The Body of Martin Aguilera

Chapter Nine

Back in the motel room, Lewis sat in a chair by the window while Taylor went into the bathroom to change his pants. Lewis trusted him now. The man was new to anything like this. He looked out the window at the lot, at the low-rider still parked in the back. The night looked so normal, was the way he thought of it, save the fact that he was viewing it from a room at the Best Western. Looking at the night, he found it difficult to believe he had just sneaked into a mortuary and witnessed the theft of a body.

“Do you think that was my grandfather’s body?” Taylor asked, coming out of the bathroom.

“I don’t know.”

“You said you recognized one of them.”

“Yeah. Salvador Alvarado, he owns a boot shop.” Lewis shook his head. “I don’t get any of this.”

Taylor sat on the bed. He studied the towel he held, then tossed it onto the back of the chair at the desk. “Listen, I’m just a truck driver. I don’t need any of this.”

Lewis nodded.

“I say we go to the sheriff.”

“I don’t think so,” Lewis said. “He’s been lying to us and—”

“And what?”

“I just don’t trust him right now.”

“We’d better find somebody to trust. I’m no good at this stuff and you’re… you’re just an old man.”

Lewis let it all go. The young man was upset. Who could blame him?

“Maybe things will be clearer in the morning,” Lewis said, standing. “I’m sorry I got you into this.”

Taylor said nothing.

Lewis pulled the door closed behind him.

Lewis thought as he drove home. If he had not found Martin on the floor of his cabin, he would have thought nothing strange of the report of his drowning and he wouldn’t be in this mess. He was probably liable for prosecution for breaking and entering, but, and he laughed, the only people who could possibly identify him were stealing a dead person.

He wanted to stop at a phone, get Alvarado’s address from the book and pay him a call, but Maggie would be waiting up, worried sick. And better to get into this stuff about dead bodies in the light of day. There was also the possibility that Alvarado was not the man he had seen, in which case he might get an innocent, superstitious man out of bed to talk about a corpse.

Maggie was asleep on the sofa. Lewis watched her for a while. She was a small woman. She never seemed small when awake. He sat by her feet and she stirred. He took a foot into his hands and massaged it. She smiled. Her eyes opened and she looked at him.

“Back in one piece,” she said.

“What’d you expect after a goodbye like that?”

Maggie sat up and tried to come awake. Lewis pulled her close and pressed her head to his shoulder. She relaxed against him.

“Did you see him?” she asked.

“Not exactly.” Lewis could feel her eyes open more widely. “We got into Fonda’s all right, but—” He stopped, wondering if indeed he should tell her.

“But?”

“But somebody was there.”

“Fonda?”

“No, not Edgar either. Whoever they were, they stole a body.”

Maggie sat erect, pulled away and looked at him. “What?”

“We wandered into a cadaver snatch.”

“Is that what you private dicks call it?” she said.

“I’ve run this over in my head all night, allow me some fun.” He got up and walked to the empty fireplace. “I think it was Martin’s body.”

“You saw it?”

“No, I just have a feeling. And I think one of the men was Salvador Alvarado. You know how he limps.”

Maggie walked to him, put her arms around him. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah. All of this is just — I’m too old for it. It keeps getting deeper and deeper and I’ve forgotten to miss Martin. My friend is dead.” He shook his head clear. “Are you all right?”

“I’m fine.”

“It’s funny. We’ve sort of known each other for a while. I’ve wanted to be close to you and it’s in the middle of something like this that—”

“Shhh,” she silenced him, pressing a finger to his lips. “Let’s go to bed?”

“I don’t know,” he said, smiling.

“Get in that room,” she said and pushed him in that direction.