Cannibal Man

by Dorothy Knight

  “Where does this all start?” the interviewer asked.

  “Normally in the foundation stages of the development of the child. That is before the age of seven. In sexual abuse, the abuse might not take place during this time, but the grooming would be done. As the child reaches puberty, especially the ones exposed to grave violence, the child then starts abusing others. Some reach it much earlier than their peers because of the abuse. At first they would abuse animals. Men that were abused by their mothers would often be very abusive towards cats, merely because cats are the ancient symbol of femininity. As I suspect the Face Lifter was. All the signs are there…the absolute humiliation of females, the way he spreads the corpses and the way he destroys their faces. It is as if he wants them to be faceless. He might not want to see their disapproval of him…how much he is hated. This is confirmed by the way he destroys their eyes.

  “Then he has sex with the corpses…as to further humiliate them. It is a known fact that men have had oral sex with the decapitated heads of their victims. It is a way in which he can control them. I have not interviewed the Face Lifter, so I am talking hearsay, but I think it would be fair to say that every time he kills a woman, he is actually killing his mother…over and over again.

  “One has to understand that serial killers cannot cope with pain or stress. They normally go through three phases. The first phase would be where they attempt to seek acceptance. If rejected again and again, they would go onto the second phase, in which they try and bribe their way into acceptance. This phase would also be tried again and again. Then in the third phase, they would seek out the person’s weak point and start bullying them emotionally, physically and even sexually.”

  Jeanine switched off the radio and her bedside lamp. She pulled the covers over her shoulders. She would have loved to be out with the boys tonight, but she knew her aunt would not approve. She knew that Hobbs and Sauer would be very drunk tonight. It was part of being a policeman. You win, you get drunk, you lose, and you get drunk. She wondered if she would see Hobbs again soon. She really liked him. He intrigued her. He was tall, dark and handsome, and his eyes spoke more than his mouth. She liked intelligent men. She wondered vaguely if he would be a good lover. She could hear Aunt Joey snoring. Aunt Joey’s room was on the far side of the hall. Jeanine preferred it this way as she was a light sleeper.

  A terrible stench woke her up. In her drowsiness she struggled with the light switch. She felt a wet hand fold over hers. Before she could scream, something hard hit her in the face.

  The light flashed on. It blinded her.

  His hands held her throat in a vice grip.

  He was naked, smeared with stench. Ice blue eyes glared at her.

  Oh, fuck. This can’t be.

  Slowly, as if waiting for her to react, he loosened the tight grip around her throat. His eyes never left her face.

  “Hallo Jeanine,” the mouth softly leered.

  His hands moved to her chest. Jeanine grabbed both his arms and tried to push him away. She kicked at him with all her might. Fight, fight, she thought and started screaming.

  A massive fist hit her open mouth. The impact threw her head against the wall behind her. She heard the thud as her head banged against the wall, and then she saw stars flashing. Then all went dark.

  A wonderful sensation escorted her back to reality. To her horror, she realized that he was fondling her breasts. She was completely naked. Her attacker was circling her stomach and breasts with dark brown, putrid paste. She knew what it was: pig feces. She also knew who was sitting on her. She had seen his picture in the papers. Her hands were tied with duct tape to her headboard. Despite him having smeared gunk all over himself, she would recognize those blue eyes anywhere. She knew instinctively that she was going to die.

  Fight, don’t give up—if he must kill me, and then let me collect enough genetic material from him. Let me be at least his last victim.

  He was still watching her intensely. He grabbed her bottom jaw and stuffed her pajama top into her mouth. She started struggling again. He bent his face down.

  “If you want to scream, be my guest.”

  He stroked her left eye.

  “I am in charge here. You do as I please, you fucking bitch.”

  His hand moved down her throat, down her chest and cupped her breast. He played gently with her nipple.

  Jeanine’s body responded to his touch

  This can’t be happening! This can’t be happening! He is so gentle. Noooo!

  He lowered his face close to hers. She could see the darker blue specks in his eyes.

  “Why did you go and interfere with my life? Why do you draw up little profiles about me? You did not even bother to come and see me, you stupid fuck. Yet clever, little you thinks she knows it all.” He laughed softly at her. “I will show you what I am all about,” he growled softly at her.

  She struggled under him. She tried to scream mercy at him, but struggled against the vice grip.

  I am going to die!

  I am going to die!

  Have to do something! Have to do something…

  His hand moved even lower. She felt herself shivering. She knew what was coming. She read the files and knew the details.

  He levered his hand between her locked legs. His thumb immediately found her clitoris. He rubbed it gently, then harder, and gently again.

  It felt so good.

  Her mind was fighting her body. She could feel her bodily fluids flushing.

  His touch was so warm and infectious. She wanted more. She wanted him inside her.

  Jeanine flung her head furiously in an attempt to cut the pleasures from her mind. Her body was betraying her. She knew what this man was capable of.

  He lowered his mouth over her clitoris. His tongue licked slowly up and down.

  Jeanine’s body struggled with the hand that pushed her down. Her mind was going numb and her body was burning. His tongue was driving her beyond reasoning. She kept struggling.

  Then he stopped.

  He shoved his left knee between her legs and drew them wide apart. He looked long at her genitals.

  He lowered his body on top of her.

  The stench was unbearable. His blue eyes were inches away from her face.

  He stared into her eyes.

  She tried to read his eyes. The eyes are meant to be the mirrors of the soul. These eyes were dead. The man on top of her was already dead.

  She knew then that she was going to die.

  Please Lord, don’t let this be painful. Lord, I don’t want to die…Lord please…

  “Tell me you want me,” he whispered quietly at her.

  Tears flooded from her eyes. She exhaled deeply and shook her head violently from side to side.

  Thy will be done…

  “Tell me that you want me,” he repeated.

  She sobbed in answer.

  “I just want to teach your boyfriend a lesson.”

  What boyfriend? Was he maybe referring to Hobbs?

  Her tears dried up. She knew the end was near.

  “Why can’t the people just leave me alone? I am just doing what I know is best.”

  His rock hard penis drove into her without warning. Her mind screamed in agony.

  Please Lord, make this quick.

  Chapter Forty-Seven

  Joey Mayer wondered why her niece was sleeping late. It was unlike her. Perhaps the court case was getting to them all. Jeanine was normally up at this hour jogging for miles to clear her head.

  She made a cup of coffee and pattered down the hall to Jeanine’s room.

  She knocked and opened. The cup dropped from her hands as she screamed.

  Later, one of the policemen on the scene would pick up the broken pieces of the cup.

  Sauer heard the news first. Hobbs sat opposite him nursing his hangover with coffee early that morning.

  Sauer said nothing. He just got up and walked out.

  “Where you off to so early?”

  “Out
.”

  Sauer arrived at Doctor Mayer’s house minutes later. She was hysterical. Neighbors were gawking over the fences. A crowd had gathered outside the house, like vultures eager to hear any pickings of what happened.

  Sauer held the hysterical, older woman for a moment before he walked down the hall to Jeanine’s room.

  He first saw the words written in blood above her bed, ‘Leave me alone’.

  For the rest, the scene was exactly like the others, except that there had been no corpse. He read the words above the body again, ‘Leave me alone’.

  Hobbs arrived on the scene not much later. “I am a fucking hardened policeman. You don’t have to hide crap like this from me, you moron.” He felt like hitting Sauer.

  Sauer did not answer, but thought, you had feelings for her. He sat outside waiting for the forensic team to finish their work.

  Doctor Mayer left the house as well. Sauer felt numb. He vaguely heard Hobbs’s angry rants. Sometimes…just sometimes, this business of crime comes just a little too close to home. Superintendent Hansen arrived and stood next to Sauer. “I just spoke to the hospital. She might survive. She is in surgery now.

  From what we gather, she fought back. Both her hands are broken—probably as she fought him off. I believe some of her ribs are off…so is her sternum, and I believe the fucker also broke her lower jaw. She also has several bite marks on her face, neck and chest.”

  Sauer listened to it all without looking up. “Does Hobbs know this?” he asked his senior.

  “You tell him. You are the only one he listens too.” Hansen walked away. “I’m going back to the office,” he said to Sauer over his shoulder.

  Sauer walked into the house. Hobbs was busy screaming at a forensic technician for not picking something up the right way. Sauer stood in front of Hobbs and mouthed softly, “she is alive.” Hobbs choked back the angry words forming in his mouth.

  “Where is she?”

  “Sandton Clinic. Doctor Mayer is there with her. We will pray, but we won’t say it out loud because we are scared of being mocked.”

  After briefly visiting the hospital and speaking to Doctor Mayer, they went to their favorite watering hole. Jeanine was still in the operating room. From there, she would be moved to the intensive care unit. Other than that, the detectives knew nothing. Hobbs’s mood was as foul as the devil. Anybody looking or talking in his direction were threatened or verbally abused. Or both. Hobbs did not stop ranting till much later. Sauer did nothing. He let Hobbs be.

  The mornings were bitterly cold now. Hobbs showered and got dressed. At the hospital, he flashed his badge and demanded to see Jeanine. It had been a week since the attack on her. She had been moved out of intensive care and into a private room. Hobbs steamrolled all the excuses given by the guards sideways, and with both hands pushed open the doors. Then he stopped. The room was not very big. He walked softly over to the bed, past the monitors and drips. He did not recognize her. Her face was battered beyond recognition. Her left cheek was heavily bandaged. That is where he bit her.

  “Jeanine,” he called her name softly. “Can you hear me?”

  She did not respond. He looked at the bruised and swollen eyelids. Blood was caked in her hair. “I swear to you today Jeanine, I will kill the fucker who did this to you. I will kill him with my bare hands if I have too.”

  While he spoke softly to her, his eyes never left her face. He took a long, deep breath and slowly exhaled. He closed his eyes for a moment. “Yes, I am praying. I don’t know how, but Lord, please help me, because I would like to know how.

  He opened his eyes slowly. Jeanine was looking at him. Through the bruised eyelids he could see her bright, dark eyes. She closed her eyes slowly, for a moment. When she opened them again, tears rolled from them. She looked straight into Hobbs’s brown eyes.

  Hobbs’s heart gave a jump. He wanted to cry. She was a little broken bird. He put his index and middle finger on his lips and kissed it deeply. Then he gently placed the two fingers between Jeanine’s eyes. She closed her eyes and slipped back into oblivion. She felt secure knowing his fingers had touched her.

  Chapter Forty-Eight

  A few days later.

  Sauer hammered on the door with his fist. Hobbs put his ear close to the door. No sound. Sauer hammered the door again. A door of the apartment opposite the one they were hammering on opened.

  “Why you making so much noise?” asked the Asian woman. Neither Hobbs nor Sauer were in a mood to explain anything to anybody.

  “She is sleeping,” the Asian woman continued. “She comes from the hospital only now. You keep making this noise you will wake her.”

  That is the bloody idea, cretin!

  Sauer hammered on the door again. A few moments later, a faint voice asked, “Who’s there?”

  “Open the door madam. We are from the police. We need to ask you some questions.”

  The Asian woman tightened her face in fright and slammed her door so loudly that the noise reverberated down the hallway.

  Sauer could hear a key rattling on the inside of the door. It opened slightly. A door chain was keeping it from opening more than a few centimeters. “Can I see your identifications?” the voice asked.

  Sauer and Hobbs showed their cards through the slight opening. The door closed again for a moment and Sauer and Hobbs could hear the door chain being released. The door opened fully.

  Both their jaws dropped. Wrapped tightly in a light green dressing gown stood an angel. The long, blond hair fell way past her waist. The face was perfect—heavenly blue eyes and a rosebud mouth.

  Sauer composed himself. “Heidi?”

  “Yes,” said the angel.

  He took a deep breath. “I am Inspector Sauer. We would like to ask you a few questions about Henry James Harper.”

  “He is not here,” Heidi answered.

  “Maybe your hearing is not so good. We want to talk to you about him. We don’t want to talk to him, not now anyway,” Sauer said.

  “I know nothing…” she replied quickly.

  “Nothing about what?” Sauer pushed.

  Heidi turned and walked to the couch. She sat down in the middle. Sauer plonked himself down on the chair opposite her.

  “May I use the bathroom?” Hobbs asked. Heidi nodded and pointed that he must go down the hall.

  “We believe from our investigations that you are Harper’s live-in girlfriend,” Sauer said.

  Heidi nodded.

  “How long have you known him?” Sauer asked.

  “A while…”

  “A month, a week, a year…?”

  “A long time,” Heidi said looking down.

  “How long? A year, two…A decade?”

  Heidi went silent.

  “Look Heidi, we can chat here, or we can go down to the station and chat there,” Sauer said.

  “We grew up together,” Heidi said silently. Sauer sat up when he heard this. Up to now, they had been unable to trace anything about Harper. It is as if the man has not been born. They could not trace a birth certificate that would help them find out more about his parents. Harper did have identification, and the address on it lead them to this apartment.

  “Tell me everything you know about him,” Sauer said.

  “Henry is not here right now,” Heidi repeated.

  “And perhaps you misunderstood me,” Sauer said, “I want to talk to you about him. I don’t want to talk to him now…not yet anyway.”

  Heidi looked down as she fumbled her hands in her lap.

  “That was a long time ago,” she said. “My Henry would never do bad things.”

  Sauer frowned at her. “Where did you grow up?”

  “On a small holding outside Ravensdale.”

  Sauer knew where that was. That was the dumping ground for all the social misfits, the poor, and the psychos. When you come from there, you were probably raped by your father and brothers, and wanked off by your mother if you were a boy. It was a bad area. The people living there have b
ad blood. He was starting to see Harper in a better light. People living there are notorious for not registering unwanted pregnancies. He looked at the angelic face again and shook his head. God does have a sense of humor.

  “Have you been there all your life?” he asked.

  “Yes.”

  “And was Henry there all his life?”

  “No, he came later. He must have been five or six.”

  “Where did he live before that?”

  “I don’t know—perhaps with his real parents.”

  “So he did not stay there with his real parents?

  “No.”

  “Who did he stay with?”

  “With Wills and his mom.”

  “Are they family of his?”

  “No.”

  “So why did he stay with them?”

  “Wills’ mom adopted him.”

  Sauer took a deep breath. “How did you meet?”

  “Our places were next to each other.”

  “So, from childhood the two of you played together?”

  “Yes. No…only later. From high school.”

  “How was this family that adopted Henry?”

  “Better off than most of us. His mother bred pigs. They always had food and clothes.”

  “So they were the elite of Ravensdale? I mean, what were their personalities like?”

  Heidi looked down.

  “Did they hurt Henry? Abuse him?” Sauer continued.

  “Yes.”

  “Who?”

  “Wills and his mother.”

  “Who is Wills?”

  “He is the mother’s own child.”