He looks at me with dishwater eyes. His mustache twitches slightly.
“His or her?” he says. “Takes a man to remove a head from a body.”
“Not necessarily. Not if the right kind of power tool is used.”
Victor winces. He’s a good man underneath all that alleged nothing. This work must pain him. The yellowing of his eyes tells me he’s been drinking a lot of his sorrows and horrors away. The whiskey bottle will be getting another workout tonight, I imagine.
“I would keep your canvas open, Detective,” I say. “This killer likes to paint with a bloody brush.”
“Are you saying there will be more like these?”
I give a shrug. “Depends on the motive. Depends if the officer in question drew attention to himself directly, or if he was part of a wider project. It may be worth looking into recent missions and seeing if anybody leaps out.”
I am pointing the finger directly at myself now, but I am willing to bet that little bus stunt was never officially signed off on. They borrowed a bus, found an empty warehouse, and decided to fuck with me. I’d say I hope they learn their lessons, but they won’t have long to put those lessons into practice. I intend to end each and every person involved, one at a time.
“I will write up a report and send it to you,” I say. “I have classes today, but will make this my absolute priority. Reach out to me if you need anything in the meantime.”
I shake his hand and leave him to clean up my mess. They’re going to have an interesting time removing the head from the dash of that machine. I used a highly specialized bonding agent to attach it. They’ll end up taking the whole treadmill, I imagine, and the whole thing will sit in an FBI forensic chamber looking like a modern art installation.
I feel at peace as I leave the gym. I’m almost glad those idiots tried to bring me to heel. It has been a long time since I’ve had a good excuse to be this bad.
Laura
I am not sure what to do with myself, or anyone else for that matter. I didn’t want to go back to work. He made me go back to work. Now he’s telling me I’m not allowed to go to work, and I want to go. It’s very contrarian of me, really.
I can feel his darkness wrapping around me again. I am being drawn down into the void that is particularly unique to him. It has a flavor of sorts, a kind of… it’s impossible to describe. It’s like a shadow I can taste, and it is all around me even on this bright day.
It might be that I am just getting over being drugged and told what to do, and generally controlled in ways that remove my ability to make decisions for myself, which is really the only freedom I ever had.
“This sucks!” I curse to myself, stamping off to find some food.
“I’m sure it does,” a dry voice responds.
I am not alone in the house.
Dr. Black is sitting in the kitchen, with a small dog at his feet. The dog goes absolutely ballistic the moment she sees me, shrieking at me with a small fury that is really quite admirable, or would be if she wasn’t also backing away behind his legs asshe does it. She’s got a little terrier face, curly gray coat, and small, but presumably brutal canines.
“Easy, Cerebus,” Dr. Black says.
“What are you doing here?”
“Babysitting,” he says.
“I’m hardly a baby,” I reply.
“Not you. The dog,” he says. “I have to look after it for a friend.”
“You have to look after it for a friend in Sam’s house?”
“It’s so strange hearing him called Sam,” Dr. Black muses. “The man really doesn’t seem like a Sam most of the time. More of a Lucifer.”
I laugh, but I don’t add to that train of thought. There’s a real chance Sam can hear us. I bet he has every inch of this place under surveillance. I also bet Dr. Black is not the only professional here right now. This house feels oddly full in a way it didn’t the first time.
I go to the fridge and take out some cheese. The dog is still intermittently shrieking. Whenever she quiets, I toss her some. After a few minutes of that she decides I am much less of a murderer than she first thought, or maybe I am a murderer, but the upsides of knowing me are worth it. I can understand her thought process entirely.
“How long are you going to be here?”
“I’m making doubly, triply sure that you experience no ill-effects from the whole incident. You won’t, of course.”
