Cannibal jack, p.9
Cannibal Jack, page 9
Barbara glared at her and shook her head. “It’s too soon. I just couldn’t.” Grace grinned and rocked in her chair, an imperious little glint in her eye. “Hey! How did you…? You were listening from the hall!”
“Did I ever tell you about the other thing I do when I’m bored? When my chat pal isn’t online, that is?” Grace moved the mouse, clicked a little icon, and leaned back in the chair with her fingers laced behind her head.
Barbara leaned in and squinted at the screen, her face screwing up into a red-hot sneer. “You installed a camera in the break room?”
“Yeppers! One click, and I can broadcast it all over the net. Intra- and inter.”
Barbara wiggled backward in her chair, her eyes still glued to the screen. “You bitch,” she said softly, her full lips relaxing into a grin. “What’s the juiciest thing you ever saw?”
Grace grinned again and clicked the mouse. Moans filled the air and the little camera that had done the recording zoomed in on two people, sprawled atop one of the large tables, grunting and sweating.
“You recorded that?”
“Yup!” Grace adjusted the monitor and fast-forwarded until both the man and the woman showed their faces.
Barbara’s jaw dropped hard. “The mayor?”
“And that’s not Mrs. Mayor.”
“You’re evil!”
“And I’m very, very good at it.”
Jennifer walked in line like every other girl, blouses neatly tucked, shoes polished, silent. But her fingers worked at making a fist, clenching and unclenching in eager anticipation until they finally reached the edge of the sidewalk. By then, she was ready to bolt from line, throw caution to the wind, and beat everyone else to the jump ropes.
Yesterday, she’d had about five minutes with the jump rope. The other girls had been faster and had beaten her to them. By the time her turn came, it was nearly the end of recess.
But not today!
She turned to the side and braced. Her teeth sunk into her lip as she watched the teacher’s face for signs of release.
“You may go.”
And Jennifer was off like a shot, kicking up hailstorms of sand as she blazed across the playground, bound for the equipment box and the beloved jump ropes.
The others trailed behind her, faces red from exertion, shocked looks upon their cherubic faces. Jennifer was first. Jennifer got the brand-new jump rope all to herself.
She set off across the grass, skipping over that rope and chanting to herself. Two other girls followed, singing songs of rhythm and rhyme. She veered away, not wanting to mess up her rhythm by hearing theirs.
After fifteen minutes, Mrs. Hall called time and she had to give up the jump rope to that snotty Annie Walton. She was nice about it, though, because she didn’t want to get in trouble and have to sit out the rest of recess. Instead, she wandered over to the swings and sat down, swaying slowly back and forth as she watched the other girls. None of them were nearly as good as she. They didn’t have her sense of rhythm or her long legs.
To her right, three girls were working a double jump rope. The girl jumping was good. She double kicked and turned as she jumped. Jennifer thought that might be because she was older. A third grader had to better than a first grader. She would catch up. Maybe after a few weeks of practice, she would ask the older girls to let her join.
But they were singing a rhyme that Jennifer had never heard before. It was strange and it made her feel oddly frightened. She planted her feet firmly on the ground and stopped the motion of the swing.
“Ten teen-age girls all dressed in white
Went out for dates on a Saturday night
But only nine girls ever came back
‘Cuz they met up with Cannibal Jack
One, two, three, four
Cannibal Jack’s coming to your door
Five, six, seven, eight
Better lock your girls up before it’s too late
Nine girls went out all dressed in blue
But Cannibal Jack ate all of them too….”
Jennifer bit into her lip until she had drawn blood. The hot sting of tears made her clamp her eyes shut to avoid spilling them onto her white blouse. She sat there, stone-still, until the chanting stopped abruptly.
“Girls! Girls! How many times must I tell you not to sing that abominable song?” Mrs. Hall stood before the three, her face pressed into service as an instrument of torture. After a few seconds, she wandered away and the girls began jumping rope again, this time to a happier tune.
Dead girl walking, Shannon thought as she carried her tray across the lunchroom. What are they staring at, anyway? Do I have toilet paper stuck to my shoe? Is my skirt tucked into my underwear?
She cut to the nearest table and slid into the chair at the vacant end. This was the first time she’d ever been the new girl, the first time she’d ever gone anywhere that people hadn’t known exactly who she was and how rich she was. Perhaps being anonymous wasn’t really all it was cracked up to be.
“Just another ordinary girl having an ordinary lunch,” she mumbled to herself as she slipped the straw into her milk.
She tilted her head downward to look for her napkin. There, on the floor, right next to her own chair leg, were a pair of shiny black Mary Jane’s. She followed the white legs to their logical conclusion and ended up staring right into the overly perky face of some blonde with a too-pale complexion.
“Is this seat taken?” The smile stretched out on her face like a lazy cat.
“Uh…no. It sure isn’t.” Shannon waved a hand and the girl sat.
“I’m Donna Meade.” The smile brightened and she extended her hand.
Shannon took it and shook. “Meade? As in…Principal Meade?” She blinked.
“As in Principal Meade. Father Meade.” The smile ran away from her face and she slumped. “Let me guess. You want me to leave now, right?”
“Heck, no!” Shannon laughed. “You’re the first person who’s talked to me all day.”
“Cool. Nobody else will talk to me. They’re afraid I’ll rat them out or something. Or that if they piss me off, I’ll get them kicked out. Like I could really do that.”
“Fer sure!”
“Totally.” Donna nodded and shoved a bite of spaghetti into her mouth. “Anyway, I’m about the last….” Her words trailed off and when Shannon looked up, she realized that she had been staring at Shannon. Suddenly, she shook her head violently and sighed. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to stare. But are those…?” She lowered her voice to almost a whisper. “Those are holes in your nose.”
“Yeah. I breathe through them.” Shannon braced for the inevitable rejection and revulsion.
“No, I mean you’ve had your nose pierced.” Shannon shifted uneasily under the girl’s hard stare. “That is so cool. I mean…like…my dad would kill me if I ever did something like that.”
“Yeah, well, mine nearly did. Blacked both my eyes and broke two ribs.” Pain and embarrassment stung her eyes and choked off her words.
“Oh, hey! Please don’t be embarrassed. Sheesh! My dad’s hard on me, too. You have no idea.” Donna scooted closer and leaned forward until her shoulder nearly met Shannon’s. “I’ll tell you a secret. I sneak out almost every night. I tell my dad I’m going to the library, and I guess I sort of am. But I go there to meet a boy. He works at the theater next door and he gets off at six. So he meets me in front of the library and we go…someplace.”
“That’s cool. Unless you get caught, of course.”
“Oh, I won’t get caught. You know who the librarian is?” Donna glanced over her shoulder and then turned back. “My older sister. And you know what else?”
“What?” Shannon grinned lasciviously and licked her lips.
“I sneak out miniskirts and halter tops. I change in the bushes outside the house or at the gas station. By the time I get to the library, I look so hot!”
They shared a giggle. Shannon remembered doing the same thing. The only difference was, she had been sneaking out to meet a girlfriend her father didn’t like.
“Hey! I’m in charge of the decorating committee for the harvest ball. If you want to get out of some classes, I’ll just put your name on the list.”
“Well….”
Donna poked her in the ribs with her elbow. “All the cutest guys are on the committee. I made sure of that myself.”
“God!” Shannon laughed hard. “You rock! It’s a deal. You, me, and all the cute guys.”
Chapter Ten
Dr. Jacob Early was the first black man in town to graduate med school. Tall and thin, with piercing dark eyes and a ready grin, he’d set up his own practice straight out of residency. At first, only the other black people in town would come to him, but slowly, the rest of the town came around and looked past his dark skin and darker hair to realize what a great doctor he was. Ten years later, when the coroner passed away of a heart attack on Halloween night, Jacob assumed the post. The way he had it figured, no corpse ever hurled racial epithets at him when the news wasn’t good.
“What have you got for me this morning, Jacob?” Sheriff Sloane said as he came through the morgue doors. They swung shut behind him, loose rubber door sweeps flapping against each other.
Jacob looked up from his paperwork and frowned. He’d been hunched over the autopsy table, reading printouts and he put his hand to the small of his back as he stood. “Nothing good, I’m afraid.”
“Good or bad, I need those autopsy reports.” He leaned against the other vacant table and crossed his ankles.
“Here they are.” Jacob snagged two file folders from the counter and passed them to Mark.
Mark opened the first folder, took a glance at the photo on top, and slapped it shut. “Give me the Cliff Notes, Jacob. I don’t have the stomach for it this early in the morning.”
“All righty then. We have two bodies. One male. One female. Husband and wife. Also, brother and sister.” Jacob paused, letting that sink in for a moment.
“You mean step—“
“Nope.”
“Half—“
“Nope. Full brother and sister.” Jacob shook his head. “I gotta say, I didn’t see that coming.”
“No shit.” Mark’s brow drew tight and his eyes crinkled. “So, all these years, they’ve been living as husband and wife, and they’ve really been brother and sister.”
“Yup.”
Mark shrugged. “I guess that kind of explains the thing in the basement.”
“But wait! It gets better, Mark. The thing in the basement is not the thing in the hole.”
“So, the cannibal isn’t real? Or is it?”
“Oh, it’s real. But it wasn’t buried in the basement.”
“So, it’s still alive then?”
“I don’t know about that. What I do know is that it’s probably what…or who…killed the Dawsons. Cause of death is exsanguination. They bled to death. And why did they bleed to death, you ask? Well, I’ll tell you. It’s because their flesh was ripped from their bodies. Their arteries were torn open.”
“Jesus!” Mark declared.
“And Joseph and Mary. Now, the teeth that did this are as much like an animal’s as they can be. But they are not animal teeth. I had to work at it, but I did manage to pull traces of human saliva from around a few of the wounds.”
“So, the cannibal is alive, and he killed his parents.” Mark put one hand to his forehead and turned around so Jacob wouldn’t see his face. What all this meant for Dewey, he couldn’t guess. He didn’t want to.
“Indeed, he did. Unless we’ve got another cannibal running around town.”
“You get any bite impressions from the wounds?”
“Not a one. The flesh was just torn from them with those razor-sharp, pointy teeth. I can’t even imagine such a thing, but that’s what happened. There isn’t even a partial impression left anywhere.”
Mark turned slowly back to face Jacob, though he wouldn’t meet his gaze. “Thanks, Jacob. I know this was a tough one.”
“Are you kidding me, Mark? This is the most interesting thing that’s come across my slabs….”
“Since the last cannibal killing?”
“Yeah.” Jacob offered an uneasy little titter.
“When do you think you’ll have something on that body we found in the hole?”
“I’m going to start on it in a few minutes. You want to stay?” Jacob shot an evil little smirk Mark’s way.
“I think I’ll pass, thanks. You’ve given me a lot to think about, so I’m going back to my office and do just that. Give me a holler when you have that autopsy, okay?”
“Sure thing, Sheriff Mark.”
Without another word, Mark spun and marched back out the way he’d come.
“Please stop shaking the ladder. You can look at boys later, when it won’t endanger my life!”
“Shannon, you’re so melodramatic. I’m not looking at boys. I’m looking at one boy. Eric Hardesty to be exact.”
Shannon began the slow, careful descent from the top of the ladder, tape stuck in her mouth, scissors and streamers in each hand. “What’s new?”
“What’s new is that he’s looking back. Don’t look. Don’t look!”
Both girls turned their backs on the small group of boys and pressed their heads together. “Shit! They’re staring right at us.” Shannon pulled at her skirt nervously.
“Are they coming this way? You look. I can’t.”
“Nope. They’re leaving.” Shannon spun on her heel and watched them go.
“Have you ever seen a finer group of asses?”
Shannon smacked her friend hard on the arm. “I swear, Donna, if it weren’t for evil thoughts, you’d have none at all.” She let the grin take over her face and high-fived her friend. “I knew I liked you for a reason.”
“Crap! It’s my dad. Can I come over after school? Please? It’s sermon night and if I go home, I’ll have to listen to him rehearse it.”
“No prob. My mom’ll be okay with that.”
Donna suddenly straightened, pulling down on her plaid skirt and smoothing back her blonde hair. “Hi, Daddy.”
“Hello, baby.” Father Meade reached out and touched his daughter’s cheek. “Shannon.” His voice changed at that, making Shannon’s stomach twist at the sudden dry greeting.
“Father Meade.” Shannon bowed her head briefly and tucked her hands behind her back.
“Daddy, is it okay if I go to Shannon’s house after school? We need to study for our science test. It’s okay with her mom and she’ll be there and everything. Please?”
Father Meade eyed Shannon warily, the lines around his mouth and eyes deepening. “I suppose so. But you’re to be home before seven, young lady. It’s a school night and I won’t have you out all hours.”
“Yes, sir.” She stretched up to her full tippy-toe height and kissed his cheek. Then the man turned in one smooth movement and walked away.
“God, he gives me the creeps! I know he’s your dad and all, but he creeps me out!”
“Yeah, me too. And I have to live with him.”
Barbara straightened the stack of forms on her desk and set them to the side. Her eyes burned from lack of sleep and her back hurt. The only thing she wanted right then was to run home and crawl into bed. She wasn’t good at sleep deprivation, even worse at sitting still all day.
The phone sang out suddenly and she jumped at the shock of it. Her hand lashed out and snatched the receiver from its cradle, rushing it to her ear. “Barbara Connolly.”
“Mrs. Connolly, this is Pete from Sure-Shot.”
“Ah, did you find the key where I left it?”
“Yes, ma’am. But I have to tell you, I don’t find any sign of mice. I checked around in the attic and under the house. I even checked the pantry. If you’ve got mice or rats, they sure do clean up after themselves well.”
“Then what could it be?” She chewed on her lower lip and stared at the screen saver.
“Well, it could have been an errant squirrel. Or perhaps a cat got up under there.”
“My daughter said it was in the wall. First it was right beneath her feet and then it climbed up into the wall.”
“I don’t see a cat or a squirrel doing that.”
“What do you suggest? I mean, there must have been something. Could you maybe set out a few traps? It would make my little girl feel like we’d at least done something.”
“I can do that, sure. But what I would really suggest is that you get this crawl space backfilled. It should have been done years ago, but the house has been vacant for about ten years.”
“Is that really necessary?”
“It sure would end the problem.”
“Okay, I’ll think on that. In the meantime, you set out the traps and stick the bill in my mailbox. I’ll get a check off to you in the morning mail.”
“Thanks, missus.”
Barbara hung up, still chewing on her lip and scowling.
“Something wrong, Babs?”
She shot Grace a nasty look and sighed. “No sign of mice. Or anything, for that matter.”
“But that’s a good thing, yes?”
Barbara felt Grace’s appraising stare and shook the thoughts from her head. “I suppose. But he suggests I get the concrete back-fill for my crawl space. What is it with that, anyway? Almost every single one of these tax records I’ve looked at has the back-fill.”
“Yeah, nearly every house in town has it. And all new houses are required to be built on concrete slabs.”
“But why?” Barbara glared at her, eyes scanning her face into memory.
“Don’t ask me. I’ve only lived here for a year. Maybe it’s got something to do with the tunnels.”
“Tunnels? What tunnels?”
“Well, back in the Civil War, there was a lot of slave traffic through here. You know, the Underground Railroad and all that. Later on, they used them during prohibition as a way to move booze and customers around. The city used part of the tunnels when they built the original sewer system, but it collapsed and failed, and they did a new one about fifteen years ago. Maybe the tunnels started to cave in, and they wanted to distribute the weight of the houses over a larger area.”
