Mother Finds a Body Read Online Free PDF Page B

at me as though he couldn’t make up his mind whether to hit me on the head or kick me in the teeth.
    â€œWhere’ve you been?” Biff asked.
    â€œWhere do you think I’d be?” Corny said. “Hanging around here making a damn-fool hero out of myself? Where there is smoke there is no Cliff Corny Cobb. I went into town and had me a couple of snorts, that’s where I been.’
    â€œYou’ve got a helluva nerve taking our car out when you’re drinking,” I said. Then I remembered where I had left the car. “How did you know where it was, anyway?”
    Corny had to brace himself against the tent pole to keep from falling flat on his face. I had never seen him that tight.
    â€œIf you must know,” he said, “I was walking into town and I passed the car down the road. You shouldn’ta left the keys if you don’t want nobody but yourself to drive it. And don’t go talking about me having my nerve . . .”
    Then I saw that Corny wasn’t alone. A man was getting out of the driver’s seat of the car. He was the biggest man I’d ever seen. Not that he was taller than Biff; it was a different kind of bigness. He had big hands, a big head with lots of curly, almost gray hair on it. His eyebrows were bushy and his ears were big, too. When he walked into the sunlight I could see that he needed a shave.
    Biff poured him a drink. The man had that kind of face. You wanted to drink with him even before you knew him.
    â€œKind of early for actors to be up, ain’t it?”
    His voice was exactly what I’d expected. It was big and boomy. He looked and sounded like a perfect ad for Texas. He pulled up a camp chair and sat facing Biff. “This is the most excitement Yselta’s had since I been sheriff. A fire and actors all at once. We don’t get many stage actors around here. Last one we had was away back—some cowboy with false teeth.”
    The sheriff took the drink from Biff and downed it in one gulp. He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand.
    â€œDo you want a chaser?” I asked.
    Biff didn’t give him a chance to answer. “Chaser, hell,” he said, digging up a gag from the bottom of the trunk. “Nothing can catch that last one.”
    I was glad the sheriff ignored the dialogue. He was still thinking about his cowboy with the store-bought china.
    â€œNo, sir,” the sheriff said, slapping his thigh. “That cowboy didn’t know one end of a horse from the other.”
    That was his contribution to the floor show and he laughed heartily.
    I tried to laugh with him, but it was an effort. If I hadn’t known he was the sheriff it would have been a cinch, but between the doubt of our corpse half-buried in the woods and Corny’s sly looks, I just couldn’t get with it.
    Suddenly the sheriff stood up. He sauntered over to the trailer and peered through the screen door.
    â€œAll them folks in there actors?” he asked, as though such a thing were impossible. Then he wrinkled up his nose. “Boy, they sure do stink!”
    Biff hurried over and tried to explain the odor. “Oh, that’s Evangie’s asthma powder. That’s my mother-in-law and she’s got . . .”
    â€œWhatever she’s got,” the sheriff interrupted, “we bury ’em in Texas when they smell better’n that.”
    Biff raised one eyebrow. “That’s my gag,” he said. “I broke it at the Gaiety. You must get around, brother.”
    The sheriff smiled. He walked back to me and scribbled a name and number on a piece of paper.
    â€œThat’s Dr. Gonzales’ number. He’s got some kind of injections for asthma. Allergies, I think he calls ’em. Tell him you’re friends of mine.”
    Before I had time to read the number, the sheriff took the paper away from me. “Here,” he said. “I’ll put my number down, too, just in case you need