Tean didn’t touch it, but he leaned closer, caught a whiff of something decomposing, and reared back.“It’s an anatomy model.I think—there are bits of flesh in it.”He clamped his mouth shut and breathed slowly through his nose, and it was a moment before he said, “Jem, someone used this on—” He almost saida person, but a part of him resisted; it could have been an animal.“Someone used this.”
“Like, they bit someone with it?”Jem got closer, and he must have caught the reek because he made a face and stepped back.“Jesus Christ.It’s for anatomy?”
“It’s a model of a canine jaw.They use them in school.”
“In veterinary school?”
Tean nodded.
“And someone used it to attack someone?”
“I don’t know, but there’s biological matter on it.It needs to be tested.”
“Good fucking Lord.”Jem wiped his face.His color was bad, and then Tean remembered the scars he carried on his arm.He’d been locked up with a sick, confused dog.When he’d first met Scipio, he’d flinched every time the Lab moved.
Jem finally broke away from the model and turned to take in the rest of the room, and Tean followed him.As in the other bedrooms, the furniture was simple.The difference, though, was that in this room, a sleeping bag was unrolled on top of the quilt.A thought struck Tean, and he turned again, taking in the layout of the room.The anatomy model had been positioned exactly at the center of the dresser.It was the only item on the expanse of wood—which, Tean noticed now, was free of dust, unlike the rest of the house.The pink and white resin of the model stood out in stark contrast to the dresser’s dark stain.Like a display in a museum.Or like a fetish on an altar.
Tean did a quick search of the dressers and the closet.He found more of the same: musty clothing, all of it simple, much of it homemade.Jem was moving around the room, and to a casual glance, he probably looked like he was inspecting it.But his gaze never came back to the anatomy model.
“Let’s get out of here,” Tean said.
Jem nodded.
But halfway down the stairs, he said, “We’ve got to check the basement.”
“Oh fuck,” Tean blurted.
A laugh tore out of Jem—ragged, but sounding surprisingly real.
“I didn’t mean that,” Tean said.
“Swear jar.”
“Oh my gosh, I just—” Tean groaned.“Of course there’s a basement.”
“You know that’s where we’re going to find the freaky shit.”
“We already found the freaky shit.I’m freaked.I do not need to find anything else.”
In the kitchen, Jem stopped Tean so that he could rummage around in the drawers.He came up with a carving knife that looked as old as the house: a pitted piece of metal with a wooden handle.At the door to the basement, Jem rolled his shoulders once.Then he started down, knife in one hand, Tean’s phone held like a flashlight in the other.
Tean let him get a few feet ahead before following, so that Jem would have room to work.
These stairs were in even worse condition than the ones that led upstairs—in spite of Jem’s best efforts, they creaked and squealed every time he moved, and Tean thought he detected a faint swaying movement that sent his anxiety spiking up into his stomach.The only light came from the phone, which Jem held steady on the steps in front of him, and so the basement came into view by degrees: dirt floor, cinderblock wall, shadowy shapes that resolved into a china hutch, a horsehair sofa, warped sheets of plywood that looked like they’d crumble if Tean so much as brushed against them.Light bent along the curved length of a rusty fender.Against one wall, the frame of an armchair—bolted-together pieces of iron and wood—looked like some sort of medieval torture device.
But it was a small space, probably originally designed as a fruit cellar, with the furnace and water heater at one end and the rest given over to the accumulated junk.Dust covered everything.
“Okay,” Jem said.“Not so bad.”
“Not as bad as the teeth.”
The corner of Jem’s mouth twitched, and Tean regretted the words.
But Jem only asked, “Upstairs?”
Tean nodded.
The milky light in the kitchen—what managed to make its way through the dirty windows—felt open and airy after the cramped basement.Jem considered the drawer where he’d found the knife, but instead of returning the blade, he tilted his head toward the patio-shed where they’d entered.“Barn?”
