Daddy's Gone a Hunting

21

On Friday morning, a clerk at the medical examiner’s office was set to release the body of Gus Schmidt to Charley Walters, the funeral director whom Lottie had chosen to handle the arrangements. “If it’s any comfort for the widow,” the clerk said, “death was instantaneous when the staircase collapsed. He never felt the burns on his hands when he was dragged outside.”

Gus’s body was to be taken to the funeral parlor for one day of visitation that afternoon, and then cremated the next day.

The clerk, a slightly built thirty-something lab technician, was new on the job and loving the excitement that frequently accompanied it. He had voraciously devoured the story of the explosion that had destroyed the Connelly complex and pondered the reason why Gus Schmidt and Kate Connelly had been there in the predawn hour just as the fire started. Knowing he had no business asking the question, his curiosity still got the better of him. “Did you hear why Schmidt and the daughter were there?”

Recognizing a fellow gossip, Walters replied, “Nobody’s said anything. But everyone knows Gus Schmidt never got over being fired.”

“A couple of fire marshals were here yesterday to pick up his clothes. When they have a suspicious fire, the first thing they do is gather the clothes of any victims for evidence.”

“Whenever we have a funeral with a fire involved, there’s always an investigation,” Walters said. “Some of them are caused by acts of God, like lightning. Some of them are accidents, like kids playing with matches. We had one where a three-year-old did that. He ran outside but his grandmother ended up dying of smoke inhalation looking for him. Or you get someone who can’t sell a house or a business property and the insurance looks good to them. Rumor is that Connelly’s business was on the way downhill.”

Walters realized that he was talking out of turn and that it would be prudent to sign the necessary papers to obtain the release of the body of Gus Schmidt and be on his way.