Free Board Stiff (Mattie Winston Mysteries) by Annelise Ryan Page A

Al says. “We considered putting some in, but in the end the idea was tabled.”
    “Mr. Chase didn’t want to spring for the expense,” Dorothy says, with a tight-lipped look of disapproval.
    “Do you think this witness killed Bernard?” Al asks, handily changing the subject.
    Hurley answers this one, leaving Izzy looking relieved. “No, we don’t. However, he may have caused certain events that ultimately contributed to Mr. Chase’s demise, though we believe it was accidental.”
    “If you believe his death was accidental, then why all the police tape across the door out front?” Al grumbles. “Why bar us from our offices?”
    “We have reason to believe Mr. Chase was dying before our witness ran into him,” Hurley says.
    “You mean from natural causes, like a heart attack?” Dorothy asks.
    I recall the tax forms I saw on Bernie’s desk and figure that alone might have been enough of a shock to give him a heart attack.
    “Possibly,” Hurley says. “Or it could have been something unnatural, like a poison, which is why we are declaring this a crime scene for now. If his death wasn’t natural, we need to preserve the scene and any evidence that it might contain.”
    The board members’ inquisition is interrupted when the door at the end of the hallway opens and one of the Johnson sisters comes strolling in, pulling a gurney behind her. She stops and stares at the small crowd in front of her, all of whom look to be very much alive. “Where is my pickup?”
    “He’s in here,” Izzy says, pointing toward the closed men’s room door. “Are you alone?”
    “I am. Cass has that stomach flu that’s been going around. I was going to bring Dad along, but I figured there’d be folks here to help me so I wouldn’t need him.”
    Al, Dorothy, and Jeanette move down the hall toward the outside exit to make room for Kit and her stretcher. Because the bathroom door closes automatically, and because the stretcher won’t fit inside the bathroom with the door closed, getting Bernard’s body loaded for transport proves to be something of a challenge. Izzy holds the door open while Hurley, Junior, and I help Kit lift the body off the floor. Bernard Chase isn’t a big man; I estimate he stood about five-ten and weighed somewhere in the neighborhood of a buck sixty. But dead weight feels like double the real weight and halfway to the stretcher my back seizes up and I lose my grip. Hurley’s quick reflexes and strength are the only things that keep us from dropping Bernard’s body on the floor.
    Izzy follows Kit out the door. He needs to maintain custody of the body and that means watching her load it into her van and following her to the ME’s office.
    I step out of the bathroom and look down the hall for the board group, but to my surprise they are gone. “Where did they go?”
    Hurley walks down the hall toward the exit, looking into each office as he goes. “They must have gone outside,” he says when he reaches the end of the hall. He walks back to us with a worried expression on his face. “Junior, I want an officer posted in this wing twenty-four-seven until we know how Chase died. I don’t trust that bunch to stay away like I told them.”
    “No problem,” Junior says. “I can stay here for now and I’ll make some calls to cover it later. I know some guys who are looking for some overtime. I’ll run it by Chief Hanson first, but given how broad this investigation might be, I don’t think he’ll mind.”
    “Thanks. I guess our next step is to find and notify Bernard’s wife. We should check on their house to make sure someone didn’t do her in, too.” Hurley looks at me. “Are you up for it?”
    I nod, remembering that the delivery of sad news is one of the aspects of this job that I don’t miss. “Can I ride with you? I’m thinking the hearse won’t be a good vehicle to show up in. And I need to run home first because I have Hoover here.”
    “You’re bringing him to death scenes