The Case of the Disappearing Corpse Read Online Free PDF Page A

I’d ever laid eyes on him. And when I arrived home was the second.” She suddenly shivered, wrapped both arms around her body. “But by then he was dead!”
    My shoulders slumped. “Gross.”
    “Yeah. So much for the doctor prescribing a visit to a Laughing Class for therapy. Since Zane left me I’ve been on a bit of a downer and the doctor said laughter was the best medicine. It wasn’t. I felt like an idiot. It’s put me off laughing for life. When the class finished I told the leader where she could stick her class in future.”
    Knowing that once Patsy got her teeth into a subject, it was hard to pry her away, I quickly butted in. “Patsy, can you describe the dead guy to me?”
    She gave me a suspicious stare. “Why?”
    “Umm…just curious.”
    “Well…he was sort of creepy. Said his name was Frank Skinner. Shifty eyes. Long pointy nose. Looked the type who went around raiding little kids’ piggy-banks, if you ask me.” She rolled her eyes skywards. “What made it worse, he flirted with me. Yuk! Of course I told the sleaze to drop dead… but hey, how was I to know he’d actually do it.”
    Patsy just sat there. Head in her hands, scraggly ginger hair coming undone from her bun. When she spoke again, I had to lean closer to hear her.
    “Oh, Cha. What if the killer comes back for me ?”
    She began shaking. All over. I’d never seen Patsy come unglued like this before. From the time she was sixteen, trying to earn extra money to buy make-up and clothes by babysitting, she’d always been so sure of herself. Yet here she was falling apart in front of me.
    Seeing Patsy’s fear gave me goose bumps. Hit me with a thwump right in the gut. This wasn’t a game. It was murder. Chips of ice settled in my chest and threatened to cut off my air supply. What the heck was I doing here? Who did I think I was—acting like some storybook detective?
    Patsy dragged her handkerchief out of her pocket and wiped her eyes. The scent of tropical mango spilled out into the room making me blink.
    Handkerchief?
    Like magic my fear disappeared and my newly-found P.I. instincts kicked in again.
    “Er…Patsy. Do you or Zoë know anyone whose name starts with a K?”
    She blew her nose. “Not that I can think of.”
    “You don’t know anyone called Katherine? Katy? Kerry? Kimberley?”
    “No. I used to know a Katrina but she shifted to Queensland a couple of years ago. Why?”
    “Oh—no reason.” Changing the subject I said, “When are the police letting you back into your house?”
    “I’m never going back there. Neither is Zoë. She’s shifted in with another friend and I’m staying here for a while.”
    Her face had that drawn look you sometimes see on TV when they flash across to a person who has just fallen off a three-story building and the interviewer says, “And how do you feel?”
    Patsy’s eyes grew bigger as she looked at me. “I’m too scared to even go back and clean the place.”
    I sat up straighter. Hey, here was a perfect opportunity to see inside Patsy’s house. “Don’t worry,” I said. “Tayla and I will clean the house for you.”
    A wobbly smile trembled at the corners of Patsy’s lips. “Would you really?”
    “No problems.”
    “My brother Josh said he’d collect my things in his van but if you and Tayla could tidy up a bit—” She leaned across to the dresser, pulled a key off her key-ring and handed it to me. “I’ll pay you. How about ten bucks each?”
    “Great.”
    Ten dollars should help talk Tayla into helping me.
    “Thanks, Cha.”
    While I had her in a good mood it was time to push on.
    “Patsy, can you tell me what sort of knife the killer used?”
    “Cha…what’s with you? You’re a kid. You don’t want to know these things.”
    “I’m going to be a writer when I leave school. Write crime stories. So yeah, I do want to know these things.”
    “Since when have you decided to be a writer? Just six months ago you told me you wanted to be a