Chapter 89: 89 Another Chance Encounter

“Oh, geez. We got another adventurous couple.” A security guy said when he looked at the computer monitor and it flicked to the Egyptian Display and showed the mummy.

“Is she hot?” His partner asked and the first guy hit the camera code for the display. “Hey, not bad. If she lost the sweater and put on a bit more makeup, I bet she could be a real looker.”

“His head's still in the way.” The first guy said, disappointed. “Do you want to walk by this time or should I?”

“I'll do it.” His partner chuckled. “One authoritative scare coming right up.”

*

Kelly was floating on a cloud of bliss. She was thankful that the mummy display had a solid wooden back on it, because she was leaning pretty heavily on it to support herself. Her eyes fluttered open and closed as she tried to watch Arnold working her over, because it was something she wanted to remember for as long as she lived.

“I really hope there's no one in here that's half-naked.” A man's voice said loudly into the side room.

“EEEEP!” Kelly said loudly and jumped a little.

“It would be a real shame for someone to walk in on them with the tour going through in a minute.” The man continued and didn't acknowledge Kelly's startled reaction.

“A-A-Arnold!” Kelly whispered loudly. “S-stop, please.”

Arnold did, then cleaned her off a little before he helped her pull her underwear back up. Kelly grabbed her jeans and yanked them up hard, secured them, then combed her brown wavy hair with her fingers as if it had been messed up somehow.

“Let's go.” Kelly said, her face still bright red, only this time from embarrassment for getting caught. She took Arnold's hand and they left the small side room, only to see that no one was there. They quickly looked around at the other displays in the exhibit and Kelly wasn't as excited about it as she had been before. She just couldn't stop thinking about how Arnold had done that for her, in public no less, all because she said she had fun being a princess.

“There's a nice wildlife animal display up on the second floor.” Kelly suggested and they went up there.

*

“Ha ha hahaha!” The security guy still in the office laughed.

“How was that?” His partner asked as he came back into the office.

“Perfect! That poor girl beat feet so fast out of there that I'm surprised there's not sneaker marks on the floor!”

His partner laughed, too. “I was tempted to follow them around; but, I'm pretty sure they're not going to try that again anywhere else.”

“Are you sure? There's some good hiding spots in the wildlife displays.” The first guy said and gave his partner an apologetic look. “You didn't hear that from me.”

His partner laughed again. “I'll keep the secret, as long as you tell me where.”

“Deal.” The first guy said with a smile.

*

“This is amazing!” The reporter said after she heard Annie's story. “I don't know if I'll be allowed to say the officer's name, though. There's no way I'll get corroboration from the police department.”

Annie chuckled. “I doubt you'll get anything except them saying that it's being handled, just like I did.”

The reporter nodded. “I can see if any kind of report on him is being filed, though. I know someone in the records department.”

“Is there any chance you can have them check what was going on with my husband's body?” Annie asked. “There has to be a reason they kept him so long.”

The reporter nodded. “I'll ask and I'm pretty sure he's going to say that it's red tape.” She said and Annie gave her a wide-eyed look. “Whoever is working on the case just didn't send the release notice to the morgue and they can't release evidence until given permission.”

“Detective Tanner.” Annie said as she immediately remembered the woman's name and then sighed. “She had me visit and identify him, even though his... his face was...” She closed her eyes and held back the tears at the remembered sight of her husband's mangled face. She felt a hand take hers and she opened her eyes to see genuine concern on the reporter's face.

“It's all right. It's an underhanded tactic that a few of the unscrupulous ones use to try and see if your grief is genuine or if you're faking it.”

“Wh-what?” Annie asked, surprised.

“What better way to see if you were involved in the accident by watching your reaction to seeing the body like that?” The reporter asked.

“Oh, my god.” Annie said softly. “That... that really is... underhanded.”

“It's a good tactic in a more prolific and not as easily explained death, especially if there was some kind of complication with it.” The reporter said. “Doing it in a drunk driving case where they determined it was an accident?” She shook her head. “I'd say the detective is just hunting for things because she can, not because there's anything to find.”

Annie nodded in understanding. Sometimes you couldn't help looking for conspiracies if all you did was look for conspiracies. “Thank you.”

The reporter smiled and let her hand go. “No, Annie. Thank you. I'll get back to the office right away and write this thing up. It might be broken into a couple of articles, though. Is that okay?”

Annie nodded. “As long as it gets out there, I'll be happy.”

The reporter smiled happily. “I wish that all the people I talked to were as nice as you.”

Annie smiled back. “Would you have any real stories if that was true?”

“Not many interesting ones, anyway.” The reporter said. “I'll call the cell number you gave me to let you know what happens.”

“Thank you.” Annie said. “I told the police chief that everyone would be reading about it tomorrow and I completely forgot that it's Sunday.”

The reporter laughed. “If the story gets approved for the Monday print, I'll do another social media blast to promote it, just for you.”

Annie nodded and opened the front door of the reporter's car and stepped out, then the reporter gave her a wave and drove off to head back to the newspaper. Annie watched the car drive away and didn't question her decision to tell the reporter everything. If there was one person she needed to tell all of the details to, it was a reporter. They had resources to check on things that normal people just didn't have access to or knew how to access.

Annie walked over to the steps of the museum and walked up them, then she wondered if she should bother walking around to look for her son and his girlfriend or if she should just ask the security guard if they had seen them. She chose walk, because she wanted a bit more time to ease her mind about all of the times during the week that she and Kelly had been out and around the town and could have run into Brad and his friends at any time.

Damn that police officer. Annie thought and reined in her anger. I really do hope I never see him again, because I'll be arrested for assault! She smiled at the thought of seeing the man's smug face change to surprise as she punched and kicked him, then she sobered up and knew she would be in serious trouble if she ever did do something like that.

Annie walked around and didn't really look at any of the displays as she searched for Arnold and Kelly.

*

Detective Tanner kept her mouth quiet as she sat in the police chief's office. She knew there was going to be a problem when he hadn't said what he wanted to talk about when he called her at her desk, and now she knew why. He berated her for not finishing the paperwork on the Strickland case and for getting him in trouble over it. The chief didn't like that he didn't know what was going on inside his own precinct and he made sure that she didn't like it, either.

“You get that release invoice to the morgue immediately. Not in an hour. Not later today. Immediately.” Chief Morris said when he was done berating her. “If I had known you've been sitting on that body all this time, I would have brought the hammer down on you a long time ago.”

That's why I didn't tell you. Detective Tanner thought.

“I'm seriously debating giving you administrative leave over your recent behaviour.” Chief Morris said and that got her attention.

“Sir, I was just... there's something fishy with that family.” Detective Tanner said. “Especially the son.”

“Every family is fishy, detective.” Chief Morris said. “My own son enjoys dressing like a sixty's gangster every damn weekend and can't stop imitating them and all of the ridiculous things they say.”

Detective Tanner was surprised to hear this and the chief saw her reaction.

“Everyone has someone in their family that's a little odd, detective. Good luck finding a family that doesn't.” The chief said. “So, get back to your desk and sort out this mess. If you even think of floundering on this, I'm calling the morgue in fifteen minutes to see if they sent the body to the funeral parlour yet.”

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Detective Tanner let out a sigh, because he had guessed what she was going to do before she did it.

“There's a reason I became police chief.” Chief Morris said as if he could read her thoughts.

“Sir, I'll get right on it.” Detective Tanner said in defeat and stood up, then she opened the door and stepped out of the office. “Officer Hallman.” She said to the police officer waiting to go in.

“Detective Tanner.” Officer Hallman said and stepped into the office. When the door shut, it made no difference, because nearly everyone in the building heard their discussion.

Detective Tanner walked back to her desk and quickly wrote out the release. Rather than have someone bring it to the medical examiner, she folded it up and brought it to the man in person.

“Ah, detective.” The medical examiner said. “To what do I owe the pleasure?”

Detective Tanner didn't say anything and just handed him the release paper for Gerald Strickland's body.

“Finally.” The medical examiner said. “I'm not going to ask why it took you so long, since I know how your mind works now.”

“You don't know how my mind works.” Detective Tanner said.

“You wanted time to investigate the family and see what dirt you could dig up on them, just to see if you could tie them into the accident somehow.” He said and she couldn't help but look surprised. “I've been on this job for a long time and I've seen a lot of people come through here... both alive and dead. If you don't start being careful about who you investigate, you'll be looking into everyone's background and you'll have no time to investigate the people that need to be investigated.”

Detective Tanner didn't say anything in response.

“Yes, my opinion is worth about as much as a day old cup of coffee.” The medical examiner said and smiled. “It's cold and bitter and it won't get any better the longer it sits.”

Detective Tanner opened her mouth to say how you can reheat the coffee to make it good again, then sighed. The medical examiner chuckled as she turned and walked away and then his phone rang.

I delivered it just in time. Detective Tanner thought and left the morgue.

*

Kelly had just finished telling Arnold about the taxidermy industry when Annie found them at the wildlife display. “Hi! How did the interrogation go?”

Annie couldn't help but smile, because Kelly always made her smile somehow. “I'm pretty grilled on this side.” She said and pointed to her right side. “The reporter had to go and didn't flip me over to finish the other side.”

Kelly laughed at her pun. “I hope she gets the story out there as soon as possible.”

“I just hope it doesn't give Brad and his friends any ideas.” Annie said.

“Me, too... especially since we don't know the hours they're working or where they are.”

Annie nodded. “How's the tour going?”

“It's just about done.” Kelly said, her face a little red, because that was what had interrupted their little adventure in the Valley of the Kings exhibit. She turned to look at the big furry bear that she had told Arnold that he couldn't touch, because her thought had made her blush even more. Arnold had been exploring her valley quite well at the time.

“It's almost lunch time, so why don't we go grab a bite to eat?” Annie asked.

“S-sure.” Kelly said. “Arnold, let's go.”

Arnold nodded and the three of them left the display and went down the stairs, then went outside and to the car in the parking lot. They drove around a little as they talked about a good place to stop and Arnold pointed.

“Oh, that's a good place.” Annie said. “We ate there after we went to the bank that time.”

Arnold nodded and they parked and went inside. They found a free table easily, since it was before the lunch rush, and the place was only just starting to get crowded.

“The food was great.” Annie told Kelly. “It was the best hamburger I've had in a while.”

“I haven't had a good hamburger in forever!” Kelly said as the waitress came over to their table. She wore an old style apron over a nice blouse and a pair of black dress pants.

“Hi, there. I'm Laney and I'll be your waitress today.” She said and handed them menus. “What can I get you to drink while you decide what you want to eat?”

“We've already decided.” Annie said with a smile. “Two hamburger platters with gravy on everything and a hot turkey sandwich special with no veggies or stuffing.”

“I want the veggies and stuffing.” Arnold said to her surprise.

“Oh! Um... change that to just a hot turkey sandwich special.” Annie corrected.

Laney nodded and took out her notepad and wrote it down. “And to drink?”

“Root beers all around.” Kelly said. “We really should get diet soda; but, we're splurging today.”

“You make it sound like we never eat out.” Annie chuckled and looked at the waitress. “No ice, please.”

“You got it.” Laney said. “I'll be right back.” She walked over to the main counter and handed the order to the cook and prepared the drinks. She served them and came right back to the counter to wait, because she had already served everyone else and the next order was coming right up for another table.

“Ugh, why did I want to work today?” Amanda asked as she came out of the back. “It's my day off.”

“You get paid time and a half and the tips are a lot better.” Laney said.

“Oh yeah, that's why.” Amanda said and they both laughed.

“Order up!” Joe said and handed over two large platters of food.

“Thanks.” Laney said and delivered them to one of her tables.

“Is it much longer for that fish dish?” Amanda asked.

“We have to make sure it stops twitching before we serve it.” Joe said with a grin.

Amanda rolled her eyes. “Just hurry up.”

“Fish dish. Fish dish. Boy, that sounds funny.” Joe said and started humming and he put another double load of french fries into the deep fryer, then he flipped the three hamburgers on the grill.

Laney came back over and looked at what Joe had going. “I'll do up the hot turkey for you.”

“You're a doll.” Joe said and shook the fries, then poked the three floating breaded fish pieces in the other fryer. “Ah, just about done.”

“How can you tell?” Laney asked.

“Experience, time, and it doesn't bob as much when it soaks up enough of the grease.” Joe said and flipped them over to see they were a nice golden brown all the way around. “There we go.” He said and scooped up the fish with a wire mesh on a handle, rolled them around on a paper towel to soak up the excess grease, then grabbed a plate and added them to it without touching them.

He pulled up the double load of fries from the grease and they were done, so he poured a generous helping onto the plate and added the garnish, small coleslaw, and tartar sauce, then handed it to Amanda without saying 'order up'.

“Thanks.” Amanda said and quickly delivered the meal to one of her tables. She came back to wait for the next one and saw Joe finish assembling two large hamburger platters and the hot turkey sandwich. Something in her mind nagged at her at the sight and she couldn't place it. Joe smothered the platters in gravy and nodded to Laney.

“Amanda, give me a hand with the third platter.” Laney said and picked up the two hamburger platters and Amanda grabbed the hot turkey sandwich platter. They walked over to the table and Laney served the two women on one side of the table and she served the man on the other side... and froze when he looked up at her. She would recognize those piercing eyes and that blonde buzz-cut anywhere.

It's my fun sex guy! Amanda thought in complete surprise.

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