The Missing Body

Charlie sat down. He was tired and before he could even catch his breathe, the doorbell rang.

"Who is it?" Charlies said in a semi-angry voice.

"This is Detective Brewster", I said. I need to talk to you about the disappearance of your wife."

"I told you everything I know already." Charlie said annoyed. "It's nine o'clock at night, couldn't this wait till the morning?"

"Well, sir, the faster I can gather the facts together the more probable we will find your wife."

Charles open the door reluctantly. "Come in, but I only have a few minutes!"

"That is all I need sir," I said as I walked into the living room.

It was a nice home, well kept and clean.

"Sorry to bother you so late Mr. Wilson, but I had a time difference here sir between the time your wife arrived at the airport and the time the plane took off to New Jersey, that makes no sense."

"Oh? What is that, huh?" he was fishing for my name.

"Brewster, Detective Brewster." We shook hands.

"Well, Detective Brewster, what can I help you with? I told you all I know already, what is this about a time difference?"

"Well, you said your wife was talking about leaving you and you think she finally did. You said she went to the airport at 10 o'clock am, but I checked the plane schedule to New Jersey were you said she might be going to live with her sister, but her sister said she never showed up. And the plane left at 1:00 in the afternoon, why would your wife go to the airport so early?

"That is what I mean Brewster, my wife disappeared somewhere in that airport or on the way to New Jersey. She always went ahead of time to check her bags. As you can see there is a picture of my wife getting out of the car and leaving the car in the parking lot."

"Well, sir, what we have is SOMEONE leaving your car in the airport parking lot, but the camera was not close enough to even tell us if it was a male or female."

"You mean someone else might have driven my wife's car to the airport besides her?"

"That is very well possible. Do you know if she had any enemies or not?"

"Of course not! My wife was one of the sweetest women on the face of the earth! Everybody liked her. I don't know of anyone who would do this to her and I know the suspicion goes to the husband but I assure you I had nothing to do with this break in. I loved my wife!"

"I believe you, but the plane to New Jersey was a cancelled flight, why did your wife go to the airport at that specific time?"

"She had no idea the flight was cancelled, but you are telling me now she never made it to the airport?"

"We are not sure, she is missing for sure, her sister said she never arrived in New Jersey, I checked on that personally myself this morning, so it seems something happened to her on the way to airport, or someone else drove her car to the airport for she might had been already dead."

"Brewster, I have no reason to kill my wife, I loved her and I surely hope you find the one who took her and where her body is."

"No body, no crime." I said, "her missing body would probably tell us a lot."

Brewster tried to read any reactions he could from Charlie. He knew Charlie killed her, his story had too many loose ends and holes in it, but again without a body there was no crime.

"I'm sure it will Brewster, and I sincerely hope that you find it. But it is getting late and I have got to get up in the morning, so if you would excuse me."

"Charlie was cool as a cucumber! He knew something he was not telling and I was determined to find out what."

"You know your wife was insured for over a million dollars."

"I knew that would come up," Charlie said, "As you can see we both were insured for over a million dollars and that was done years ago so if that seems like a motive for me to murder my wife it is not very good one."

"Well, Charlie a man can think ahead can't he."

He looked at me and said nothing.

"Anything else Brewster? It is getting late."

"No," I said, getting my hat, "just wanted to let you know that seems like something happened to her on the way to the airport or even after she got into New Jersey, we don't know."

"Well keep me informed," Charlie said, "I really do want to find my wife, she is misplaced, when she should be in one place but she is in another.

"I hope you find out what happened to her." Charlies said. "You will find I had nothing to do with it."

I walked to the door, I ready had nothing to go on and Charlie was gonna be a hard nut to crack.

Without a body there was no crime and Mrs. Wilson was 'misplace' somewhere, but where?

As I approached the front door, of all things, that was the sound of a large fart! Yes, fart! It came from under the wooden floor. And then the smell hit you and it was deadly. Could it be?

Charlie looked at me, "Oh, excuse me!"

"That did not come from you!" I said.

I moved the throw rug near my foot, I could see the floor board had been tampered with.

Yes. Mrs. Wilson corpse under the wooden floors where Charlies had hidden it had released it's pent up gas! A dead body has a tendency to release the built up gases in it's system at anytime.

For Mrs. Wilson, this was the right time.

"Must be the house settling," Charlie sort of laughed. I smiled and called in for a 24 hour search warrant and told Charlie he could not leave till the search was over.

It didn't take long to find the body of Mrs. Wilson under the floor boards. Did someone read the 'Tell, Tale Heart"?

Charlie just stood there helpless as we broke up the floor. He tried to tell us our search warrant was illegal for there was no physical proof of a body under the floor. I had proof enough, being around dead bodies was a part of my job and I knew the dead from the 'living' like the back of my hand.

And there was Mrs. Wilson, in a plastic bag, her throat cut from ear to ear.

"My God!" Charlie cried out. "How did she get under there!?"

Charlie was arrested and I went to Wendy's for a burger. I was sure he would be convicted. Mrs. Wilson somehow got her justice!

What a coincidence! I thought. The body breaking wind when it did. Otherwise we might had never solved the Case of the misplaced Body.