A Body Under the Christmas Tree by Steve Demaree

Author:Steve Demaree [Demaree, Steve]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Calibre
Published: 2016-12-31T23:00:00+00:00

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It was dark by the time I picked up Lou. Houses we have never been to before are harder to find in the dark. People only leave on porch lights if they have ordered a pizza. We turned onto the street we were looking for. The dark porches told me no one had ordered a pizza. I decided not to wait until someone did so and turned on their porch light. I had Lou get out a couple of times to check house numbers. I refrained from taking off and leaving him. I might need him later. I kept watch. No one fired at the stranger creeping up to their house. Each time he returned to the van unscathed. My guess was the neighborhood had no Dobermans.

Finally, we pulled up in front of a small house in the older, middle-class neighborhood. A woman by the name of Wilma Tompkins lived there. She was the one who came home to discover her dead daughter. Well, not in her own home, but she had been out of town and hadn't been able to reach her daughter with her phone calls, so she went to pay her a visit.

Lou and I got out and made crunching noises as we walked up the unshoveled walk. The elderly woman who answered the door appeared to have been crying. I identified myself and Lou, and Mrs. Tompkins invited us in. Lou and I sat down on the couch. I told her I was sorry to be there under those circumstances. I didn't know what else to say, so I began to question her.

"Mrs. Tompkins, give us the details on how you came to find your daughter today."

"I'd just gotten back in town. I was visiting my other daughter in Atlanta for a few days. I left there this morning early. I left here last Tuesday. Just got back this afternoon. I was concerned about Linda because she didn't answer her phone. She didn't work and was home most of the time. Anyway, when she didn't answer after I called her a few times, I decided to go over there. I went over and knocked. When she didn't answer the door I took the key she had given me and let myself in. That's when I found her like that. From the looks of her she'd been dead for a few days. But I guess you already know that."

"Did Linda live there alone?"

She laughed. "Might as well have. She had a husband. No kids."

"Any possibility that her husband might have killed her?"

"I would like to think so. All he ever did was sit around and watch TV. Old movies. He loved old movies. Particularly ones with killing in them."

"So, do you think he killed her?"

"No, Dex Armstrong couldn't have done it. He left last Monday. He drives a truck. One of those big ones that haul trailers. He's gone for days at a time. He's not due back until sometime tomorrow. I called my daughter when I got to Atlanta.

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