Costly Obsession: Animalize

by Sasha Pruett

  Chapter Fifteen

  He that speaketh of himself seeketh his own glory:

  John 7:18

  The steel drawer slid open, emanating an arctic chill, and a horrific stench, even though the “cooler” nearly halted the decaying process nothing could be done for the rot that had already staked its claim. Gary instinctively turned his head from the source, squeezing his eyes shut, attempting to block out reality, but at the same time trying to come to grips with it. Even the coroner flinched at the sight of the mutilated remains of Mrs. Sheere. Harold Pintac, of course, was not affected; he only stared as if it was nothing. Robert had chosen to stay outside the morgue where it was safe not just from witnessing the source of nightmares, but where it was safe from the ego inside.

  Gary introduced the arrogant Dr. Pintac to Dr. Calvin Brown, town coroner and pathologist. Calvin held out this hand to the man in the crisp new suit, but Harold only looked at. No way was he going to touch that thing, who knew what was on the hand of such a man, he probably didn’t even use gloves. Calvin looked to Gary in confusion and saw his answer as Gary rolled his eyes and shook his head. Calvin removed the friendly gesture along with any greetings that went along with it.

  “Dr. Pintac here has been sent to us in an effort to identify the animal responsible for the attacks. Since we hadn’t received the autopsy report yet I brought Dr. Pintac here in person so he could get all the information he needed first hand and as quickly as possible so that he can make an identification as soon as possible, and get back to where he is needed elsewhere.” There was no mistaking the innuendo in Officer Carpell’s words, but instead of infuriating Harold a miracle happened, and for the first and only time they actually agreed.

  “Alright, let’s begin then.” Dr. Brown began detailing his inspection of the woman’s mangled corpse, listing what organs were actually found, and in what condition they were in, but Harold sharply cut him off with his usual bored and annoyed tone.

  “I can read all of this trivial junk in the report, that is if you included it. What I’m interested in is what pertains to me, the specifics, such as the slash marks: what made them? How deep were they indicating the strength involved? Were there any non-human hairs found? Was there any fingernail residue found and what did it consist of? Saliva traces, DNA results, any of these things registering with you doctor?”

  Calvin peered up from the body to see Gary shaking his head again and took his cue. Collecting himself, Calvin coolly replied to as many of the arrogant pig’s questions as possible. “By the evidence of the slashes to the torso piece that was recovered still intact and having the least amount of water erosion the object responsible was no doubt razor sharp. As you can see the cuts are fairly clean with little to no jagged ripping of the flesh, no evidence of serrated edging, but the tears are not consistent with any metallic or plastic non-serrated weapon either. By the depth of the incisions it can be concluded that whatever was responsible for the wounds could not have been a sane human being. The continued thrust required to rip that deep through the flesh and bone simultaneously cannot be attributed to human hands. Unfortunately aquatic life had made many meals out of the remains so an accurate shape and sizing of the claw, or weapon, responsible has been impossible without more time to study the body.

  It appears that the man was beheaded with one swift attack, killing him instantly so as expected, there were no traces of fingernail residue and the prolonged water exposure washed away many of the hair fibers that may have been attached to him. Although it seems the woman was alive through most of the assault on her. We were able to recover samples from both her left and right hand that survived the water submersion. I was preparing to send the samples to Charleston for DNA typing, unfortunately we don’t have the equipment necessary to perform such testing and frankly we’ve never needed it; unlike the city.” Dr. Brown could give as good as he got and he wasn’t about to let this jerk have all the fun.

  “Bruising was partially indeterminable due to the extreme trauma, immediate water submersion, massive blood loss, and bloating compounded by the water absorption, but there was significant bruising in what would be the lap area of the legs. It seems that whatever did this was not only powerfully strong, but quite large and heavy as well. The direction of the slash marks indicates that the assailant was perched in the woman’s lap as it tore away at her. I don’t think a wild dog could have done this amount of damage and as for a large cat, well we don’t get many lions or tigers in this part of town not to mention that the thing would have to be mad to even think of attacking one person like this let alone two. As for how they ended up in the lake that’s for the sheriff to figure out.”

  “I didn’t ask for your ingenious insights into what animal, if it was an animal, was the culprit. I assume since you failed to mention such an important detail that there were no viable traces of hair or fur found not belonging to the victims?”

  “You know what they say about assuming…”

  “What was that?” Harold’s eyes burned as he glared at the doctor.

  “Actually there were a few hairs found not belonging to either of the couple. You are welcome to examine them if you’d like, I’m sure you’re the most qualified person to make an identification.” Calvin Brown’s words calmed the fire rising in Harold, even if it was meant sarcastically, he was the most qualified.

  Gary forced the smirk off his face before interjecting then looked at Calvin. Still wary of the remains laid out before him like an offering, he began questioning the good doctor about the cat. “Do you mean to tell me that a lion or cougar or something like that did this?” he said pointing to the pieces of rotting corpses splayed upon the table.

  Harold grinned at the obvious idiotism that was about to spew forth from the overpaid under educated doctor. There was no doubt that he was going to say something completely stupid and altogether inaccurate, but he was disappointed.

  “It’s possible, but highly unlikely. The closest lions are at the Riverbank Zoo in Columbia or at the zoo in Greenville, but for an attack like we’ve got here the animal would definitely have to have been seriously mistreated and very vicious, not to mention starving and after the attack on Farley’s place I’d have to say that there was definitely more than one. Besides after a meal like that, there would be no way the animals would be hungry enough to go after these two. Not to mention that the cats at the zoos are fed regularly to keep any incidents from happening.”

  “So even if one…”

  “Or a dozen,” interjected Dr. Brown.

  “Right, or a dozen, escaped…”

  “Which is about as likely as…” Calvin quickly glanced at Harold than thought better of continuing the remark floating around his brain, “well highly unlikely. Wouldn’t you agree Dr. Pintac?”

  It pained Harold to agree with anything the locals said, so in turn he said nothing.

  “Okay, so as unlikely as it would be, even if a dozen or so large cats escaped they would be too well fed to go around tearing people and cattle to shreds.”

  “And I don’t know about you, but I haven’t heard word one on the news about a band of escaped wild cats on the news. Things like that tend to appear in the headlines.”

  “And nothing’s come in to the station about it either and we’d be one of the first ones notified.”

  “Exactly.”

  “I don’t mean to interrupt this stimulating banter of yours,” Harold’s voice was thick with his familiar air of arrogance, “but have either of you considered the possibility that some lunatic could be breeding and raising these beasts on one of these… farms. An abused lion can be as vicious as a madman, and a small group of them could do an extreme amount of damage. I cite the example of the two male African lions that devastated the natives of Africa in 1898 killing around one hundred and thirty people in only nine months. They eluded capture by some of the finest hunters available at that time before finally being brought down; to this day they are displayed in a museum in Chicago. So
as you see gentlemen, it is possible.” There was no emotion in his voice, no concern of people or life, only his own egotism and his need for superiority. ‘If this is some lion that some dumb red-neck hick tried to keep as a pet I’m out of here by morning and back to civilization and real intelligence.’ His thoughts betrayed him as his lips began to curl into a sly smile.

  “That’s all very interesting Mr., excuse me, Dr. Pintac, and you make a good point, but the fact is that even though I haven’t seen any lions up-close the samples over there in that dish don’t look like any lion fur I’ve ever seen, mountain or otherwise. Besides, lions just don’t go busting through windows after people, insane or not.”

  “Who told you that it burst through the window? I swear officer Carpell is there no respect for procedure around here…!”

  “No one told me Pintac. There was glass embedded in the bodies and if you haven’t noticed, the types of glass differ between side, rear, and front windows. Besides, how else was the thing going to get into the car? Whu’d they do just stop, open the door, and invite the thing in?”

  “Who knows what you people out here do or why you do it! Anyway how do you know that the glass wasn’t a result of the victims thrashing? Some doctor, you say that the hair doesn’t resemble lion hair, yet you admit to never seeing one up close. How did you come to that decision? Pin the tail on the jack-ass? If you hit the target it was a match if you didn’t it wasn’t? Oh, and the words are what did, not whu’d. What kind of moronic hick word is that any way? You’d know how to speak proper English if you had actually gotten past the fourth grade.”

  “You should know! Speaking of morons have you ever heard of a little thing called the Internet? Or is that stick so far up your…”

  “Gentlemen! Can we please put our obvious dislike for each other aside and concentrate on the problem at hand?” A soft burst of laughter could be heard from outside the door where Robert had been listening intently rooting for Dr. Brown all the way, but the three men inside were too involved to notice it.

  “Which is?” Harold snapped at Gary.

  “Finding out what’s out there killing before another mutilated body is wheeled in here!”

  “As far as I’m concerned deputy, you can figure that out for yourself. I don’t have to stay here and put up with this… this… insolence!” Tempers and tension ran high, but Gary knew the town need this jerk and he wasn’t about to let him just saunter out of there no matter how much he wanted to see the door hit him in the rear.

  “May I remind you Dr. Pintac that you were sent here to do a job by your superiors? Evidence has been found that requires your attention, evidence that you stated you needed to identify this thing whatever it is and mark my words if you walk through that door and out of this town I will be on the phone to those superiors of yours just as quick as you can pull that cell you undoubtedly have out of your pocket and inform them of your attitude and refusal to examine the evidence you yourself requested. Do you understand this hick’s English Dr. Pintac!”

  Fire blazed in Harold eyes, not so much by the way he was spoken to, but by the fact that this inbred excuse for authority was right, he was trapped in this town by his own words. Through gritted teeth he managed one last word, “Fine.”

  The three men took a deep breath and checked their emotions and attitudes. Gary then realized that he had received the answer to his question, the suit wasn’t a cyborg he had shown emotion. Of course it was anger, mixed with arrogance, pride, and self-superiority, but still it was an emotion. All Calvin was thinking on the other hand was how much he’d like to see Harold Pintac laid out on one of those cold hard slabs one day and fact was that one of these days whether he was there to see it or not he would be. A comforting grin snuck onto his face, while Harold was still in his usual state of mind. What did he care if some mad lions or whatever goes around making mincemeat out of uncivilized hillbillies. Of course he did have a job to do no matter how ridiculous, he’d identify the thing a.s.a.p. so the proper authorities could capture it and keep it from entering the civilized world. A vision of Robert Pango attempting to corner a mad lion manifested in his mind and he hurriedly suppressed a smile of glee. Harold shocked himself over such a smile; he couldn’t remember the last time he had done anything like it. Not for show anyways. Unknown to him Gary had seen the quick change in his facial expressions, but decided that he didn’t want to know. The less he knew of the inner workings of Harold Pintac the better.

  “Very well Dr. Pintac. If you would please continue Calvin, and let’s keep the remarks to yourself please.” Gary was in no way trying to demean him and Calvin knew it, but keeping a civil tongue with Pintac was a greater challenge than all his years in med school put together.

  “Forgive me. Dr. Pintac you asked a question that I will happy to answer for you,” and indeed he was happy setting him straight, “the glass shards were embedded deep into the neck of the first victim, the man who had his head ripped off.”

  “I know which one is which doctor.”

  “No offense, just refreshing our memories. Anyway, he was only stuck once when he was decapitated and with as deep as the shards were embedded they couldn’t have just landed there in the fray. That, and the attack on the woman was a frontal attack, the evidence shows that whatever did this was on top of her through the entire assault holding her down until death. This would make it difficult to impossible for her to break the front windshield or the back for that matter and since the fragments retrieved had defrost wiring attached the shards had to have originated from the rear window the next logical step is to assu… believe that the thing that killed them was also responsible for the window as well. That and shards were also found deep inside of the woman’s remains as well, too deep to be self-inflicted in fact.”

  “I see.”

  Robert could hear the voices of the men clearly from his chosen seat in the hall. He had no urge to see a dead body let alone two of them torn up like a jigsaw puzzle, and the fact that he wasn’t allowed in the morgue anyway didn’t hurt his feelings one bit. He had been following the conversation intently and when the voices quieted he moved closer to the door straining to hear, rooting for anyone but Harold.

  “Excuse me, but is Deputy Sheriff Gary Carpell in there?”

  Robert jumped and swung around to see another officer standing pale and solemn behind him. “Uh... yes... yes he is sir.”

  “Thank you.” Deputy Kiax nodded to the startled and embarrassed man then took a deep breath, pushing his way through the morgue doors into the freezing room beyond and was met with the stares of three very tense men.

  “Sir, can I see you for a moment?”

  “Of course deputy. Gentlemen if you will please excuse me for a moment.” Gary reluctantly left the two men to continue their work while he stepped towards the door where Deputy Kiax was waiting. “What is it Kevin I’m a little busy here? Have you found Frank?”

  “Well sir, that’s what I’m here about.”

  “Yes?”

  “Well, Mrs. Andrews just brought her husband into the emergency room a little while ago. It seems Ed had a heart attack, he didn’t make it.”

  “That’s unfortunate, but what does that have to do with Frank.”

  “I was getting to that. She reported that his car was stranded off of Ashton.”

  “Send a car out there and see what’s going on.”

  “I did sir, here.” Kevin Kiax handed Gary a large green trash bag.

  “What’s this?”

  “Sheriff Marshall... when we were informed that both you and Dr. Brown were not to be disturbed we went ahead with the evidence collection and bagging of the remains.”

  The world began spinning; everything was crashing down around them. Gary looked from Kevin to Calvin, then back to the trash bag that held the remains of one of his best friends. His whole hand shook and he had to struggle with himself not to let the bag drop to the floor. “Somebody needs to call Susie.”

  Kevin nodded and left
as quickly as possible, ecstatic to be out of that place of death. Gary never looked from the bag in his hand, he couldn’t. All he could do was walk to one of the metal tables across from Harold and Calvin and gently place it down. With his eyes still glued to the resting place of his boss he managed an introduction, “Dr. Pintac, meet Sheriff Frank Marshall, or what’s left of him.” Only then did he look directly into the eyes of Harold. Anger, hatred, desperation, despair, and sadness all flooded in Gary’s eyes. It was then Harold knew without a doubt that he was stuck; the situation had just grown serious, even for him.