AllFreeNovel
Share Us
J’s contact-blue eyes pinched as she spun her thumb ring around. A thing she only did when she was nervous or about to deliver bad news. “But does she deserve that kind of dedication? Listen, I like her, I do. She seems cool and she’s dedicated to helping us out. But, T… ten years with nothing and you’re still deep in it and she doesn’t care.”
Her words picked at the scab over her heart. The yearning she felt over the years had sometimes taken her to her knees. She had hoped, only to herself and only in the dark, that maybe they would come back together again over the years. She told herself, “Next time Vera is home, I’m going to see her. This time I’m doing it.” Every time she pulled back, got scared, and smoked so much weed she heard her bones moving so she didn’t have to think. ‘Next time’ never came and then, like some twisted fucked up fairytale, life brought Vera back into Teddi’s orbit. It was a blinding shooting star and she caught it with her bare hands and nothing was going to take it.
She just never expected it to be like this with Vera’s world splitting at the seams, but she trusted. She had to trust. Without it she didn’t know what to do, she couldn’t even consider it.
“She’s worth it. She is.” Teddi cut her off before she could speak. “Just look into it, ok?”
J kept spinning her ring. “Alright, I’ll look, but don’t kill the messenger if it’s not what you expected.”
Teddi stared out of the windshield at the gas station they sat behind. It would be alright, she knew it would. She could help Vera. She could fight as long as she understood what she was fighting against.
“I won’t be mad. Just look for me. I need to know and she won’t find out. Right?” It looked like it took everything in J not to argue.
“Right. What do you know about these murders? Theories? Suspects? Mackey is going to grill me when I get back. She said you’re not answering her calls.”
“I know, there’s just been a lot of other stuff going down. I’ll call later.” Her boss was going to have her ass for not picking up the last two times she called. “As far as theories go, we have the note that was slipped in the motel door that points us towards Deputy Gunson. Sheriff Malis continues to be shady as shit and I don’t trust a single person in that town.” Her brow furrowed at the reminder that Vera was meeting him as they spoke, alone in that creepy place with no one to watch her back. “Let’s not forget about the newest addition to their growing cellar of murder victims.” The images came up again and her jaw locked down. Blood, pus, knife wounds, strangulation. She wanted to wash them out as easily as washing her hands. “All of the images of the bodies are in the bag including the swabs. If some god decides to smile upon us, we’ll get fibers or DNA. Although I’m not wildly hopeful as there were no signs that any of them fought back. Make sure to have your guy check for fingerprints on that note.”
Three healthy men were slaughtered and there wasn’t a single defensive wound on them. No visible blood or tissue under their fingernails when she scraped them and no wounds on their arms or torso to suggest they shielded themselves. Whoever it was took them down hard and fast. It was well thought out and clean, contrary to the mutilation that found them.
J shoved the bundle of evidence into her backpack and slipped it into the backseat.
“What about Deputy Gunson? Is he a viable suspect or do you think whoever dropped the note in your lap is messing with you?”
An older man stepped out of the back of the building, a garbage bag in hand. They watched as he lumbered over to the large trash receptacle and threw it in. He froze when he spotted their cars parked in the abandoned lot. Thick brows burrowed down over his eyes as he squinted before shuffling back inside, deciding they weren’t worth the trouble.
“I think he could be viable but what does he gain from it all? He has his position in the Sheriff’s department, he doesn’t seem to want for anything and your look into his financial records didn’t show anything outstanding that would warrant murder for money gains.”
“True, but why does anyone kill? Yeah, there’s love and money but power is just as good a motivator as anything. In a town that size, I’m sure there are few ways to gain it. Small fish in a small pond and all that.”
Teddi could see the logic. Sylen seemed to be rooted in generations of families that never left. It was like they walked in one day and decided it was all they ever needed. Maybe Gunson did want power, but taking it randomly through such brutal killings, she couldn't reconcile. Whether or not boredom could be that powerful was unimaginable.
"We don't have anything connecting him to the murders except that he was first on scene and he is helping dispose of them. All that does is prove he's one of three who could be the killer though, since the Sheriff and other deputies are in on it too."
“What’s your gut say?” J looked at her torso as if the answer would be written there.
She’d mulled it over since finding the cellar of bodies. The significance of each missing body part told her a story. Trying to put herself in the mind of the killer, she attempted to determine why the eyes, tongue, and penis were chosen specifically. “I think it’s about emasculating them and it’s about punishment. The killer is taking away their ability to see and speak. Not to mention taking what a lot of them would refer to as the epitome of their manhood. I think these are ritual killings with a singular purpose in mind and each one has something special added in. These are fathers and husbands, they were all integral to the Sylen community. Someone is carving them out of it and I think they’re enjoying it.”
The spectacle they were making of the bodies proved that. Lifted onto the platform of the rock, visible inside the open glade, they were put on display to be found but also watched as they died. The amount of blood at the scene proved that’s where they were tortured and killed. There was a performative aspect about it all that made the murderer more unstable, more dangerous than she anticipated.
“And the wives aren’t saying anything useful?” J asked as she scrounged around in the console, presumably for more food
“We’ve only spoken to Lily and her mother so far. Happened to meet Sheriff Malis’ wife as well. She’s something.”
“Something good or bad?”
Teddy flexed her hand recalling the strange coldness of Elaine’s skin.
“Something weird. The whole town feels… off.” She recalled a scene in an old film she watched when she was too young. That happened a lot when her father would leave her to fend for herself for days at a time. Too much cable TV for her good. One time she watched a thriller that showed a woman being buried alive in it. The scene opened on her sleeping form, soon to awake to her hellish nightmare. Her screams inside the pine box, the scratches she left in the softwood as she realized the irreversible horror of her circumstances. The tight, unforgiving space that held her in place as she begged to be freed… that’s what Sylen felt like. As if she’d been buried alive and she just didn’t know it yet.
“Stop doing that.”
“What?” She looked down to her heel jumping up and down on the floor. “Sorry.” She needed to get back.
“What about this last victim, Scott Reade? Did you get my message about his wife dying of cancer a few years ago?”
“Yeah. Sad story but at least she didn't get fed another bullshit hunting accident line." She turned the heat down and unzipped her jacket. "Reade's the same as the others, only they left a leather belt around his neck. His special something. Your background check lent little to no idea of a motive and you already know he owned the mechanic shop in town for the last twenty years.” Scanning the empty lot for the fifth time, she let her thoughts spill out. “I can’t tell if the killer is picking them off one by one in a preordained order or if they’re taken at a time most convenient when their guard is down. How do none of them have defensive wounds?”
“The forensics you pulled may tell us if they were drugged.”
