"Gary Lovisi - Finders Keepers" - читать интересную книгу автора (Lovisi Gary)

I nodded, "AndЕ Is Strossen dead? Where is he?"

"Oh yes, he is very dead," Kroptic chirped in, almost proudly. "I had to kill him. I just had to."

"And why did you have to do that?" I asked, giving Fats the nod.

Kroptic said, "I canТt tell you that, officer."

"Detective," I corrected.

"Whatever," he replied.

I ignored his remark, looked over at Fats, said, "I think this may be it. Our overdue case has arrived."

Fats smiled, then nodded like heТd been expecting it all along. Which, of course, he had.

Smitty looked at me and tried to stifle a laugh. He was a street cop, knew the score, said, "Just wait, Griff, it gets better."

"What do you mean?" I asked, waiting for the other shoe to drop.

Smitty smiled, nodded to his rookie partner Billy Ryan, said, "Why donТt you take this one, Billy?"

"Breaking him in?" Fats said.

"Yeah, gotta do it sometime. This is his first day, get him deep in the soup right off," Smitty laughed shaking his head in disbelief. Then said, "Go ahead, Billy."

Ryan chortled, said, "Detectives you caught a weird one right off. Why donТt you ask Mr. Kroptic what happened to the body?"

Fats and I werenТt buying.

Smitty chimed in, "When Billy and I got here we observed Kroptic on the porch with the murder weapon in his hand. At his feet, over about there, just in front of the first step, was a very dead John Strossen. Billy and I disarmed Kroptic. He offered no resistance. Then we cuffed him to the porch post, and left to check out the house and grounds. We were gone for no more than five minutes. Swear it, Griff. When we got back, StrossenТs body was gone!"

Fats just laughed and laughed, said, "Ah, didnТt I tell you, Griff." Then getting real serious and shedding his jolly fatman image he added, "This is weird."

I looked around, said, "What about neighbors? Anyone see anything? I suppose Kroptic is mum?"

Smitty nodded.

Billy added, "He wonТt say a word, says the way we had him cuffed he couldnТt look behind him anyway."

Fats said, "I mean, whoТd take a dead body? Why would anyone steal a dead body?"

"Neighbors are all in their houses, behind locked doors, and covered windows. ThatТs the kind of neighborhood over here on the border of Blacktown. No one wants to know nothing," Smitty said.

"And this Strossen, you sure he was dead? He couldnТt have just got up andЕ" I asked. It was silly, but I had to ask, stranger things had happened after all.

"No Griff. I checked," Smitty replied. "Strossen was deader than dead. No pulse. Billy and I canvassed the area but we couldnТt come up with anything. No one saw a thing or theyТre too terrified to speak up. It all happened so damn fast, but the crux of it is Strossen was shot dead, then someone stole his body!"

Fats just laughed and laughed.