Succulent Prey (18 page)

Then the fireman did turn and drop to his knees, regurgitating.

"It looks like quite a bit of it is missing. There's hardly any meat on it at al ." Even with much of the flesh burnt away it was obvious that something else had

been at work on the body. Its chest cavity appeared to have been broken open

and gutted. Al of the internal organs

were missing and al the flesh had been cut away from the chest and pelvis,

making it impossible to identify the sex of the body without an autopsy. Volario held a handkerchief over his nose in a

vain attempt to stifle the stench of both the burnt corpse and the young fireman's vomit.

Two more firemen came out of the stil

smoldering building, carrying a halfmelted, misshapen, white box: a smal apartment-sized refrigerator.

"Uh ... detectives? I think you should see this," one said.

They opened the little refrigerator; it was stuffed with meat that had cooked inside it during the blaze. It took a second for Montgomery to notice what it was that

had the two firemen so spooked. Then

he saw it.

"It looks like we've found the rest of the corpse," Volario said as he peered inside. Montgomery just stared without

saying a word.

"Who-who would do this? I mean ... why would someone, why would anyone do

something like this?" The fireman looked to be in his midforties, though he

obviously spent a lot of time in the gym and could have passed for a much

younger man if not for the worry lines in his face. He'd probably seen a lot out

here during his many years with the

SFFD, maybe even as many bodies as

the detectives had, but this was

completely beyond his experience. He

looked from one detective to the other, waiting for them to offer some

explanation. They stared back at him,

equal y perplexed.

Inside the little refrigerator was a liver and kidney, part of what appeared to be a loop of intestines, thick pieces of meat that could have come from the victim's

back and thighs ... and half of a human face that had been neatly cut away and

removed in one piece.

Chapter Twenty-five

The night was completely black except

for the occasional headlights from

passing cars or the glare of the

overhead streetlights tossing eerie

shadows across the wal s. Frank's limp

body bounced and rol ed beside her as

Alicia lay in the back of the van headed up the California coastline, taking the 101 North toward Tacoma, Washington.

She was thirsty, hungry, and scared. Joe was getting worse. He had come back

twice in the last couple of hours to take pieces of flesh from Frank's buttocks,

which he greedily stuffed into his mouth without waiting until he was at least in the front seat and out of her sight.

Again she'd watched as he masturbated

himself to orgasm while chewing on the

thick chunks of human flesh. The little man that he was feasting on ejaculated

as wel and Alicia thought she would

scream. This was completely insane.

The last time the van stopped Joe

crawled back into the van with them

again and cut off the wounded little

man's remaining testicle, which she

assumed he later consumed as wel ,

though grateful y he'd done so out of her sight. Her fel ow captive had not lost his erection during the entire procedure and Alicia was certain that he would have

ejaculated again had he stil had his

testes. His screams of pain were

horrific, even more so for their similarity to ecstasy.

Frank was stil leaking blood from his

many wounds despite Joe's attempt to

cauterize the deep cuts with a Bic lighter. The flesh had curdled and blackened

and Frank had yel ed his vocal chords

raw while Joe held the flame to the

masochist's ransacked scrotum. The

screams had loosened the tape that Joe

had clamped over his mouth and Joe

had not replaced it before climbing back into the driver's seat and starting the engine. The slender little man drifted in and out of consciousness, mumbling to

himself as they drove along the freeway. Alicia kept reminding herself that

eventual y they would have to stop for

gas and then she would have her chance

to escape, though the restraints stil

presented a problem.

The van turned sharply and began to

bounce along what was apparently an

unpaved road. Alicia was sure that they were on some type of dirt trail. She and Frank accumulated more bumps and

bruises as they were tossed around in

the back of the van. Frank began to

mumble to himself again, delirious with pain. Alicia listened for a moment to his incoherent ramblings. At first it just

seemed to be random words thrown out

in no discernable order. Then she began to make sense of what he was saying.

"...Cut cleanly and swiftly. Remove from the chest as quickly as ... For the best taste it should stil be beating ... when seasoning is added ... Bay leaves, three garlic cloves, one whole onion ... one

beef bul ion cube, cook on a low ...

twenty minutes ..."

Alicia scampered away from him when

she realized that he was reciting a

recipe; a recipe for a soup made from a human heart. She hummed to herself to

drown out the sound of Frank's ranting

and tried to keep track of how long they had been driving off-road. When the van final y rol ed to a halt there were no

sounds from other cars. No gas pump

noises or sounds of pedestrian foot

traffic like you would expect to hear at a rest stop. There was only the sound of

crickets chirping to their mates in the distance.

Alicia heard the van shut off and the

driver's-side door slam. Joe was coming back again.

The van door opened and Joe reached

in and scooped Frank up like a sack of

dirty laundry. The terrified little man was mumbling about roasted thighs in garlic butter when Joe tossed him over his

shoulder and reached a hand out for

Alicia. Alicia wanted to tel Frank to shut up, not to give their captor any ideas. She'd seen that glazed look in Joe's

eyes often enough to know that it

preceded violence. She looked beyond

the big man and saw that they were

parked in a dark, heavily wooded area.

The ful moon shone overhead like an

omen. A werewolf's moon. There was not

another human being in sight. No one to hear them scream.

Alicia shook her head defiantly when

Joe motioned for her to take his hand.

Then she began to cry.

Something in Joe's eyes softened as he

watched the terrified woman sobbing in

the dark. She was so beautiful.

Something innocent remained

untouched within her. Something that her long procession of lovers had not

despoiled. Something that even Joe

could not corrupt. It humbled him. It was like looking at the face of an angel. He felt like a vicious savage ripping and

tearing through the Garden of Eden in

pursuit of Eve.

Joe's own face cracked with sorrow and

confusion. He withdrew his hand and ran it over his forehead and through his hair. He didn't know exactly what he was

about to do, but the monster was roaring and snarling within him, and he was

certain that at least one of his captives would not survive a trip into the woods with him. His eyes darted around as he

tried to make up his mind what to do. His eyelids shut and Joe let out a long slow breath, composing himself. When he

opened them he looked right into Alicia's watery eyes. The monster was quiet now. Now it was just Joseph Miles, looking at the pain and fear of another human

being. He tossed Frank back into the

van and slammed the door shut.

Chapter Twenty-six

The van stopped again and Alicia could

hear Joe step out of the driver's-side

door and shut it behind him. She listened to his shoes crunch the dirt as he walked toward the back of the van. She could

stil hear the sounds of traffic and when he opened it she could see that they

were parked in the breakdown lane

along the freeway. Joe climbed into the van and she and Frank both tried to

wriggle away from him. Joe's forehead

wrinkled and his eyebrows knitted

together. He looked as if it hurt him that they were frightened of him.

"I know how you feel. I didn't realize it

"I know how you feel. I didn't realize it before, but this looks just like the van that Trent stuffed me into when he kidnapped me. Even in midday it was dark back

there. I can only imagine what it must be like at night." He could barely look at her. He reached out and removed the gag

from Alicia's mouth. "I'm sorry about al this."

"Joe, you have to stop this. You need help. Look at what you've done to this

poor man-and that woman. That woman

that you ... you ate!" Alicia shuddered.

"I'm trying to get help. You have to believe me. If I had a choice I wouldn't be doing any of this but I have this curse, this disease! It's driving me crazy! I just don't know what to do!" His eyes

searched hers as if he would find the

answers within them.

"So you're just going to give in to it?

You're going to eat him too-and then

what about me? Joe, what if there is no miracle cure out there? What if you kil this Damon Trent guy and the hunger

doesn't get any less?"

"I can't think about that."

"You need to think about it! You need to learn to fight it or you'l just keep kil ing until they catch you and lock you away or kil you!"

Joe leaned back against one wal of the van, deep in thought. He reached out

and stroked Alicia's face.

"You are the most beautiful woman I've ever seen. You know that?"

"I don't believe you and I don't think it matters."

Joe reeled back with his eyes wide,

visibly stricken by Alicia's harsh words.

"Wel , if you weren't so beautiful I would have eaten you already. Believe that!" Now it was Alicia's turn to recoil. She stared at the huge man with the

superhero face and was surprised to

see him grin back at her and wink.

Suddenly she began to laugh. The

absurdity of a serial kil er who'd just eaten one woman and partial y

cannibalized the man she'd been riding

with for the last few hours, joking about her own probable murder, was the most

ridiculous thing she could imagine. Even as she laughed the tears flowed without relent. Joe reached out and wiped the

tears from Alicia's eyes as he continued to stare at her like an object of worship. Alicia smiled back even as fresh tears

ran down her face.

"I hope I'm more than just a pretty face to you? That's not enough to sustain a

relationship you know. I mean ... you

hardly know me," she said. Her voice stil shook with fear, but she was trying to

remain in control.

"I know that you've been hurt too," Joe said. "I could see it in your eyes from the moment I met you. You're one of the

walking wounded just like me. But you've overcome it. You're a fighter. Even in this situation you're holding up pretty wel . That alone tel s me that you've been

through a lot of pain in your life."

"Nothing like this," she said.

"Then like what?"

Alicia went silent.

"Tel me." He took her hands in his and raised them to his lips where he kissed them softly. She began to cry harder now. Her body shook with the force of it. Joe gathered her into his arms and held her.

"Tel me."

"I seduced my father and ... he-he kil ed himself. He shot himself in the head and it was my fault! I'm a fucking whore just like he said I was! I kil ed my own father!" Joe didn't try to pretend to know what

she was feeling now or what had

motivated her to have sex with her father. He knew that he could never understand

what had made her do such a thing any

more than she could understand what

made him hunger for human meat.

Instead he continued to hug and rock her in his arms.

"I forgive you," he said as he cradled her against his chest. "I forgive you." Joe cried with her as he held her tight against him.

Women were so beautiful when they

were sad. Her tears glistened on her

cheeks like a string of diamonds as the moonlight beamed through the

windshield onto her face. It broke Joe's heart. He leaned down and kissed her

dampened skin, licking the salty tears

from her eyelashes.

She pul ed away from him and wiped her

eyes with the back of her hand. She

looked up at her captor expecting to see that homicidal lust she'd come to know

al too wel , but instead she saw a

shocking paternal tenderness. His eyes

reflected her own sadness back at her

as if her pain had wounded him. It was a depth of compassion she would have

never expected in such a beautiful

monster.

"I forgive you too," she said and surprised herself by meaning it. She

knew what Stockholm syndrome was.

She'd heard of victims who'd begun to

identify with their kidnappers, even

fal ing in love with them, and knew that this was exactly what she was doing, but she didn't care. She was fal ing in love with a cannibal, a kidnapper, and a kil er and it was the most loved she'd ever felt. Whether the look in his eyes was love,

lust, or just hunger, no one had ever

looked at her that way before, with such passion and desire. No one had ever

needed her like that. She leaned forward and kissed him and once again they