The Traveling Corpse (14 page)

Annie pretended to be looking at the big
birds. Then as she looked down into her golf bag to pull out her #3
wood, she said to Barb, “You're right. There is a golf cart parked
behind that shed, and did you notice that the rain curtains on it
are gray? Who do we know in the park that has gray curtains?”

Barb looked at her friend and said with a
question in her voice, “Karl Kreeger?”

“Um-hum,” Annie said through pursed lips.

“But that isn't in BradLee! That's some
farmer's field,” protested Barb.

“Exactly,” retorted Annie. “And just why
would Karl Kreeger be trying to hide his golf cart there? That is
strange. C'mon, tee-off just like we didn't notice it.”

They turned their backs to the big birds and
hit their balls; hitting twice to make up for the two missing
players on their team. The sixth hole paralleled Number 5. As they
walked, heading back toward the big birds, the women tried to see
the golf cart. It was gone. Annie wanted a better look; so she said
to Barb, “Gosh, you know what? I think I have to use that bathroom
after all!”

Barb looked at her with surprise, then
realized why her friend had changed her mind. They both went into
the toilets. When they came out, they casually walked over to the
fence, again pretending to look at the birds. Annie walked along
part of it. “Barb, come here!” she ordered in a low voice. Barb saw
that Annie had turned her back to the fence and was trying to get
Barb to take a quick look at the fence. It was cut. Clearly, this
was no accident. “Now, how did that happen, do you suppose?”

Barb was afraid to examine it closely in case
they were being watched. “I'm afraid to bend over and take a good
look at it, but I think you're right. I think it has been cut. Who
do you suppose would do that? Do you think it was …?” She
hesitated to say Karl's name. “Why would he do that? You don't
suppose he was going to …”

Annie finished the thought, “To bury the body
under the cement path? Like I said before—that would be a great way
to hide the body permanently.”

“I just hope he's not watching us. Let's get
out of here.” She tugged on Annie's sweater.

“You know what this implies, don't you?”
Annie asked.

“Yes,” her friend said with dismay, “we're
assuming that Karl Kreeger has a body and that he is trying to hide
it, probably under that golf cart path so it will be covered with
cement.”

“We've got to stop him. If he can do that, we
can never prove that there ever was a body,” Annie lamented. They
had been talking as they walked to the seventh tee. “I don't much
feel like finishing this round, but I suppose we should. Didn't
Verna say she was playing with Kitty Kreeger?”

“Yes. You know we're all alone out here.
Right now, I wish some of the work crews were here or even a
foursome of men pushing us to play faster. But the men aren't
allowed to tee-off for half an hour after the Women's League plays
because the women playing on the last team to tee-off kept
complaining that the men were crowding them—almost hitting them
with their long drives.”

“And since it's so cold out, some of those
avid golfers probably won't be out this morning. Do you suppose
Karl was waiting out there? He'd know there would be that space of
time when no one would be on the course. The ground's so sandy;
it's easy to dig down in it. It wouldn't take long to dig a shallow
grave in this sandy soil; not like some of the clay soil we had
back home.” The women hustled to Number Seven. “I think we scared
him off.” Annie's mind was on Karl Kreeger; she dubbed her
drive.

 

* * *

 

Verna was waiting for them in the Pro Shop.
She had a big smile on her wrinkled face; her blue eyes were
dancing, and she waved a wad of dollar bills at them, “I won! I won
the fifty-fifty raffle,” she almost squealed in delight. “I don't
think I've evah won anything before in my life!”

“That's great!” Barb congratulated her. “How
much was in the pot?”

“Eighty dollars; so I got $40! The othah half
goes to the golf league. Isn't that fun? Bathing suits are on sale
now, and I'm going to use this to buy a new one,” Verna stated.

The women moved into the lounge. The heat was
switched on, and the room was comfortable after the chill outside.
They pulled three upholstered chairs close and began sharing their
morning experiences. Annie and Barb told Verna about seeing what
they thought was Karl Kreeger's golf cart in the field with the
ostriches. They could only speculate why the fence was cut.

Verna was shocked, “You don't think he was… ?” her voice trailed off. She couldn't say the words that
expressed the idea that was forming. They were all thinking the
same thing:
Karl Kreeger is a nice man. We've known him for
several years. Men like Karl don't murder someone, do they? And
then try to get away with murder?

Verna shook her head. “This is too much. Do
you really think that was Karl's golf cart in that field?”

“We don't know what else to think,” Barb
said. “It's the only one we know of around here that has gray rain
curtains. And it looked new, didn't it, Annie?”

Annie nodded in agreement. Verna said, “I
have some news for you, too. I told you that Kitty Kreegah was
subbing on our team? I got an ear full! She is
so
put out
about her husband! She was really on his case! Seems she'd told him
earliah that she needed the golf cart this morning for golf, but
he, at the verah last minute, had some cock-and-bull story about
why he needed it and just took off in it. So, she had to drive
their car ovah to the course. Anothah thing: She doesn't want to
move to Ohio; she loves living in BradLee, but she says Karl just
told her they were moving out; that he didn't want to live here
anymore! She doesn't know what to make of him. Wondahs if he's
going through change of life or something?”

Barb and Annie were stunned.

“There's more,” Verna continued. “Wednesday
morning, a friend, Olivia, I think it was, picked Kitty up to go
play Scrabble. Olivia forgot something, so she had to swing back to
her home. Kitty says on the way she was surprised to see her golf
cart parked in the carport of an empty house. She knows the people
who live there; they're Canadians. The man isn't well, and they had
to go back to Canada because of his health insurance. Kitty said
she was so upset, but she didn't say anything to Olivia. Kitty told
me she just knew it was their golf cart because it was blue and had
the gray rain curtains, and they were down and all zipped up tight
around the sides. Since they were on the late side, she didn't have
time to stop and look at it.

“She also said that she asked Olivia to drive
her past that house after the Scrabble game was over, but the cart
was gone by then. She doesn't know what Karl's up to. She wondahs
if he's getting Alzheimer's or something? He's acting so
strange!”

As she stood up to leave, Barb put into words
what Annie was thinking, “Or maybe he's gotten himself in big
trouble and is trying awfully hard to cover it up.”

Verna struggled to get up from the low chair,
“Oh, dear, it's getting hardah and hardah to get out of a
comfortable chair. This getting old isn't for sissies!”

The other two laughed and agreed that ‘Golden
Age' was a misnomer. Annie suggested that they all stop at DeeDee's
on the way home to see how she was feeling.

“I'd like to, but I'm hungry. It's past noon,
and Brad will wonder where I am,” Barb said. “Let's go after
lunch.”

“I almost forgot,” Verna countered, “I have
Book Club at one o'clock. I'll have to skedaddle. Von's out
delivering Meals On Wheels so I don't have to get lunch for him.
Book Club's ovah about 2:30. How about if I just meet you girls at
DeeDee's about then?”

They agreed. Annie offered to call DeeDee to
tell her they'd be coming to see her that afternoon.

 

* * *

 

Thursday Afternoon, 2:30
P.M
.

 

Barb and Annie saw Verna pedaling her red
bicycle towards them. She was wearing a red cardigan sweater. “How
she does love the color red,” Annie commented. “Verna likes red
more than I like blue, and that's saying something!” They waited
for her to pull into DeeDee's carport, put her kickstand down and
angle the front wheel to steady the bike. Then they knocked on the
door.

The little old mobile home was set down on a
street in the older part of the park twenty-four years ago when it
was brand new and state of the art. It was a long, narrow
single-wide, 14' x 60', and still had its trailer hitch attached to
the front.

The Davises had worked hard remodeling the
manufactured house themselves. They painted the dark wood paneling
an off-white color. You could still see the grooves in the
paneling; they didn't fill those in. It added texture to the rooms,
and the off-white paint brightened them, especially the narrow
hallway that led down one side of the unit to the two bedrooms and
bath. Vertical blinds replaced the heavy avocado-colored drapes and
sheers that the original owner had hung there in the 1970's when
that kind and color of window treatment was the height of fashion.
Now it was cozy and comfortable. “It would be more comfy, though,”
DeeDee had once said, “if it had a second bathroom.”

The other thing DeeDee missed was her grand
piano. There certainly was no room for a musical instrument as big
as that in the small area which served as their dining and living
room.

Yes,
Annie thought to herself
, it's
old and small, but very attractive, and I love being in DeeDee's
home.
Perhaps she loved it because it was here that the four
women cemented, or at least started cementing, their unusually
strong friendships.

Doc welcomed them, “Come on in; she's sitting
on a heating pad. I took her to the osteopath this morning. She got
a shot; so she's getting relief from the pain.”

DeeDee greeted her friends without standing
up. “He gave me an adjustment too, before tha cortisone shot. That
helped. It jest doesn't seem fair; I'm younger than tha rest of
y'all, an' I'm tha one that's laid up!”

“You'll be up and at ‘em in a couple of days
and leading the pack,” Barb predicted.

Doc excused himself, “If you ladies don't
mind, Connie is calling me.”

“What did he mean by that?” Barb questioned
as he left the room. “Who is Connie?”

“Oh, that? That's his name fer his computer.
He's named it ‘Connie.' He's gotten all involved with his computer.
He can do something he calls ‘email'—writes to our kids in Ohio,
an' it doesn't cost a penny! I don't understand it, but he spends a
lotta time with Connie!”

The telephone rang and a few minutes later
Doc came back into the living room with a sweater and his car keys
in his hand. “If you're okay, DeeDee,” Doc said, “I've got to go to
the animal shelter. They just called. The regular veterinarian's
got the flu and needs to go home. I'll go and relieve him for the
rest of the afternoon. Do you want me to pick up anything for
supper or do you want to go out?” Doc asked.

DeeDee bit her lower lip as she thought a
moment before saying, “I think I'd rather jest stay in for supper.
Would ya mind pickin' up two plates of spaghetti with meat sauce
for us? Oh! an' two Greek side salads. Thanks, darlin'.”

“Girls, take good care of her. ‘Bye.” Doc
left for the animal shelter where he could put his years of
experience as a veterinarian to good use.

After he left, DeeDee asked Verna, “Did ya
enjoy Book Club?”

“Oh, yes! It's usually stimulating; puts your
mind to working.” Then Verna said, “I've got good news and bad
news. Which do you want to hear first?”

DeeDee hurried to answer, “I certainly wan'
ta hear the good news first!”

“Here it is then,” Verna said. “You know,
Nanette is our leader of Book Club. I think the woman reads
everything! Well, this afternoon, she started off our meeting by
telling this story. It shows the value of reading, she says. She
got it in an e-mail:

“It seems there was a couple who decided to
go on vacation. The husband loved to fish, and he wanted to go to
northern Minnesota. His wife didn't fish; she loved to read, but
she agreed to go so he could fish, and she'd read.

“One morning, her husband went out fishing at
the crack of dawn. Aftah several hours of fishing, he came in and
decided to take a nap. By this time, the sun was up and it was a
pretty day. Although she wasn't familiar with the lake, the wife
decided to take the boat out. She motored out a ways, cut the
engine, threw out the anchor, picked up her book, and began to
read.

“A game warden came along in his boat. He
pulled up beside her and said, ‘Good morning, m'am. What are you
doing?'

“‘Reading a book,' she replied, thinking to
herself that it was obvious what she was doing.

“He informed her, ‘You're in a restricted
fishing area.'

“And she replied, ‘I'm sorry officer, but I'm
not fishing; I'm reading.'

“‘Yes, but you have all the equipment. I'll
have to take you in and write you up.'

“‘If you do that, I'll have to charge you
with sexual assault,' the woman said.

“Shocked, the game warden said, ‘But, I
haven't even touched you!'

“‘That's true, but you have all the
equipment.'