"Truck's dead." Dexter ran his hands roughly through the little hair that remained on his head. "The cops called an hour ago. They just found his body. He's been murdered. Somebody cut him up real bad and just dumped him at the side of the road. Over near the bonezone. Just left him there to die."
Without a thought, I laid a hand on the dispatcher's shoulder and let it linger there. Even though the night was cool, his shirt was soaked with sweat. "Murdered? How? Why?"
"The cops don't know anything, but they probably figure it's their buddy who they don't know dick about. They'll round up the usual list of suspects. Jeez, it was Truck's...." His voice trailed off for a moment. "It was his night off, so it wasn't like some psycho he'd picked up decided to slice and dice him." Another deep breath. "There'll be a funeral in a few days. If you're working, you should go. Even if you're not working, you should come here and grab a cab. We owe it to Truck, to give him a big cabbie send-off."
"I will be there. You have my word on that."
Dexter was silent for a few moments. I withdrew my hand. "Jesus, Mary and Joseph, I don't understand this. Everybody liked Truck. And that motorcycle club, they're just a bunch of guys into Harley's. It's not like they're a gang or anything like that. Who could've done something like this?"
I shook my head. Indeed. Who could have done something like this?
Then, it struck me. There was no hand on my waist. No familiar scent wafting over my olfactory. Nicole was gone.
An engine revved loudly. I ran from the building in time to see Nicole's car disappear into the night.
Chapter 15
Funeral For A Cab Driver
Nicole was gone. Gone without a word. Gone without even having done her paperwork, which surely would prompt a summons from the waybill office. Gone before I even noticed her leaving, nothing but a pair of glowing, scarlet eyes shrinking into the night.
I completed my own paperwork, confusion and anger alternating as supreme emotions, battling each other as numbers violated their own cold, constant mathematical rules, one plus one somehow equaling something other than two.
Why had Nicole fled? A reaction, yes, but this from the same woman who had so strongly stood by my side under far more gruesome circumstances?
And motherless spawn of Satan, who in the name of the four winds of Hades would murder Truck? Here truly was a kindly fellow. This I knew well, having experienced firsthand the generosity of his concern.
Inside the dispatch office, Dexter stared at the computer screen, silently rubbing his chin. Upon seeing me drop my waybill envelope into the safe, a flood of words flew from his lips, all at once angry and confused, bitter and hopeless.
But the words seemed to bounce off me, just sounds, just emotionally charged tones.
"Another one for the Madison Mangler," Dexter said..
Ears pricked to attention.
"That's what they'll say in the papers," he continued. "Another one for the Madison Mangler." He shook his head slowly, then held his peace and resumed his steely, unfocused gaze upon the green-glowing computer screen. With a soft goodbye, I slipped into the night.
Another one for the Madison Mangler.
Questions consumed me, which took my mind off Nicole's abrupt departure. Why Truck? How could someone inflict that kind of damage on one so imposing as Truck? This fellow, with bulging lumps of muscle well visible even under rolls upon rolls of fat, was no timid little coed, about as able to defend herself as a doe blinded by the headlights of an oncoming car. Truck had served in the military, had been a member of one of those tribal motorcycle clubs where they can and will take care of problems easily and swiftlyby themselves . Kern once told me someone tried to rob Truck and spent a month in the hospital.
Questions, questions, questions. Had not Dexter said that Truck's remains had been taken to theUniversityHospital morgue?
Guilt ate at me. I should have investigated when that first body was found in the snow. Too late for recriminations, I told myself as I drove to theUniversityHospital . Still sitting within myToyota , parked a discreet distance from an inconspicuous rear entrance, I became mist and let the force of my will guide me into the hospital, down to the basement and into the