Mother Finds a Body (24 page)

Biff handed me the flashlight to hold as he bent over the body at my feet. He was careful not to touch it. He just looked at it silently. Then he handed me a handkerchief.

“Wipe off your hand, Punkin,” he said.

All the red wouldn't come off. It was like makeup, I thought. Some blood was on the flashlight. I wiped that, too.

“Seems that he would have fallen on his face, doesn't it?” Biff said. “If they got him from behind like this the force of
the blow should have thrown him down. He's been frisked, I think.”

“Frisked?” I knew the word but it sounded strange coming from Biff.

“I mean that someone rolled him over to look through his pockets. See? This one is still turned inside out like.”

“Don't touch him,” I said, thinking more about the blood than the sheriff.

“No, honey, I won't. You've done enough of that for all of us. What did ya do, fall over him?”

Biff didn't wait for me to answer. He took the flashlight from me again and let it play around the surrounding ground. As the light traveled I could see where I had made my mistake. Instead of turning a little to the right when I left the office, I must have turned left. Biff found a cleared space a few feet from the body. He put down his coat for me to sit on. Then he lit two cigarettes. We didn't speak until Mandy came back. We could hear him whistling loudly. Then he sat down beside me. He was out of breath and beads of sweat were on his forehead.

“I got the sheriff and the doctor,” he said after a moment's rest. “I called the saloon, too. They'll wonder why we're late for the show. I just told 'em we had an accident. I thought it was better not to let this thing out until the sheriff takes a look.”

“My boy,” Biff said, “you are getting to be a cop's delight.”

“I broke in the act already,” Mandy replied. “One more corpse and I'm ready for the big time.”

We sat silently until we saw the headlights and heard the car drive up. The sheriff and the others gathered around what was left of Cliff Corny Cobb. Biff showed them the pocket that had been turned inside out. He explained how I had touched the body.

“Were you three together?” the sheriff asked casually.

I thought Biff hesitated before answering. “No,” he said finally. “Mandy and I separated a while back. We were looking for Evangie, and Gyp here went to telephone and got lost. I heard her screaming, guess Mandy did too, so we just followed her voice.”

“That's about right,” Mandy said.

The doctor looked up from the body. He seemed to be puzzled about something.

“When did you start all this traipsing around?” the sheriff asked. He had seen the doctor's expression and must have recognized it.

“Not more than a few minutes,” Biff said.

The sheriff smiled at the doctor.

“Well, let's get him out of here and let's get these people together again. I left Evangie—your mother—at the trailer. The two gals were locked in separate rooms there, like they were afraid of each other. You must have all had quite a time of it. That Dimples one was having hysterics. The Gee Gee Graham girl had to almost break down the door to get at her. Did someone tell 'em about this, or did they just get an idea that something was wrong?”

The sheriff spoke casually but he kept his eyes on my face.

“Dimples was afraid that something had happened to Mother,” I said. “She'd been gone so long, and then we realized how long Corny had been gone and she . . .”

“She thought your mother might have killed him . . .”

“Oh, no,” I said quickly. “It was the other way around. She thought maybe Corny had—that's why I telephoned the doctor.”

As we walked toward the trailer Biff told the sheriff about the four thousand dollars. The men had put the body in the back of our car and had driven away with it. The sheriff was alone with us. He took the money from Biff and put it into his pocket. Then he took out his gun and kept it in his hand until we were in the trailer.

Mother was the only one who was composed. She sat on the daybed, sipping a hot toddy. “All this excitement,” she said. “Just because I was away for a few hours.”

I knew she was pleased, but Dimples lifted her swollen face as Mother spoke. She shoved a strand of hair from her bloodshot eyes and stared at the sheriff.

“Something's happened,” she said. Her voice sounded as though there might be a cord around her neck choking her.
Her hands gripped the arms of the chair as she leaned forward. “What is it?” Dimples asked. “What's happened?”

Gee Gee pushed her gently back into the chair.

“Biff said he was going to call the sheriff,” Gee Gee said. “Nothing else is going to happen, is it, Sheriff?”

The sheriff shook his head slowly.

“No, I don't think anything more could happen,” he said. He watched Gee Gee massage Dimples's head for a moment. Then he looked at the bottle of rye on the stove.

“I brought it to them,” Mother said. “When I stopped in to get the dogs' dinner. I don't approve of so much drinking but I felt an asthma attack coming on and hot toddys sometimes helps me.” She smiled over her glass at the sheriff.

“Why did you lock yourself in the bedroom?” the sheriff asked suddenly. He watched Dimples as he spoke, watched her tremble and watched her hands go white from gripping the arms of the chair.

“I—was afraid,” she said chokingly.

“How long were you in there?” he asked.

“I don't know. I don't know. I don't know anything. I just want to get out of here.”

Dimples jumped to her feet and ran toward the door before the sheriff could grab her. He seized her shoulders and shook her.

“Look here now,” he said roughly. “Cliff Corney Cobb was found stabbed in the back a few feet from here. Are you sure you didn't pretend to have hysterics so you could sneak out the back door and kill him?”

Dimples stared at the sheriff while he was talking. Her mouth fell open. Then suddenly a crafty smile made the sides of her mouth curl.

“I'm sure I didn't leave the trailer,” she said slowly. Her narrowed eyes turned to Gee Gee. “But I can't swear that she didn't.”

In a split second Gee Gee would have hit Dimples. Biff moved too quickly for her, though. He held her tightly while she let her arms flay about.

“Why don't you stop?” Biff said softly. “Can't you see they want you to do just what you're doing? As long as we stick together, they can't do a damn thing to us. We fall out and . . .”

“I can't help it,” Gee Gee said. “She knows damn well I kept pounding on that door every minute she was in there. What in hell would I kill Corny for, anyway?”

Biff released hold on Gee Gee. He led her slowly but surely to the bedroom. As they passed the stove, Biff picked up the bottle.

Gee Gee relaxed. “It's O.K. now,” she said. “I was just sore for a minute.”

“I'm sorry, too,” Dimples said. She relieved Biff of the bottle and poured out two drinks, one for Gee Gee.

Biff stood in the bedroom doorway and spoke softly to Hank. “I don't know much about the corpses, but I got an idea Corny's been dead for a couple hours, anyway. In fact, I got an idea he was killed while we were all together in the office,”

“What makes you think that?” the sheriff asked.

“Because of the five bucks for one thing. Dimples had just given it to him to buy a bottle. Seems to me he'da put it in his pocket if he'd had time. He wouldn't have loitered either, not with a fiver for a bottle in his hands. He never spent much time thinking that over. When he had the dough and the thirst he moved fast. Then I caught the look the doc here gave you when he was examining the body. He was telling you rigor mortis had set in, wasn't he?”

“The blood was fresh,” I said.

“I got that figured out, too,” Biff said with a careless wave of his hand. “I think you dislodged it when you tripped over the body. I took me a good look at the wound. There was congealed blood around it. That's one reason I didn't ask you right away if you'd killed him.”

“Me?” I shrieked.

“Let's not go through all that again,” Biff said impatiently. “Somebody killed him. It could have been you just as easy as anybody else.”

The sheriff pulled out a chair and sank into it heavily.

“You're saving me a lot of breath,” he said to Biff, “but if you don't mind, I'll do the questioning.”

He turned to Mother and spoke more kindly. “What were you doing before you came to my office this afternoon?”

Mother looked down into her empty glass for a moment before answering.

“Well,” she said slowly, “I'd had an asthma attack. After it cleared up we started out to visit a few people. We got as far as Mr. Hopkins's trailer, that's little Johnny's father, and then the car drove up and we got in and drove to town. That's all.”

“We?” the sheriff asked.

“Mrs. Smith and me, of course. She had been helping me with my asthma attack.”

“And the car? Who drove that?”

“Oh, the car.” Mother seemed surprised that the sheriff didn't know about that. “It belonged to the insurance people, Mamie's insurance people. She had to go into town to sign some papers, and I went along for the ride. I don't trust those insurance people. I know all about them and I wanted to be there to see that Mamie got what was coming to her. You might say I went along for mercenary reasons.”

“Did you go with her to the insurance man's office?' the sheriff asked.

“Oh, yes,” Mother said. “But everything seemed to be all right. There were so many questions, though, and so many things to sign and everything. It was stuffy in the office, too, so I just thought I'd take a little walk. The office was quite close to yours, so I just dropped in to say hello.”

The sheriff smiled. “I'm mighty glad you did,” he said. “Then for all but the time you were in town Mamie Smith was with you, eh?”

Mother nodded yes.

Biff was busy heating water for another hot toddy. He took the potholder from the hook behind the stove and wrapped it around the handle of the pan. He placed a spoon in the glass
with the liquor and sugar and added the water. Then he handed it to Mother.

“You say you were all together?” the sheriff said later to Biff. “When was that?”

“It was when Evangie was having her attack. We left for the office to have a drink and talk a little without her hear—without disturbing her.”

“That was when Cliff Cobb left for the liquor, eh?”

No one answered him.

“Well, that sort of changes the complexion of things then,” he said. “I'm not sure when he was stabbed, but I know it wasn't recently. Within the last hour or so, that is. If you people can all vouch for each other it sort of lets you out.”

His hands began unwrapping the money. He counted it carefully. Then he placed it on the stove top and looked more closely at the
Racing Form
. It had been torn in half, but the date line was still attached. I had noticed it before. Now I saw that Hank was interested in it.

“September fifth,” he said. “That's only two days ago. You say it was in the closet, eh?”

Biff walked over and opened the closet door. He moved the clothes aside and showed the sheriff the empty knot-hole.

“It was rolled up in that hole,” he said.

“Any idea who it belongs to?” the sheriff asked.

“Idea? Sure,” Biff replied, “but I'm not going to tell you my ideas. Go get some of your own.” He laughed a little self-consciously. Then he became serious.

“Wait a minute, Hank,” he said. “I might as well tell you what I think. You can use it or toss it. We were looking for something, understand? The thing you asked us not to mention in front of Evangie. Well, first we looked through the pantry. Remember when Gyp said she thought there was somebody in the trailer while she was sleeping? I told you the pantry door was open, didn't I? Well, I got thinking. What if she interrupted someone when she woke up? Someone who was hiding something in the pantry? So I took a good look. I dumped out all the
groceries and even pulled the innards out of a loaf of bread. I didn't find a thing. If someone had been hiding something, it's a cinch they didn't hide it in the pantry.

“Then I thought maybe they had been taking something out of the pantry. In the meantime we started searching the trailer. We tore the place apart. We didn't find what we were looking for, but we did find that wad of money. Naturally, I decided that whoever had the stuff had sold it. They were afraid to flash the roll, so they hid it. That's my idea. I got another, but for the time being I'm keeping it to myself.”

Hank didn't have a chance to coax Biff for the other idea. Mother had suddenly decided to ask what it was that was being kept a secret from her. She asked rather loudly, too, and very firmly.