Too Darn Hot by Sandra Scoppettone Read Free Book Online Page B

or I’m through. You wanna find yer soldier boy or ya wanna give me the runaround?”
    “Lucille and me . . . we’re estranged, like they say.”
    “Why’s that?”
    “Lucille’s got nothin to do with this, and I’m not goin into family problems.”
    “You just don’t get it, do ya? I’ll put yer refund in the mail.”
    “No, wait. Please don’t give up on me. All I want is to find Charlie.”
    “This is tough enough without you gettin in my way.”
    “You’re the boss. Whatever you say goes.”
    I wondered how long this little honeymoon of ours would last. She was sincere enough now cause she was scared. All my instincts told me I should drop this, but I’m a stubborn girl.
    “Okay. Tell me this, did Lucille know Van Widmark?”
    “I think they met once.”
    “Before ya were estranged.”
    “Yeah.”
    “Do ya think she mighta seen him on her own?”
    “Van? You mean, dated him?” She sounded miffed.
    “Seen him.”
    “I doubt it.”
    “Why?”
    “Have you met Van?”
    “Yeah.”
    “Well, then.”
    “You mean cause he’s in a wheelchair?”
    “Yeah, I do.”
    “That wouldn’t stop somebody from visitin him, would it?”
    “Did Van tell you he’d seen her?”
    “I haven’t checked it out with him yet.”
    “Well, maybe you should.”
    This broad couldn’t keep her yap shut. “Lucille’s number.”
    “It’s in my address book in my pocketbook, which is in my locker. I’ll have to give it to you later.”
    They probably weren’t too chummy if she had to look up her sister’s number.
    “What else did you want to clear up?” She could hardly wait to be cooperative.
    “I went to Charlie’s hotel room. Look, there’s no good way to tell ya this. I found a dead man there.”
    She drew in her breath. “Was it Charlie?”
    “We don’t know.” I told her what’d happened.
    “So it could be anyone?”
    “It could, sure.” She didn’t want to think it was Charlie and I didn’t blame her. But more than likely it
was
Charlie and somewhere she knew that.
    “Miss Turner, you’re the only link we have to Charlie right now. We need this John Doe identified.”
    “I . . . I don’t know. I’ve never seen a dead body. And if it’s Charlie, I might go mad.”
    I didn’t know why so many broads were so dramatic. I wondered if they got it from radio soap operas.
    “They’ll just pull back the sheet and show ya his face.”
    “But he’ll still be dead.”
    I couldn’t argue with that. “It would help a lot if you’d do it, Miss Turner.”
    “All right. Will you go with me?”
    She was my client. What could I say? “Sure. Let me call and set up an appointment.”
    “Do you think it’ll be today? I’ll have to ask for time off.”
    “Call ya back soon as I know.”
    “No. I can’t keep comin to the phone here. So when you call back, leave a message about the time and tell me now where to meet you.”
    “Across the street from Bellevue Hospital where the morgue is. There’s a coffee shop there.”
    When we hung up, I dialed the morgue. It gave me the heebie-jeebies that I knew the number by heart. I asked for Glenn Madison. When he came on the line, we set up an appointment for later that day. I called Claire Turner’s number and left a message to meet me at three-thirty.
    Then I gave Powell a jingle and told him the arrangements.
    “Ya made a morgue appointment without me?”
    He sounded like a two-year-old. I said I’d see him later.
    Next I tried Van Widmark’s number to ask if Lucille Turner was his lady visitor, but there was no answer. I thought that was kinda strange, but maybe he had somebody who took him out now and then. Or maybe he didn’t feel like answering the phone.
    I bellowed for Birdie.
    She came into my office. “Ya gotta get one a those thingamajigs. Ya want me to go shoppin for one?”
    “No.” I held out the pink message papers. “I want ya to call all these people back and tell em I’m goin outta town for a week. And if they want their