Live Girls (22 page)

With sweet, meaty breath, the woman hissed, “I told you to
go!"
She opened her mouth and her teeth sparkled like deadly needles.

Casey began screaming and thrashing, scratching the skin of her face against the lumps of rust on the bars, throwing herself back and forth, back and forth, until suddenly
—
so suddenly she was startled
—
she was free! She fell back against the wall behind her and slid down to the floor. When she looked up, the woman was gone.

Casey struggled to her feet and tripped. Leaning against the wall, she turned toward the doorway. But not before one last glance...

Something was crawling beneath the bars, something long and sleek, glistening white, with little red eyes. Its mouth opened around razor-sharp teeth as it slithered under the bars in a fluidlike motion.

A snake.

And it was looking straight into Casey's eyes.

She threw herself toward the doorway and hit the black curtain, slapping at it, trying to find the opening. It wrapped around her arms, blanketed her head, twisted around her neck like strangling hands; each desperate movement only tangled her up in the heavy material a bit more.

Something wrapped smoothly around her ankle and began to spiral up her leg beneath her coat and dress and Casey began screaming, her voice lost in the folds of the curtain.

The snake was just below her thigh when Casey felt it swell and grow heavy on her leg until it was pushing up her dress and coat, reaching up her back and around her waist with strong, restricting arms.

Casey struggled, but the arms were powerful and held her still, moving only enough to pull her from her black cocoon.

A vile, soft voice spoke into her ear:

“It's too late now..."

Vernon Macy wadded up the smock and, still smiling, tossed it onto the counter. He wore dark blue slacks, immaculately pressed, as always, and a salmon-pink shirt with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows.

“I heard you were coming,” he said. “Malcolm mentioned your name earlier. He said Ethan Collier had called ahead for you. Malcolm was annoyed, but then
”—
he chuckled
—“
he always is, it seems."

Benedek had almost forgotten how unnervingly soft his brother-in-law's voice was; his sibilant
S'
s had always set Benedek's teeth on edge. Macy's speech, however, was not as discomforting as the smile Benedek saw on his face then. It was content and at ease, a genuinely happy smile.

“Doris used to tell me you're a very clever, sneaky man, Walter,” Macy went on. “So when I heard you were coming, I knew you were looking for me. I don't know what led you here, but that doesn't matter. I knew you'd find me.” He lifted one of the trays from the counter and carried it to a refrigerator. The vacutaner tubes clinked together gently as he moved across the room. Opening the refrigerator and sliding the tray onto a shelf, he said, “Doris spoke of you often, you know. If you weren't her brother
”—
he smiled at Benedek over his shoulder
—“
I think I would've been very jealous.” He turned from the refrigerator for another tray.

Benedek's throat burned with anger. The ease with which Macy spoke of Doris made Benedek want to throw up.

“He's a good man,” Doris had told him upon announcing she'd decided to marry Vernon Macy. “He'll make a good life for me, Walter. And I love him."

Arranging the trays on the refrigerator shelves, Macy said, “You were very dear to your sister, Walter. She was always terribly sorry that you and I didn't get on better. I remember saying to her once that we
—
"

Before he fully realized what he was doing, Benedek dove toward the man from behind; a strangled sound squeezed from his throat as he joined his hands together and raised them to begin beating on the back of Macy's neck.

The soft little man spun around with surprising speed and grabbed Benedek's arms, holding them up firmly. Macy snapped his mouth open wide and hissed like a cat.

Two long, sharp teeth gleamed.

Benedek tried to pull back, but Macy's pudgy hands were stronger than he anticipated.

“Relax, Walter,” Macy whispered. “Let's talk."

Benedek stared with disbelief at the now unfamiliar face. “What the fuck's happened to you, Vernon?” Benedek breathed. “What's
wrong
with you?"

He smiled, slowly lowering Benedek's arms. “Nothing is wrong, Walter."

“You killed your wife and daughter,” Benedek snapped, pulling his arms away and stepping back,
"something's
sure as hell wrong!"

Macy's smile faltered as he moved away from the refrigerator, letting the door slowly swing closed. He went to the counter, to rows of empty, clean tubes laid out on a cloth. He began putting them, one by one, on an empty tray. “I had to do that. She kept hounding me and ... prying. I wanted to just walk out. Quietly. But she got hysterical and I was ... hungry."

Benedek swallowed a lump in his throat. “You were..."

Macy turned to him again and smiled. It was such a warm, friendly smile, incongruent with the cold eyes. “There are a lot of things you don't know about, Walter. Now that you're here, you'll have plenty of time to learn."

“Others know I'm here. If I don't go home, they'll start asking questions."

“And we'll tell them you never arrived."

“There are witnesses. Customers. It'll draw attention to the place. And if
I
can find you, the
police
will, too."

Macy leaned back on the lip of the counter with a sigh. “First of all, Walter, you were
allowed
to come back here. All the employees know who you are. You're going nowhere. Secondly, do you know how many important people come here? How many
wives
of important people? Very lonely wives. They come here to meet their friends, have a few drinks, and go in the back rooms for a little much-needed companionship. I suppose you noticed that, didn't you? These are the wives of city officials, politicians. And you know how much influence wives have over their husbands.” In a whiny, feminine voice, he said, “'Oh, dear, the Midnight Club is a
delightful
place, a
charming
place, the girls and I meet there all the
time,
surely there's nothing untoward going on there, all the people are above reproach.” He leaned forward and whispered, “'And they eat pussy like you never could, husband dear.'” Then he threw back his head and laughed. “You're no threat, Walter."

Benedek wanted to step forward and squeeze the man's throat with his hands, but decided to pursue the conversation. “And what's all this?” he asked, gesturing to the refrigerators and the trays of tubes.

“This is their payment for our favors. Oh, they think their money is what's important to us. You know, it's amazing how much more people appreciate and value things if they have to pay good money for them. I learned that long ago. But...” He walked to the refrigerator and opened it, showing Benedek the shelves of trays, the rows of dark red tubes.
"This
is what we really want. They just don't know they're giving it."

“And who are
'we'?
Who are the people who run this place?"

“They aren't people at all. They're gods. And they've made me one of their own. My life was a small sacrifice to get here. Killing Doris? Killing Janice? Very, very small prices to pay, Walter.” There was a sparkle of challenge in his eyes.

Benedek could take no more; he threw himself on Macy, grabbed his fleshy throat and squeezed. Macy smiled as he flung his hands up and snapped Benedek's arms away from him effortlessly. Before Benedek realized he'd lost his edge, he was pressed against the open refrigerator door and Macy's hands were on his neck, squeezing just enough to make his breath gurgle in his throat.

“Walter, Walter,” Macy whispered, shaking his head slowly, smiling like a disturbed child taking pleasure in breaking a toy, “I'm not the same man who married your sister, Walter.” He tilted his head back slowly, opening his mouth, exposing the two deadly sharp teeth. “Not the same man at all.” He pressed his thumbs harder into Benedek's throat as he slowly leaned forward.

Benedek swung a fist into Macy's soft stomach with no effect. His right arm hit one of the refrigerator shelves and the vacutaners clattered together noisily. His hand brushed cold glass, his fingers wrapped around one of the tubes, pulled it from the tray, and hit it against the inside wall of the refrigerator. A splash of red dribbled down the shiny white surface and speckled the lightbulb, and shards of glass snickered against the metal shelves. Benedek pulled his arm from the chilled air clutching the remaining half of the broken tube. His face felt swollen so he could not take aim; he stabbed blindly and felt the vacutaner's jagged edge sink through doughy flesh, cut through cartilage and muscle.

Macy's hands fell from Benedek's throat and the man staggered backward with a dreadful hawking sound. Benedek held on to the glass tube; it slid from Macy's throat as he moved away. A dark gout of blood cascaded down the front of the pink shirt and spattered onto the white floor. Macy backed against the counter and leaned forward, clutching his throat and gagging. Blood dribbled out of his mouth and continued to flow from the hole in his throat.

Gulping air like water, Benedek looked at his right hand. A small piece of flesh had caught on one of the sharp points; the hand was striped with red. Bile stung the back of his throat, but he held it back and sidestepped Macy, nearing the door.

Macy suddenly stood straight and grinned at Benedek, still holding his throat. Blood glistened on his mouth and chin, but the flow from the wound had stopped. He sucked at the air, pulling his hand away.

“Jesus Christ,” Benedek rasped.

Macy's throat was healing before his eyes.

Benedek felt light-headed and realized he was hyperventilating. He took a deep breath and let it out slowly, steadily. He closed the door and turned to his brother-in-law.

Macy was still coughing and wheezing, but his breath was coming easier. His throat was closing quickly.

Clenching his teeth, not wanting to but knowing he
had
to
—
for Doris,
his mind screamed,
I'm doing it for Doris and Janice, I have to!
—
he stepped forward and swung his arm in an arc, plunging the bloody tube into Macy's throat again, then pulled it out just as quickly.

There was another rush of blood as Macy curled his fingers into claws and fell forward, grabbing at Benedek, who stepped aside, letting the man thud heavily to the floor. Macy rolled over, reached up, and babbled. There were no words, only blood and a ragged hissing as he snapped at the air, flailing his arms helplessly.

Benedek stood at a safe distance, watching him writhe. Macy's eyes rolled toward him and he reached his hand out to Benedek, wheezing ... wheezing.

Benedek knew he would never rid himself of the memory of that awful, nightmarish wheeze.

The wheeze thickened and became a gasp, and the gasp began to sound like a voice.

Walking around Macy, Benedek stood at his head and watched the wound begin to heal once again.

“Oh God,” he grunted through clenched teeth, “oh Jesus, oh
God!"

He got down on one knee and tried to hold down his gorge as he stabbed the tube into Macy's throat again. Then again. And again...

A black, ragged-edged hole opened beneath Macy's chin and he began thrashing like a fish on land. His hands slapped on the linoleum and his legs kicked as his blood pooled around him. When he tried to cover the hole, his fingers slipped through and disappeared in the black-red gash.

The convulsions stopped. His arms and legs became still.

A smell like rancid meat rose from Vernon Macy as his skin began to darken. His eyes bulged and his stomach bloated, straining the buttons of his bloodied shirt.

His skin became purple, then slowly blackened as tiny splits appeared in the puffy flesh of his face.

A sound like an enormous belch came from the body and the smell of excrement mixed with the rotting odor, making Benedek wince.

A thick, viscous mixture of pus and blood oozed from Macy's nostrils and rolled slowly down the sides of his face.

The broken tube slipped from Benedek's hand and shattered on the floor. He pressed the sleeve of his suitcoat to his mouth and nose trying, unsuccessfully, to block out the smell as he stepped to the counter and grabbed the crumpled smock. He wiped as much of the blood from himself as he could and hurried to the door. Turning slowly, he looked once again at the bloated body.