The two FBI agents walked to the front of the room and stood waiting for us to quiet down. They'd been introduced to us earlier, before the horror show started. Linda Thorwald was the senior agent, and she'd done most of the talking so far. She was of average height for a woman and slim, with the ice blue eyes you associate with Scandinavia. Her hair was jet black, and I wondered if she was a blonde who'd had it dyed to increase her chances of being taken seriously in the macho culture of the FBI. People have done stranger things, and for worse reasons.
Her partner was a guy named McCreery who had big shoulders, brown hair, and a wide mustache that probably had J. Edgar Hoover spinning in his grave. He moved like an athlete, and I thought he might be one of the many former college jocks who find their way into law enforcement once it sinks in that they're not quite good enough for the pros.
When the room was quiet, Thorwald said, "I regret that I had to subject all of you to that revolting exhibition of sadism and murder. If it's any consolation, I've seen more than one veteran FBI agent lose his lunch either during or immediately after a showing of this… supernatural snuff film."
Snuff films are an urban legend, probably started by the same kind of tight-ass public moralists who used to rant about comic books destroying the nation's moral fiber. But the myth made its way into popular culture, and stayed there. There's been plenty of counterfeit ones made over the years, with sleazeballs using special makeup effects to rip off the pervs who think torture and murder are fun. These days, you can see stuff like that at your local multiplex. It's all fake, but I still wouldn't want to know anybody who was a fan. If I'm going to hang out with ghouls, I prefer the real kind – they can't help what they are.
There have been some serial killers who took video of their victims to jerk off over between kills, but that was for their own private use. If by "snuff film" you mean a commercially available product depicting actual murder, then there's no such thing.
Or rather, there wasn't. Until now.
"I wanted you all to see that video," Thorwald said, "because it's important that you understand what we're up against, and what the stakes areCopies of that DVD have surfaced within the last month in New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and, uh–" She turned to her partner.
"Baltimore," he said.
"–and Baltimore," she went on. "But the Bureau has been interested in this case for longer than a month. Quite a bit longer."
Thorwald took a step forward. "You know that expression, 'I've got good news and bad news?' Well, I'm afraid I don't have any good news to offer you today. Instead, I bring bad news, and worse news. Charlie?"
I could almost see the two of them rehearsing this act in their hotel room last night. The whole thing had a stagy quality that was getting on my nerves. Of course, after what I'd just witnessed, my nerves were pretty damn edgy already.
"The bad news," McCreery said, "is that what you just saw isn't the first video depicting this kind of torture-murder. I mean, one apparently carried out by a demon that's been conjured and then allowed to 'possess' an innocent party."
That must've been the dark-haired man we'd just seen. He hadn't done all those awful things to the blond guy – the demon who'd taken him over had done it, using his body as an instrument.
"In fact, it's the fourth one," McCreery said. "Or, at least, the fourth that we know of. Same M.O. every time, with the same ghastly result. All that varies is the technique, and the victim."
The technique varied. I guess that's why whoever was running the show had put out a selection of torture devices for the hellspawn to use. Nothing like variety.
Thorwald took over again. "The going price for one of these videos in the illicit-smut underground is one thousand dollars. To give you some perspective, you can buy one of a four year-old girl being raped for about three hundred." A look of disgust passed over her face, the first genuine expression I'd seen there. "Presumably, each one of the DVDs has sold well enough to keep those producing them in business. The economies of scale are pretty good, from their perspective. Once you've recorded the master, you can burn copies for less than a buck apiece. There's no way to know how many have been put into circulation. And no reason to think these people are going to stop doing it. That, as I said, is the bad news. But, as far as you officers are concerned, there is worse news." She paused for effect, and I wondered if she'd learned that at the FBI academy, or in some college speech class. Maybe she'd been on the debate team – she was the type.
"We have been unable to establish the location where these atrocities were made," Thorwald said. "As with the one you just saw, what's visible onscreen doesn't give us much to go on. However, based on information recently received, we now have reason to believe that at least one of these DVDs was shot right here in Scranton."
Want to know what happens next?
Look for Evil Dark by Justin Gustainis
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High Stakes
Originally published in the UK by Angry Robot 2011 First American paperback printing 2011
Copyright © 2011 by Justin Gustainis
Cover art by Timothy Lantz
Set in Meridien by THL Design.
Distributed in the United States by Random House, Inc., New York.
All rights reseed.
Angry Robot is a registered trademark and the Angry Robot icon a trademark of Angry Robot Ltd.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
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ISBN US - 978-0-85766-115-9 ISBN
eBook - 978-0-85766-116-6
Printed in the United States of America
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