6/6/66

by JN Lenz

  The keys would be removed from the ignition of the BMW and thrown into the bush before closing the locked driver’s door. Using a cloth he cleaned the door handle and all other areas of the car that he might have touched. Returning to the closed truck of the bid Ford sedan he popped the truck open and secured the obese man’s hands and feet together with plastic tie straps and taped his mouth with several pieces of duct tape. The securing his limbs would make the unloading back at the Funeral Home easier, there was a chance the fat prick would be awake by then.

  The drive back must have been uneventful as Clyde’s next entry on the file would detail getting the fat bastard out of the back trunk of the Ford. Unlike many cars that lowered the lift in level of their trunks, the Crown’s truck still had a high sill. The now awakening Benny tried to scream out from behind the duct tape, it was the early afternoon and even thought there was thick cement walls between Clyde’s hidden garage and the remainder of the vast Funeral Home, Clyde wanted to get Benny into the basement chamber as soon as possible.

  “Shut the fuck up”

  Clyde grunted at the struggling fat sweaty man, as he squirmed on the floor of the car’s trunk. He removed the stun gun from its holster and gave Benny another jolt, This time he held the gun directly against the balls of the struggling Benny before pulling the trigger. After a short blast to the balls from the stun gun, Clyde stopped and offered

  “You want more? Or are you gonna settle down? It’s your choice”. Benny stopped struggling and trying to yell through the layers of tape, dropping his massive head onto the floor of the car’s trunk in a sign of submission.

  Clyde extracted the dolly from the elevator; he had placed there the night before. Wheeling it to the back of the open truck of the big Ford, it would take all the muscle he could muster to extract the fat prick from the back of the rental car. Grabbing Benny’s feet first, Clyde pulled his legs out to the edge of the trucks sill

  “Get your fat fucking ass out of the truck, shuffle over the sill or I’ll stick a meat hook into you to get you over” Clyde snapped at Benny who moaned back at Clyde thru the layers of duct tape

  “Hhowww” Benny groaned in response.

  “Use your fucking hands, just cause they are strapped together doesn’t mean they are broken, fuck this” Clyde’s voice began to burn in response as he grabbed the Billy back from out of its holder in his belt, he bent into the back of the car truck and cracked the front of Benny’s fore head wipe open.

  Benny’s massive head slammed back onto the floor of the Ford with a resounding thud, Clyde had wisely lined the entire trunk area in thick plastic sheathing. The edge of the plastic had been taped to the metal and rubber edge of the trunk.

  Clyde managed with great effort and in stages to pull the mass of fat above the high sill of the truck top and onto the gurney he had wheeled to the edge of the car. A puddle of blood remained on the plastic where Benny’s head been moments earlier. Rolling and gathering the plastic into a tight wad, Clyde would strap it to the dolly along with Benny’s arms and legs in case he woke up on the way down the service elevator.

  Wheeling the gurney to the opening for the elevator, Clyde pushed the dolly onto the elevator floor; he would have to crouch down to ride the elevator down to the basement along with the gurney as the elevator was slightly less than five feet in height. Grabbing the handle of the dolly after opening the elevator doors once at the basement level, Clyde wheeled the gurney over to the large stainless table that centered the basement chamber.

  After locking the dolly wheels in place, Clyde would pull Benny across from the dolly on wheels, to the large stainless table that resided in center of the bunker. Looking up from the file, I stared for a moment to where Benny would have been strapped right there. I looked at the imposing stainless table that was only feet from where I now sat, reading the very details of Benny’s last hours of life which would be spent lying on that very table. The reality of all these murders seemed to be sinking in for me more and more with each additional file, looking up just then at the very table Clyde had not only laid out some of those who had been murdered, but had also killed right there feet from where I presently sat.

  The stainless table sat on a large central post, also constructed of stainless steel. There was a pair of heavy gauge pivot points between the post and the table top, as I read further I would discover this allowed the table to be manipulated using electric motors that could pitch the table straight up or in a multitude of positions including height. I just sat there for what seemed liked minutes staring at the shiny clinical table in front of me, imagining the big black monster of a man strapped down by the large black leather straps that hung from the metal table.

  The blood would have drained from him onto the table, then down to the bright white tiles below as it made its way to the ground floor drain. The blood would turn from a trickle to a stream towards that chrome floor drain by the point death would arrive for Benny. I broke my affixation on the metal table and floor drain and returned my attention back to the file.

  It was grotesque I thought to myself, as I continued to read the details of Benny’s death, all these details of murder should be making my stomach weak. I should be puking into the waste basket by now, no question I would have lost my cookies if any one of these bloodied, dying or dead bodies would actually be on that damm table at this moment. Looking back up at the table I could not help but continue in visualizing the blood of the bodies running and dripping down the channels on the side of the table. The deep red streams continuing its journey as it snaked along the spotless sections of the brilliantly polished metal to the corner spout before making the plunge down to the white tile of the floor.

  There was something about the way that table looked even sitting there now, its blinding shine radiating ominously as it sat menacingly in the middle of the large room. The fucking thing was starting to freak me out a little bit to be honest, how the hell could a blood leery pussy like me be an accomplice to dozens of murders? I managed to pull my gaze away from the table, before I allowed it to total freak me out; I returned my attention to the file. It would not take much reading to get me hooked back into the details, for as hideous and as morally corrupt as it all was, I could not stop myself from continuing to read detail after detail, murder after murder, it should have sickened me but it hadn’t.

  Picking the file backup I would read the detail on how he had strapped the massive man onto the table. After securing the straps around Benny, Clyde would raise the head end of the large table so that he would almost be standing up in front of him. The wide straps on the table straining would strain from the weight of the three hundred pound man pushing out against them.

  The flow of blood from the last blow to his fore head had slowed to a trickle, one of the thinner belts that secured his head covered the open head wound, the pressure from the tight strap cauterizing the open wound and stemming the steady flow of blood that had been streaming from the gash.

  The sheer size of Benny must have meant he had twice as much blood flowing through his three hundred pound body, as that of an average man. Benny had still been bleeding profusely before being strapped tight to the stainless table, Clyde would note. Clyde would throw a couple of buckets of cold water onto the face and head of the still unconscious Benny before the massive head snorted to life, squirming his head from side to side in between the chin and fore head straps.

  The pain from the open wound in his fore head made him stop within seconds, instead he tried his arms and legs pushing and pulling against the tight leather straps which were deeply imbedded into Benny’s fat.

  “There’s no use try to get out Benny, are you feeling as helpless as a hundred pound girl getting the shit kicked out of her by a three hundred pound fat fuck like you?” Clyde highlighted the end of his statement by raising the aluminum bat he had been holding in his right hand and slammed it into Benny’s stomach. The pain and force of the strike pushed the air from his lungs against the duct tape tha
t remained around his mouth, Benny’s nostrils flared open with the rush coming from inside. Clyde would go on beating Benny with the bat taunting him with a plethora of insults as he beat him about his head and body.

  Benny would be in and out of consciousness for the next two hours as Clyde beat him intermittingly. Finally with Benny near death and once again unconscious, Clyde would start the gas fires in the furnace in the far room. Burning the plastic from the trunk of the Ford rental first, he then returned to the stainless table where Benny still hung, his body straining against the blood soaked leather straps.

  Clyde would use the remote table manipulation controls to return the table to a horizontal setting, wheeling the same cart he had used to bring Benny from the above garage to the side of the stainless table. The latex gloves Clyde had been wearing slowed the process of releasing the bloodied straps and buckles from around Benny, whose breathing had become more labored and now had a distinct gurgling with each breath from the blood that was slowly filling his lungs. Clyde did not bother strapping Benny to the gurney on wheels before he wheeled the bloodied mass of a man to the edge of the red brick wall of the furnace. The remainder of the Funeral Home staff would now be gone for the day, Clyde had checked and there was to be no visitation at the Funeral Home that night, so there was no concern in firing the units up.

  Shutting down the burners within the furnace with the switch on the near wall, Clyde walked to the furnace’s cast iron door and opened it wide. Placing a pair of the heat resistant gloves on, Clyde pulled the blackened metal rack from inside the furnace out beside the wheeled gurney and Benny. Locking the dolly’s wheels to secure the cart from rolling out from under him, Clyde pushed Benny who rolled from his back over onto his face and stomach on the furnace rack. From here Clyde would push Benny head first and face down into the black of the blast furnace, closing the heavy cast iron door and secured the latches. Turning to the near wall he activated the touch pack to fire the burners inside the furnace, next Clyde started the exhaust system by flipping the switch beside the furnace touch pad.

  He had burned him alive, I thought to myself as I finished reading the final details of Benny’s life. Was this really the same Clyde I thought I had known so well? Was this the same man I had loved as a brother for the bulk of my life, a man who seemingly could revert into a psychopathic murderer at the turn of a hat.

  Had he enjoyed killing so much that his urges had become unmanageable, forcing himself to continue butchering into his sixties. It was almost if I was fading in and out of shock and reality, but I could not stop myself from continuing to read on. I cocked my head straight back, searching for the clock against the naked wall directly above the stainless table. The clock read three pm, holly fuck I had already been down in this death chamber for more than eight hours.

  Still after all this time there is no way I could just leave now I had to read on, a few more maybe then I would leave, that fucking stainless table was emitting some kind of bad karma. The damn thing was freaking the shit out of me; I continued to catch myself just staring up at it as I read more and more of the files. Despite the fear the shiny table was instilling in me, I continued to read on. There was something from deep inside me that I could not explain that urged me to continue.

  Clyde would go on to detail how he had washed and cleaned the table and the white tile floors as the fires continued to burn Benny, reducing the three hundred pounds into a couple pounds of ash. After finishing the cleaning and completing his journal entry into the file, Clyde would return to the furnace which had completed the programmed firing cycle. The furnace had cooled for well over an hour, he twisted the small ‘X” shaped handle which was located at the bottom of the cast iron door of the furnace.

  Unlocking the small handle allowed a metal sleeve containing the remaining ashes of the fire to be removed, once unlocked Clyde would pull the thin drawer out. The size of Benny meant his ashes would fill more of the drawer than the typical ashes of a man. Clyde would dump his ashes into a large sized metal bucket about the size of those extra-large Maxwell house coffee can, he would wash the contents down the drain of the sink. Looking up from the desk I could see that same metal bucket Clyde spoke of sitting on the far counter, it was pushed tight to the corner and could remember seeing it when I walked the room. Every item in these rooms certainly had a purpose and they had been used as such

  Now that I knew the story around Benny’s murder I understood why that pair of women spent so much time around Clyde after we had both turned forty. Back then I looked at Clyde having the pair of them around him all the time like some mid life crisis. Clyde had made arrangements with the agency before Benny’s murder to meet Chloe one day after the killing. Clyde knew Chloe would be filled with the news of Benny’s disappearance, he wrote about his fears in knowing there would be another enforcer to replace Benny at the agency.

  Somewhere along the way he would make the decision to dig up a number of his tubes of cash to support her, it would mean Chloe could quit the agency. There would be a second girl by the name of Hope that he would payroll as well. Chloe would become a good friend of Clyde’s he would write, apart from the paid sex the friendship would be the extent to their relationship..

  Clyde had approached Chloe with his plan after meeting her following Benny’s death, as Clyde had predicted Chloe was quick to bring up the subject of Benny on that evening. Asking Chloe what her yearly salary after taxes would be at the agency (although the girls would receive tips the agency was a legal escort operation with employees’ wages taxed at full income), turned out she was pulling in around a hundred thousand a year.

  With her take home income in the seventy five grand range, Clyde offered to pay Chloe seventy six grand cash a year. There was a Christmas bonus every year, all for two or three days work a week. Clyde convinced her it was the time to leave the agency before they replaced Benny; he offered to let her move into his place for a couple weeks if that made her feel safer. The same offer would be made to Hope, with Chloe approaching her with the details; they would all meet one night for diner to finalize the deal.

  The contract offered to each would consist of a five year deal ensuring that wage with each of the five years; the contract would not be written but completed on a hand shake and a mutual kiss between the three of them. The money was to be paid in two installments in each of the five years and the contract could be terminated by any one of the three within the five years if the arrangement no longer worked for any of them.

  I can still remember to this day, the way he was crowing about his little harem, calling them his pair of girlfriends. No one had a clue the two of them were prostitutes, for one of the first times ever Clyde would bring dates along with him when we all got together with friends. One week he would have Chloe the next it would be Hope, I don’t think Lilly thought too much of the whole two girlfriend thing but she was still so happy to see Clyde with someone.

  “You go from having no girl friends for the last dozen years to having two for Christ sakes!” Lilly would kid Clyde, she like actually liked both Chloe and Hope very much. For years before then, Lilly would have to endure holidays and many evenings with just the three of us. Lilly loved Clyde regardless, but having another female present was a welcome change for her.

  Chloe and Hope had been the tonic that Clyde had needed Lilly and I would say to each other on those nights when you just lye around and talk for ever, we had both noticed how much more relaxed and happy Clyde had become that year. We talked how everything had aligned and was working out for all of us, the two of us expecting the baby and Clyde finding himself some lady love, I never did have the heart to tell Lilly the truth about Chloe and Hope. Christ she used to call both of those girls up to go for coffee and out shopping with each of them (individually of course, Lilly vowed to me many times not to be the one that opened her big mouth by mistake and let the cat out of the bag on Clyde being a bit of a two timer), it would have killed her if I told her they in reality were whores.r />
  There was no way I could have Lilly know that she had been chumming around town with a couple of hookers which had become good friends with Lilly. It’s not like she would have so much looked down on Chloe and Hope or even though less of them, Lilly was beautiful that way she was never judgmental. The knowledge of the two being in reality whores who had been working for Clyde all that time it would have saddened her more for women as a whole and not any individual condemnation of the two if history is pulling an entire gender back to its most primitive origins. In fact Lilly would continue to have lunch and stay in touch with Hope well into our fifties; it was only in the last few years after Hope moved to Red Deer with her husband, that they fell out of touch with each other.

  Lilly and Hope’s friendship outlasted the agreement that Clyde had set with the two women following the disappearance of Big Benny. If I remember correctly, it was about two years later that Hope would fall in love with a heavy equipment mechanic she had met on line. They would fly back and forth initially, him from Alberta her from Ontario, after months of chatting on line they decided to meet each other in person. Less than a year after meeting online and roughly two years after Hope had left the Agency she would terminate her agreement with Clyde. Up to that point, Clyde had been spending a couple of days a week on average with Hope in those first two years. Clyde was fine with Hope opting out of their agreement, that was an option for any of the three and he stuck by it, I recall him telling me at the time that he was seeing Hope less and Chloe a bit more.

  For Hope the College degree in nursing that she obtained in the pair of years she worked for Clyde resulted in a full time position for her at the local hospital. The full time employment meant Hope no longer required the income from Clyde, after staring at the hospital and meeting the Alberta mechanic she would end the agreement with Clyde. It would be two years after that when Hope would move to Red Deer to live with her mechanic boyfriend then husband where I believe she still lives today.