorable? This is my souvenir from a little trip we took up to St. Augustine a couple of months ago to celebrate my birthday. We were really impressed by the Alligator Farm there; so I bought this T-shirt.”

  Annie swallowed hard; she didn’t think she could ever use the word ‘adorable’ to describe an alligator.

  DeeDee was saying, “When our youngest was here visitin’—she’s tha one that went ta Wooster—when she was here with her family, Doc took us all ta tha alligator farm down below Miami in the Everglades. He jest loves ta go anyplace where there’s animals.” DeeDee continued, “There was a good long airboat ride nearby. That was fun; we enjoyed every minute of it.”

  Wanda, their favorite waitress, came to the table carrying a tray full of tall plastic water glasses. She wore very short denim shorts and a blue T-shirt with the logo ‘The Shack’ emblazoned on it. She was a very pretty young woman who filled out her short shorts to perfection. Her long blond hair was caught at the back of her neck in a ponytail. She waited tables here in her parents’ restaurant, was raising her three-year old alone, and also was going to college. Each term she took a course or two at the University of Tampa. The school was headquartered in the elaborate historic old hotel which was built along the Hillsborough River at the turn of the last century. It was complete with minaret towers in its Victorian/Islamic architecture. This unforgettable building was constructed under the guise of railroad magnet, Henry B. Plant, in competition with Henry Flagler, who was the railroad genius of the East Coast of Florida.

  Wanda’s goal was to someday teach in an elementary school. Her ‘Seniors,’ as she called them, always encouraged her to keep on with her studies; not to drop out of college. They visited with her a few minutes, and Doc asked how her love life was going. She bantered back, “Probably as well as yours!” They all chuckled; then she took their orders.

  After Wanda left, Annie asked the Tuckmans, “I’ve been meaning to ask you, did Twila wear any other jewelry besides the heart charm bracelet?”

  Tony answered quickly, “She liked jewelry; she wore a lot of it.”

  He turned to his wife, who continued, “Oh, she would have had her rings on—her wedding and engagement rings, I’m sure. She had a gorgeous one-and-a-half carat diamond with baguettes on each side. It’s quite distinctive. ”

  “How about earrings or necklaces?” Barb asked.

  Tilley paused and set down her glass of water with ice and a sliver of lemon, “You know, I looked in her jewelry case. There were some lovely pieces in there, but I didn’t think about what might be missing. Did you, Tony?”

  He shook his head, “You know I don’t keep track of stuff like that, but she always wore a lot of jewelry.”

  Smiling, Tilley said, “You’re right about your not keeping track of jewelry. I used to wish and wish that he’d buy me some for Christmas or my birthday. He just doesn’t think like that. So, I finally learned that if I want a piece of jewelry I have to say, ‘C’mon Tony, it’s time to go to the jewelry store!’ and he’ll say, ‘Okay.’ Then he gets me something really nice. Look what he got me for our anniversary.” She flashed an emerald ring for their approval.

  “That is one lovely ring,” DeeDee said with admiration. “I’ll have ta try that routine.” She turned to Doc, “My birthday’s comin’ up. I think we should make a trip ta tha jewelry store!”

  Doc rolled his eyes. He looked at Tilley Tuckman and joked, “You’re teaching my wife bad tricks! And, besides that, she is pulling my leg. I know good and well that she just had her 60th birthday last month. We made a big too-do about it.”

  Tilley laughed, “Twila’s husband loved to shop; she didn’t have to use that ruse. He often brought her surprises when he came back from a business trip, plus remembering all the usual holidays. They didn’t have kids; so he spent his money on jewelry for Twila.”

  “She had a beautiful ruby ring surrounded by tiny diamonds on her right index finger when I saw her body. Do you think she was wearing earrings and a necklace when she … ,” Annie couldn’t speak any more of the question.

  “Most probably,” Tilley hesitated before she could continue, “Come to think of it, I don’t remember seeing her heart-shaped earrings. It’s almost February, so I’ll bet she wore them since it’s near Valentine’s Day. I think she had a gold necklace with a heart pendant on it too.”

  “Will you check on that?” Annie asked. “It could be helpful to make an identification.” “How about a watch?” Barb asked.

  This time it was Tony who answered by asking a question, “I wonder if she was wearing Mom’s watch?”

  “Oh, I bet she was,” Tilley said. “It is so special, and she al
most always wore it when she was going out. Since she’d just come back from being with friends at Sanibel, it’s a sure bet that she’d have had it on.”

  Tony went on to explain that the bracelet watch band had alternating diamond-cut links and satin-finished links of gold which made it sparkle. Their father had given it to their mother on their 50th wedding anniversary back in the 1970s. “It is a very special piece of jewelry. Now that it seems that Twila’s … .” He couldn’t say the word. “It would be nice if I could have it to give to Tilley and then pass it on down to our daughter.” He wiped his lips with a paper napkin and said, “It’s horrible not knowing where she is. She was my baby sister, fifteen years younger than me. I always watched out for her when we were growing up. Now that she was widowed, I just expected to take care of her again. We were so happy when she decided to move to BradLee. But … not knowing where she is or what’s happened to her. It’s, it’s … .” He couldn’t finish the thought.

  Everyone at the table ate in silence. Annie said a silent Sentence Prayer.

  Chapter 5

  Saturday Morning

  By Saturday morning, BradLee Park was abuzz with rumors surrounding Jiggs’s death. This most unusual attack and death caused by an ostrich not only made front page news in Florida, it was still making national news. Yesterday, the media only had sketchy news to report, but there was more today. Reporters called the Andersens from their local weekly, plus the Tampa and St. Petersburg newspapers, wanting to speak to Art or Annie. Both of them declined. Annie answered the phone when someone from NBC’s TODAY SHOW called wanting to interview them by remote from New York City. Regretfully, Annie said, “No thank you.” After putting the phone down, she said to Art, “That was a hard thing to do.”

  “What was hard to do?” Art asked, looking up from his newspaper.

  “To say ‘No’ to being interviewed by someone from the TODAY SHOW. What if Matt Lauer would have been the one to ask me questions? If I knew for sure he would be the one to interview me, I’m not sure I could have refused.”

  “You’re old enough to be his mother,” Art teased.

  “Maybe even his grandmother!” Annie replied. “But I can still look.”

  “Anyway,” Art added. “If you made the show, it would be most likely that Bryant Gumbel would be the one who would do the interviewing.”

  “But sometimes Matt Lauer subs for Bryant. I can only hope!” She continued, “Well, neither one of them was on the phone. Someone—a P. A. I think she called herself. Of course, I had to ask what a P. A. is, and she said ‘Production Assistant.’ I think she was just fishing to see if we’d be good to interview.” Annie put her coffee down, “I wonder if any of the others of our gang were called? I hope not; this story isn’t ready to be giving out any of the details yet. We don’t need to be blabbing on TV.” She reached for the telephone, “I’ll call and check with the others.”

  None of the other three couples had been contacted by the media. This let the Andersens breathe easier. They assumed that Sgt. Menendez had been able to keep most of the report off limits to the press for the time being. However, the Andersens got plenty of other telephone calls. Friends and acquaintances called them—some were expensive long distance ones—all wanting to hear the story from their own lips. Art and Annie had called their grown children right away; they wanted to let them know they were fine before ‘the kids’ heard it on the news. All their friends and relatives were concerned, many were just plain curious, some were downright inquisitive. All wanted details about the fatal accident. Many asked how they happened to be out on the golf course that night. To that question the Andersens blithely said, “Oh, we love to watch the space lift-offs, and you get a grand view from out there, no street lights.” That satisfied most people except their next door neighbor; she kept prying. Art and Annie told ‘the madding crowd’ about seeing the ostrich kick Jiggs, but they kept the rest of the story to themselves.

  The phone rang again. Their next-door neighbor invited them over for supper. Annie declined, explaining to Art after she hung up, “If the invitation from the TODAY SHOW was hard to turn down, this one was easy to say ‘No’ to.”

  Art asked, “Why? Who was it from?”

  “Our inquisitive next-door neighbor. We’ve lived on the same street with them for two years now. They’ve always been polite, but every time I’ve asked them to go out to eat or go anywhere, they turn us down. Now, all of sudden they ask us over for dinner. You know why, don’t you? They, or rather she, just wants to pump information out of us. If she invites us later, I’ll be glad to go, but I just can’t go over there and put my feet under her table until ‘Our Mystery’ is cleared up. I’m not too good at telling white lies, and I know her, she’ll keep asking me questions, just keep firing them at me until I let something slip. Why, that woman is so nosey she asks a second question before I have finished answering the first one! No, I can’t go over there yet. Not until this is all over and done with.”

  * * *

  Art put down his coffee mug and thanked Annie for making his favorite breakfast. Then he left to do some errands and get the van washed. Annie put their dirty dishes in the dishwasher and wiped off the table. While she was cleaning up, she thought about Karl and how he had cleaned his golf cart, several times, according to Kitty. She mused to herself that Karl must have done a very careful job of vacuuming and washing his golf cart for he didn’t seem to be worried about anything. At least, that’s the impression he gave from Kitty’s description of him just drinking his coffee and reading the morning paper.

  She thought some more about Karl. She let her mind play and wondered, maybe he put Twila’s body in a big plastic trash bag to protect his cart. She’d seen on TV shows how police labs can find tiny traces of blood and hair, and she didn’t know what else, but stuff that can link the bad guys to a murder. So, if he used a plastic bag, it would have protected his golf cart. Then another idea surfaced in her mind: if the body were in a plastic bag, and if the body fell off the golf cart in that farmer’s field, then how did Verna find those threads caught in that thorny bush? She absently rubbed her left temple and sat down in her favorite recliner. She thought some more about a plastic body bag and realized that the body wasn’t in a bag when DeeDee saw it by the air-conditioning chimneys. Also, it wasn’t in a bag when Barb saw it on the restroom floor; so she chucked the plastic trash bag idea. She didn’t think there had been any bleeding; so there wouldn’t be any blood stains on Karl’s cart, and if he were really, really thorough, she guessed he could have vacuumed up any red hairs. It was frustrating to have so much knowledge, yet for all that, it was still too little information. She couldn’t solve ‘Our Mystery’ and apparently, neither could Sgt. Menendez.

  Annie picked up the newspaper. There it was! The story made the front page. She read the article. Then she read it again. The Sheriff’s Department issued a general statement about the case, but she noted that it skirted the issue and did not fully answer the question of why Mr. George Jiggs was working in an area of the BradLee Blue Golf Course before midnight last Thursday evening. Cement was to be poured in this spot for a new cart path as soon as the weather warmed.

  She suddenly shivered and thought, I’ve lived my whole life without ever calling the police; now here I am in my seventies, and I’m getting very chummy with a sergeant from the Sheriff’s Department! Oh, dear, I’m too old for this! But she was so involved in ‘Our Mystery’ that, no matter what, she couldn’t push it out of her mind.

  She re-read the several stories that were printed in the Tampa Tribune about the accident. Her nosey next door neighbor brought over the St. Petersburg Times. Annie thanked her for it, but she did not invite that woman to come inside. Annie noted that there was only a small article in one of the papers about Twila Thompson and that was on an inside page. To Annie, the missing Twila was just as important as Jiggs’ death, but then she was trained as a nurse, not as a reporter. And, she had to admit that Jiggs’ death was more spectacular.
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  Finally, she put the news section down and found the Funnies, but nothing seemed funny to her today. She tried working the Cryptogram puzzle. Even though one of the correct letters was printed, she could not break the code this morning. She asked herself, Do these puzzles get harder as the week goes on? Seems like they are easy to solve on Mondays and Tuesdays, but today is Saturday, and this is too difficult for me, or maybe I just can’t concentrate on it today. Then her mind turned from the word puzzle to the puzzle of the missing Twila. Uneasy, Annie decided she needed to get outside and do something. She put the newspaper down and called Barb, “Want to get some exercise? I’ve got to do something besides think about ‘Our Mystery’.”

  “What do you have in mind?”

  “Swimming?”

  “Too cold for me.”

  “It’s in the high 70’s today.”

  “Yes, but with that cold snap, the water still won’t be warm enough for me.”

  “It’s heated.”

  “I know, but it takes longer than this to get the water back up in the 80s. I’m no polar bear; I don’t swim in cool water.”

  “I’ve got to do something, Barb. My mind won’t stop re-playing Jiggs’ death.”

  “Want to go shopping? Play golf?”

  Annie paused to think.

  “It’s so nice out today after that cold snap; let’s play golf. I think Art will go. He should be home pretty soon. How about Brad? Will he play?”

  She waited while Barb spoke to her husband. “He says fine, but he needs a little more time to finish that coffee pot he’s repairing for the kitchen in Old Main. He wants to drop it off on the way to the golf course. We’ll try to be there in an hour, okay?”