by Edward Lee
The fourth putrefactive corpse was female, rice-paper skin sagging on bones. One skinny leg had been chopped off mid-shin, whereupon the foot had been inserted entirely into the anus. The distressing vantage point gave Funk an unwelcome glimpse of the hairy vulva from which a large stain extended. Semen? the Sheriff wondered, revolted. Undoubtedly, though the volume of what had run out clearly could not have come from one man alone. That's enough peter-snot for ten men, Funk proposed. At first, the misfortuned women's head was not in evidence, until Sheriff Funk looked down into a metal bucket at the other end of the chancel.
Great God Almighty, he thought.
He'd have to get the coroner up here, and a removal team. Eventually the stench simply drove him back outside to the reviving air. A headache raged. Inside, though, he'd found a cache of narcotics and several thousand dollars in cash. The drugs, of course, would be turned into the state drug enforcement unit, and the cash...
Would be dutifully deposited into the county's private charity fund.
All at once, then, Sheriff Funk thought: Wait a minute! That skinny journalist and the woman!
They were staying at the Vinchetti house!
He'd meant to check on them earlier in the week, if only to afford him another look at that full-tilt living and breathing brick SHIT-HOUSE whom the writer claimed to be his stepmother. Funk sped his cruiser up the hill, up the dirt drive, and churned to a halt before the porch, dust rising in a slow wake behind the car. They'd had a Hummer and a Vette parked out front when he'd first stopped by, but neither of the vehicles were here now. Funk thought the worst—that they, too, had been butchered, and their pricey vehicles stolen—but felt much more at ease when he entered the house. Nothing in the way of belongings remained, and the house was neat as a pin. The only curiosity was the front living room wall which had been pocked with holes.
No reason to suspect them of any connection to the murders at the church, Funk easily saw. He knew killers when he saw them, and this Paraday fella and his odd stepmother clearly weren't killers. And as for the damage to the wall...
Random vandalism, Funk felt sure. Paraday and the woman had obviously left the house earlier in the week, and some punks had come in here after the fact, trashed the wall, and that was that. There was no procedural reason to draw a connection between any of this and what had taken place at the compound.
But who had butchered the three bikers and the girl?
Rival drug dealers, Funk answered himself. Pure and simple. Happens all the time.
From his car radio, he reported the discovery of the bodies to the county coroner's office and the state police. Then he took a last walk through the house just to make sure he hadn't overlooked anything...
Everything looks in order...
He noticed something edging out under one of the beds. What is that? he wondered. A picture in a frame?
No. It was a plaque of some kind.
Sheriff Funk pulled it out and gave it a look. Oh, that's right, he recalled. The writer said his stepmother was into arts and crafts. Religious mosaics...
Well, here was a fine one. The strangest kind of tilework had been fashioned into a stunning cross mounted on the veneered plaque. It really was a beautiful piece of work.
The Sheriff wasn't into such things personally; he was more of a hunting and fishing kind of guy, and about the only thing he cared to have on his walls were New York Yankees pennants, his bowling trophies, and his prized shotguns.
But, you know, he told himself, still looking at the plaque, this would make the perfect birthday present for my wife...
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Edward Lee has had over thirty books published in the horror and suspense field, including Flesh Gothic, Messenger and City Infernal. He is a Bram Stoker award nominee, and his short stories have appeared in over a dozen mass-market anthologies, including The Best American Mystery Stories of 2000, Pocket's Hot Blood series, and the award-wining 999. Several of his novels have recently sold translation rights to Germany and Spain. His movie, Header, will be available on DVD in mid-2007. Meanwhile, City Infernal, Messenger, Ghouls, The Bighead, and Family Tradition have been optioned for film. Upcoming mass-market novels include House Infernal, Golemesque, and The Order of the Scarlet Nuns, while he is currently at work on a limited-edition hardcore horror novel entitled Minotauress. Lee lives on Florida's St. Pete Beach. Visit him online at:
www.edwardleeonline.com