by Eric Flint
"Fraulein Bates, we need to know what Tommy Cooper did last night. This will help us find his killer. What can you tell us?"
"You're one of the Germans they made cops, ain't you?"
"Yes, Fraulein, I am German," Jurgen said patiently. "Now, unless you want to sit here all night, will you answer my questions? The longer we spend, the more tips you lose."
Brandy gave a little laugh. "Tips, in this crowd? You have to be joking. They wouldn't know a tip if it bit them on the ass. But I'll answer your questions. Okay, Tommy Cooper. He was in here from about five o'clock until closing. He had a steak, but complained it was too tough and was priced too high. He got drunk as a skunk, and tried to grab my butt every time I walked by. You talk about tips. Tommy left a quarter, new money, on the table. I think he was just too drunk to get all his change. I hope whoever killed him did a good job and made him suffer. There, does that make me a suspect?"
"Well, it puts you on the list, Fraulein," Jurgen said with a slight chuckle. "But I think it is a very long list. Did you kill him?"
"Nope, not that I'm sorry he's dead, but Fenton walked me home and I live here in town. So I never saw Tommy after we closed. Guess you'll have to keep looking."
"And keep asking questions." Jurgen continued, "After he ate what did you see?"
"Tommy played cards with Freddie Congden, Ape and Monkey Hart for beer. He seemed to be doing most of the losing, too. At least he was doing most of the buying. After they left he sat and played solitaire. Drinking beer the whole time."
"Tommy was spending a lot of money, then?"
"Yeah, he had a lot of money. Both American dollars and German silver."
"Is that what caused the fight between him and Ape? Losing at cards, I mean."
"It wasn't really a fight. Ape and him were just yelling at each other. Call it an argument. And it was over Tommy asking Marlene to go out to his trailer with him. Wilda, Marlene's mother, and Ape live together. When she told Tommy to keep his hands to himself, he got smart with her. Ape was just defending Wilda. At least as far as I could tell. I had other customers."
"Did you see when Tommy left if he was with anyone?"
"No, in fact I didn't see him leave at all. Last night was my night to collect beer mugs and I was back in the kitchen helping wash up."
"I guess that is about all the questions I have. Oh, did Tommy have a pistol with him?"
"I don't know. If he did, he kept it hidden. Like he kept his tips."
Tipton leaned over the table. "Here's a tip for you Brandy: get out of the bar business. You're too young to be working here. Go see Peggy Craig over at the elementary school Monday and she'll get you on working in the cafeteria. Tell her I sent you."
"Why, Officer Tipton, I didn't know you cared. I think I'll pass, though. As bad as the people here are about tipping, I doubt those snotnosed kids are any better." With that Brandy got up from the table and flounced back to work.
"Snotnosed kids," Tipton commented with a huff. "Three years ago she was one herself." Then in a louder voice he called: "Marlene, we're ready to talk to you now."
Watching Marlene approach, Jurgen thought, there was Brandy in a few years. Hard-bitten and world-weary.
As soon as she was seated, Marlene started talking. "I wasn't working last night. So I don't know why you want to talk to me. In fact I wouldn't be working tonight if Connie hadn't taken the evening off. What with Tommy getting killed and all. So there is not a lot I can tell you." With that she started to get up.
"Hold it, Marlene," Tipton said from his place by the wall. "Office Neubert still has a few questions for you."
Sitting back down, Marlene looked at Jurgen. "Ask away, but there is nothing I can tell you."
"We already know you were here last night, even if you weren't working. What we need is to know what Tommy Cooper was doing last night."
"Tommy was doing what he always does, getting drunk and being a nuisance. He even asked me to go home with him. Like I wanted to see his ratty old camp trailer. He got all huffy when Mom told him to shut up and called her a name. He was just being an asshole, as usual."
"This was while he was playing cards?"
"Yeah, I was sitting behind him and he kept reaching back trying to feel my leg. Ape told him to cool it after he shouted at Mom."
"What time did you see him leave? And was there anyone with him when he left?"
"Actually he was still here when we left. That was at eleven. I had to get home to see about my kids so I was checking the clock. Mom and Ape walked me home, so they left the same time I did. Monkey must have left just after we did, because he caught up with us before we got to my trailer."
"So Tommy was still here at eleven when you left?"
"That's what I said. wasn't it?"
Tipton leaned over and asked, "One last question and then you can leave. When they were playing cards, what games were they playing?"
"Euchre. Tommy and Freddie Congden against Ape and Monkey." Marlene got up and left.
"What do you think, Marvin?" Jurgen asked as he rose to stand beside Tipton.
"I think I'm getting a picture I don't like. Looks to me like Connie lied about Tommy taking off before eleven. And maybe even about not walking her home."
"Ja, it looks like she may be covering up for someone."
"That's what I don't like about it. As much as I dislike G.C., I can't picture him killing his own brother."
"So who do you think killed him?"
"I don't know. In fact I have less of an idea than when we started. Frustrating, isn't it? You ready to talk to the card players?"
"Sure. Which one first?"
"Well, I don't see Monkey or Freddie, and since he's walking this way let's talk to Ape."
Jurgen looked up and saw the man who had been pointed out as Ape Hart was heading toward them.
As Ape sat down, he waved to the other chairs at the table. "Marvin, Marvin's buddy, I guess you'll want to talk to me sometime tonight. Let's get it over with so I can get back to my friends."
Looking at Ape, Jurgen could see how he got his name. The man was huge and shaped something like the picture of a gorilla Jurgen had seen in the library. He even appeared to be as hairy, from the amount of dark hair on his arms and hands. Looking closer he saw that the hair was flecked with gray. Ape was no longer a young man. Still, he looked like he could lift a loaded wagon.
"Herr Hart, we are checking on what Tommy Cooper was doing last night. We have been told you spent some time with him. Is that true?"
"You speak pretty good, for a kraut," Ape said with a smirk. Jurgen could see Ape was enjoying insulting him to his face.
"Herr Hart, we can ask these questions here, and let you go back to your friends," Jurgen said laying his handcuffs on the table. "Or I can hook you up and take you over to the station and ask them there. Your choice."
Before Ape could answer, Tipton leaned over the table. "Remember Ape, you've been drinking all evening and Officer Neubert has about twenty years on you."
Jurgen could see Ape studying him. "Ha, I can see you'd really enjoy trying to put those cuffs on me. Wouldn't you, Neubert? Well, not tonight 'cause I got things to do. But one day we'll get it on."
"Herr Hart, you are wasting your drinking time," Jurgen said with a smile. "So tell us about your and Tommy's card game."
"Okay, Of-fi-cer Neubert." Ape stretched the name out so Jurgen could see there was no respect in the use of his title. "Me and Monkey played euchre against Freddie and Tommy for a couple of hours. We were playing for beers. I didn't buy a beer all night. Tommy can't play euchre for spit. He always orders up if he is holding a bower and an ace."
"What was the argument you had with Tommy about?"
"Wilda told him to keep his hands off of Marlene and he got a little smart with her. I told him to chill out and he acted a little frisky, but nothing came of it. It wasn't a big thing. Tommy gets like that some times. He's an asshole. Was an asshole, now, I guess."
"Th
at didn't stop you from drinking the beer he bought though, did it?"
"Look, Tommy was spending money like he owned a bank. He said he had gotten the better of a kraut on a deal selling a tractor. He was laughing about how him and G.C. ripped the kraut off. They switched tractors on him. Then Tommy ripped off G.C. and took all the money. If I hadn't drunk his beer someone else would have."
"Did Tommy have a gun with him?"
"Yeah, he had that old Smith in his hip pocket. It caught on the chair a couple of times when he got up. If he ever tried to use it, he'd have dropped it. I told you he was drunk, didn't I?"
"When did he leave?"
"I couldn't tell you. Freddie left about ten till eleven and we played one hand of three-handed. Then Marlene had to leave at eleven, so Wilda and me walked her home. Tommy was still here when we left."
"Do you have anyone to back up your story?"
"Hey, if you think I killed him, you're way off base. Wilda, Marlene and Monkey can all tell you where I was. In fact I waved to the mayor on my way home and he waved back. Ask him. I was on the other side of town."
"Herr Hart, I think that is all for now. We might want to talk to you later."
"Anytime, Of-fi-cer Neubert, anytime." Ape got up from the table. "I'll look forward to it."
"I wouldn't worry about Ape," Tipton said softly. "When he's sober, he's too smart to fight a cop. And when he drinking he can't fight and he knows it. That's why I wanted to wait to talk to him."
"Marvin, it looks like we have to go back and talk to the Coopers."
"Yep, I'm afraid so. Damn, sometimes I hate this job. Let's go."
* * *
Just before they arrived at the Cooper house, Tipton turned off the headlights and let the car coast to a stop. From where the car was sitting, Jurgen could see the house and the camp trailer and the edge of the mobile home. The yard and most of the house was lit by the full moon.
"I don't see any lights. Looks like no one is home, Marvin."
"We'll wait. They'll be home sometime tonight. While we're waiting, what are your thoughts on the case?"
"Marvin, you know these people and I don't, but it looks to me like they are trying to hide something."
"Yeah, they're hiding something and as usual they're doing a lousy job of it."
Just then Jurgen heard a noise from the back of the house. Looking at the mobile home, he could see two shadowy figures near an old truck parked there. Listening carefully, he could hear muffled voices. "Someone is beside the old truck."
"Yeah, let's get a little closer." Tipton flipped the switch to make sure the dome light wouldn't come on when they opened the doors. "You go right and work your way up behind them and I'll go down beside the house."
Jurgen and Tipton carefully closed the doors of the car to make no noise and separated to move toward the house. Just before closing the door Jurgen retrieved his baton, and slipped it into the ring on his belt. He should have taken that with him into the Club 250, he realized now.
As Jurgen crossed the ditch beside the road, he was keenly aware of the noise he was making. He thought he sounded like a herd of cows. But the two figures beside the truck continued what they were doing as he worked his way though the brush that bordered the yard. Soon, he was even with the mobile home and could see the figures' faces in the moon light. It was G.C. Cooper and his wife, Connie. They were loading something in the truck.
Just then something Tipton stepped on made a slight noise near the rear of the house. Jurgen could see G. C. jump and stare toward the house. "Who's there?" G.C. called as he put his hand under the bottom of his jacket. "I've got a gun!"
"It's me, Marvin Tipton," Tipton called, "and I know you have a gun, but you better get your hand off of it. We need to talk."
Connie Cooper gave a gasp and sank to the ground leaning on the side of the truck. She sat there giving out little gasps.
"I don't have anything to say to you, Marvin. We're a little busy right now. You can come back in the morning, or better yet, stop by the garage." Jurgen could see that Cooper had drawn a pistol and was holding it beside his leg, out of Marvin's sight. Jurgen started working his way closer to the Coopers, the noise of his movements masked by their voices.
"G.C., I can't do that. I have a bloodstained jacket, that I bet fits Connie, and an eye witness that saw you and her on the road walking away from where Tommy was killed. And I know Tommy walked Connie home from the Club. Now I find you loading what looks a lot like gas cans into your truck. Thinking about running away, G.C.?" The whole time Tipton was talking, he had been moving closer to G.C. Now he was less than ten feet away.
As Jurgen slipped closer, he wondered what to do. He could shoot him, but he didn't know that G.C. was the killer. Jurgen drew his baton.
G.C. brought his pistol up and pointed it at Tipton. "Marvin, stop right there or I'll shoot."
Tipton stopped moving and spoke in an almost conversational voice. "You know, G.C., the one thing I am having trouble figuring out, is why you killed Tommy. It wasn't the money. He's been taking money from you and your dad for years. It sure wasn't because he was a drunk. Tommy has never spent a sober day since he could sit on a bar stool. So why did you kill him?"
Jurgen could tell that Tipton had seen him and was trying to keep Cooper from realizing there were two of them. Jurgen moved closer till he was just at the back of the truck. Three steps away, then two. A quick lunge and Jurgen brought his baton down, backed by all of his two hundred pounds of muscle and bone, on the barrel of the gun in Cooper's hand. A flash of light and a loud crack as the pistol fired into the ground. Then a quick back stroke with the baton to Cooper's chest and he was down, the pistol falling from his hand.
"Thanks, Jurgen." Tipton picked up the pistol from the ground. "I was hoping we wouldn't have to shoot him. It makes a lot of paper work." Jurgen noticed for the first time that Tipton had his backup pistol in his left hand. Handing over the recovered pistol, Tipton told Jurgen: "Tommy's gun, keep it for evidence."
Tipton then bent over and touched G.C. on the ground, "You all right, G.C.? Roll over to your left, I want to get that pop gun you carry in your hip pocket. That's a good boy."
G.C. merely sat and gasped for breath, holding his arms close to his body as Tipton removed the small automatic from his pocket.
"I think... he broke my ribs," G.C. was finally able to get out.
"He could have legally put a .357 through your brain. Think about that the next time you pull a gun on a cop, you damn fool." Tipton looked to where Connie was sitting. "You got something to tell us, Connie?"
Jurgen watched as the woman pulled herself together. "G. C. didn't kill Tommy. I did."
"I sort of figured that from what I heard at the Club. You ready to tell us the whole story?"
"Yes," Connie answered with a slight sob.
* * *
As they watched G. C. being loaded into the ambulance and Connie being escorted to Chief Frost's cruiser, the two officers finally had time to talk.
"What do you think is going to happen to them, Marvin?" Jurgen waved at the taillights disappearing down the road.
"To Connie, not much. All she did was fight off a rapist. I knew Tommy had become a real lowlife, but to try to rape your brother's wife..." He shook his head. "That's a little much even for him."
"What about G.C.?"
"Oh, G.C. will do some time on a work crew and sleep in the jail for a while. If they had just called us when it happened..." Tipton's voice faded away.
"You think he was trying to make it look like Tommy was killed by someone else? Trying to cut off his head and all?"
"Let's stop talking about it." Tipton watched a wagon making its way down the road. "You see that garbage wagon, Jurgen? That's us, picking up society's trash."
An Invisible War
By Danita Lee Ewing
Chapter One
June, 1633
1
Beulah MacDonald eased her spare frame into the padded leather
chair in Dr. James Nichols' crowded office with a carefully hidden sigh of relief. Beulah, old girl, you're not up to those long hospital shifts anymore. A woman your age has no business on her feet twelve hours a day, most days of the week, turning patients, running a hospital and all that. Still, it wasn't as if there were many nurses around after the Ring of Fire. They could certainly use, oh, say a thousand fully trained registered nurses, a hundred nurse practitioners. And doctors. And pharmacists. Some physical and occupational therapists would be great, too. Enough trained people to handle everything that needed doing weren't just going to drop from the sky. Everyone had to help out where they could, including her. No more retirement checks and social security for you, m'dear.
"Here you go, Beulah. No cream and enough sugar to put any diabetic into a coma." James Nichols handed her a blue ceramic mug and shook his head in mock rebuke. His grin spoiled the effect a bit.
"I have to keep going somehow. I'm not diabetic you know, so a little sugar won't hurt me. At least we've got caffeine again, even if my arthritis is slowing me down some."
Beulah and James had developed a friendly sparring relationship when they were alone. When they were in public, acting in their roles as Director of Nursing and Director of Medicine, they were a little more formal but not too much. Beulah had never gone for that subservient nurse to the almighty doctor stuff in her entire forty-plus year career. She wasn't about to start at this late date even if James had been the type for that nonsense. Which he wasn't, thank God. She and James had worked together a great deal since the Ring of Fire, both in the field and here at the new Grantville hospital. Mutual respect for each other's expertise, a deep commitment to their patients and a shared sense of humor had helped them develop a strong friendship over the last two years. Since Beulah had worked in just about every kind of nursing over the years, she had been the logical (and nearly the only) choice to be the director of nursing at the new hospital after the Ring of Fire. They needed the younger nurses for the more physical work and the nurses older than she was were too old, too sick or dead now.
