The old one had the head upside down and was looking at the stump. The younger man was poking about the other stump.
"Check this out, Chiun," he said.
The little guy drifted up to the neck stump, which was red but bloodless. It had been thoroughly washed and disinfected.
"Decapitated, plain as day," Melvis said.
The little guy shook his head. "No."
"If that isn't decapitation, what is?" Remo asked.
"I will explain later." His eyes went to Melvis and the ME. "Away from these prying ears."
"Those are right unfriendly words to use around a fellow public servant."
"His head came off. That's decapitation," Remo was telling the old Korean.
"Later," Chiun argued.
Remo looked Melvis in the eye. "Give me a rundown."
"You read the preliminary report?"
"I did. He didn't. Let's hear it."
"Engineer hit a sport vehicle at the crossing at Big Sandy. Tore the thing apart, dragged it a few miles down the line, then plowed smack into the freight yard at Texarkana. Engineer ended up discombobulated. A lot of rail fouled and boxcars on their side. Not much else to tell."
"Where did the man lose his head?" asked the little Korean, going right to the jackpot.
"That answer we ain't exactly shook loose. Some think it was at the crossing." Melvis eyed the ME. "There's others who hold that it came loose in the big freight-yard wreck."
"What's your opinion?" asked Remo.
Melvis rocked back on his ostrich-skin boot heels, squeezing his white Stetson in both hands. "I'm reservin' judgment on that particular point."
"I would like to see the place where this tragedy took place," said Chiun.
"Which? The first wreck or the big one?"
"The beginning."
"Suit yourself. I got a car outside."
As they started out of the autopsy room, Melvis remembered something. "Doc, you keep that sorry fella on ice. I got me a feelin' we ain't done with his sorry ass just yet."
On the way out Melvis's hard-bitten attitude softened as he asked Chiun, "You really ride steam locomotives in your youth?"
"From Kaesong to the railhead at Sinanju. And back. Many times."
"Man, I was born eighty years too late. I hanker for the clean smell of steam and coal smoke."
"Steam is heavenly, I agree."
Remo looked at them both as if they were crazy.
WHEN THEY RETURNED to the rental car, Remo took the wheel and waited for Chiun to close the passenger door.
"What's this about steam?"
"It is my cover," Chiun said airily. "I am conversant with trains."
"Just let me do the conversing, okay?"
"We will speak of this later."
"For crying out loud, we have a fifty-mile drive ahead of us."
"You drive. I will think."
"Suit yourself," said Remo, waiting until Melvis pulled out of his parking slot. Then he fell in behind him.
On the way out of town they drove past the freight yards. A derailment team was putting a boxcar back on the rails with a pair of Caterpillar tractors.
Chiun craned his neck to see the operation.
"What are you watching?"
"It is very interesting to see how they do it in this day and age."
"Huh?"
"When I was a youth, oxen were employed."
"They really had trains in Korea way back then?"
"Yes. In Pyongyang they were called ki-cha, which means 'steam cars.' We called them cheol-ma."
Remo blinked as he searched his mind for the English translation.
"Iron horse?"
"Yes. We called them iron horses."
"Funny. That's what the Indians used to call them in the days of the transcontinental railroad."
"Why should that surprise you, Remo? My ancestors settled this land."