The Traveling Corpse (30 page)

As soon as Barb unlocked the door and
disappeared inside, Annie sensed, more than heard, something behind
her. Before she could look around, a hand grabbed her under her
left armpit, and she was being yanked up to her feet. Kitty's head
and shoulders thumped from her lap and hit the ground at her feet.
When Annie opened her mouth to scream, a handkerchief was shoved
into it. Then the man controlling her sneezed down the back of her
neck, and she shuddered, wondering if that gag in her mouth was
clean or had he used it? Before she could worry about that, he
clamped his hand over the bottom of her face; so she couldn't spit
it out. Then he began dragging her towards Barb's golf cart. Her
heart sank when she finally got a glimpse of her attacker. She had
felt sure it was Karl, and it was. His usually perfectly styled
hair was now mussed up, a stubble of beard covered his rugged face,
and his breath reeked of alcohol.

Annie closed her eyes and prayed silently,
Lord, it's Annie, and I really need Your help and Your strength.
And, Lord, Karl needs Your help too. Amen.

He forced her to climb in the cart from the
driver's side, making her scoot awkwardly under the steering wheel.
She had to do his bidding because he was bending her left arm up in
the painful Half-Nelson hold. He fished in his pocket and pulled
out a golf cart key. With a sinking feeling, Annie knew it would
fit as all the Club brand carts used the same key. Desperately, she
kicked at his leg, but he put more pressure on her arm. It
throbbed. Instinctively, Annie knew:
Karl won't
care if
he breaks my arm. He's already broken Kitty's. He's drunk, and I'm
really, really scared of him.

Silently, the cart moved forward when Karl
put his foot on the pedal. He turned the wheel and drove between
her house and her neighbor's. She had no idea where he was taking
her or why he was leaving his wife for strangers to care for her
wounds.

A few seconds later, Barb stepped from the
house down into Annie's patio; she had a blanket over her arm. She
called to tell Annie that the EMTs were on their way. There was no
answer from Annie, only a moan from Kitty. Frantically, Barb began
calling for Annie as she ran to where Kitty lay and covered her
with the blanket. Then, Barb circled Andersen's home, calling out
all the while. No answer. When she realized that her golf cart was
gone, she thought:
Annie wouldn't leave Kitty before getting her
help.
No, someone must have done something to her, and that
someone is most probably Karl. I'll bet he followed Kitty here.
She closed her eyes in real pain as she realized:
Karl has
kidnapped Annie. I've got to call Sgt. Menendez.

 

* * *

 

Karl kept his left hand on the steering wheel
while his right hand controlled Annie with the Half-Nelson hold.
She turned her head away from him, and with her free hand, she
pulled the handkerchief out of her mouth and let it blow away; then
she screamed. He applied more pressure. She stopped screaming; he
eased his grip on her. She was his prisoner, but her mind was free,
and it was racing. She realized that he was driving toward Old
Main. What could she leave as a clue to where she was? She thought:
I wish I'd kept that nasty handkerchief; it had my saliva on
it.
She found a tissue in her pocket. Desperate, she spit into
it and when she had a chance, she pushed the tissue into an azealea
bush when Karl turned a corner close to the curb. She thought:
No one will see it in the dark. Probably won't do any good.
It seemed silly, but memories of Hansel and Gretel leaving a trail
of breadcrumbs seemed like a grand idea to the kidnapped woman.

She thought to herself:
Maybe I can get
him to talk. Maybe I can reason with him. He's drunk, but it's
worth a try. I don't have anything to lose.

Trying to talk in a casual, normal voice,
Annie asked, “Where are we going, Karl?”

“Shut up.”

“We need to go back and take care of Kitty.
What happened to her?”

“Bitch.”

Annie swallowed. She didn't know if he were
calling her or Kitty a bitch. She ignored his slur, asking instead,
“Why are you making me go with you? Art will be home soon, and
he'll be looking for me.”

“It's all your fault.”

“My fault! What have I done?”

“If you'd kept your God-damned nose out of my
business, like you should have, everything would be all right
now.”

“Please, Karl, you don't have to swear.”

“You and your goody-goody ways. Why'd ya have
ta go an' put your God-damn feminist ideas in my Kitty's head? Keep
your modern ideas ta yourself.”

“What did I do to Kitty?”

“She had the nerve to talk back to me. Said
you told her she didn't have to do everything I told her to do.
Always did as I told her ‘til you came ‘round fillin' her head full
of the Devil's wicked ways.” To make his point, Karl pulled up on
her bent arm making Annie scream in pain.

When it subsided, Annie asked, “Is that why
you beat her up?”

“You bet. She deserved it.”

“I didn't mean to cause trouble between you
and Kitty when I told her women have the right to think for
themselves.”

“Not in my house. I may be old-fashioned, but
I was raised to believe that the man is the head of the household.
Just like it says in the Bible.”

That reference to the Bible really upset
Annie, and she forgot she was a prisoner, arguing, “You male
chauvinists only read the first part of Ephesians 5 where it says a
man is to be the head of his house. If you'd read just a few verses
further on, it tells a man to cherish his wife. What you did to
Kitty—you beat her up, broke her arm—that's
not
Biblical.”

“Shut up. You and your fancy way with words.
You're a troublemaker.”

“Is that why you're kidnapping me?”

“You deserve it.”

“But, Karl, this will only make things worse
for you.”

“It can't get any worse. It's all your fault,
and you're gonna pay.”

Annie squeezed her eyes shut and prayed:
Lord, please put the right words in my mouth, and please soften
Karl's heart. Amen.
Then she asked Karl, “What else is my
fault?”

“Shut up you bitch. You talk too much.”

Involuntarily, Annie shuddered when he swore
at her.

Karl pulled the golf cart to a stop beside
Old Main and ordered Annie to get out. Frantically, she looked
around, hoping to see the BradLee security pickup truck. No luck.
She knew that every evening two couples volunteered for security
duty between 9 and 11 P.M. The paid security guard came on at
eleven. He'd lock up the buildings and then patrol the park until 5
A.M. Annie thought:
It must be a little after nine o'clock now.
The two women volunteers will in the office manning the phone
while their husbands drive up and down the streets of the
park on the
lookout for any trouble—usually teenage boys
up to mischief—like swiping a golf cart for a joy
ride.
Well,
Annie prayed:
Lord, this isn't mischief; I'm in a
lot of trouble. I need help. I need Your help, and I need it now!
Amen.

In a low, but threatening voice, Karl ordered
her to get out, then he shoved her towards the double doors of Old
Main. Still gripping her left arm in the Half-Nelson, he pushed her
into the dark empty hall and turned to the right. Now Annie knew he
was making her walk towards the Bingo closet where he kept the
supplies for the weekly games under his lock and key. She had never
seen the storage room open, but she knew she was about to learn
more about the inside of that tiny room than she ever wanted to
know.

Summoning up courage, Annie asked Karl, as he
was unlocking the door in the dark, “Why are we coming here? You
don't need Bingo supplies now.”

“There are more things in here than stuff for
Bingo.”

“Like?”

“Duct tape. Very handy for taping mouths
shut. Mouths that talk too much to the Sheriff's deputy. And for
taping over eyes. Eyes that see too much in big drawers.”

“You wouldn't!”

“Oh, yes I would. There you go with your
talk, talk, talk. Shut up.” Karl slammed the closet door shut
before flicking on the light. There was no window. The walls of the
small room were lined with metal shelves which were piled high with
Bingo cards, marking pens, office supplies, etc., plus all the
equipment used on the stage. She saw him pick up a large roll of
duct tape.

She took a step back, and asked, “Why did you
do it, Karl? How did Twila die? Was it an accident?”

“Sortta, we didn't mean to hurt her.”

“We? You and who else?”

Before answering, Karl reached in his hip
pocket and pulled out a flask. Tipping his head back, he took a
drink. While he was concentrating on drinking, Annie tried to open
the door, but before she could, he slapped her so hard that she
fell against a metal shelf then slowly slid down to the floor at
his feet. He swore at her, “Bitch, try that again, and I'll hit you
harder.”

Annie rubbed her temple. Her hand came away
with blood on it. She pressed her fingers down to stench the
flow.

“That Twila was one of those high-faluttin'
feminist females—thought she was as good as a man. Karl slurred his
words when he answered, “Ya wanna know who was with me? It was my
best friend, Jiggs. He stood up for me ‘gainst her. Never
questioned me. It made him mad, too, when that new woman accountant
with the fancy title ‘CPA' began talkin' down to us. She just made
me so mad comin' in and makin' fun of the way I took care of Bingo.
Jiggs got mad when she started accusing me of skimming money. That
Jiggs was a real friend. He stood up for me.”

Karl chuckled. “I gave her a shove. She
backed up into Jiggs. He pushed her towards me, then I knocked her
back to Jiggs. It got to be a game. We were playing ‘Pickle' with
her bein' the pickle. Served her right.”

“Who actually killed her?”

Ignoring Annie's question and still thinking
about the pic-kle game, Karl smiled, “It was fun to see her
bouncing back and forth between us. She sure didn't look like any
big exec giving big orders. Nah, we took her down a peg.”

Annie was frustrated, “But how did she
die?”

“Got too close to the edge of the stage and
fell off. Hit her head on the edge, I guess it was.”

“Why didn't you just call 9-1-1? Nobody would
have imagined you'd been bullying her.”

Karl dropped his head, and to Annie's
surprise, the big man began to sob, “I've asked myself that a
million times.” He took another drink. “If we had, Jiggs would
still be alive. I lost my best friend.”

“No,” Annie countered. “Jiggs was a good
friend, but your best friend was your own wife, Kitty, and you're
going to lose her, too, if we don't go to her now.”

Something in the tone of Annie's voice
triggered Karl, “Oh, no you don't, you bitch! There you go again
tryin' ta get away. It's all your fault. I would have gotten away
with the perfect crime if you hadn't gone and opened that drawer.
Then you wouldn't let it go—had to keep diggin' and diggin' inta my
business. No, Bitch, you're goin' pay.”

Annie closed her eyes and sent up a sentence
prayer:
Lord, I can't reason with Karl. He's blaming me for his
troubles. Please help me, Lord, and help Karl, too. Amen.
When
she opened her eyes, Karl was drinking again.

Without her asking, he rambled on, “After all
the money I made for this park. After all the hours I spent working
Bingo, I deserved a little treat. I didn't help myself to near what
I should have taken. I made thousands of dollars for this two-bit
retirement park.”

Annie let his confession pass without
commenting. Instead, she asked, “Who thought of hiding her body in
the drawer?”

“I couldn't think at first. I was so
surprised at her dying. Then we heard people talkin' outside; we
didn't want anyone ta see her sprawled on the floor. We didn't do
any plannin'. Jiggs pulled the drawer out, and I lifted her in.
Tried ta cover her with those boxes. Then you had ta come snopin'
‘round.”

“Karl, it was an accident, let's call Sgt.
Menendez. She'll help you. Don't make it any worse.”

Karl began working to loosen the cut end on
the roll of duct tape. Annie pleaded, “Don't, Karl. Please don't
put that on me. Don't hurt me. You need to take care of Kitty.
Let's go to Kitty—take her to the hospital.”

He slapped Annie across the mouth; she fought
back, but she was no match for his strength. He pushed her down
onto the one wooden office chair in the room. Then he taped her
hands together behind the chair before taping her ankles to the
front legs of the straight chair.

She tried again, “Karl, where will you go?
You can't hide forever. Don't leave me here. Let's go to Kitty. I'm
a nurse. I can help her.”

“You won't be helping anybody for a long
time.” He smirked, then pulled his flask out and took another swig.
After he stuffed it back in his hip pocket, he stuck the duct tape
to her forehead. Working quickly, Karl unwound the tape from the
roll and re-wound it around Annie's head. He began at her forehead,
then criss-crossed it behind her ears and wrapped it over her eyes.
Around and around from a different angles until she was completely
blinded.

Annie worried:
Is he going to go over my
nose? Is he going to smother me with duct tape? Oh, Lord, please
don't let him kill me. I'll be dead, but he'll have pre-meditated
murder charges to face. For Kitty's sake and mine please control
his hands.
How much air will I have? How long before I die?
Lord, if you want me, I'm ready to go with You, but if You aren't
in a hurry, I'd really like to see my Art again. It's in Your
hands, Lord. Amen.