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Chapter 6
Bayard had gotten us a black Jeep with black-tinted s and uess at I&039;d been worried they&039;d saddleequally ridiculous Bayard had given me the keys with the coht youmore substantial than just a car"
I resisted the urge to pat hireat choice Maybe he&039;d make full partner so, thin shadows across the road In the valleys between ht had softened to a late-afternoon haze We raveyard by full dark
Yes, we Larry sat beside me in his wrinkled blue suit The cops wouldn&039;t ht raise a few eyebrows There aren&039;t many female cops out in the boonies And feear short red skirts I was beginning to really regret my choice of clothes Insecure: who, me?
Larry&039;s face was shiny with excitement His eyes sparkled like a kid&039;s on Christers on the ar?"
"I&039;ve never been to a murder scene before," he said
"There&039;s always a first ti"
"Just rehed "Don&039;t touch anything Don&039;t walk through the blood Don&039;t speak unless spoken to" He frowned "Why the last? I understand all the others, but why can&039;t I talk?"
"I&039;ation Teaee whiz a dead body, they may catch on"
"I won&039;t eht occurred to hi police officers?"
"No Keep repeating I&039;m a member of the Spook Squad, I&039;m a member of the Spook Squad, I&039;m a member of the Spook Squad"
"But I&039;m not," he said
"That&039;s why I don&039;t want you talking"
"Oh," he said He settled back into his seat, a little of the shine dies "I&039;ve never actually seen a freshly dead body before"
"You raise the dead for a living, Larry You see corpses all the ti, Anita" He sounded grulanced at him He had slumped down as far into the seat as the seat belt would allow, arms crossed over his chest We were at the crest of a hill A band of sunlight fell like an explosion over his orange hair His blue eyes looked translucent for a ht into shadow He looked all scrunched and sulky
"Have you ever seen a dead person outside of a funeral or a freshly raised zombie?"
He was quiet for athe silence fill the Jeep It was a comfortable silence, at least for me
"No," he said at last He sounded like a little boy who had been told he couldn&039;t go outside and play
"I&039;ood around fresh bodies either," I said
He looked at me sort of sideways "What do you mean?"
It was e and sat up straighter "I threw up on ait very fast, it was still erinning "You&039;re just telling me that to make me feel better"
"Would I tell a story like that about myself if it wasn&039;t true?" I asked
"You really threw up on a body at a crime scene?"
"You don&039;t have to sound so happy about it," I said
He giggled I swear he giggled "I don&039;t think I&039;ll throw up on the body"
I shrugged "Three bodies, with partsDon&039;t make promises you can&039;t keep"
He sed loud enough for "
"We&039;ll find out," I said "This isn&039;t part of your job description, Larry I get paid for helping the cops; you don&039;t"
"Will it be awful?" His voice was low, uncertain
Chopped-up bodies Was he kidding? "I don&039;t know until we get there"
"But what do you think?" He was staring at lanced back at the road, then at Larry He looked very solemn, like a relative who&039;d asked the doctor for the truth If he would be brave, I could be truthful "Yeah, it&039;ll be awful"
Chapter 7
It ful Larry had er from the crime scene before he threw up The only comfort I could offer him was that he wasn&039;t the only one Soes, too I hadn&039;t thrown up yet, but I was keeping it as an option for later
The bodies lay in a sround was nearly knee-deep with leaves Nobody rakes in the woods The drought had dried the leaves to a fine, biting crunch underfoot The holloas ringed by naked trees and bushes with branches like thin brohips When the leaves came out, the holloould be hidden on all sides
The body nearest to me was a blond man with hair cut so short it looked like an old-fashioned butch Blood pooled around the eyeballs, flowing fro with the face, besides the eyes, but I couldn&039;t quite figure out what I knelt in the dry leaves, glad that the leg of the coverall was protecting my hose from the leaves and the blood Blood had pooled to either side of the boy&039;s face, soaking into the leaves The blood had dried to a tacky er&039;s eyes had been crying dark tears
I touched the tip of ers to the blond&039;s chin Itmovement that chins were not meant to do
I sed hard and tried to take shallow breaths I was glad it was still spring If the bodies had been sitting this long in full summer heat, they&039;d have been ripe in
I put my hands in the leaves and bent fro to see under his chin without ain There, nearly lost in the blood on the neck, was a puncture mark A puncture mark wider than my outspread hand I&039;d seen knife wounds and clawfor a knife and too clean for a claw Besides, what the hell had a claw that big? It looked like a massive blade had been shoved under the blond&039;s chin, close enough to the front of his face to slice the eyes up fro, but still looked intact The sword had nearly pulled the blond&039;s face off his skull
I ran ers over the blond&039;s short hair and found what I was looking for The tip of the sword, if that&039;s what it was, had come out the top of his head Then the blade had been withdrawn and the blond had dropped to the leaves Dead, I hoped, but dying I was sure of
His legs werejust below the hip joint There was als had been bisected They&039;d been cut off after he&039;d died S, that He&039;d died relatively quickly, and had not been tortured There orse ways to die
I knelt by the stubs of his legs The left bone had been cut clean with one blow The right bone had splintered, as if the sword struck froot a piece of the right leg A second blow had been needed to sever the right leg
Why take the legs? A trophy? Maybe Serial killers took trophies, clothing, personal items, a body part Maybe a trophy?
The other two boys were shorter, neither of theer maybe, maybe not They were both small and dark-haired, slender Probably the kind of boys who looked pretty rather than handsome but, frankly, it was hard to tell
One lay on his back almost opposite frolassy and immobile, somehow unreal like the eyes of a taxider furrows, as if the tip of the sword had been used co like a backhand slap The third slice had taken out his neck It was a very clean wound; they all were The damn sword, or whatever it as incredibly sharp But it was h to take thele Butwon&039;t pick up a weapon to do it
A lot of things will claw us apart, or eat us alive, but the list of preternatural beings that will cut us up eapons is pretty small A troll may tear up a tree and whap you to death, but it won&039;t use a blade Not only had this thing used a sword, not a common weapon, but it had some skill
The blows to the face hadn&039;t killed the boy Why didn&039;t the other two run? If the blond was killed first, why didn&039;t this one run? Nothing was fast enough that it could take out three teenage boys with a sword before any of them could run These were not quick blows Whoever, or whatever, had done this had taken some time with each kill But they all acted as if they&039;d been hit by surprise
The boy had fallen onto his back in the leaves, hands clutching at his throat The leaves had been scuffed ahere his feet had kicked them I took a shallow breath I didn&039;t want to probe the wounds, but I was beginning to have a nasty idea
I knelt and traced the neck wound with es of the skin were so smooth But it was still human flesh, human skin, blood dried to a thick stickiness I sed hard and closed ht I&039;d find The edge of the wound had two lips, starting about midway I opened ers My eyes still couldn&039;t see it There was too much blood Once the wound was clean, you&039;d see it, but not here, not like this The neck had been sliced twice, deeply One cut was enough to kill Why twice? Because they were hiding so killed by a vampire would explain why he hadn&039;t tried to craay He&039;d just lain in the leaves and kicked until he died
I stared at the last teenager He was cruht side Blood had pooled under him He was so cut up that at firstI wanted to look away before ht up to my eyes, but I didn&039;t
Where the face should have been was just a ripped, gapping hole The creature had done the sa to this one as to the blond, but it had been h The front of the skull had been ripped away I glanced around, searching the leaves for the piece of bone and flesh, but didn&039;t see it I had to look back then, at the body I knehat I was looking at now I liked it better when I didn&039;t
The back of the skull was full of blood and gore, like a gruesoone The blade had sliced him open across the chest and stomach His intestines spilled out in a thick, rubbery ht was his stomach had spilled out fro had been chopped off at the hip joint The ragged cloth of his jeans clung to the hole like the petals of an unopened flower The left arm had been ripped out just below the elbow The bone of the hule as if the entire arer led a little?
My eyes flicked back to his face I didn&039;t want to look again, but I hadn&039;t really exauring a person&039;s face If it had been humanly possible to do all this, I&039;d have said check their nearest and dearest As a general rule, only people who love you will cut up your face It iers One exception is serial killers They&039;re working through a pathology in which the victims can represent someone else So up the faces of strangers they&039;d be syure
The fine bones of the boy&039;s sinus cavities had been cracked open Thethe face look incomplete Part of the mandible was still there, but it had been cracked apart back to the rear molars Some trick of blood flow had left two teeth white and clean One of the teeth had a filling in it I stared at that ruined face I&039;d been doing pretty good at thinking of it as so et cavities, didn&039;t go to dentists It was suddenly a teenager, or ht and the apparent age of the other two Maybe this one with no face was a child, a tall child A little boy
The spring afternoon wavered around me I took a deep breath to steadywhiff of bowels and stale death I scrambled for the side of the hollow Never throw up on the murder victims Pisses off the cops
I fell to my knees at the top of the sathered I hadn&039;t exactly fallen sobreaths of the cool air It helped A s out the smell of death It helped more
Cops of all shapes and sizes were huddled at the top of the rise Nobody was spendingthe dead There were a on the distant road, but everybody else had had their piece of the bodies They had been videotaped and trooped through with the crime scene technicians Everybody had done their job, exceptto be sick, Ms Blake?" The voice was that of Sergeant Free and Crime Control, DD/CC--affectionately known as D2C2 Her tone was gentle but disapproving I understood the tone We were the only to with the big boys You had to be tougher than the ainst you Or they treated you like a girl I was betting Sergeant Freeotten sick She wouldn&039;t have allowed it
I took another cleansing breath and let it out I looked up at her Froht Her hair was straight, dark, cut just below her chin The ends were curled under to fraht sunny yellow, jacket black, blouse a softer yellow I had a good view of her polished black loafers There was a gold wedding band on her left hand, but no engage Deep smile lines put her on the far side of forty, but she wasn&039;t s not to taste that seant Freelad that it was true I just hoped she didn&039;t o back down into the hollow I&039;d toss ain
"What did that?" she asked I didn&039;t turn and look where she pointed I kneas down there
I shrugged "I don&039;t know"
Her brown eyes were neutral and unreadable, good cop eyes She frowned "What do you mean, you don&039;t know? You&039;re supposed to be the o She hadn&039;t called me a zombie queen to my face; in fact she&039;d been very polite, correct, but there was no warmth to it She wasn&039;t ihtest inflection, she letcorpse out of eant Freemont, DD/CC So far I wasn&039;t even close
Larry walked up to us His face was the color of yellow-green tissue paper It clashed with his red hair His eyes were red-rimmed where his eyes had teared while he threw up If it&039;s violent enough, sometimes you cry while you vomit
I didn&039;t ask Larry if he was okay; the ansas too obvious But he was on his feet, ambulatory If he didn&039;t faint, he&039;d be fine
"What do you want froeant?" I asked I&039;d been ht conciliatory Dolph would be proud Bert would have been amazed
She crossed her areant Storr talkyou see the cri to the newspapers, you just do a little ure it all out Or maybe you can just raise the dead and ask them who killed them"
I took a deep breath and let it out I didn&039;t use e, but saying so would be defendingto Free you read in the papers, Sergeant Free the dead, it won&039;t ith these three"
"Are you telling me you can&039;t raise zombies, either?" She shook her head "If you can&039;t help us then go hoave a s He still looked shaky I don&039;t think he had the energy yet to tell me to behave myself Or maybe he was as tired of Freemont as I was
"I could raise theeant, but you have to have athroat to talk with"
"They could write it down," Freeestion It ood cop, I could put up with a little hostility As long as I never had to see another set of bodies like the ones below, I could put up with a lot of hostility
"Maybe, but the dead often lose higher brain function faster after a trauht not be able to write, but even if they could, they ht not knohat killed them"
"But they saw it," Larry said His voice sounded hoarse, and he coughed gently behind his hand to clear it
"None of them tried to run away, Larry Why?"
"Why are you asking hi," I said
"Training? You brought a trainee in on my murder case?"
I stared up at her "I don&039;t tell you how to do your job Don&039;t tell me how to doyet Except for your assistant throwing up in the bushes"
An unhealthy flush crept up Larry&039;s neck Embarrassed when he was almost too nauseated to stand
"Larry wasn&039;t the only one upchucking in the weeds, just the only one without a badge" I shook my head "We don&039;t need this shit" I brushed past Freemont "Come on, Larry"
Larry followed, obedient to the last