Miami Blues by Charles Willeford Read Free Book Online Page A

yet."
    Susan sat in the middle. Freddy, on the outside, unrolled his window. "Why does the college let these winos hang around the school?" Freddy said.
    "They suspended the old vagrancy laws a few years back. We can't arrest 'em anymore, and if we could, where would we put 'em? On top of the normal eight thousand vags who come down here for the winter, we've got another twenty thousand Nicaraguans, ten thousand Haitian refugees, and another twentyfive thousand Marielitos running around town."
    "What's a Marielito?" Freddy said.
    "Where have you been?" Hoke said, not unkindly. "Our wimpy ex-president, Jimmy Carter, opened his arms to one hundred and twenty-five thousand Cubans back in 1980. Most of them were legitimate, with families already here in Miami, but Castro also opened his prisons and insane asylums and sent along another twenty-five thousand hardcore criminals, gays, and maniacs. They sailed here from Marie!, in Cuba, so they call them Marielitos."
    As Hoke reached forward and switched off the police calls on his radio, a ragged Latin man came up to his window and pounded on it with his fists, shouting:
    "Gimme money! Gimme money!"
    "See what I mean?" Hoke said. "When you drive around Miami, Susan, always keep your windows rolled up. Otherwise, they'll reach in and steal your purse."
    "I know," Susan said, "my brother told me."
    Hoke backed expertly into the street, honking his horn until the traffic gave way.
    As Hoke drove north on Biscayne Boulevard toward the city morgue, Freddy said, "This old boat rides pretty smooth. You wouldn't think so, just from looking at it."
    "I had a new engine put in it. It's my own car, not a police vehicle. The radio belongs to the department, and the red light, but they give us detectives mileage if we use our own personal vehicles. Fifteen cents a mile, which doesn't begin to cover it, and nothing for amortization. But the convenience is worth it. If you order a vehicle from the motor pool you have to wait for a half-hour or more, and then it may be low on gas or have a bad tire or something. So I usually drive my own car. I should do something about the dents, but I'd have them back again the next day. Twenty percent of the drivers in Miami can't qualify for a license, so they drive without one."
    The morgue was a low one-story building. Its limited storage space had been supplemented by two leased air-conditioned trailers to keep up with the flow of bodies that were delivered every day. Hoke parked, and they followed him into the office. Dr. Evans had left for the day, but Dr. Ramirez, an assistant pathologist, took them to a gurney in the hallway and showed them the body.
    "That's Martin, all right," Susan said quietly.
    "I never met Martin, sergeant, but he looks like a nice guy," Freddy said. "He doesn't look anything like you, Susan."
    "Not now he doesn't, but back when we were little and almost the same size, people used to take us for fraternal twins." She looked up at Hoke. "We were born only ten months apart, although Marty looks much older than me now." Tears welled from Susan's eyes, and she brushed them away impatiently.
    "Is it true," Freddy asked Hoke, "that a man's hair and fingernails keep growing after he's dead? I noticed some stubble there on Marty's chin."
    "I don't know, although I've heard that myself. Is it true, Dr. Ramirez?"
    "No, it isn't true. That's just normal stubble on his face. He probably shaved this morning, and that's just his growth for today. One thing for sure, the nail on his middle finger won't grow any longer. The finger was broke clean off. We haven't done the autopsy yet, but Pussgut took a cursory look when he first came in, and there were no other wounds."
    "'Pussgut,' "Hoke explained to Freddy and Susan, "is what the people around here call Dr. Evans when he isn't around to hear them say it. They call him that because of his paunch."
    "I'm sorry," Dr. Ramirez said. "I meant to say 'Dr. Evans.' Is the sister here going to sign the