started to get to his feet. But about the woman, if there was one she could have fingered him for the job, couldn't she? She could know or think he was loaded with dough, see? And she could arrange before she went there with him - or went to meet him there, whichever it was - to have a man waiting outside to slug him when he came out. And if he didn't go out for any reason of his own, she could have pretended to be thirsty and talked him into going out so he'd get it."
Dr. Magus nodded. "Could have been that way, if there was a woman with him. Know what time he was killed?"
"Coroner says somewhere around two o'clock, give or take an hour. Examined him at six o'clock and said he'd been dead somewhere around four hours."
"You said something, Lieutenant, about his being loaded with dough. Have you been able to find out?"
"We know how much he must have had within a few dollars. We phoned Glenrock and the boys there checked it right away. With the hospital and other places. Had a hundred and twenty-seven bucks on him when he was admitted to the hospital. Their guess is he averaged spending about ten bucks a week for the seven weeks he was there - cigarettes and other stuff he could send out for - so he left there two o'clock yesterday afternoon with somewhere around fifty-five bucks cash and an insurance company check for two thousand. Went right to the Glenrock bank and cashed it but took eighteen hundred in traveler's checks. Gives him two hundred fifty-five, give or take a little according to how good their guess is at the hospital on how much he spent for incidentals while he was there. Caught a 4:10 train out of Glenrock, came right here. Figure his ticket, meal on the train, taxi fare, bottle or two of whisky, say twenty bucks. He'd have had about two hundred thirty-five. And the traveler's checks, but they were still in his pocket."
Dr. Magus said, "How disappointed someone must have been, if the someone knew about that insurance settlement and thought he might be carrying two thousand cash on him."
"Did you think that?"
"I'd heard - and I've forgotten where but it was the general rumor around the lot - that Mack got a settlement from an insurance company on the accident. But I certainly wouldn't have figured him as stupid and careless enough to carry it on him in cash. Does your question indicate that I am a suspect?"
The lieutenant grinned. "Doc, you're the only guy around here I've talked to that hasn't acted like I got leprosy or something. Maybe that ought to make me suspicious of you, that and the fact that you've pumped me into doing more talking than you have. But you just don't look to me like a guy who'd use a tent stake."
"Thank you kindly."
"Not at all. If this was a con game setup instead of a bashing you'd be my first choice. What's an unborn show?"
Dr. Magus smiled. "An unborn show is a collection of fetuses in glass jars. It is also known as a punk show and the fetuses are known as pickled punks. Whatever the grind is, that's the joint. Usually they are human fetuses in various stages of development, but occasionally there will be an animal fetus if it's a freak one. I believe Burt's unborn show, the Mystery of Sex, has the fetus of a two-headed calf. But that's just an extra attraction, the pitch is on the Iranian fetuses - male and female, naked and unadorned. Which, of course, they are."
"Fake or real?"
"Probably quite real because they'd be cheaper to get. It's carney tradition to kid an unborn show man about the Goodyear trade marks on the kiesters of his pickled punks, but it's just a stock gag. Think what they'd cost, whereas the human fetus has no market value - except possibly in parts of Mexico where I am told they are used in making tamales, although that is possibly apocryphal. But anyone who has a friend in the right spot in a hospital or morgue can get all the fetuses he wants for a few drinks or at most a few bucks apiece."
"That's all there is in the Mystery of Sex
Christiane Shoenhair, Liam McEvilly