Billy flexed his hands, wishing he had been the one to kill her, to break her flesh, to see the terror in her eyes. He stood up and staggered. His feet had slipped through Julie's rotted flesh and to the bottom of the coffin. The body seemed to fold in about his feet trapping him. In panic, he reached down and pulled her ribs apart with his fists. His feet free, he climbed out of her coffin. Safe, he looked down on her corpse. The frenzy and the beer had worked on Billy's bladder. He opened his fly and pointed the yellow stream across Julie's face in retaliation. The weak lantern light and the haze from the yellow spray changed the features of the rotted corpse to someone living. To Billy's beer soaked mind the face behind the haze became a young girl, a young girl with large boobs. A girl he had raped before. A girl he would fuck again. Only this time, the girl had a different name, Jenny.
On a quest, Billy climbed out of the hole, his hand clutching at the earth. Pulling himself up, he found he had a stick in his hand, only it didn't feel right. He brought it to his truck. In the cab light he saw it was part of a rib. He pulled the rotted flesh and cloth away until the white bone gleamed in the light. Billy placed the bone in the middle of the seat. This would be his talisman on his quest. The quest to completely possess Julie/Jenny again. He had to get complete and total control of her again and this time he would decide on how it would end.
Starting the tractor, he filled in the grave. He backed the tractor up and headed back to where he had taken it. In the tractor's headlight, he saw another stone. He racked the teeth on the backhoe's shovel across the stone, putting three large gouges through the name Shermon. He left the backhoe there. Its shovel buried deep into the grave, the ground soaked with oil from a busted hydraulic line.
The next day, the local police released a report that drunken vandals, probably kids, had hot-wired a tractor and damaged some headstones at the cemetery. The police refused to believe what they found. It had to have been kids, anything else was too sick.
Billy polished his talisman until it gleamed white. In a supply closet at the back of the school building, he would drink beer and rub his talisman against his body. He was there when he overheard Kawalski talking to Pike.
"You know, Pike, we have a lot of old-time teachers in this school. First-year teachers are easier to control. They also miss more of what is happening around them. Don't you think it would be much easier if one of those teachers who always seems to be around checking on things was replaced by someone new?"
"Sure would. Who do you want me to get this time?"
"We can't do the fall down the stairs again this year and we can't set someone up with drugs, cause they just might check up on the whole school.
Now, Makinen has been divorced for a few years. He's not dating anyone. Everyone would believe he fooled around with a high school girl. Do you think you could handle it?"
"Easy. You'll get what you want but it's going to cost you..."
Billy never caught the rest of the conversation that day but the next day, he saw Pike talking to Jenny. He saw Pike and Jenny watch Makinen while they talked. Their smiles and laughter told him what they were planning. The following day, he watched Makinen lust after Jenny from the balcony. Makinen's name was added to his list.
Billy had to kill Makinen. He had to kill Lori. How dare Makinen change his mind, ignoring the beautiful Jenny to go after that skinny bitch, Lori?
How could that small-breasted little bitch be more alluring to Makinen than Jenny? They both had to die in pain. If he could get them together, he could ... The talisman wasn't enough anymore. He reached into his pants. He masturbated in time to his rocking, until his white semen stained the white bone.
* * * *
The day started for Henry with a sticky stillness. Nature as well as man seemed to sense something was going to happen. At the station, everyone was jumpy. Vernon and the other BCA agents had been told to wrap up the investigation. They were needed in Minneapolis. No one wanted to leave. Everyone did their job as slowly as possible.
In a fog caused by lack of sleep and worry, Henry sat at his desk. He tried to fill out overtime forms and other backlogged paperwork. Instead of reading and filling in blanks, he found himself staring at the walls. _Where will Billy show up next?_
James, Lori, and Jeffrey spent the day trying to decide what to do next. The VFW boys had gone to their homes for some rest now that Billy had disappeared. Lori wanted to go back to her apartment. James argued against it not want her to be alone. His fear communicated itself to her father. Finally by the end of the day, they convinced Lori to stay through the week. Lori couldn't stand the troubled look on her father's face.
* * * *
*Click.* _In the silent darkened room, the hands reach for the card._
A horse charges across the card. His armored rider's sword is raised in challenge.
_The hands hold no hesitation when they turn off the light. The footsteps leaving the room are swift and sure. For one brief second, a silhouette is seen in the doorway leaving the room._
CHAPTER 20: The Knight of Swords
James woke refreshed. It had been another quiet night. There was a feeling of safety with the VFW boys still keeping watch at night and the killer, Billy, being on the run. James's mind was actually clear. He saw Lori walk into the living room. He was still using the couch for his naps between his perimeter prowls. For possibly the first time, he saw her in complete clarity. She was not beautiful, but in the morning light she was so pretty it hurt. The precise delicate features, the curls of hair framing the face, the slight squint of the eyes from behind her glasses to the following shadow of a smile on her lips seared his mind with their intensity. In his mind, she didn't walk across the room but flowed in an undulating rhythm. His clarity of vision was lost as his eyes filled with moisture.
"Good morning. Did you sleep well?" Her hands brushed his cheek. She
smiled.
Paralyzed with the intensity of emotions, James sat there unmoving.
Her hand tousled the hair on his head. Smiling she said, "Breakfast."
James watched her turn to leave. As he marveled at how she moved, his mind locked in to the last time he sat watching the sway of her body as it walked away. The cold anger of the preacher's sermon and the pride in Lori's dignity and strength washed through his paralysis. He got up to eat.
During the meal, he watched her eat. He never knew what he consumed but knew about each and every bite of toast, eggs and drink of milk that went past her lips. He never realized how intensely he was watching her until the laughter from her father across the table and the resulting red flush that traveled from Lori's cheek to the curve of her jaw.
Jeffrey wistfully said, "I remembered looking at your mother the same way ... Lori you have a big decision you need to make. This man loves you.
"Jim, you better not ever hurt her... "
Jeffrey left the table with tears in his eyes.
Lori opened her mouth to say something and then closed it. She opened it again and closed. She sputtered. "I can't talk here. I need fresh clothes from my apartment if I'm going to stay here another week. Come along and we'll talk."
Lori yelled as they left the house, "Dad, I'm going to my apartment for clothes. Be back in an hour or so."
On the drive down, neither spoke. Although both had left the house to talk, neither could start. At the apartment, James followed behind Lori. He was still enthralled with her movement.
* * * *
Henry woke to the day confused. What would the killer, Billy, do next? That was the trouble with serial killers. They were not quite sane.