Ice Cold

by Mark Graham

  Ice knew that the dogs were in side, and sleeping like they probably never slept before. Ice had changed his mind and filled two glass things half full with a chemical that would put the Copelands to sleep immediately but would only last a little over an hour. He kind of wanted to be out of this neighborhood before the people woke up. It was early Sunday morning so hoped the neighborhood was the kind that slept in, or at least stayed in their houses until later. He again had a rental car so as long as he could get to it he would consider himself successful.

  Ice started by finding the telephone box and cut the wires. If the Copelands had a security system that wasn’t completely up to date, the security alarm couldn’t get through the phone lines. He walked around to check out if there were any other electrical items he should deal with. He knew from earlier there was a camera by the front door, and was careful when approaching the back door. When he got to the back door he pulled a little battery powered box from his back pack and turned it on. It would kill any cell phone signals within a hundred feet. The lots were big enough that it wouldn’t cause any problems at neighboring houses.

  It was easy to get the back door open and upon getting in he immediately pulled out another instrument that would interfere with any security system. After going around with that instrument and through several rooms carefully he knew that any security equipment would be not working. The important thing he remembered was the wave machine and any possible televisions on the second floor. Some people slept with the TV on to have light and the noise of it helped keep them a sleep.

  He snuck up stairs and after checking the rooms he found Bill and Ann didn’t share the same bedroom. He first went into Ann’s room because she was the one with the wave machine. Ice just reached over and gave her a little poke in her right shoulder. By the time he got to the door he knew she would be out. He then went into Big Bills room and learned he was as big as they said he was. He was fat but still had plenty of muscle tone to know he was a very tough and strong man. Big Bill didn’t even move while Ice approached him but when he poked him he actually sat up and looked right at Ice in a daze. He looked like he was about to say something before he went out cold. Ice knew he couldn’t haul this body far because it was just to dang heavy and big. He’d have to resort to something different than hanging the body upright or upside down.

  Ice arranged Big Bill’s body so that each arm was attached to the headboard and his feet attached to each corned on the foot of the bed. He also tied down both shoulders so he couldn’t hardly move his hands or arms at all and actually wrapped a rope aroung the bed, encasing his chest and put as much pressure on the man as he could. He did the same with his waist and his knees. Ice didn’t want to take any chances with this guy. He then wadded up a shirt sheeve he ripped off one of Big Bill’s shirts he found in the closet and stuffed most of it into the man’s mouth, insuring he couldn’t yell or talk with lots of duct tape.

  He then went into Anna’s room and slung her over his shoulder and spread eagled her on top of a table Big Bill had in his room. He tied her down just about like he did with Big Bill. Then he moved the table so that each of them could see the other. By the time he was done with that he had sunken into his demon kind of state, and was ready to go to work.

  Ice carefully went downstairs, staying away from the windows when possible. He searched the kitchen for an electric knife and some other gadgets and brought them upstairs to Big Bill’s room. He then went into Ann’s bathroom and found two hair curlers of the electrical type and found a few other things that might be helpful. He didn’t notice before but Ann had an easel in her room with a picture half painted. He took a couple of the bigger brushes and brought them with him. Now all he had to do was wait and he knew it wouldn’t be long. He took his stocking cap off and wiped his forhead with his jacket sleeve. He then put it on and took from his back back a paper pair of pants and a shirt that covered him from neck to feet. He put two booties as used in surgery and put them over his shoes. He knew this episode would be quite wet. While he waited he looked through all the drawers and closets. He was happy to find a number of pictures that were illegal to have, and what looked like some small body parts. He guessed Big Bill took them as souvenirs. If so, he had a lot of souvenirs.

  Finally Big Bill started coming around. With his size and girth the drugs wore off quicker than they did with Ann. He figured she wouldn’t open her eyes for fifteen or twenty minutes. He waited for Big Bill to fully wake up. Finally when he did his face turned red and he tried yelling finding out he couldn’t. “Shut up you fat fuck or I’ll cut your voice box out,” Ice said softly not to far from his ear. Big Bill continued to make noise and struggle so Ice slapped him very hard across the face several times. His ring caught and ripped a chunk out of Big Bill’s face. The big man started getting tears in his eyes. Possibly he might know what was on it’s way.

  He decided he would continue on the woman but not as terrible as what he was going to do to Big Bill. When he was done there wouldn’t be anything ‘big’ about Bill. Ice talked to Big Bill in a very calm voice telling him most of what he was going to do with him. Big Bill’s eyes got really big and he actually started crying and sobbing. Ice felt the big man knew.

  Ann was awake by this point so he thought he would start first with her, so Big Bill could watch. She would die first too. He had taken both of their night clothes off so everything was easy to get to. For spite he took a large knife and stabbed it into her face so that the blade went through from one side to the other. He pulled hard causing the woman’s mouth to be as wide as her face. He had to tape her mouth up as soon as he could because she would be able to make a lot of noise in this condition. Behind him he could hear Big Bill muttered something so he cut both his ears off him and laid them over his eyes. After a good laugh he laid the ears on Big Bill’s chest. Might as well keep things orderly Ice thought. He was now completely down into his psychotic being.

  Back to Ann, he put a big nail through both of her knees. They were actually small pole barn nails but long enough to go through her knees and well into the table. He hammered until the nails were almost all the way in. She had started to pass out, so he knew he had to slow down with her. Ann had lost some blood but not enough to kill her.

  He turned around and got his little torch out. He grabbed Big Bills dick a balls and commence to torch one nut and only one. He cooked it until it overheated so much that the man sack blew up sending stuff all over. Ice knew he must be in great pain and poured some alcohol on it to hurt him ever more.

  His next move was to get the hair curler and plug it in. The cord was long enough to reach Ann so he worked it all the way in to her hoochie, at least that’s what he called it. He switched the apparatus on high and taped it to her leg so it would stay where he put it. He took the other hair curler and did the same except he pushed it up into Big Bill’s ass. It took awhile to heat all the way up but he had both of them jumping around, moaning, and trying to make all kinds of noise. Ice pointed and laughed at them.

  Ice’s next move was to cut off Big Bill’s nose, then his eye-lids. He took the torch and burnt Big Bill’s nipples completely away. Ice got tired of doing both of them so he took a long knife and stabbed Ann in the side of her chest and all the way through taking out both lungs from doing what they do. She was dead within five minutes.

  Meanwhile he let Big Bill just lay there and suffer and try to imagine his wife already being dead, and in such a terrible way. He started trying to holler at Ice again but all Ice had to do was take a knife and stab Bill in both of his nipples and stab him in the groin. Other attempts to scream in pain, Ice figured he got the guys attention. “Now the fun starts,” Ice said staring into Big Bill’s eyes. Bill’s eyes got bigger not able to apprehend the pain he would have to endure before dieing himself.

  The next thing Ice did was to cut off what was left of his pecker and one ball. Ice showed them to him and squeezed causing fluid to drip down Big Bill’s cheek. Then he threw them hard ag
ainst the wall where they kind of stuck for Big Bill to see if he wanted too. Ice then started severing limbs and then cauterizing them. Although very close to death Big Bill was still awake to feel what it was like to have no arms and no legs, no teeth, and one eye pinched out. Ice looked outside and could see that the sunrise was not too far away. He decided to end it and cut off Big Bill’s head and stuck it on the foot post of the bed.

  The last thing Ice did was to use one of the artist’s brushes he got from Ann’s room and painted with their blood. On one wall he painted “child murders”, and on another the word “kidnappers”. The third wall he painted ‘drug pushers’, and on the last wall he painted “they needed to die”. Ice took one of Bill’s arms down stairs and used it to wipe a bloody message, “you might be next,” and left the arm on the floor in front of the wall.

  After completing that chore Ice went up and retrieved all of his tools. He figured he would leave the other stuff for the police’s enjoyment.

  Ice took his bag into another room with him and stuffed the paper suit into a plastic bag he was able to tie shut. As calmly as he could he snuck out the back door and across the lawn. He heard a couple of the small dogs coming around and was glad they would be okay and he closed Big Bill’s door so the dogs couldn’t get to the bodies. He figured that was a nice touch.

  Ice carefully walked across the back lawn, through the hedges, and to the road in front of the house behind the Copeland house. Ice then walked down the block, got in his car and drove away.

  When getting to his motel he took a shower and got in a good five hour nap. He woke up feeling great and completely out of his psychotic being. With a throw away cell phone he called the cops and reported some dead people in their bedroom and gave them Copeland’s address. He hung up before they might have a chance to find out where the call came from. It didn’t matter because Ice broke the phone up and tossed it in the dumpster along with the plastic bag. He then returned to the car rental place and picked up his Mercedes. About a mile away he found another motel, a little nicer than the last and checked in. Ice figured he would enjoy his stay in New Orleans for a couple days. The next morning he picked up the paper from a paper stand outside of the restaurant and the murders were head-lined on the first page. The papers made it out to be like the Manson killings in California years before. Of course the paper did not report everything, just printing that the couple were murdered in their sleep and something painted on the walls with their blood. Steve was actually glad that job was done. He always felt like he had gone through a nightmare the day after the events took place and he didn’t like it. The price he paid for being as good as he was.

  The first night on the town Ice had quite a good time. He drank some beers and ended up just watching people and getting a kick out of them. With some it was their youth and joy of being there. With others it was just watching them having fun. He saw at least a dozen guys about his age with very young, very good looking girls and knew immediately after watching them for five minutes that the guy was probably married but were having a time of their life in New Orleans.

  The second night started out like the first. He had a strong urge to take a leak. As he had done on previous visits he learned the best way to relieve yourself was to find a dark quiet corner, haul it out, get it done, and continue on. This time he was surprised to run into two tranvestites. One didn’t look to bad but the other was a poor excuse for any thing looking like a woman. It was the ugly one who started the trouble. He-she started mouthing off to Ice and being quite obnoxious about it. Ice told him to leave him alone and he didn’t. The guy reached for Ice and Ice broke his arm and in close order broke one of his legs and knocked out a bunch of teeth. The other one approached him like he was going to get Ice so Ice just kicked the guy in the head and he went down. Ice figured he’d been in New Orleans long enough so he found his car and drove to his motel room and had himself a good night of sleep.

  The next morning Ice got his stuff in order, stayed long enough for a few cups of coffee and a nice little buffet breakfast. After he finished that he checked out, got in his car and headed for Houston. If he was careful he figured he could get there in several hours while it was still light out. Houston could be a rough town in many areas, but in many other areas there was some really good places to go. Being the fourth biggest city in the United States it had restaurants that had any kind of food he would like. Ice figured he’d stop at a place on the way he’d been to before and have some fried crawfish, and fried gator with sauce he really liked. Only in Louisiana did he find that kind of food so good. Wasn’t far from the Texas border so wasn’t too much farther down the road to Houson. Probably a couple hours or so.

  In Houston Ice only had to find a guy, get him alone, and change his physical being seriously. His orders were to not kill the guy. He was going to be used as an example to a particular sub-culture in Houston. Ice figured the hard part would be to single the guy out and bring him some place, and he could complete his deed without anyone knowing what was going on.

  Ice knew who the guy was, where he lived and where he worked. The guy’s name was Bud Hitchins. He was about forty, in good shape and worked as an accountant downtown. Ice had no idea what the guy had done and really didn’t want to know.

  He took the easy way and dressed up in suit and tie and went into the highrise building where Bud worked. It was almost the end of the business day. He was able to get to the right floor and back into the office area and walked right into Buds office.

  Bud looked pissed to have some unknown person just barge in and sit in a chair across from him. He reminded Ice of a spoiled little brat who would cry if called a naughty name. Ice pulled out his FBI credential and showed them to Bud.

  “I don’t know if you know it or not but some of your employers are being investigated for money laundering, and tax evasion. I came to you this afternoon so you can go with me and go to my office and talk. If you don’t give me any trouble I’ll have you back to your car in a little over an hour and you’ll never see me again. Your employers more than likely need not know that you talked to us or told us anything.”

  “What if I refuse,” Bud asked curiously.

  Ice’s answer was, “if you don’t voluntarily go with me I will arrest you here, put you in handcuffs and drag you out of here if I have too.”

  “I-I-I-I guess I don’t have a choice then do I?” Bud asked while being a little nervous and scared at the same time. He had no idea what was going on.

  Bud accompanied Ice to his car, got in and they took off. It didn’t take long for Ice to prick his passenger without him knowing it, and passed out almost immediately.

  Ice knew the Houston area well. Within twenty-five minutes he was in Pasadena and found the little dirt road that went back behind a big refinery, and ended up at a lovers parking lot that was used mostly on weekend nights.

  Bud was dragged from the car with his mouth wrapped with duct tape. Ice had found duct tape could be used for so many things. He laid the man on the ground, found a big rock and set Bud’s leg on it. He then jumped up and with both feet came down on the guys knee, then he moved the rock and did the same thing with the other leg. It would not take Ice long to do what he had to do. He took one of his sharp knives out and pressed down hard as he caused the blade to sink deeply into Bud forehead. He curved the knife and took an eye out then switched the blade angle again and cut the man’s cheek. Next he took a small bottle of tattoo purple ink and poured it over the cut that was bleeding profusely. He made sure he put pressure along the entire cut to insure the ink would be permanently put in his skin and knew the man would carry the scar to his grave. Ice then cut off an ear and popped out the bad eye, allowing it to just hang on his cheek. Ice took off his gloves and put them into the typical plastic bag. He tried to stay far enough away so that the only blood he had on him was on his gloves.

  Calmly Ice walked to his car and drove off. He made two calls; one to the Pasadena Police Department, then to a num
ber where he reported the completion of that mission.

  Ice’s next stop was in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Another city he really liked and if he was ever to settle down he would probably pick there. Ice loved the mountains. Near Colorado was another white supremacy group. This one was quite small and had gone rogue doing things that nobody should do, including robbery, murder, and stealing. This was his last stop on this string of missions and would be glad to get it over. He wanted to stake out the place for a couple days then thought maybe he’d be a one man party similar to his gig in northern Michigan.

  It didn’t take Ice long to find out where the compound was that contained his targets. It was only a portion of the size of the place in northern Michigan. There was one building and it was behind a narrow wall of trees. It looked more like a highway rest-stop building then anything else. He knew there were only several members and it seemed like they didn’t care what people thought. The building backed up to a steep cliff with the large mountain above it. Other than sliding down the mountain, then having a sixty foot drop attacking from the rear was not an option. There was a fast moving stream off to the far side of the cabin and enough open area around the building to park a dozen cars, with only three vehicles in the lot at the time he checked it out. He would, as usual, get some pictures from a satellite of the close proximity but figured the only way in was right there, using the driveway. The road was on an up climb and there was no shoulder on either side. The building and drive on one side with a straight down cliff on the other side. He was surprised to see there was no structures from stopping a vehicle from plummeting down the cliff which was well over a hundred foot down. He had parked his car up the road and walked part way back to check the vehicles out. While there he took a leak in case anybody might see him and wonder why he was there.

  Ice returned to his motel room. He checked and could see his door hadn’t been opened, so he unlocked the door and entered the room locking the door behind him. He went to the one chair in the room and took off his shoes. He would remember putting them beside the bed and that was the last thing he would remember.