Inanimate (17 page)

“
Thailand?”
Answered the contestant
nervously.

“
Wrong!”

Amanda
yelled with the tone of a game-show
buzzer; while her practiced hands skillfully dodged the steam
shooting from the microwave bag.

“
Correct!”
The host yelled as the bell
dinged.

Amanda
pretended she didn’t
notice.

“
Now, for $25,000, which composer
created the Brandenburg concertos selected for a spot on the space
probe?”

“
Mozart!” Amanda
yelled, while Kyle
sat staring.

“
Um...Bach?”
Said the contestant.

“
Correct! You
have just won
$25,000!”

The host
was ecstatic, almost more so than the
contestant.

“
You sh
ould really go on this show.” Kyle
said sarcastically.

“
Fuck off
!” Amanda snapped as she came into
the sitting area with a fresh bowl of buttery popcorn. No sooner
had her butt cheeks squashed the couch cushion when the buzzer at
the front desk went off. Buzzing for exactly one second at exactly
one second intervals, it went nearly twenty times in the time it
took Amanda to walk the ten feet to the door.

“
I’m coming for Christ
sake!”

Amanda moaned but when she walked out into
the booking area there was no one there except a small
ventriloquist dummy with its hand on the buzzer. She stepped over
and grabbed it with a lazy swipe. The buzzing stopped; suddenly the
only noise was coming from the TV again.

“
Damn kids
!”

Amanda
had had trouble with the local kids
before; they always found it amusing to press the buzzer, giggling
while she waddled out to find an empty room. But this time she saw
no kids. Not to be outdone, Amanda moved out into the parking lot,
squinting across at the solitary light by the alley. But there was
no one there.

“
You fucking kids think it’s
funny to play pranks
? Why don’t you come over here and I’ll prank your asses
back to mama!”

Never one for wordplay; Amanda wasn’t even
really sure what her threat meant; but she felt better knowing she
had made it. When she turned around she saw another small
ventriloquist dummy propped up against the large glass window,
staring right at her. Amanda yelled again.

“
You kids aint getting your
stupid dolls back
!”

All this
exercise had made her peckish, so it
was time to retreat. Through the front again, with the dummies in
her hands she waddled through the office. She pushed open the door
into the living area and stopped dead, her thighs gelling together
when they stopped.

“
Kyle…
” She spoke quietly…

“
Stop eating my
popcorn!”

Kyle
had his head buried in her popcorn
bowl, enraging her to no end.

“
If you
have to have some could you at least
not eat like a pig!”

Amanda
stormed over to her man to give him a
scolding but he didn’t respond.

“
Hey!”

“
Hey!”

“
Hey! Dammit, I’m talking to
you!”

Still with the little dummies in
her meaty hands, she shoved at Kyle’s shoulder out of anger.
In one fluid motion
his head detached, falling over to the ground with the bowl of
popcorn following closely. For the first time in her life Amanda
was silent. She stepped back, staving off hyper-ventilation
temporarily. Kyle’s eyes were shut, his mouth was full of popcorn,
he had inhaled a lot before he died. Like some great leviathan
rising from the depths of the ocean, Dummy rose from the behind the
arm of the couch staring at Amanda with a fire-like intensity.
Logic told her to run but her inherent laziness prevented her from
doing so; instead she desperately thought of other options. As
Amanda dropped the little hitchhikers in her hands, Dummy walked
round to the front of the couch. His movements were fairly smooth
if only a little robotic. Walking to the head of Kyle he picked it
up while Amanda simply stared in horror at the sight unfolding
before her. Lifting it up by the hair (letting several chins droop)
Dummy reached down below the chin and with a yank of his hand he
forced Kyle’s eyes wide open. This was Amanda’s cue. She screamed
uncontrollably and turned to the table behind her grabbing the
phone. Her flustered, fatuous digits pounded hard at 9, 1 and 1.
Lifting the receiver to her ear while Dummy just watched, she was
horrified to find there was no dial tone. One of the smaller
dummies stood by the phone connection smiling blankly at her as he
had just pulled out the cord. She turned towards the large dummy.
Her eyes pleaded for life. Kyle’s mouth dropped open, as did
Dummy’s. Kyle’s voice came out the mouth of Dummy, much to the
compounding terror of his girlfriend.

“
Come on baby, let’s
play”

With that, Dummy
dropped his head and
charged the six feet to the rigid woman. Her instincts kicked in as
Dummy lunged at her. She tried to pull her body away but she was
too late. A strong wooden hand was brought down hard across her
face, splitting skin and cracking bone, more than enough to put
Amanda down. As she lay on the ground helpless, her hand slipped
into her pocket and grabbed her cell phone. With no need to look at
what she was doing, her well versed skills allowed her to unlock
the device and dial 911 in a last ditch attempt for
help.

“
Operator, what
is your
emergency?”

Amanda
had no time to respond. Dummy sat
over the top of her and opened his mouth, exposing two rows of
blunt wooden teeth. Leaning over her his mouth opened wide, ready
to chomp down on Amanda’s soft face. Black and excited eyes stared
deep into her as Dummy moved in for his first taste of human flesh.
As it turned out, having your face clamped by powerful jaws was
just excruciating enough to make you unable to feel two smaller
mouths biting at you as well. Amanda found this out the hard
way.

Oates looked down at the mangled body
lying on the floor before him. Face crushed, body chewed, blood
soaked the carpet all around it. He turned to the picture snapping
coroner behind him and quietly asked.

“
Did you find Kyle’s
head?”

The man simply
shook his head.
Oates nodded, pondering. Officer Freddy Brady stepped into the room
and stood behind Oates quietly. Officer Brady hated his name; it
made it way too easy for people to coin a nickname for him. Always
the last to enter the scene of any crime he was unfortunately known
as “Fraidy Brady” or simply “Fraidy” for short. The name was
birthed in high school, some reckon this was what prompted him to
become a cop but, sadly for Freddie, the name followed.

“
Whad’ya think did it
Sheriff?
Animal?”

Broken from his ponderings
Oates
weighed
what Freddie just asked. Without offering the young cop the respect
of eye contact Oates calmly asked.

“
What kind of an animal
would decapitate someone and steal their head? Or better yet, what
kind of an animal would yank a phone cord out the wall so no-one
could dial out?”

Oates
turned to Freddie, secretly praying
the youngster was going to have his first enlightened moment, but
instead Freddie just shrugged.

“
A smart one?”

Oates
pursed his lips before
uttering.

“
Go wait
outside
.”

Dutifully Freddie
did so. Deputy Lynch
pushed past Brady to come in beside the Sheriff.

“
Sir?”

Recognizing his trusted deputy’s voice,
Oates thought out loud.

“
What could
possess someone to do something
like this?”

“
I don’t
know Sheriff, but I know who did
it.”

Oates
turned to Lynch in
disbelief.

“
That was fast
.”

CHAPTER 20

“
We should be watching this in
private Sheriff.”

Lynch was referring to the other officers
and the coroner who were also in the building. Oates would normally
question such a decision. After all, besides the coroner they were
all cops. But something in Lynch’s eyes convinced him to agree.
With a deep breath Oates called out a general announcement in the
small living area.

“
Ok guys, I’m going to need
you
all to
step outside until further notice.”

Two officers and the snap happy
coroner grumble
d at first but they reluctantly obeyed and headed
outside.

“
Ok
Deputy. Why all the secrecy?”

“
I was reviewing
th
e video
footage from last night. A single camera pointed at the door to the
room we’re in right now, presumably because the safe is in here.
Now, when we arrived, the fire escape was opened from the inside,
meaning whoever killed these two must have come through that
door.”

Lynch
said pointing to the door that led to
the front office.

“
Ok, I’m with you, but I repeat
my question. Why the secrecy?
”

“
Just bear with me”
said Lynch as he
fast forwarded the tape, stopping when Amanda went out to check who
was buzzing.

The view of the camera was from above the
front desk, letting the viewer see the whole office, but thanks to
the lack of crime (and the thriftiness of the motel chain) in
Staunton the lone camera had not been upgraded for years so the
picture quality was not very good.

“
I’m coming for Christ
sake!”

Amanda’s voice
rung out from the
video.

The two cops
watched as Amanda walked out of
the room, grabbing the doll from the counter. They heard her yell
some more and she headed out to look for the kids she believed were
tormenting her. Taking his opportunity, Dummy came out from his
hiding spot behind a plant and slipped past her into the living
area. Oates was stunned.

“
Wha
t in hell was that? Rewind
that!”

Lynch
did so.

“
I’ve watched this a couple of
times
Sheriff, I’m not sure what it is. My brain tells me it’s a
child but it looks like a doll.”

“
It could be a child wearing
make-up”
said
Oates, trying to convince himself more than anything.

“
I don’t
know Sheriff…” said Lynch as he
paused the tape on a sideways angle of Dummy’s head, “…You can see
the joints on the mouth.”

Oates just stared at the well-dressed
image in front of him.

“
There’s something even more
disturbing
Sheriff, listen to this.”

Lynch
turned the television volume up to
maximum causing static to blare out. Loud with emptiness, Oates was
mesmerized. They watched Amanda leave the building and a soft
gurgling sound was heard from the living area.

“
What
was that?” asked Oates
curiously.

“
It’s Kyle! It
sounds like he’s
choking, but he couldn’t have been killed before she was, there’s
just no way.”

“
Why?” asked Oates.

Lynch didn’t respond. He was too engrossed
in the video and what was coming up. Oates waited patiently. Amanda
walked past the screen as Lynch turned the volume back down to a
reasonable level.

“
Kyle! Stop eating my
popcorn!”

“
Here’s the weird part Sheriff,
this is how I knew Kyle couldn’t have been killed first.
Listen…”

Oates
listened as Amanda screamed at the
sight of the dummy in the room. After a moment she could be heard
trying to dial from the phone. It’s what Oates heard next that
chilled him to the bone; Kyle asking Amanda to “play.”

“
What the
hell?” asked Oates, confused “why
would he ask her that? Did he know the killer?”

To which Lynch
somberly
replied.

“
And that’s it
! Whatever that thing was it
went out the back door after that. What really worries me Sheriff
is the bite marks.”

“
I know. It’s unlikely a child
could have done that, unless he used some kind of tool.”

“
That’s not the only thing
though. We saw the large bite to the face, but the coroner reckons
there were smaller bites too. And when Amanda walked back into the
room she was carrying two smaller dolls, similarly dressed to our
killer.”

“
Lynch, I understand what this
looks like but you’re talking like a madman. We don’t even know if
these are bite marks yet, Ralph Murray was purely
speculating.”