Page 71 of The Dead Come to Stay
“Whoa, whoa! You don’t just drop in things like that without an explanation. Shoes. And ice?”
“I shouldn’t have said.”
“You did, though.”
“Fair,” he sighed. First he explained the expensive shoes they found at Foley’s flat. The second bit was definitely stranger. “The body was packed in ice. We don’t know why.”
Why did you pack anything in ice?Jo thought, her brain doing a quick run through of freezer pops, ice cubes for watering orchids, ice baths for tightening skin, refrigeration against spoilage. The freezer had failed in their New York apartment while they were on holiday once. They didn’t need a fumigator; they’d needed an exorcist. Plus bodies—even freshly dead ones—had a funk all their own.
“Maybe to stop it smelling?” Jo offered. MacAdams had got halfway to his feet again, but again returned to sitting. He might never leave the tub at this point.
“That’s—Why would you say that?”
“Well, if I had a dead person in my trunk on a muggy, rainy night, I might consider some ice.” Jo twitched her nose. Did that sound callous? “Dead people don’t immediately decay or anything. But stuff happens when you die. Body fluids—let go. It’s not especially pleasant.”
“You edited a book on anatomy.”
“No, on body farms,” Jo corrected.
MacAdams made it to standing this time. And pacing. Walking his brain, as it was.
“All right; it’s warm and wet, and the victim has a considerable and bloody wound,” he said. “In a trunk, you said.”
“It’s a guess,” Jo admitted. “In a trunk, you could get away with just four or five bags of ice. You can’t pack ice in an open van or SUV. Or not as well. Also the body might flop around.”
“You’ve a way of putting things.” He said. “Okay, in a trunk. It’s messy.Andthere’s melting ice. And he still has to be dragged out again.”
Jo had been following the dance of wallpaper flowers as hespoke, but in her mind’s eye she was considering the problems of vehicular upholstery.
“I know it sounds extra complicated, but what if the murderer was fastidious? Someone that worried about thesmellisn’t going to just put the body on the mats. If they use a tarpaulin, they could drag him out easier, too. Especially with a bit of rigor mortis,” she said. MacAdams was following, but waved the last bit away.
“Doubtful he’d been dead that long, as you saw him around eleven thirty, but all fair points. The murderer doesn’t want to spoil his car.”
“If itishis car,” Jo added.
“Why would you say that?” MacAdams asked. He’d stopped his circuit just in front of her. She instinctively put her hands on a pretend steering wheel, thinking of their drive back from Newcastle.
“Because you’d be a lot more careful if it was someone else’s. I was inyours.”
“Makes sense.” MacAdams extended her a hand and pulled her to standing. “At least, if it was someone you cared about.” He blushed and quickly added, “A boss, for example. There would be other eyes looking at it, someone else who would recognize a smell or a stain.” He backed away to let her out of the room and she returned to her coffee.
“Still doesn’t explain the raincoat, shoes or soap and towel thievery, though,” she said before drinking a good half cup at a go.
“Maybe the murderer came to the cottage for it so he could scrub down the car,” Jo added. She meant it as a joke, but MacAdams had just blanched gray enough to make her worry about concussion again.
“I’m kidding—I’m not serious.”
“Jo.” MacAdams walked across the living room to the front door and pushed it open. “The thing is, hecouldhave.”
***
“That’s... wow,” Gwilym said over his vindaloo. “He thinks the murderer wasactuallyhere in the cottage, now?”
“It’s a theory, although I’m not sure why they wouldn’t also take Foley’s suitcase with him. Make it look like he really just ran off,” Jo said, pulling off a bite of naan. Gwilym had come bearing research and an invite to the India Palace. “And I got a lecture about locking up.”
“You really should do.”
“I know.” Jo winced. How had she gone from New York with ten dead bolts to North Yorkshire and an unlocked door? “I’ve just got used to leaving it unlocked during the day.”
