Miami Blues by Charles Willeford Read Free Book Online

goes for you." He returned to his classroom and closed the door.
    Hoke showed the pair his shield. "Sergeant Moseley. Homicide. Isn't there a lounge somewhere where we can sit down and talk?" Hoke hadn't expected to see such a young girl. She looked more like a high school kid than a college student. But if she was engaged to this hard-looking jock, she was probably older than she looked. It was a help to have the fiancé present; maybe he wouldn't have to drive her out to hell-and-gone Kendall after all. Her boyfriend could take her home.
    "There's a student lounge down on the second floor," Susan said. "We can go there. I haven't done anything bad. Have I, Junior?"
    Hoke smiled. "Of course you haven't." Hoke started toward the elevator. "Let's go down to the lounge."
    They sat at a glass-topped table on three unstable wire Eames chairs in the study area near the Down escalator to the main floor. Hoke lit a cigarette and held out the package. When they shook their heads, he took one drag and dropped the cigarette into an empty Coke can on the table.
    "I've got some bad news for you, Miss Waggoner. That's why I wanted you to be seated. Your brother, Martin, in a freaky accident at the airport, died today. And your father, when we called him in Okeechobee, asked us to have you identify the body. We've got an ID already from the other man who was working with your brother at the airport, so there's no mistake. It's just that we need a relative for a positive identification. After the autopsy we can turn the body over to either you or your father. You are eighteen, aren't you?"
    "Nineteen," Susan said.
    "Twenty," Freddy amended.
    "Just barely twenty. This is hard to believe. How did it happen?"
    "An unidentified assailant broke your brother's finger, and Martin went into immediate shock and died from this unexpected trauma to his middle digit." Hoke pursed his lips. "It happens sometimes."
    "I've changed my mind, officer," Freddy said. "Can I borrow one of your cigarettes?"
    "Sure." Hoke offered the pack, and held a match for Freddy to light the cigarette.
    Susan shook her head, looking bewildered. "The airport's a dangerous place to work. My brother's been attacked out there before, you know. A man in the men's room gave him a black eye once, and a lady from Cincinnati kneed him in the balls one morning. He walked bowlegged for almost three days. He reported both cases to the security people out there and they just laughed."
    "I'm not surprised," Hoke said. "Your brother was a Krishna, and the airport lost its case in court when they tried to get them barred from begging out there. So I can see how security would turn their heads the other way when Krishnas are attacked. On the other hand, the Krishnas annoy a lot of people with their aggressive tactics."
    "What do you think, Junior?" Susan turned her head.
    Freddy dropped his cigarette into the Coke can. "I think we should go and take a look at the body right now. It may not be Marty after all, and I'm pretty sure the sergeant here would like to get it over with and go home to his dinner."
    "My car's down in the patio." Hoke started for the escalator, and they followed him.
    Hoke's well-battered 1974 Le Mans was indeed parked on the school patio. He had been unable to find a parking place on the street, so he had jumped the curb and driven over the flagstones to within a few yards of the escalator. There were winos lounging on the patio benches. Two old men, by the wall outside the bookstore, slept noisily on flattened cardboard boxes. Two other derelicts on a nearby concrete bench jeered and gave Hoke the finger as he unlocked the alarm in the left front fender and then unlocked the door and took his police placard off the dashboard. He shoved the placard under the front seat before unlocking the door to the passenger side of the car.
    "We'd better all sit in front," Hoke suggested. "A man was sick on the back seat yesterday, and I haven't had a chance to get it cleaned up