Sin Eater (20 page)

She parked a few yards from the door, undid her seatbelt and climbed out. She killed the sirens but left the lights on, and that’s when she heard the approaching sirens of her back-up. Her eyes were narrowed on that open door. It wasn’t just open a
crack
, it was standing wide open. It was giving her the scratch.

The snap on her holster was unbelievably loud as she released it.
Her hand hovered right over the sidearm as she climbed the three concrete steps up to the door then stepped through. The feeling of something big and bad inside intensified. She pulled the Beretta from the holster as a second thought. She wanted it in her hand when she went in.

Next she noticed the smell. It was copper, and it was coming through a doorway to her right. She stepped over keys and a cell phone on her way there, the latter of which began to vibrat
e and play the theme music from MASH. It made her jump; she almost put a 40-calibre round through the thing, actually.

She came through the white-trimmed and columned entryway, looking upwards
into a large, high-ceilinged room with gorgeous white silk wallpaper and furniture with an odd red-brown pattern emanating upwards.

“Oh fuck,” she said, taking a step back. That was no pattern. Yep, that was all blood.

The woman was lying on the floor, her neck uncomfortably propped up against a stone hearth. Not that her neck position should be a concern. A fireplace poker through her abdomen was holding her in place like a mounted butterfly, her clothes were shredded and without looking too closely Claudia could see both her breasts had been removed. They were possibly the gore that had been discarded on the floor next to the body. Claudia couldn’t be sure. Her skirt was shoved up around her hips, and there was an awful lot of blood down there, too. The woman’s legs were open, splayed out like a dropped doll. Her mouth was open, something was jutting out and running blood down her chin.

Claudia covered her
mouth with her free hand. The woman just stared back at her, and the silence was almost too much … too private. She moved her eyes from the woman’s own grey ones and that’s when she noticed the bruises on the neck. Just like the woman they’d found the day before in that dumpster. Strangled. Although it was hard to tell what in all this gore had killed her.

Claudia felt tears welling up in her eyes. God, of all the stupid things she’d done in her past, this could have been her on so many occasions. So many times she was not in control of her facilities, surrounded by strangers that could have easily done worse to her. But no, she was alive and this tall, possibly distinguished woman who lived in this amazing mansion … was
not
. She was hurt and tortured in her own beautiful home.

Claudia was making a lot of assumptions with that whole theory, but it was that same dependable instinct telling her these details, too. This woman lived here alone, someone had known that, and someone had gotten in here, laid in wait, and bruta
lly, sadistically attacked her, then left her to be found in this horrific and disgusting manner. At least try to hide what you’ve done. At least show that after the rage you realized how wrong it was. But no … left like trash.

She heard footsteps pounding up the steps and coming
into the foyer behind her, felt hands take her by the shoulders and lead her out the front doors. She must have been pale, because someone was telling her to just breathe deep, but it sounded like a voice coming from underwater. Claudia did as told, the night air feeling very cold. It eased her stomach without her even knowing she’d been nauseous.

She heard her fellow officers calling for an ambulance. She knew that they would start taking pictures soon, cataloguing evidence.

Claudia shook her shoulders, trying to clear out her head. She’d seen this shit before … why was she spending so much worry on this one?

Even more worrisome, why did she feel li
nked to this woman somehow?

When he was finally by himself, after dropping Charlie off at a hotel with Essum, kind of, he had to come back to
her
apartment.

The lights were on in her living room, and while he watched from the shadows, she came to the window with
a bottle and poured something into the plants that were on her windowsill. He smiled when he realized she was singing to herself. Did she always do that when she was alone? He had no idea.

Then he had a moment of complete dread. What if Essum found him here, looking at her like this? What if he decided he could get him to do his bidding just by threatening to harm her?

He had to block Iola from his mind. He had to keep her totally hidden at all times, especially when Essum was around.  If Essum so much as harmed one hair on her head …

At the very thought of letting that fucking monster Charlie anywhere near her he felt such exquisite anger he wondered if he wasn’t glowing. He’d kill the both of them if he had to. Or he’d try his best, anyway. Charlie definitely. Essum he wasn’t so sure about. But he’d sure give it the old college try.

He tried not to remember the murder, tried not to see it with Charlie’s eyes, tried not to see it from that woman’s point of view. But fuck … he rubbed his forehead and began walking away from the apartment building at a rapid pace. He felt sick. He couldn’t deal without seeing it from Charlie’s vantage point, and that’s the one that really bothered him now. He didn’t want to “understand” where the psycho was coming from.

How could anyone like that? How could anyone crave the feeling of terror and violent rage … but dammit, even as he tried to push it away he felt himself harden again.

No, no no no no
… he was not turning into that sick fuck. Please, let him not be turning into that fucking freak.

And what had Essum made him do? When he’d seen all those things Charlie had done, he … calmed down. He accepted them as his own almost
righteous
actions. Now his head was rebelling from the idea but at the time … they had all been justified, even as the woman died right in front of them. It was for the greater good, she was going to be fine and taken care of now. Not their problem.

Sin Eating, Essum had said. That did
not
sound good. He was not interested in trying any more of that. Fuck
that
. Fuck
Essum
.

He had to work the next day, late in the morning. He had to get home and get away from this anxious, tight feeling in his guts, and the ridiculous need he had to fuck something right then and there.

Outside his apartment building he had to avoid groups of people cheering the victory of some hockey team, at one time he would have recognized the colours. But at that moment he had other things on his mind.

The woman was standing next to the doors, strung right out. He could almost read her mind … she really needed fifty bucks to get one more hit to see her through the night.

He closed his eyes as he put his key in the front door. She wasn’t wearing underwear, she’d had a few customers already that night, and he could smell the filth from other men all over her. His erection twitched. It was craving how nasty she was.

“Fifty bucks?” His voice was coarse. Had he really asked that? He nearly cried when she nodded with great excitement. Usually she only got twenty …

He nodded to the door sideways as he unlocked it and held it for her. She passed in front of him, going to the elevator banks.

“No,” he said with great panic. He didn’t want to get caught in there by one of his neighbours. “The stairs.” He pointed out the doorway, and she changed course without any
concern.

Christ, he could just kill her. And who would ever find out?

His dick twitched again as she shoved the push bar on the door and stepped into the stairwell. There was a dark corner on the far side, underneath the first half-flight of steps. She went there by instinct.

“You wanna wear a condom or not?” She asked while smacking her gum loudly.

He didn’t answer her, not really. He shoved her against the bricks, scraping her cheek on the cinderblock. He shoved up the back of her skirt, unzipped his fly, and pulled out his erection in one quick move.

“Mmm,” she said, rubbing herself against him. “Quick moves, big guy.”

His hand shoved her face against the wall harder, and she gave a noise of protest. As she did he shoved his erection in deep, reared back and shoved in again. He was imagining that he could do worse to her. And wondering why the hell that thought made him pound into her harder.

“Let go of me, fucker.” She actually sounded panicked, which was odd for a pro.

“Shut the fuck up,” he growled in a voice he didn’t even recognize. Then he shot a vision at her where he was slicing her neck open with a knife he wasn’t even carrying.

She froze. She whimpered after a split second. “Please, don’t hurt me - “

“Shut up,” he snarled, pounding into her again. She wasn’t playing along anymore. She was trying to get away, but his hands had her totally immobilized, one leg between hers so she couldn’t move away to either side.

“Please, please don’t - ”

He closed his eyes, loving the sound of her pleading. She wasn’t playing along, but she was giving him exactly what he wanted without knowing it. He kept thrusting madly, her cries getting softer until she was sobbing quietly, resigned to what was happening.

When he came, it was explosive. He saw white lights and stars and gave a bark of pleasure that made her cry out a bit louder. Then he backed away, tucking himself away with one hand while pulling his wallet with the other. He left a fifty dollar bill on the floor as she sunk down to her knees, crying and hugging herself. He took the stairs up to his apartment, the sound of her
weeping following him the entire five floors up.

Iola was singing to her plants, but whatever. No one else on her entire floor was even home. No one could complain.

She’d finished off the wine from supper, and was now resolving to just drink water. She didn’t want a headache tomorrow. Her CD player was on, and her plants were her only company.

Iola’s neck tingled suddenly, and she brought her head up, just in time to see a shadow duck into the alley across the street. She’d had a vision of how she’d looked from down there … almost like a vision of loveliness, something to be revered and protected. It was a nice way to be seen, even if it was by some Peeping Tom on the street.

She shook her head.
Holy shit, that was
too much
wine.

The person was gone, and she couldn’t be sure
he had even been real. When her phone rang she almost dropped the glass iced tea bottle she used as a watering can for her plants. She ran for the hand set, muting the stereo as she answered.

“Hello?”

“Hey Iola.”

“Oh, Claudia.” She put the glass bottle back under her sink.

Claudia took a deep breath. “How … how you doing?”

Iola froze, half-way between crouching and standing. Her neck was tingling again. “Claudia, what’s wrong?”

Her friend gave a sigh that some would think was a sign of being tired, but Iola knew better. Claudia was trying not to cry.

“I found a dead body, Iola. A woman, in her house, killed all by herself. Alone.” Claudia’s voice choked on the last word.

Iola sat on the kitchen floor, leaning against her cupboard doors, legs stretched straight out in front of her. “Oh babe, I am so sorry. It must have been bad.” For something to bother Claudia this much, it must have been beyond brutal.

“It was beyond disgusting, Iola. How they cut her up and just left her … oh God, I’ll see that when I’m trying to sleep, I know it.”

Iola picked at a fiber pill on her flannel cropped pajama pants. She had no words to say that would make it okay, so she was going to let Claudia say what she needed to get out.

“And she was raped, Iola. They think something was used on her first, and then … well, there was semen. But she’d been violated by something that may or may not have been a poker from a fireplace set.”

Iola’s breath caught and she covered her eyes. “Oh my God, Claudia.”

“I shouldn’t have told you that.”

“Well, you know you can tell me anything.”

“Maybe not that kind of thing. But it’s just …” her breath was a deep and shuddering one. “With all the bad stuff that I went through, this makes me feel … fortunate. Isn’t that … isn’t that fucked up?”

Iola shrugged, even though she was on the phone. “I don’t know. Maybe you’re feeling guilty that you’re alive and she’s not.”

“That’s what I’m thinking, too.” Claudia cleared her throat. “Tell me something nice, Iola. Take my mind off this for a second. How was dinner?”

Iola smiled in spite of what Claudia had just told her. “It was … great. Until Vinnie got called back to the hospital.”

“Well that sucks.”

“He had to tear himself away from me to go save the life of someone injured in a car accident. Actually, the thought kinda turns me on.”

“Hmmm. When you put it that way … that does sound pretty hot.”

Iola’s smile faded. It felt so wrong to be talking like this. “So … you’ll likely be really late getting home tonight, hey?”

“Yeah. We’ve got to process this crime scene for homicide. It’s … it’s a nasty one, Iola. God, I’d rather be anywhere than here.”

“What about Afghanistan?”

There was a pause and Claudia actually chuckled. It sounded forced but it made Iola feel better. “Maybe not Afghanistan.”

“An alligator-infested swamp.”

“Not there, either.”

“Well … there’s some perspective.”

Claudia laughed again and Iola could see her shaking her head. “You’re messed up, Iola.”

“Just wanted to hear you laugh a bit, Sergeant Bauer. You’ll do right by this woman, I know it.”

“Portia.” Claudia said.

“What?”

“Her name was Portia Torregrossa.”

“That sounds pretty.”

“It does. Well, I’ll talk to you later, okay? Don’t bother waiting up. Who knows how long this mess will take.”

“Okay. Be safe, Claudia.”

“I will. You too.”

“I will.”

“G’night.”

“Bye.” Iola pressed “talk” to end her call, then stared at the phone. A woman, killed in her home.
Alone
.

Iola got to her feet and re-checked that her locks were all thrown on her door. They were. She wrapped her arms around her stomach, hating how solitary she felt just because of one phone call.

The shower had felt nice. He really hated the smell of the blood all over him, but that was one of the hazards of working for the Master.

What really had him humming, though, was the other fellow, the Master’s new friend. Not because of the orgasm, either. But because of after that. It made the orgasm seem like nothing.

He felt … okay, f
or maybe the first time ever. He wasn’t scared. He wasn’t nervous at all. So he dressed in the new guy’s borrowed jeans and a T-shirt. He put the twenty-dollar bill from the new guy in his pocket and took the elevator to the hotel lobby. As he crossed the floor, he didn’t feel like everyone was staring at him.

It was such a relief.

The waitress that gave him his glass of water smiled at him pleasantly, handed him a menu, and told him that the hot roast beef sandwich was the special that night for just $8.99. That sounded good. He ordered it on the spot. He wasn’t confused about what he
should
be ordering, what would seem normal. He just … ordered.

His hand was steady as he sipped from the water glass. He looked around the diner. It was later, but this place was open 24 hours. There was a man with a newspaper having a cup of coffee. Charlie thought he must be a shift worker, because who had coffee this late at night? There were two women sitting at another table, also drinking coffee.
They
were definitely working. They had hard lines on their faces, and their eyes were stony as they only looked at each other, didn’t say a word, and drank their hot beverages. He frowned at the feeling he got looking at them. They made him feel … sad.

People could be cruel to each other. Charlie knew that very well. He’d had people be very cruel to him, too. But just buying someone for … well,
that
.

His heart started racing. The images came back in a flood of red and flesh and hate. He remembered that woman and her nice house. He remembered raping her. How much he’d hated doing it, but even
that
he couldn’t get right. He couldn’t finish. He never did. And how mad that made him. To the point where he …

He swallowed hard, putting the water glass down with a bang. Only the man with the newspaper looked up, then went right back to reading with no reaction at all.