Retreat
Page 33
The woman continued speaking but Anna wasn’t listening. She could only grin, reach across the sofa and hug Joe Taylor. “We did it!”
“Yeah, we did it, kiddo,” Joe Taylor said. He hugged her back, looking at the TV with a sense of vindication. “We did it.”
And as the afternoon wore on, more convictions rolled in for the other parties involved. Their outcomes were the same. “Now will you tell me what phase two is?” she asked Joe at the end of the day as the talking heads were debating the results of the massive convictions of the Bent Creek board members.
The sun was going down outside. In the living room, the drawn shades made the interior of the home seem like a cave. The only light came from the large flat-screen TV against the far wall. Joe didn’t look at her. He kept his gaze on the TV in his silence. For a moment, she wasn’t sure if he was going to answer. Then he turned the volume down with the remote. “Dean and Clark have used every available method of learning your name and haven’t been able to.” He turned to her. “Why won’t you tell me?”
She felt her stomach tighten. “Why now?”
“Isn’t it obvious? After everything we’ve been through together? After an entire year?”
“I suppose...” Part of her was still hesitant, a holdover from her past. She hadn’t even told him what she and Mark had done with the nearly four hundred million dollars they’d stolen. A few times, she’d sensed that Joe wanted to ask, but he never did. He was giving her time, which was what she needed. She was growing accustomed to him, had grown to trust him. She felt she had even come to love him a little.
“So?”
“If I tell you, will you tell me what phase two is?”
“Yes.”
“Before I tell you my name, can I tell you what I want to do?”
“Of course.”
“Okay.” She took a sip of lemonade, then took the plunge. “Remember what I told you about Jim Munchel? What he told me when I was tied up back in that kitchen, when I learned the Johnson’s had bought me? About the snuff film ring?”
“Uh huh.”
“He gave me a name. Mabel Schneider. He told me she’d introduced him to cannibalism. That’s how he met Wayne Sanders. That’s how he got into it.”
Joe nodded, encouraging her to continue. “Yes, I remember. Go on.”
“Mabel Schneider’s dead. She died of natural causes over a decade ago. Her death made national news due to what was found in her home. Do you remember?”
“Yes, I do. Pickled body parts were found in a freezer. Evidence of murder going back over forty years.”
“Even her own children didn’t know their mother was a monster,” Anna said. She could feel the adrenaline flowing through her veins. “I had Mark do some checking on them. They’re still traumatized by what happened.”
“You know, I still haven’t met Mark. When do I get to meet him?”
“Don’t interrupt me!” Anna said. She closed her eyes for a moment to regain her composure, took a deep breath. “Mark did some more poking around and managed to piece together past acquaintances of Mabel’s. He’s still trying to establish solid evidence of whether or not they were involved in this underground world of torture porn, but—”
“Are you trying to tell me that you want to go after the same people I’m after?”
Stunned silence.
“You want them, too?”
“Absolutely.”
“Why?”
“I could ask you the same question.”
“I asked first.”
“Fair enough.” Joe Taylor paused for a moment. “I still don’t consider my job here—and by what I mean by here, I mean the Bent Creek Cannibals—done. We’ve taken out most of them. The main players, if you will. But there’s two dozen others who paid for the privilege to dine on human meat. Dean has identified every person who ever dined on human flesh prepared by Chef Jim Munchel. We’re learning some of them either currently have, or at one time had, connections with this other elite group that are into torture and snuff films and other horrible things. Things too awful to mention.”
She felt the flesh of her arms break out in gooseflesh as Joe regarded her from across the sofa. “Dean and I have done our research on Mabel Schneider as well,” Joe revealed. “We started looking into her after you told me about her.”
“So you want to go after them to finish the job?”
“It’s more than that. It’s like when you know there’s a pest problem in your house and you’ve hired an exterminator to get rid of them. They come in, they do a pretty good job, but they don’t completely eradicate the problem because some of them have scattered elsewhere, so you can’t get them. The remaining maggots regroup. They multiply. And before you know it, they’ve infested your home again, only you don’t know it.”
“Maggots...”
“They need to be stopped,” Joe said.
She said nothing. Her heart was thumping and she felt completely on edge, a natural high. To think that Joe Taylor wanted to continue with this was just too much for her to consider. It was exciting and exhilarating and scary all at the same time.
“Can we do it?” she asked.
“I think we can,” Joe said.
Something about the tone of his voice made her look over at him. He smiled at her. “This is what I want to do. For me, there’s no turning back now. The Bent Creek Cannibals may be locked up, but there are others out there just like them. And they will commit monstrous acts again if they’re not stopped.”
“My name’s Jamie,” she said, the words coming out in a rush. “Jamie Strong. Middle name Marie. I’m...” For the first time in years, she felt tongue-tied. She tried to get around that, but Joe Taylor beat her to it.
He grasped both her hands affectionately, warmly. “Hello, Jamie Marie Strong. I’m Joseph Michael Taylor. And I am so pleased to finally meet you.”
Jamie smiled, then laughed. Joe Taylor laughed too. And as the night began, they talked some more, they shared their lives with each other, and they made future plans.
May 7, 2009 - April 15, 2013
Lititz, PA
Fountain Valley, CA
Altoona, PA
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
J. F. Gonzalez (1964 – 2014) was the author of over twenty novels of horror and dark suspense, including Survivor, Primitive, They, Retreat, Back From the Dead, Bully, Shapeshifter, Fetish, and The Beloved. He is the co-author of the popular Clickers series (with Mark Williams and Brian Keene respectively), and with Wrath James White, the novels Hero and The Killings. He also authored numerous short story collections, non-fiction, screenplays and more, as well as serving as a renowned horror genre historian and the editor of two magazines.
Copyright © 2015 J. F. Gonzalez
A limited edition hardcover was previously published by Thunderstorm Books.
Cover art by Kealan Patrick Burke
Ebook formatting by Robert Swartwood
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental. All rights reserved. No part of this publication can be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, without permission in writing from the estate of J. F. Gonzalez.