Fishing in Brains for an Eye with Teeth (Thirteen Tales of Terror) (4 page)

At one point, when Jack realized he
still
didn't know where Ed was holed up, he thought of the Sensora sisters.  He slipped back over to his house, only to discover they had already left.  He kicked himself in the ass for leaving them so abruptly.  He had no way of contacting them.  And he now believed he was going to need them yet again.

He had so many regrets.  At numerous times during the night, he had to fight off more tears.

At just past 4:00 a.m., as the county coroner was finishing up, at the prompting of Coopersmith and Creasey, Jack provided more information about the Cornfield Killer/his best friend, including the fact the Eatons owned a small houseboat kept docked at Freddy's Marina, on Bullet Lake.

After waking Judge Carlson and quickly obtaining a search warrant, Jack led an expedition to the boat.  Nearly two hours were wasted.  Nothing of significance was found.

As the sun rose on new day, having been up all night, the Suits and Jack's men argued about whether or not to release Ed's identity to the media.  Deputy Trojanowski brought up how John Allen Muhammad and John Lee Malvo— the snipers who terrorized the east coast back in 2002— were captured just hours after their identities were made public.  Agent Creasy then pointed out that Muhammad and Malvo didn't have a captured woman in their custody at the time.

The worry was that if Ed knew the jig was up, he would kill Laura, then himself.

Deputy Lortz pointed out, “He may have
already
done that, for all we know.”

Jack said virtually nothing.  All the confidence he felt yesterday had bled away.

Eventually Coopersmith made the decision to delay telling the world the true identity of the Cornfield Killer.

In the middle of the afternoon, Jack finally caught a nap in his office.  He slept fitfully, plagued by bad dreams.

That night, as the sun set on the city of Middleridge, Indiana, Doctor Edward Eaton DDS remained at large.

******

Jack's microwave dinner sat untouched on his kitchen table.  A mostly consumed bottle of whiskey in his hand, he paced relentlessly, unable to sit still.  Repeatedly he prayed to God that the Sensora sisters would return tonight at the regular time.

Not that he had much hope any more.

Jack now pessimistically believed this ordeal would end with still more death.

As the clock cuckooed midnight, he opened his front door, even before Clara knocked.

He was enormously relieved to see the sisters had returned.

******

Finally: sight!

And yet, when he finally
saw
as Laura,
what
he saw filled him with despair.

Her eyes barely open, for five interminably long minutes, she just stared at the ceiling.

He could tell she was in a basement or some kind of cellar.  A naked light-bulb hung from above.

But he saw nothing else, nothing that could tell him where Laura was...

And yet he did sense something familiar, even before she finally turned her head.

The-Jack-inside-Laura found himself looking at himself.

The photograph was taken at one of the happiest moments of Jack's life.  It was back when he was still married to Janet, back before things went sour between them.  Jack was pictured holding up a ten-pound largemouth bass, the Big One that
didn't
get away.  He was wearing a pair of bib-overalls, his hair was a fright, and he was grinning ear-to-ear.

The photograph was taken by Ed just before the turn of the millennium.

It belonged in Jack's cabin beside Bullet Lake.

Jack realized it was now hanging on a wall in the storm cellar behind that cabin.

Ed—completely naked— reached his hands down and pulled Laura's face up so she was looking at him.

The Cornfield Killer smiled down at his daughter/victim before he began kissing her.

Jack severed the connection.

He knew where they were.

******

He didn't make the same mistake he did last night.  Before dashing out of his house, he asked Clara, “When this is all over, how will I get in contact with you?”

“We'll contact you, Sheriff.”

He hesitated and Clara said, “Go.  Save the girl's life.”

As he left, Jack did pause just long enough to say, “Thank you.”  He shifted eye contact from one sister to the next.  “For everything.”

Lucia smiled.  “This is going to be a great place to live.”

Jack put the women behind him, both literally and figuratively.  Rushing to his cruiser, he drove the twelve blocks from his house to the station.  He didn't run with his siren on but he employed his lights as he raced downtown.

He knew he should have backup but he had every intention of doing this alone.

He didn't plan on arresting Ed.

At the station, he retrieved a 12-gauge teargas gun and numerous canisters.  He used the station's back door and didn't have to explain much to Shawhan.

Driving west out of Middleridge, speeding to over 100 mph, Jack turned on his siren.  Five minutes later, when he saw moonlight on shimmering waters, he turned it off.

His window was rolled down and Jack could both smell and
hear
the lake.  Bullfrogs in the bulrushes
rah-rumped
and honked, joining the vast night chorus of crickets and cicadas.

As he turned right off County Road 360 North, onto a rough gravel lane beside Bullet Lake, he extinguished his flashing lights.  He drove a curvy, winding course until he eventually arrived at the cabin built by his great-great-grandfather.

It was a secluded spot, nestled between groups of trees, with the nearest neighbor over a quarter of a mile away.  This cabin was the setting of some of Jack's fondest childhood memories.  Now— as he pulled up in front of the old summerhouse and parked— he realized this was the perfect location to commit murder.

Jack donned his gas mask, loaded a couple canisters into his teargas gun, and exited his vehicle.

It was a bright night; the moon was nearly full.  He had no difficulty seeing.

Cautiously, quickly, he circled the cabin, scanning the windows for any sign of life.  He didn't see any.  Everything inside was dark.

In the back yard, he was staggered by a familiar scent and when he saw the old lilac bush, almost directly beside the entrance to the storm cellar, he remembered smelling that same fragrance when Clara Sensora gave him access to Laura's nose.

Seeing the padlock on the cellar door was missing, Jack knew Ed was still inside.

Thinking about shooting a man he had known (and loved) for better than twenty-five years caused Jack to choke up.  Then, suddenly, he was enraged-- furious at Ed, furious at himself, furious at the wicked, awful world.  Instead of pausing to rein in his emotions, he allowed his anger to spur him into action.

Sheriff Carver threw open the cellar door, aimed his rifle down the stairs, and shot two canisters of tear gas.  He then dropped the teargas gun and pulled his revolver.  Unconsciously holding his breath, he charged down the stairs.

He heard them coughing— both Ed
and
Laura (
she's still alive!
)

His footfalls were stomping loud on the stairs, nearly as noisy as his tromping heart.

The lighting was dim; the smoke was thick; and, at first, Jack didn't see his quarry.  He rushed forward, gun raised, until he finally spotted a figure in the fog.

Tears streaming down his face, Sheriff Jack Carver crept forward, asking his best friend, “Why, Ed? 
Why
?”

Somehow, through his hacking, Edward Eaton still managed to whine, “She made me do it, Jack!  She
made
me!”

Enraged, roaring like a wounded grizzly bear, the sheriff opened fire on the dentist, emptying his gun.

Four of the six bullets struck Ed.  Of those four, one hit him squarely in the nose, flattening it, before annihilating his brains.

The Cornfield Killer dropped dead to the floor.

A single sob escaped Jack's throat, only to be trapped inside his gas mask.

For a moment he just stood there, stunned.  Then, hearing Laura's continuous coughing, he holstered his gun and went to rescue the sole surviving member of the Eaton family.

Seeing her on the folding metal bed, nude, her hands tied to a hook that Ed installed into the concrete wall, Jack remembered what it felt like to
be
her, when Laura was being raped.  His voice was shaky as he sought to reassure his goddaughter, “It's me, Laura.  It's Jack.  It's all over now.  You're safe.”

Continuing to cough, Laura didn't acknowledge his presence.

Jack quickly untied her.  When he scooped her into his arms, he was frightened by how little she weighed.  “It's okay, sweetie.  It's all over.  I'm going to get you out of here.”

Laura's eyes were partially open, glazed over with tears.  She hung limp in Jack's arms.

He covered her eyes as he carried her past her father's corpse.

Jack then dashed up the stairway, exiting the smoky storm cellar, returning to the humid, lakeside air.

Collapsing to a sitting position on the ground, Jack rocked Laura in his arms, trying to soothe her.

He quickly realized something was terribly wrong.

Pulling off his gas mask, he beseeched her, “Laura? Laura! 
Talk
to me.  Say something!”  Stupidly, he asked, “Are you all right?”

Laura showed no signs of having heard him.

“Look at me!” he shouted, but her eyes remain unfocused.

Panicked, he remembered Clara Sensora saying he could save Laura's life.

And he
did
save her.

But at
what cost
?

“Laura!” he shouted, giving her a violent shake.  She flumped about like a rag doll.

Jack grabbed her arm, using his fingernails to pinch her as hard as he could.

She didn't even flinch.

“No!” shouted Jack, realizing the horror of what had happened.  “Goddammit to hell!”  He pinched her again, this time on her cheek, squeezing
hard
, raising a big red welt there. 

Again, she failed to react.

Her blind eyes were clearing of tears... but not their blank stare.

He remembered her saying, “
I can't
feel
anything anymore!
”

She couldn't feel because, at that point, Jack had already robbed her of her sense of touch.

The well-meaning, insecure Sheriff realized that when he linked minds with Laura, he didn't
borrow
her senses. 

He helped the Sensora sisters
steal
them.

Permanently.

Thanks to him, his goddaughter was a vegetable.

He shook her violently, shrieking, “SAY SOMETHING!”

When Laura remained defiantly incoherent, Jack clasped his big hands around her thin neck.

He won't let her live like this: an untouchable mind locked inside an unfeeling body.  It would be
inhuman
to let her live like this.

As Jack squeezed the life out of beautiful little Laura— the battered, drugged, senseless young woman reacted to having her air cut off.  She thrashed and kicked, but only very briefly.

Pressing his thumbs hard into her windpipe, Jack begged, “Forgive me, Sweetie.”

Laura Eaton died by her godfather's hand.

When she was gone, Jack sat down in the grass and cried.  For nearly fifteen minutes, he bawled like a madman.

Finally, he climbed to his feet and put his gas mask back on.

Then he picked up Laura's naked body and carried her back down into the storm cellar, where he placed her on the folding bed (which Ed brought down here from Jack's cabin) and he tied her to the wall.

Five minutes later, peering out across the lake, Jack began making phone calls.

******

Americans awakened the next day to the news that the notorious Cornfield Killer was dead.

Sheriff Jack Carver was given the credit for finding the murderer and bringing him to Justice.  Unfortunately the good Sheriff wasn't in time to save Laura Eaton, the Killer's final victim, who was strangled to death by her own father.

Jack received phone calls from all the major networks, asking him for interviews.  He refused them all. 

Among the evidence discovered at Jack's lakeside cabin was a videotape made by Ed less than twenty-four hours before he was killed.  It offered the only (meager) insight about his twisted motivations.  On the tape, the dentist revealed, “I never used to be like this.  Something happened recently.  Something...
changed
.  Suddenly, I couldn't even look at Laura any more without experiencing these terrible... cravings.  And then... I don't know.  I just snapped.”

Of his other young victims, all he had to say was, “I had to practice first.  I had to get it
right
before I did Laura.”

For the Sheriff of Trinity County, the most horrifying part of the video was when Ed addressed him directly.  “I know how this ends, Jack.  I didn't know when I started... but I know now.  It ends with you killing me.  And you know what?”  A-man-Jack-didn't-recognize laughed aloud.  “I'm okay with that!  Knowing I'm going to die frees me up!  It takes away
all
the stress!”  Jack's best friend laughed again and looked truly relieved. 

Ed ended the tape saying, “I know what to do about Laura now.”  He smiled warmly, proclaiming, “I'll send her on ahead and then I'll follow, I'm certain,” his eyes appeared to be dead already as he looked directly at the camera, finishing, “with your help, Jack.”

His final, chilling summation was, “Hottie girls shouldn't tease their fathers.”

He didn't even mention Joanie, even though the recording was presumably made just after he hanged her.

Jack's shame and guilt were soul-crippling.

He was furious at the Sensora sisters.  He tried to find them, to no avail.

Ultimately, however, he knew who was to blame for all these tragedies... a man who failed to serve and protect.

******

The Eaton house was inherited by Ed's brother, who lived in Florida.  He listed the property with a realtor and it promptly sold.