The Guardian at the Gate - Book I - Chapter 4.b – Dirty Steve

Chapter 4.b – Dirty Steve (2 of 2)

 

            When they found Jody Harkins she was in a new Mercedes.  It was silver and mommy and daddy have spent a pretty penny on it.  It wasn’t the first time they had over indulged on their children and it wouldn’t the last.  Dirty Steve looked at Kody, and the boys smiled.  This was going to be fun.  Revenue always was.  However, revenge on spoiled little girls who had a brother who was a major-league assholes was a bonus.  There would be no argument from any of the boys in that back.  End of the day, it how the Fab Five rolled. 

            Dirty Steve slammed on his brakes and pulled hard on the left side of the steering wheel.  Black Beauty did it best Dukes of hazard impersonation and did a 180 in front the Mercedes.  Jody was cut off.  There was nowhere for her to go and she was forced to a screeching halt. 
Her eye locked with Kody’s and he was pointing the pellet gun right into her face.  She looked terrified and Kody just grinned.  Uzi got in front of the car and limbed up on her hood and started stomping on her windshield.  Dilger, Gorman, L.J., Poogie and Dirty Steve covered the car in eggs.  Kody much like the Don of old he picture himself just watched his mates. 

            She opened her sunroof to yelling at them pleading with them.  She saw Dilger and knew.  Screamed and started apologizing to him over and over.  She knew this was retaliation.  She knew it as soon as she had seen the Fab Five.  It was the first time they had avenged someone.  She kept apologizing to Dilger, and the rest of them.  The Sunroof was still open and she continued to beg for their mercy. None would come not from them.  Kody screamed at Dilger and pointed to the top of the car.  Dilger took the cue and tossed a box of eggs to Uzi.  He then climbed on the hood next to Uzi and the two of them rained eggs down on Jody Harkin.  Egg after egg fell. He turned and jumped off the car and for the first time that night he looked at Kody and grinned. Kody nodded and smiled back.

            That is when the CB radio crackled into the night. “Black Reaper, Black Reaper got your ears on.  It is Red Reaper.  Black Reaper come back. Do you copy?”

            Kody slid in the window and picked up the hand radio.  He pressed the speak button and cussh, the feedback filled the truck cab.  “Red Reaper, this is Black Reaper.  Over.”

            “Black Reaper we found them, I repeat we found them.  22^nd and Terminal.  We found them and are in pursuit.  Are you on your way?”

            “Red Reaper push them to Wilson.  Black Reapers are flying your way. Out.”  He popped back out the window.  He yelled Fab Five to me.  WE have them.  We need to get to Wilson now.  Gorman, Dilger you with us?”  They smiled greatly and shook their heads and ran and jumped in back. 

            Dirty Steve slide behind the wheel.  “Buckle up Ransom.  I am gonna show you what Black Beauty can do!”

 

 

            Later that night Kody stood in the check out at Mike’s Stop and Gas buying his Camel’s and a can of Skoal for Dirty Steve.  The others couldn’t come in because of all the muck they had on themselves.  He giggled to himself.  He was amazed.  He really had no idea how much chaos eggs and rotten tomatoes could cause. 

            The junior girls actually showed some spirit tonight.  They gave as well as they got.  Well not quite as good as they got.  They were out matched, driven, and well egged.  However, all in all it was a good Halloween.  Dirty Steve and the two sophomore kids would be cleaning his Black Beauty up for a while.  It was trashed. 

            However, no were near as trashed as the girls where.  Their cars were covered in eggs. Their clothes where rank with Rotten tomatoes.  Their hair had a nice combination of the two.  The last battle had gone down in a gravel parking lot.  Kody watched from his shotgun sheet in Steve’s car.  His hand was hurting in the cast by that point and so he just sat and watched and laughed.

            Sweet Jenny Coli was checking him out, in more ways than just working the cash register.  They were having their normal playful banter.  When he looked passed her and into the parking lot and saw a large white SUV pull in and block Steve’s truck in.  Two very large men got out of the front of the car and a third out of the back.  “Shit!” Kody said.  He recognized them.  The driver was Tommy Harkin.  The shotgun passenger was Randy Haven, and the little bastard from the back seat was Mike Bonner. 

            “Well, Jenny, I am going to take a rain check on that Treat tonight.” He jerked his head towards the window. “Things just got complicated.”  He smiled at her. 

            “Ah.  I wanted to show you my costume.”

            “Aren’t’ I seeing it?”  She leaned over to him and laughed.

            “My other one!” Shit he said to himself again. 

            “Hmmm.  Well call me when you are off.”

            “Oh, I was planning on doing a lot of things to you when I was off!”

            “Ok.  But now, this is what I need you to do!”  He patted his lower back.  It was feeling just right. “When you see me make my move, and you will know when I do that and Uzi make his, then you pick up that phone right there and dial Big Joe, I know it is on your speed dial and tell him his boys need him at the Stop and Gas and he will be here and all will be right as rain.”

            “Then I can come over tonight.”

            “Well, that is the plan.”  He smiled. “Remember not till I make my move and Uzi his.  You will know.” 

            “K darling.  Be careful, that guy is an ass and he is pushing your little friend.”

            Kody rubbed his lower back again.  “Well, I better get out there then. Right?”  She leaned over the counter and stole a kiss from.

            He smiled and walked out into the warm autumn night.  

            As he walked out he saw Uzi jump over the side of the truck.  Kody shook his head at him as if to tell him to stay still it wasn’t the right time.  Uzi did just that, he would take his cue from Kody, that’s how they had been taught.  Brent rubbed his thick thighs and he walked over to the truck.  Dilger tried to get up but Harkin pushed him back down. Brent just strolled over and planted himself in between Dilger and Harkin and popped his neck from left to right. 

            Uzi circled to Brent right and planted himself in front of Haven.  Kody looked at Bonner and pulled a Camel light out of his pocket and lit it. 

            He then looked at L.J. who was barely able to stand up.  Too much weed and beer tonight, it was his way.  He wouldn’t be any help.  Then at Poogie and Steve, though they would try if he asked it, he wouldn’t though, that wasn’t his style.  They would take his lead and stay put, when he told them to.

            He took along pull off his camel and spit the smoke out the left side of his mouth.  

            “The might SUI football team picking on a high school sophomore?  I know you were a huge prick and craven when you were in High School, but this big of a prick and craven, I didn’t know that Tommy.” 

            “Wow, big words Kody Ransom.  That little fucker egged my sister tonight and now he is going to pay for it.  I know you and your boys helped, so after I am done with him I am going to take it out of each one of your asses.”

            “Is that a fact?”

            “Yes, it is fact.  Big brother Kane and his pet Monster aren’t here to protect you and your pussy friends anymore Ransom.  I am really gonna enjoy this!”

            “So, you a college student are going to kick this sophomore in high schools ass.  Then kick my ass, Uzison Rose’s ass, Poogie O’Shaunassy’s ass, the L.J. and Dirty Steve’s ass.”

            “That is what I said fuck face.”

            Kody took a drag off his cigarette and then pulled it out of his mouth and then half turned and point at Poogie “You are gonna kick his ass?”

            “Yup, that is what I said!” 

            “The Prosecutor of Wander’s son, is that really what you are gonna do?  You poor dumb bastard, I forgot how dumb you were. You are about as stupid as your fucking parents.  They bought that little whore a fucking Mercedes.  Then she is a fucking idiot because she actually opened the sunroof.  My god, I guess you can’t help it, you come from a family of fucking moron.  However, this gets better because you are going to kick his ass.”  He pointed at L.J. “The Sheriff’s son?”  Kody scratched his head and pulled on his cigarette.  He rubbed his lower back with his right hand.  Yes, it was there.  It felt right.    

            “Watch what you say about my family.  I don’t give a fuck who they are.”

            “Don’t fucking talk about his family like that.  Ya, you guys are going down! You don’t talk about people’s family.  Come on.”  Bones jumped in. 

            “WAIT!” Kody said in a loud voice and pointed at Bones “Mike Bones.  I remember you.  See when I was 14 and my baby brother was 12, we was at a WSH basketball game.  My baby brother was playing in the bleachers.  He got punched in the face because some little bitch was picking on him and his friends and Koy stood up for them. He was 12, and you were 16.  When I went looking for you, you hid behind your father and mother.  I aint forgotten that.  So you shut the fuck up.  When I am done with this asshole, oh friend you?  You are next.  Talk about family, I have been waiting for this for years.  I am going to rip your fucking head off.  You will know what family means when you are lying in a hospital bed wishing I would have killed you because the pain is too much to handle.  You will beg all the gods in all the worlds to take your life!  You die tonight son.”  Both malice and confidence rang off Kody's voice. Bones took a step back and he could have sworn Harkin did too. 

            “This is how it is going to be.  L.J. is drunk.  He isn’t fighting anyone.  He couldn’t punch is way out of a wet bag.  Poog and Steve, well look at them Harkin, I mean now I know you are fucking stupid, but come on?  They are twigs.  Maybe even your boy Bones could take them.  I mean they aren’t 12 but still not very hefty either.  No, they are out of this too.”  He nodded towards Uzi.  “He is going to fuck your friend Haven up royally.  My boy Uzi is a caged rabid dog and if you want me to turn him loose, I will.  I have seen him fight bigger and better men.  He and Monster used to slug it out just for shits and giggles.  He took Monster twice; and never lost to Slimy.  He is probably going to kill your friend.  So, I would call that off too if I were you.  But you are too dumb.  So where does that leave us.  Me and you I guess.”  Kody looked up into the big man’s eyes.  He saw this was going to go down. Really the odds were sort of even.  He had two friends.  Kody might have had five but four couldn’t fight.  Kody knew this big bastard had too much size for him. 

            “I am going to fuck you up Ransom.  I have wanted to do it for years but you are your butt buddy Uzi always hid behind big brother Kane and his boys.  I hope Kane taught you how to put up a fight.  I am sure when he gets back from Florida he will come looking for me, but this will be worth it.  I hope he showed you some of his skills.”

            “Kane taught me a lot.  He wasn’t the worst brother in the world.”

            “I guess when he wasn’t fucking your girlfriends and beating up on you, then probably not.  I hope he showed you something.”

            “Well he did actually.  He taught me all kinds of things.”

            “I hope he taught you how to fight.  I would at least like you to put up some sort of fight before I move on to the rest of you pals.”

            “Oh he taught me how to fight Harkin, I promise you that.  You know what else he taught.”  Kody said looking over at Uzi and nodding upwards.  He stepped closer to Harkin.

            “What did he teach you Ransom?”

            Kody smiled and stepped toe to toe with Harkin.  He flipped his cigarette butt to the ground and smiled up at Harkin.   “That when you are in a fight you can’t win, then you don’t fight fair!”

            A stupid look came over Harkins face.  Before he could react or ask Kody what he meant.  Kody’s hand was behind his own back and he found the pellet gun out of the small of his back.   Kody was quick, so very quick.  The pellet gun wiped around and cracked Harkin across the face with the butt of the gun.  Kody had heard that sound before.  He heard when he had stepped on a water melon in Doc’s garden.  He had heard it when his own tendons snapped in his right hand.  He heard it now, it was loud and it was clear.  It was a hollow snapping thud, of broken flesh, tendons and bones.  Harkin stumbled backwards with his coming unhinged from his face.  He fell down onto his ass. 

            Uzi launch himself at Haven and tackled him to the ground.  Uzi was so quick, and before Haven could react Uzi had him on his back.  He put his knees on his shoulders and rained down haymakers on the man's face.

            Bones came across at Kody but side stepped him and got a hand full of Bones hair and drug him over to Steve’s truck.  With his left hand well tangled in Bones hair he took the man's head and slammed it of the windshield of the Steve’s truck.  He slammed it not once, not twice, but three times.

            Kody turned Bones bruised and bloody face to him and crashed his casted right hand across Bones jaw.  Kody heard and felt the jaw crush under the weight of the cast. Bones went limp in his hand and Kody let him drop to the parking lot floor. 

            Kody then turned back to Harkin.  Who was trying to get back up, before he could Kody kicked as hard as he could with is right foot and a thud range into the Indiana night sky when his foot connected with Harkin’s chest.  The wind was sucked out of him and he fell back.

            Kody fell upon him and with his good hand he repeatedly struck the man across his face.  Kody didn’t know how many times he had hit the man.  He didn’t know what really had happened since he struck the big man with the butt of the pellet gun.  What he remember was Big Joe pulling him off Harkin and throwing him to the ground.

            He remember another officer wrestling Uzi to the grown and Big Joe screaming in his ear to just calm down.  That is was over.  That is was all over. 

            Kody sat on the ground next Uzi against Big Joe’s cruiser.  He smoked a Camel as he watched Big Joe and his team getting the three SUI students into an ambulance.  He heard there was a broken nose this and two broken jaws. 

            He heard Big Joe screaming at L.J. who was puking in the garbage can.  Then he heard Big Joe telling Poogie that he was going to drop of the two sophomores, they didn’t need to be a part of this and that the rest of them should get back the Ransom’s right away. That he would bring Uzi and Kody shortly.  That Poogie’s dad would be waiting for them there with Doc.  Kody flipped his Cigarette to the concrete and said fuck me.  Doc, Big Joe, and the Prosecutor were all at the house.  This was bad.  Really fucking bad! 

            Big Joe put Uzi into the backseat of the cruiser.  Then he pulled Kody to his feet and put him in the back seat as well. 

            For the first two miles Big Joe didn’t say a word.  He smoked his Kool and flipped the ashes out the window.  He finally took one last pull on it and flipped the cigarette out the window and looked into the rearview mirror.

            “What fuck were you boys thinking?  Hun?  What the fuck were you thinking?  Those boys are seriously injured.  With those injuries I should be taking you both to Juvy right now.  Broken goddamned noses and broken jaws.  Those boys’ parents are going to want something done.   Goddamn it boys.  You know better than this.  Kody you promised me you would take care of L.J. tonight.  He is so fucked up, he can’t even stand up.”

            Kody laughed, “Believe it or not, I was taking care of L.J. and the rest of them.  That was what me and Uzi was doing. They were gonna beat the piss out of those kids!”

            “You think this is funny.  These might be felonies!  We will see what the D.A. says.  Damn it boys. Damn it.”  Big Joe lite another Kool and shook his head.  “Let’s see what we got here.  Assault with a deadly weapon.  Assault and battery.  Public disturbance.  Minor intoxication.  Minor possession.  You boys are really lucky I didn’t find any weed on you.  That would be all we needed.  God damn it boys!”

            Kody looked out the window of Big Joe’s police cruiser.  He watched the car speed by cornfield after cornfield. Jesus he thought to himself cornfields are scary.  There has to be more than corn out there.  There just has to be.  He looked at old dead stalks still standing.  Stalks that was broken and laying on the ground.  Entire fields rolled by and he watched them all and wondered.  Then he smiled to himself.  Would Jenny still be coming over later?  Then again would there be anything left of him after Doc got through with him?  Would he even be at home for that long tonight, or would he be in a jail cell somewhere?

           

            If Kody was in a dream he would have believed he was waiting to see the principle and the he and his four friends had done something really wrong at school.  They were sat in a row one after another: Dirty Steve, Poogie, Kody, Uzi, and then L.J.  The sat looking at a large office door made of oak.  The door didn’t open onto the principal’s office though it opened into his father’s office.  So the dream would have been preferable. 

            The boys were sat there and the Big Joe went and got a trashcan and put in front of L.J.  He left then probably to go get Doc or to smoke another Kool.  Kody wanted a cigarette but if Doc caught him smoking, then the list of felonies he had committed this night would have been the least of his worries.  Doc didn’t tolerate smoking in his house and he sure wouldn’t tolerate his son smoking in his house.

            Kody rubbed his temples in between his thumb and forefinger.  He was looking at the floor when he heard his father approaching.  He didn’t look up when Doc stopped and unlocked the office door.  He didn’t have to.  Doc’s face wouldn’t convey anything.  He wouldn’t show if he was angry.  Kody also didn’t have to look up to know that his father was looking at him.  He could feel the eyes bore into him.   He would be very unpleased.  Not so much that Kody had gotten into a fight.  No, that wouldn’t bother him as much as him being caught in a fight.  Kody being arrested was not acceptable behavior for a Ransom. 

            He didn’t know how much later it was when Mr. O’Shaunassy arrived.  He had bags under his eyes and his hair was a mess.  He had obviously been woken from his bed.  The look he gave each one of them expressed extreme disappointment in each of them.  His gaze lingered on the Poogie the longest.  Poogie would be spending the next month or so in his room during the weekends that look said if he was lucky.  He shook his head and without saying a word opened the office door and walked in.         

            Big Joe came back down and entered sometime after that.  He didn’t even bother stopping he had said everything there was to say in the car on the way over here.

            The boys sat in silence.   It didn’t look like Dirty Steve’s parents were going to be called.  They all knew that it would have been worthless to try to track down Uzi’s parents.  They would be off on some business trip or something.  Uzi spent the majority of his time as the forth Ransom boy.  He spent more time with the Ransom’s than with his own parents.

            “How long have they been in there?”  Uzi whispered to Kody.

            “No idea.”  Kody said.

            “You really think you are going to go to jail like Big Joe said?”  He asked.

            “He is a first time offender.  Most likely Dad and Big Joe will work something out and he will have to go to juvy for a while.  He won’t go to jail, jail though.”  Poogie offered. 

            “Shit, my parents are gonna kill me.”  Dirty Steve whined. 

            “You parents aren’t even here.  They probably won’t know anything but you got in trouble Halloweening.”  Poogie added “Me, you see that look my Dad gave me.  I am dead.  I am going to be grounded forever if I am lucky.”

            “That is better than being in juvy with Kody and me.”  Uzi whispered.

            L.J. threw up into the trashcan.

“Good point.”  Poogie responded.

            “Wait, you think I am going to juvy too?”

            “You broke the guys jaw Uzi, yes, I think you are going to juvy and lucky nothing worse.  Kody what were you thinking hitting that guy with that gun?  That is assault with a deadly weapon.”

            Kody could feel all eight eyes on him.  He took a deep breath and exhaled.   L.J. had even stopped puking for the answer. 

            “What I did.”  Kody said.  “What I did and why?  Poog you really have to ask?”

            No one said anything and Kody laughed.  “Are you serious?”

            L.J. threw up in the trashcan again, but other than that no one made a sound.

            “Three college students showed up and threatened to beat the shit out of my best friends.  I couldn’t take the biggest one, so I did what Kane would have done. I fought dirty and I would do it again.  Pellet gun, real gun, baseball bat, fucking mace, I don’t care, if someone threatens my friends, I stand up for them. So, if I go to juvy, jail, or face the death penalty, I go there knowing I did what I had to do to make sure my people where safe.  Why Poogie?  Why?  Because that is my fucking job to take care of my own.  Kane taught me that.  Monster taught me that.  Johnny taught me that.  Slimy taught me that.  We might not be blood be we are family and always will be.  I fight for my family.  So that is why…”

            Uzi nudge him and nodded twice to the right letting Kody know that some else was coming.  The boys all turned and looked down the long hall leading in from the back of the house. 

            Two men were walking down the core door one slightly in front of the other.  The first man was the bigger.  His patent leather shoes made know sound on the floor.  He wore a grey pinstriped suit that didn’t look like it came off any rack.  His tie was read and even at this late hour knotted up to this throat.  He had a midnight shadow that clung to his face like a cartoon gangster.  His long black hair was pulled back into a ponytail that didn’t touch his shoulders. 

            The man behind him shoes made clicks on the tile floor.  They were also leather but looked more like a show that would be worn to a club than to a bank.  He wore greenish slacks that were cuffed at the bottom.  His indigo blue shirt left three buttons open at the top and you could see a silver chain on his neck, which appeared to have a Japanese Kanji character on it.  He wore a navy sports coat over this shirt and had the top button buttoned.  He face was clean shaved and looked as smooth as toddlers.  His hair was brown and pushed straight back. Where his friends appeared to have a court of Pennzoil in it.  His appeared to naturally lay straight back and barely touch his collar. 

            They said nothing as they passed the boys.  Although the second man did lock eyes with Kody for a moment, but Kody couldn’t hold his eye.  Kody had to jerk his head away.  He wasn’t sure what he saw in those eyes, but it was… cold!  They entered the office without a sound. 

            At the same time both Poogie and Uzi leaned over to Kody and asked, “Who was that?”

            L.J. threw up again in the trashcan.

            “Associates of my Dad’s.  Now you both know as much as I do.” 

            The boys didn’t speak another word and they sat and waited.

            When the door to the office opened the big man with the ponytail was holding it open for the brown haired man.  The brown hair man didn’t look at the boys he just walked back down the hallway from the direction in which he came.  The man with the ponytail shut the door and looked at the boys and a faint smile crossed his lips.  “Happy Halloween boys.” 

            “Joey.”  The other man said from down the hall.  It conveyed power and force.  The ponytailed man nodded at the boys and his faint smile widened and then he was gone down the hall. 

            A little later Mr. O’Shaunassy came out and gathered Poogie and Dirty Steve.  He didn’t say a word other than to tell the two of them to get there stuff and get to his car. 

            Five minutes later Big Joe came out.  “L.J. bring that trash can.   Go get in the car, we are going home.  Uzi and Kody your father tells me to send you to your room.  He will speak with you both in the morning.”  Big Joe watched his son shake hands with both Uzi and Kody.  Then shuffle towards the stairway.  Then he turned to follow. 

            “Big Joe!”  Kody said standing.  “What is going to happen?” 

            Big Joe looked up at the ceiling and clicked his tongue against his cheek. He looked down the tiled hall the way the two well-dressed man had gone down.  Then he looked behind him towards the direction the prosecutor had gone and then back at the door of Doc’s office.  He turned and started towards the stairs.

            “Big Joe?”

            He turned around and looked at Kody and walked over and put his hand on the boys shoulder.  The look on his face conveyed guilt and sadness.  He looked at the door again.  “Go get some sleep son.  There is nothing to worry about it has been taken care of.”

 

            Dirty Steve tossed him a beer and opened his own.  He came around the desk and sat in the reception area chair next to Kody.  They each took long pulls off there Busch Lites.  The silence stretched between them.  It wasn’t uncomfortable silence.  It was a silence between too men who had just finished a job neither wanted to do.  A silence that spoke of all the horrors they had just seen.  A silence that said more than it didn’t.

            Kody put his feet up on the waiting room table and kicked over a few of the magazines that were set there to pass the time.  Kody wondered to himself.  Who the fuck comes to a morgue and reads SI? Really?  I guess it was more the principle than anything.

            “So, shit Kody, I don’t really know what to tell you.  I have no answers for you.”

            Kody nodded and took a sip of his beer and stared at his shoes.

            “Mean it don’t make a lick of sense ya know.”  Steve continued as he sat up and packed his can of Skoal.  “I have seen hundreds of bodies come through here and I can tell you what killed each one of them.  This though, I got nothing, nothing.”

            Kody stared at his shoes.  He liked these running shoes.  They were comfortable.  He would have to get another pair.  It was hard to find a good running show for his wide feet.  When he found a pair he bought in bulk to make sure he always had a good pair. 

            Steve sat back and sipped his beer.  “No sense at all.  What do you think man, come on you have to have something Mr. FBI.  At least a theory.”

            “Pie equals 3.14 repeating.” Kody said absently.

            “No man, one of you your own.  Damn it.  Also, Pie is more a constant than a theory.”

            “I know.  Somehow solving Pie might be easier than to figure out what we are dealing with here?  At least then we would have a direction.”

            Steve laughed.  “Really though, you think some sick fuck did this?”

            “I don’t know what to think to be honest.  I am trying to figure that out.”

            “Can I tell you something?  Ya know off the record, I guess.  I don’t want you putting no crazy Dirty Steve ideas in your police reports.  I don’t everyone to think I am some whack job.”

            “Steve we all think you are a whack job.”

            “Ha! See that is why I said off the record.  I don’t want you people to have any support for me being a whack job.”

            “Go on Steve, you know me better than that.”

            Steve took a slug of his beer and then nodded back towards the lab.  “I have seen a lot of shit in my time.  I know I said that before, but really, I have.  If I had to guess, when I look at that girls body and the shape of what happened to it. I would say.  Well, I would say she got attacked and killed by some wild animal.  It just doesn’t add up though.  Not at all.  If she was attacked and killed by a wild animal, then why does she not have anything under her fingernails?  They were so clean.  Like she had just had one of them manicure things. I mean it.  The rest of the body too, was scrubbed clean.  Like a mortician had already had a shot at it.  I know that makes no sense.”  He took another pull off his beer and adjusted his dip in his mouth.  “You find a body in the woods.  The body has bit marks on it.  Not just bit marks.  No, not just bite marks.  Like something had fed on it.  Kody, there is stuff missing. Parts, just gone. None of the usual suspects either.  All the organs are there.  No, it is the meat that was stripped off.  The thighs, the arms, and the neck all taken and eaten.  Like she was something’s Thanksgiving dinner.”  He paused and took another pull off his beer.  “But I don’t know no animal that after they get done eating they take the body by the morgue to have it cleaned up and then go dump it under some bushes.  No animals leave it where they lie.  The kill stays where they eat it.  They don’t try to hide it.  So you tell me man what the fuck do we have here?  Some new animal.”

            “Steve what animal do you know of that could have taken flesh off like that?  That could have made bit marks that big?”

            Steve sipped at his beer and thought.  “Well, a shark a guess.  But not one of them little sharks, it would have to be one big mother.  I mean like big.”

            “Steve we are thousands and thousands miles away from the ocean.  We are in the middle of the mecca of cornfields.  This wasn’t a shark.”

            “I know it wasn’t you asked me if I knew an animal that could have done it.  I gave you one.”

            “I know.  I agree none of this makes any sense.  None of it.”

            “So where does that leave us?”

            “It leaves me guessing and I don’t like that.  Maybe someone killed her and left her outside and the dogs got here or the wolves.  I just don’t know.  I wish I did.  I feel like we are a bunch of monkeys fucking a football.”

            “I hear ya.  So, I am going to send everything to the lab and see if they can identify anything in the blood or in the tissue that might give us a clue.”

            “Thanks.  I appreciate that.”

            “What’s the next move?”

            “Wait, see what you get back.  Unfortunately that his how these investigations usually work?  As for me, I am going to the grave yard tomorrow to see some dug up graves.”

            “What dug up graves?  What the fuck?”

            “I don’t know Big Joe got a call about a bunch of Westies graves being dug up out at Hull.  I guess there were some parts missing or something.  Weird scratch marks.  I have not seen it yet.  So I don’t know.”

            “L.J. still gone?”

            “Yup.”

            “You want a second set of eyes out there?  I got the day off tomorrow and nothing else to do.  Maybe the two of us can come up with some theory on this girl or something.  It is going to drive me mad!”

            Kody smiled “a day of routine police work on your day off Steve, you need a life my friend.”

            “Ya, and well I know you, you aint gonna just set this thing aside.  Not you Kody, I know you better than that.  It is gonna eat you.  So I figure that you could use a voice of reason to talk it out with.”

            “Thanks Dirty Steve, I appreciate it.  I am running at 5:30 a.m. what time will you be up?”

            “I get up around 7 or so.  Pick me up at 8 and we will get some breakfast and then go have a look at the graves.”

            Kody finished his beer and stood up. “Sounds like a plan brother.” Steve stood up and they shook hands.

            “Tomorrow friend.”  Steve said.

            “Tomorrow.”  

 

 

Chapter 5 – Joey DeCarlo