Even the Butler Was Poor by Ron Goulart

seconds.
    Buggsy was no longer sharing the coffin with the ventriloquist. He was now spread across the floor, ripped into several jagged pieces.

Chapter 9
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    O n her hands and knees, making disgruntled noises, H.J. sifted through the remains of Buggsy. "No trace of anything," she said finally, resting on her heels. "Not that I know what the hell I'm hunting for anyway."
    "Something small and valuable." Ben was crouched beside her, holding the flashlight on the fragments of the dummy.
    "Well, it looks like the competition—whoever they are—beat us to the prize." She picked up one of the dummy's detached legs, started to tap it angrily against her thigh.
    "Notice that somebody took a knife to Buggsy and used it pretty enthusiastically." He played the beam around, pointing at the scattered parts.
    "Damn, and we were so close, too," she said, tapping the little wooden leg against her leg. "They must've followed us over from Connecticut. Maybe that jerk with the cap was a—"
    "Even if they followed us, which I don't think they did," he said, "that wouldn't have told them to rip up Buggsy to look in his hollow leg."
    She said, "That's right, Ben. They couldn't have known about Buggsy unless . . . unless they made Rick talk some before he managed to get away from them."
    "That's probably what happened, yeah."
    "But then why did they search my house? If they already knew what they wanted was stashed inside this dummy."
    Ben said, "Suppose what they're looking for is something that can be duplicated? Documents that can be photocopied, photographs, something like that."
    "Sure, then they'd have to make certain not only of the originals, but of any copies Rick might've passed around."
    He stood, tapping her shoulder. "We'd best depart before the law makes its next pass by here."
    She got up, shaking her head. "I was sitting up there watching this damn funeral parlor for hours, while you were dozing, and I didn't see anybody suspicious," she said. "They must have broken in from the far side of the place as soon as the last employee went home."
    He started for the doorway. "The people we're competing with have more experience in burglary than we do, H.J."
    When they were halfway up the rainy hillside, she said, "Jesus, I brought this leg of Buggsy's along with me." She raised her hand to fling the thing off into the darkness, but then stopped. "Ben, this leg is sort of heavy, relatively speaking. Turn on the light for a second."
    After glancing around, he clicked the flash on. "What do you mean?"
    Rolling up the tatter of checkered pants leg that was still attached to the wooden limb, she rapped it with her knuckle. "This leg is solid wood, not hollow," she said. "You couldn't hide a damn thing in it—and I imagine the other leg must be the same. Hell, we misunderstood Rick's dying clue." Dropping the leg in her purse, she resumed climbing toward the car. "I feel exceedingly dumb."
    He turned off the light, following her. After climbing a few paces in the night rain, he snapped his fingers. "Of course." She scowled back over her shoulder.
    "Of course what?"
    "The photo on the wall," he replied.
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    "Y ou're sure about this?"
    "Yes, there are two of them in the framed picture Mrs. Farber has on her living room wall."
    "Two different Buggsys. I only met one, far as I know."
    "He probably kept the extra one wrapped away in his trunk."
    "Then the second one, the spare, must be the Buggsy with the hollow leg."
    "It's worth checking."
    "How come, by the way, you're willing to do this, Ben? Up until now you've been urging me to quit."
    "It has something to do with seeing that dummy all slashed up at the funeral parlor."
    "More evidence that these guys are vicious."
    "It occurred to me that they might not give up on you even if they do find what they're hunting for."
    "Meaning they might come back and rough me up—just for the fun of it?"
    "Like the paint tubes, and Buggsy."
    "So if we can get to the second Buggsy