"Broussard, John A - Kay Yoshinobu - A Body, More Or Less" - читать интересную книгу автора (Broussard John A)

Sid kept shaking his head. "Absolutely all you have is the word of a known liar that there was ever a body there."

"On the contrary, Sid. There's lots of circumstantial evidence. There's the blood for one. For another, Mark Trooper - that's the husband - has mysteriously disappeared. At least Ginny Trooper claims she doesn't know where he's staying. And it looks as though she has a boyfriend. Now, if I can find out whether or not Mark has type 'O' blood, that might be enough to make Tanaka get rid of his toothpick and get busy."

Reaching for her briefcase and starting for the door, she added, "Bail hearing coming up for Freddie. Hank says they should have a preliminary report from the lab shortly, so maybe I can kill two birds with one stone."

Freddie's concerns occupied Kay's mind as she walked the short distance to the station. Freddie was in for an unpleasant surprise, though Kay wasn't convinced the news was really bad. Yoshiro Yoshinobu, his father, had finally drawn the line. No bail money. Kay was certain she could have persuaded Judge Schreiber to allow reasonable bail, but now there was no point in pulling out all the stops, especially since Freddie might actually benefit from an indeterminate stay in one of Napua town's not particularly comfortable jail cells.

The presence of Tanaka chatting with the desk sergeant when she arrived brought her concentration back to the missing body problem. At sight of her, the toothpick came out. "You may be interested to know that Mrs. Trooper came in this morning."

From the expression on the Sergeant's face, Kay knew she was about to suffer through a gloating session on his part. "She says her husband is right here in town. Gave me his number, and I called him. He's alive and well."

"Did you find out their blood types?" Kay asked. "And what did Mrs. Trooper say about the missing rug? Or did she deny that there ever was one?"

Tanaka's blank expression was a sufficient answer to her questions. Kay turned and went off to the interrogation room where Freddie was waiting. His charming smile faded when Kay announced, "No body, Freddie. Want to try again?"

"I swear there was one, Kay. Do you think I would have stampeded without picking up anything if there hadn't been one?"

Kay conceded the point, though Freddie's original claim rang true enough and didn't need this additional protestation. "And the body was definitely lying on a rug?"

"Absolutely." Freddie nodded his head vigorously. "Blood all over him and the rug."

"Maybe we better start at the beginning again, Freddie. Why did you pick these houses in the first place?"

Freddie relaxed, showing every indication of enjoying a discussion of his trade. "For one thing, there aren't any other occupied houses nearby. Most neighborhoods have a nosy neighbor who enjoys watching the street more than TV. That wasn't too likely there."

"Why did you pick the one you went into first rather than the one with the body?"

"Bigger. There was bound to be more stuff lying around. Besides, when I checked it out, I was pretty sure no one was home."

"Why so?"

"I looked through the garage window and there was only one car there in a two-car garage. It makes sense that the family was out for the night in the other one."

Kay failed to see how that necessarily followed, but asked, "So you did the same thing at the second house?"

Freddie broke into a broad grin. "I sure did. There was one car there, too. I figured I couldn't be wrong twice in a row."

Again the logic escaped her, but this was just possibly a bit of useful information - though not particularly helpful for Freddie's case. "You didn't happen to notice the make of the car, did you?"

"I can't be positive. One of those Japanese compacts. White. Honda or Toyota - something like that."

The one thing Kay knew for sure was that the Troopers' garage had been empty when the agent had given her the guided tour. Between Freddie's visit and the following morning, someone had driven the car away. Beyond that, there wasn't much information to be gleaned from what he was saying. The remainder of the story showed little change from his original version, but his sanguine expression did change visibly when Kay broke the news of Yoshiro's decision regarding the bail money.

The assistant prosecutor asked for the typical bail amount for someone who was unlikely to flee. Kay asked for half as much. Schreiber met them half way. It made little difference for Freddie's fate, since he was unable to come up with even a token amount. For the first time that Kay could recall, he seemed actually crestfallen as the guard reattached the manacles and led him back to his cell.

* * *

Kay didn't look up from the telephone book, having located a number, placed her finger on it and reached for the phone. As she was punching the buttons, she finally glanced across her desk at Sid and answered the question she knew he had been dying to ask, "Someone has to find out who that dead man is. Sergeant Tanaka isn't about to stir himself to do any investigating."