Page 18 (1/2)

"That’sif there’d been no spot I ain’t pushing a body down to the end of the street!"

Laughing, he gave me a wink and a thurinned, spirits absurdly buoyed by the silly little show of caed the stretcher and body bag out of the back of the van, kicked the doors closed and headed to the backyard, whistling as I pushed the stretcher beforeacross the entrance to the backyard, and I enjoyed a dorky little thrill as I signedunder the tape

We were in the backyard of a two-story brick house in the sort of subdivision that desperately wanted to be considered upscale but couldn’t e Surrounded by a white picket fence, the yard was expensively landscaped--decorative trees and artistically placed clumps of flowers, a koi pond in the corner coe over it that led to an equally cute gazebo, and expensive-looking paving stones foro accepted that I would never live in a house like this My backyard was landscaped with a couple of decrepit cars on blocks and an old washtub that heldstopped when I saw the body "Son of a fucking bitch," I rinned "Bit of a shocker, isn’t it? You gonna be okay?"

I nodded and plastered on a gri "Less for me to have to pick up"

Detective Roth let out a bark of laughter "That’s one way of looking at it!"

As soon as he turned away, I let the griht of the body Or rather, I was, but certainly not because my delicate sensibilities were shocked No, it was obvious that, once again, the universe was back to fucking with me

This body had no head

The second in a , right? I ot whacked, but at least I knew there was no way I could have killed this guy I didn’t have any gaps in my memory this time And if the two murders are connected, then that totally clears ht Great I was hoping for a serial killer

It looked like he’d been lying dohen his head had been hacked off Deep gouges in the grass by the stump of his neck helped support that theory I wasn’t a detective but even I could figure that much out White male, dressed in jeans and a faded Pizza Plaza T-shirt It was tough to tell his approxi, but the skin on the hands and forearer and old fart

The cops and Derrel would surely find it all interesting and inforive a crap about any of that Now that I was fairly sure that I wasn’t an axe-wielding ave a crap about was the fact that if the head was ry, damn it!

They weren’t ready for me yet, so I found a spot by the fence out of everyone’s way There were about half a dozen crime scene techs in the back yard, but none of the pictures and measurements Three detectives were clustered by the fence on the other side of the yard, peering intently at ses of dirt on the white paint Beyond the fence a petite, dark-haired worey T-shirt had a Ger lead She didn’t look like a cop, but no one was chasing the tea for the head, I decided That was probably a cadaver dog--trained to find dead bodies I’d heard of them but never seen one except on TV I watched the very interesting, and I finally gave up and returnedon in the yard

I could hear a female voice rise briefly in hysterical tones froh the crackle of police radios After a couple ofto the various buzzes of conversation, I gathered that the lady who lived here had discovered the body early thisout to pee A car with a Pizza Plaza sign on it had been found parked in front of an unoccupied house a few blocks away, and apparently the driver had failed to return froht The victi driver, though this needed to be verified with fingerprints

I scanned the area for theconveniently nearby Or even not so nearby There weren’t any bushes that could conceal a lance in the koi pond, hoping to see a face peering back at oldfish darting back and forth Then again, if it had been anywhere in the yard, the dog would surely have found it by now

A stab of hunger tightened ernail as I waited Even with the disappoint to be here for this--again, exciting in a weird, uy’s head had been chopped off That sure as shit wasn’t an every day thing around here