THE BODY

Two Graveyards

I wasn't paying attention and as I approached a dirt intersection I hit a large hole.  We bounced hard and the car slid off into a small ditch. Danny and I looked at each other to see who was going to step out and assess the damage. We both decided neither of us wanted to get our shoes dirty and I floored the gas pedal and we made it out of the ditch in one piece. After driving for just a moment I changed my mind and pulled over. Danny and I both got out of car and checked it for damage. "We lost a hubcap", Danny said. I said, "Okay, let's go find it or else we'll have to make a stupid report". We walked back to the intersection. I figured it bounced forward and rolled into the field. The field was full of tall wet grass and weeds. It had been raining hard the last few days, but the grass and weeds were still brown and thin. We pulled some rain boots out of the trunk and slid them on and started searching the field. Danny, always the talker, started making conversation while we searched. "Hey man, let me ask you a question. What if we're out here and, you know, we were to find a bag full of cash. And I mean cash, hundreds of thousands of dollars. You know, untraceable shit. What would be your next move?". Here we go, another one of Danny's what if moments. He loved pulling that crap. I responded half honestly, "I'd call the PD. Get some guys out here and search the area. Tag it and bag it." He looked at me like I was crazy. I said, "Why? What the hell would you do?". He said, without missing a beat, "I'd get on the radio also and call the PD also". "And say what", I responded. He said this smiling, "Dispatch, send me back up! My partner's been shot!". I laughed, "Asshole, you would wouldn't you?" He just laughed it off. We kept looking for the covers. His answer kind of irked me. Years later I would remember this conversation. It would come back to haunt me in a way I never saw coming. I should have listened to that little voice in my head. 

A few moments later Danny called me over to where he was. "Check this out", he said, pointing to an opening in the weeds. I was hoping it wasn't a bag of cash. It wasn't. It was hubcaps. Lots of them. That hole on the road had taken it's toll on many cars over the last few months. The area looked like a lonely grave yard for old and forgotten hubcaps. All colors and sizes landed there to die. It almost looked sad. They were all rather clean from the recent rains. I guess no one had gotten off to check their cars but us. It was funny to me that they all rolled into the same area.

Danny counted 24 of them. He then started collecting them. I said, "Hey, what are you doing?" He gave me that look kids give you when you tell them to put the candy back, "I'm gonna take them. They're cool." I said, "Leave them, get ours, call the city or county and get these picked up". He reluctantly complied. We headed back to our car and he put our hubcap back on an we took off. 

Just then a call of  "suspicious circumstances" at the city cemetery came over the radio. We headed that way just in case it was relevant to our case, and because we had nothing better to do. When we got there a patrol officer escorted us to the old part of the cemetery. This part is known as the "black" cemetery. It is what remains of the days where non-white people were not allowed to even be buried in the same dirt as white people. Someone was walking the area and saw a jar with what looked like human organs in it. There was  a picture taped to it of a woman and a piece of paper with some writing on it. I had seen these before. People pay curanderas to put curses or spells on people. The spells range from making someone fall in love with you to keeping law enforcement away from your illegal activities. It was not uncommon to see these things if you worked in law enforcement in this area. I did not recognize the picture of the girl and the stuff in the jar did not look like human remains to me. Danny, however, was intrigued. I let him poke around a bit and took a walk around the cemetery. 

The old black cemetery section isn't well kept. It's kind of over run actually.  No one, except maybe relatives of the dead, ever come around, and few do any upkeep in the area. The rest of the cemetery is nice, as cemeteries go. 

I passed a large section with dozens of small headstones. Babies dying. Always a terrible thing. Several small headstones surrounded by cement angels, dolls, and toy cars were everywhere. I couldn't even imagine losing a child. Especially one so young.  

I made my way into the regular part of the cemetery. I actually like cemeteries. They are quiet. No one judges you there. To the dead we are all the same. I looked around at the different headstones. They have always fascinated me. Especially reading the dates on the stones. It makes life seem so compact and final. For instance 1963-2007. The numbers really don't mean anything do they? One is the year you were born and the other is the one you died. You didn't choose either one of them. What you did choose is everything in the middle. And that's represented by a dash. The dash. That is you.  That is what represents your choices in life on that stone. That's it. In the end your life comes down to a small dash on a stone in a cemetery. A blur, almost.   Just like Jo Ana. In the next few days someone somewhere will be carving that dash into a stone for her just like all these other stones in the cemetery. All that will be left of her will be that dash. It just doesn't seem like enough to me. 

I turned around and headed back to where Danny was. I saw that he was still poking around with a couple of other officers. I decided to go across the street and get a drink. I walked into the Stripes convenience store and headed straight to the soda fountain dispenser and filled up a 44oz cup with Diet Coke. My mind is not easily distracted like Danny's. He would chase butterflies all day in that cemetery if I let him. I couldn't get the case off my mind. I was having trouble with this one. I didn't have the body to tell me what happened, and that is not normal in a murder case. It's just wrong.  Everything I was doing was just guessing. I was making it up as I went along and I didn't like it. Maybe I was wrong about everything. For a split second I let the idea that the girl might still be alive enter my head. If I was wrong then she was out there and I was running around wasting time. A split second later I dismissed this idea. My gut told me she had to be dead. 

I sat down at one of the three tables by the window inside the store to drink my drink and wait for Danny. I was thinking about my next move when a guy walked in and headed for the beer section. I didn't recognize the guy but something about him was all wrong. He asked the clerk about the bus route and walked out. A bus heading out of town stops at this store 3 times a day. A few minutes later I see the guy talking to someone else in a car in the parking lot. Him I recognize. He was a gang member who I had arrested a few times for drug possession. The guy in the car hands the other guy a suitcase and I see what's going on immediately. I don't have time for this crap. The guy takes the case from the guy in the car and sits on bench outside waiting for the bus. From the way the guy was carrying the case it must have at least 20 pounds of marijuana in it. I think I could just go get next to the guy and find out for myself. I am highly allergic to marijuana. If I get within a couple of feet of it for more than a minute I will go into a sneezing fit. I am talking full blown red blood shot teary eyed shoot out a lung sneezing fits. The same thing happens with cats. But that's it.  Nothing else bothers me in that way. So if I go stand next to the guy and break out into a sneezing fit then he's got marijuana in the case, or a cat. And if it was a cat then I don't mind. I hate cats. But I really don't have time for that crap. Instead I call an informant of mine and have him call it in to crime stoppers. That way he'll collect the reward and I can clear my conscience. So I do it and take off. I ask the clerk to let me out the back so I won't spook the drug courier. I call Danny to pick me up in the back and we head out. I had a body to find.