I Hear They Burn for Murder

by J L Aarne

  Another howl answered her, louder than ever.

  “This is definitely one of those moments,” Rainer said. “Unfortunately, that means I’m going to have to hurry this up more than I’d like.”

  Eden hacked and blood bubbled between her lips. Her ribcage crunched and popped as it opened and it was finally too much for her. She passed out and Rainer didn’t bother to wake her again. He couldn’t leave his kill unfinished, but he had to get out of there.

  The coyotes were anxious and restless, but their hunger made them linger. Whatever was out there was something bigger and meaner than they were.

  The front of Rainer’s shirt was coated and shiny with blood. He had blood up his arms nearly to his shoulders. As he broke into her chest in search of her heart some splashed on his chin and spattered his mouth. Rainer licked it away without a thought and finally laid hands on her beating heart. It was faltering. She wasn’t dead, but she was dying and would be dead soon even if he left her.

  Before her heart could fail completely, he sliced into it, slipped the sliver of pulsing heart on the end of the scalpel into his mouth and bit down. She convulsed and Rainer got up and stepped away from her while he chewed the bit of heart meat. He wiped himself off with a towel from his bag, put his tools away and stood back for the coyotes to have her.

  They sniffed around the dead woman, licked at her and began to eat. The wolf howled in the shadows not far away and they flinched at the sound, but they didn’t leave. They ate quickly, barely chewing, tearing into the flesh and swallowing chunks nearly whole.

  Rainer washed his hands with a bottle of water and the towel the best he could and turned to head back to his car. He had a change of clothes in the back, but he thought he would put some distance between himself and whatever was howling in the dark before he dared stop to put them on. He didn’t worry about burning Eden’s remains. He was in a hurry and the coyotes seemed to be taking care of it.

  Behind him, a coyote yelped and Rainer turned back to see most of them turn and run away. Something snarled out of the shadows just beyond the fire and Pied stood facing the darkness, legs braced apart, head down, lips drawn back from his teeth, blood staining his fur, defending the kill and the other coyotes as they fled. Rainer called to him and started back toward the fire, but something stopped him. A strange, slithery feeling up his back and a whispering instinct in his mind cautioned him to stay away from the dark, to get away from whatever was out there as fast as he could.

  He backed away and strange eyes opened in the blackness. They flashed with reflected firelight like an animal’s. Then the creature stood up and it was tall. Rainer couldn’t make out many details, but its shoulders were broad, its ears were pointed and it was bigger than any man he had ever seen.

  The hair on Pied’s back stood on end and he snapped at the monster. A huge hand shot out of the dark and swiped the coyote aside. Pied yelped and fell in a heap. His coat was shredded, his chest heaved as he tried to breathe. Something was broken inside him because when he tried to stand, he couldn’t.

  The shadow thing drew closer to the fire and Rainer realized he had stopped retreating to watch. He also realized his heart was pounding hard and fast in his chest, his hands were shaking, his skin was raised with goosebumps, his stomach was fluttering in a way that made him feel sick. It was an odd sensation, one he was not very familiar with, but he thought it was probably intense fear, which made it something to be considered at a later date. Right now he needed to follow the example of the coyotes and run.

  No. Don’t run, he thought, and halted as he was about to do just that. You’re a predator. Think. If you run, it will chase you. Back away. Go quickly but do not run.

  Rainer glanced around to gauge the distance between himself and the car and started to back away. He kept his eyes on the dark where he had last seen the creature, but he couldn’t see anything now. He had brought a flashlight, but he didn’t look for it. He didn’t want to waste the time.

  Something flashed and caught his eye on his right and Rainer looked that way to see the silhouette of something that was not a man and not an animal, but a horrifying combination of the two standing there watching him. He tensed and there was a moment when he paused and was sure that he would not be able to move again. He was frozen in place by fear, which was something he could not remember ever happing to him before. But then he took another step in retreat. Then another.

  Then he was at his car fumbling to get the door open. The thing had followed him, stayed about twenty feet from him, but paced him on his way back to the car. Rainer could just make out the tips of its pointed ears. He got the door open and threw his bag in the passenger seat.

  Something came flying at him out of the dark and Rainer let out a startled shout and ducked away from it. It hit the side of the car with a wet thud and rolled against the toe of his shoe. The eyes caught the moonlight and Rainer looked down at Pied’s head. The coyote’s teeth were still gleaming with saliva.

  Rainer quickly got into his car and started it. The headlights came on and the desert in front of him jumped into focus. He looked around for the monstrous creature, but he didn’t see it. Everything was silent as though holding its breath except for the rumble of the car engine. He put the car in reverse, made a U-turn around a small dune that sent sand shooting from beneath the tires and drove back toward the highway.

  He imagined the giant man-beast chasing his car and let out a shaky burst of laughter.

  Chapter 19

  Ezekiel was mildly surprised when another body was not discovered following the full moon. He hadn’t been able to keep an eye on Rainer much prior to full moon and not at all during and he had come to expect it. Rainer was like a dog that got bored and acted out when left alone too long without stimulating activity. Then he reminded himself that just because no body had been found yet, it did not mean that there were not bodies out there waiting to be found.

  Rainer did nothing to arouse his suspicion the rest of the week. Still, he was suspicious. More suspicious because he knew he was up to something, he just didn’t know what. That was the object of the game.

  Ask me no questions and I’ll tell you no lies…

  And he wanted to ask him those questions if for no other reason than to see his reaction. Or lack of one.

  How many people have you killed?

  They always kept track somehow, even if only in their screwed up heads. Ezekiel would have bet the answer to that question though was plenty. More than any of them knew.

  How long have you been a killer?

  Always. Even when he wasn’t killing people, Rainer was that type; born that way. Born broken, twisted, different from all the other little babies in the nursery.

  Why were you in therapy as a child? Did they suspect? Did they know what you are?

  That was almost certainly why. He hadn’t wet the bed or started fires, Rainer himself had confirmed this and though he could lie, Ezekiel didn’t think he had that time, but something was bugging him about it. The part of the triumvirate he had deliberately excluded: killing animals.

  Ezekiel unwrapped his burrito, purchased at the same convenience store he had followed Rainer to the night he tried to sneak out for cigarettes, and took a bite. Siouxsie and the Banshees was on his stereo.

  Rainer had been spending his Friday afternoon inside reading or grading papers or beating off or whatever it was he did and it seemed like things were going to continue that way. Sol was supposed to call him and Jacob was flying home that evening. Ezekiel might not get to have another gas station burrito until some other missing girl a few states away walked into traffic babbling incoherently so he was savoring it. He wasn’t paying that much attention to the building he was there to watch until Rainer’s brother pulled into the lot and got out of his car.

  His phone rang and Ezekiel put his food down with a sigh to answer it. “This is Agent Herod.”

  “This is Sol. So, I’ve got some interesting shit for you on this Bryssengur guy.”


  “Oh, yeah?”

  Thomas Bryssengur took the stairs to the second floor two at a time and knocked on Rainer’s door. Ezekiel frowned, wondering if something was wrong.

  “Yeah. Okay,” Sol said. Some papers rustled. “So, when he was six, his parents took him to therapy where he apparently spent all of his really expensive sessions staring at the doctor and not saying much of anything. Get this—he killed his mom’s cat. In the back yard with a Swiss army knife. You know the kind with scissors and can openers and toothpicks and shit as well as knives? One of those. Stabbed it to death. How many times do you think you’d have to stab at cat with a little knife like that before it died?”

  “A lot,” Ezekiel said. “Must have hated the cat.”

  “Nah. Says right in his file that the mom was surprised about that, too. Said her kids really liked the cat.”

  “Huh.”

  Rainer opened the door after Thomas knocked on it for a third time, this time with the side of his fist. Before Thomas could step into the apartment, Rainer grabbed him and kissed him.

  “And that thing you wanted to know about prom?” Sol said. “I’m pretty sure he went with his brother. Which is a lot weirder when you know that they lived together for like five years in Europe while Thomas Bryssengur was studying the culinary arts, and during this time, our man Rainer was going by their mother’s maiden name, Durham.”

  Thomas took Rainer’s face in his hands and kissed him back. He walked Rainer backward into the apartment and the door slammed shut behind them.

  “I think the brothers are lovers,” Sol said. “Brother-lovers. They’re fucking each other is my point. Or they were.”

  “They still are,” Ezekiel said.

  He stared at Rainer’s closed door and didn’t know what he thought about that yet. He was surprised by it. In spite of his own relationship with Jacob, it wasn’t something even he had come to expect and it was a hell of a coincidence.

  “What makes you say that?” Sol asked.

  “Well, Thomas is here now. I’m pretty sure they’re in the apartment fucking as we speak,” Ezekiel said. “Rainer didn’t exactly greet him at the door in a fraternal fashion if you know what I mean.”

  “Oh,” Sol said. “Well that’s… something.”

  Yes, it was.

  “What else do you have?” Ezekiel asked.

  “Oh, right. Ah. So there were some murders in France and Germany during the time they were living there that kind of match some of the details you gave me. Eviscerated, teeth missing. I’ll email it to you. Might be him, but might not be. I’ll let you decide since you’re the professional.”

  Some more papers were moved around, keys were tapped, Sol said something under his breath, then, “And the brother is also a bona fide weirdo. Several instances of assault that resulted in arrest when he was a minor. The worst one was this kid who was apparently a friend of his. He beat him unconscious with a folding chair. Rainer was also arrested that time. He attacked officers who showed up at their house to arrest Thomas. Of the two of them, Thomas was the better kid though. He was popular in school, had a lot of friends, played sports, made good grades. He seems to have got his temper under control by the time he joined adult society, but damn. I’m telling you, their parents won the fucked up kid lotto with those two.”

  “Sounds like it,” Ezekiel said.

  It was interesting. He wondered what would happen if he poked some of Thomas Bryssengur’s buttons. Maybe he would have to find out.

  “All right. Thanks,” Ezekiel said.

  “Don’t mention it,” Sol said.

  Before Sol could disconnect the call, Ezekiel said, “Hey, Sol?”

  “Yeah?”

  “You wouldn’t want to blow me later, huh?”

  Translation: I want some coke. Are you holding? Ezekiel was going to be awake and busy more than usual in the coming week and he needed to be alert. He wasn’t a cokehead, but there were times when even the strongest, blackest coffee wouldn’t do it for him.

  Sol sounded amused when he said, “Sure, man. Come on over. I’d be happy to.”

  “I might do that,” Ezekiel said.

  They got off the phone and Ezekiel went back to his lunch. The burrito was a little cold, but it was still tasty. He ate it and waited for Thomas to emerge from the apartment again. The minutes dragged by and he didn’t come out. Ezekiel finished his burrito and his coffee and checked his watch.

  He wondered how Jacob had fared the full moon in Utah. He hadn’t heard anything from him about it so he had to assume everything had been fine and he would make his flight in the next hour. He picked up his phone and called him.

  It rang twice. “Hey, Zeke.”

  Ezekiel smiled. “Hey, Jakey. You at the airport?”

  “Going through security right now,” Jacob said. “I want a shower and a long nap. In that order. I feel like I haven’t slept since I left.”

  Jacob did not sleep well in motels and hotels. It wasn’t because the beds were too hard or soft or the pillows too thick or the sounds in the other rooms disturbed him. It was being away from Ezekiel. They spent nights apart because of Ezekiel’s insomnia, but they spent as few nights as possible in separate cities, states and countries. Being torn away from each other as children had made them resistant to separation as adults.

  Ezekiel hadn’t slept much since Jacob left either, not even his usual catnaps at his desk. He hated to think what that might mean for when Jacob was back, but he figured some strong coffee would take care of it. Besides, he was too invested in playing Rainer’s game. If he took a couple of days off to sleep, who knew what he would wake up to?

  “I’ll pick you up at the gate, we can grab some takeout and then you’ll be home,” Ezekiel said. “How did things go with the girl do you think?”

  “I don’t know,” Jacob said. “I did what I could. She’s a mess and a week talking to me isn’t going to fix that. They’ve got some leads though, which is something. Guy like this, there’s a good chance he’ll take another girl. Replace her and start over. This kind of long-term thing is rare, but these guys don’t stop if one dies on them or escapes. Of course, he could always hop a plane to Rio and start again somewhere else.”

  Jacob sighed. He sounded tired and a little disappointed. “I gave her my number.”

  She would probably never use it. They almost never did, but it was there if they needed it and sometimes that helped.

  “You know what I need more than a shower right about now though?” Jacob said. “I need to shit. I’m so backed up, you wouldn’t even believe.”

  Ezekiel choked out a surprised laugh. “Jesus, Jake. You’re in line at the airport.”

  “I know. If I step out of line now, I’d be here another hour and miss my flight,” Jacob said. “Not that it matters. I haven’t shit right since I left home. This always happens to me when I travel like this.”

  “No, Jake, I mean you’re on a cell phone and there are people who can hear you,” Ezekiel said.

  Jacob laughed a little. “Well, at least I’m not in a public bathroom stall actually doing it while we have this conversation.”

  Ezekiel rubbed over the bridge of his nose with his fingers and said, “I guess.”

  “Sorry, guess I’m a little preoccupied,” Jacob said.

  “With shitting.”

  “Well, you’d be preoccupied, too. I had an incomplete pass the first night I was here, but since then it’s been little turds like a pile of dried up sticks. Or those little ball turds like bunny shit. Do I look like a bunny to you?”

  “Jacob!”

  “What?” There was muttering on the other end of the line and to someone else Jacob said, “Sorry, ma’am.”

  An elderly woman’s voice answered him. “It’s okay honey, I know exactly how you feel. At my age, you’re lucky if you can go at all.”

  “Christ,” Ezekiel muttered.

  “Sorry,” Jacob said. “So, what have you been up to?”

  “T
he Lamplighter still, but it’s not going much of anywhere,” Ezekiel lied. “The Henry Lee Cairn trial started the other day. I have to testify next week, so I’ll be reviewing that and prepping.”

  Henry Lee Cairn was a serial rapist Ezekiel’s team had helped catch the previous December. There was a chance he would get off and Ezekiel hated that. Rapists pissed him off and disgusted him even more than serial killers and Cairn was an extra creepy bastard.

  “Well, that should make you a joy to be around,” Jacob said. “Oh, by the way, Agent Schuler invited us to a Halloween costume party. I thought I’d go. Do you want to come with me?”

  Ezekiel was watching Rainer’s closed door, thinking about Henry Lee Cairn and wondering what Rainer and Thomas were doing right now. He had a pretty active imagination though so he had ideas about that, too.

  “Ezekiel?”

  “Huh? What?”

  “Halloween, Saturday, you want to come to the party with me?”

  “Oh. No, I can’t. I’ll be busy.”

  “Of course you will. Well, all right, but I think I’ll go. I’ve got ideas about my costume.”

  “That’s nice. I have to go, Jake.”

  “Okay. I’ll see you when I get home.”

  They hung up and Ezekiel dropped his phone in the passenger seat and got out of the car. Thomas had been in Rainer’s apartment for about half an hour. Ezekiel crossed the street at a jog, walked to the building and went up the stairs. He moved lightly and approached the door.

  On one hand, he was thinking, this would be a great opportunity to get the drop on Rainer. Thomas would be collateral damage in such a scenario, but he wasn’t such a great guy himself. Maybe not a serial murderer, but he’d probably done some bad things of his own. Things a whole lot worse than getting into fights in high school. They were both the type and on paper Thomas had psycho potential. Not necessarily psycho killer potential, but it wouldn’t bother Ezekiel very much to blot him out of the world either.