The Bone Architect

by Ian Woodhead

  When Bryan passed the sheet to his brother, Josh handed the other piece of paper over, watching the lad’s eyes widen. He’d saved the worst for last. When son’s go through their dad’s gear when the said father is at work, they usually find dead socks, old love letters, perhaps a bit of cash, or if they’re really lucky, his porn mag stash. Not his dad though. Oh no. He had ancient case files, including this one.

  “This has got to be a fake.” Bryan passed the other sheet to Tommy and glared at Joshua. “This has got to be bullshit,” he snarled. “You think I’m a fucking idiot or something?”

  His brother rested his hand on Bryan’s shoulder. “You still want to watch that dumb movie?” Tommy folded up the photocopies and hesitated before passing them to his girlfriend.”

  “Barbra, I wouldn’t recommend looking at them, seriously.”

  “They’re real, Bryan, take my word for it. I’ve known Josh all his life. He wouldn’t pull a stunt like this.”

  “But I don’t get it. Josh. Come on, fill us in here.”

  Both the girls had gone as pale as Barbra’s hair, and he now wondered if this really was such a great idea after all. When he first discovered the old case file hidden between two copies of Huge Rack Monthly, he too shared Bryan’s scepticism, believing it had to be some kind of sick prank that his dad’s colleagues had played on him a few years ago. Yet the more he read through the notes, the more he started to see the connections. He’d only been five at the time that this supposed mass killing had taken place, but he still remembered the unease felt through the town when two of the girls on this list had mysteriously disappeared. The official statement had said that both Alice Edwards and Daisy Price had turned up dead on the streets of Manchester and the case had been closed up and forgotten by everybody except for the grieving parents.

  Clarice thrust the sheets into his palm. “Jesus, this is just fucking horrible!” She stared into Joshua’s eyes. “Can you imagine the heartache their parents would go through if this ever got out?”

  Barbra nodded. “Even so, I’d like to know why it was covered up.”

  “I can’t answer that one.

  “The case file just contained the facts. I’m guessing that the mystery of why they pushed this under the carpet happened later.”

  “Are there any more pictures, Josh?”

  He nodded, “Yeah lots, but not what you’d expect to find. You see, this fucking psycho saved his victim’s bones and used them to make furniture.”

  “You’re shitting me,” whispered Tommy. “Hey Bryan, remember Cemetery Funfair? Didn’t the family do the same?”

  “No, they used the full body, minus the head,” he replied. “And you only saw the full special effects in the banned version.” Bryan rubbed his hands. “Okay, I’m hooked. Let’s go.”

  Joshua dug into his pockets and pulled out a key ring. “There’s a good chance that the place hasn’t even been cleaned up. You see, I’ve already checked the place out and there’s no way of getting inside without these keys. They bricked up all the windows and installed a thick metal gate over the door.” He took Clarice’s hand. “It’s almost as if they were trying to keep something from escaping, not stopping people from breaking in.”

  He watched their faces carefully, wondering if he was laying on the suspense a bit thick. Tommy was right about Joshua not straying over the line and entering bullshit territory, but he could tell the odd white lie. This was the first time he’d been to the house, but the last picture of the building was taken only a few months ago, and he had little doubt that it had changed since the time the picture was taken.

  “Can you walk though, Josh?”

  He smiled at Barbra. “Yeah, I’ll be okay. It’s just a bit tender, that’s all.” He took the lead, walking away from the clearing towards the black silhouette towering above the overgrown greenery. His thoughts swapped from the pleasing image of him lying on his front while Barbra massaged his back, to wondering why there was a recent photo of the house hidden in amongst a supposedly forgotten folder.

  “Hey Josh, what would you have done if we hadn’t believed that those photos were genuine?” asked Bryan. “Would you have gotten all pissy and stamped your foot?” The lad chuckled. “Well, stamped the foot that wasn’t all bandaged up.”

  Joshua stopped and pulled Clarice into his arms.

  “Oh dear, have I said something to offend you? My bad.”

  The lad’s caustic words bounced off Joshua’s broad back. He stared at the bundle of soiled, grey rags nestling in the long grass, and after his eyes readjusted and filled in the missing pieces, Joshua realised that Bryan’s desire to offend no longer mattered.

  He held her tight, allowing Clarice’s warmth to meld with his own. It gave him such comfort and helped him not to dwell on his grotesque discovery.

  “What are you doing, Josh?”

  She hadn’t seen it yet. Clarice had no idea that, like him, she had been on the verge of plunging her foot into unknown territory. If he hadn’t pulled her back, Clarice’s wounds would have been on the inside.

  Weak afternoon sun picked out grey tissue hiding under the soiled rags, the skin glistening, stretched from the weight of gases beneath the dead man’s flesh. She stiffened in his arms, her shuddering travelling into his body.

  “Oh, my fucking God!”

  Joshua kept her firm hold on Clarice. He looked back at Tommy, blanking his brother. “You always wanted to see a corpse? Well here’s your chance.”

  The three behind Joshua and Clarice looked over their shoulders.

  “We need to call the police!” Barbra spun around, only to have her movements halted by Tommy’s hand wrapped around her wrist.

  “That’s not a good idea, hun.”

  “Have you lost your tiny mind?” she hissed, looking at all of them one by one. She paused at Clarice before gazing directly at Joshua. “Why are you not moving?”

  “He’s been dead a while, a couple of weeks at least.” Joshua carefully pushed foliage away from the man’s face with his scuffed blue trainer. The corpse’s eyes were shut tight, he saw no sign of damage. If it wasn’t for the stench of death and the bloat, the tramp looked asleep. “What are the police going to do? The poor guy died in his sleep.”

  “But we can’t leave him here,” said Barbra. “I don’t care who he was, he still deserves a decent burial.”

  Bryan strode up to Joshua’s face until he was almost nose to nose. He sighed inwardly, expecting the goon to side with Barbra and demand that he obeyed her request. It was typical of Bryan to act the hero, to show his tender aspect, but mainly to make Joshua look like a dick.

  “We can call the cops once we’re done,” he said, keeping his eyes fixed on Joshua. “It’s not like he’s going to get up and walk off, now is he?”

  “Hmpth,” she spat. “I expected more from you.”

  Tommy pulled her back. “No, Bryan’s right.” He tapped the sheets of paper in Joshua’s hand. “This dead guy probably just came to the end of his miserable life. No crime, no mystery.” He nodded his head, his eyes following the path past the corpse. “The girls who lost their lives in that house deserve eternal rest, and their families deserve closure so they can grieve properly.

  Act Three

  He so wanted to snap off those spindly fingers. The others were all impatiently waiting for Joshua to unlock the house door. Their rapt attention suited Bryan just fine. He swapped his contempt to admiration as he ran his gaze over Clarice’s oh, so delectable and underused body. Christ, what a frigging waste of a good woman.

  Bryan ran his wet tongue along his lips, imagining his organ rolling up that smooth back, her groaning in ecstasy, the girl arching her back while he dug his fingers into her hips, and…”

  “Will you put your eyes back into your perverted face, Bryan!”

  Like that was going to happen. It’s not as if her knight in shining armour was about to rescue her from the evil dragon. Bryan treated Clarice to a wink and blew her a kiss. Even if J
oshua wasn’t still crying and wrestling with that stupid key, he was hardly likely to be able to stop him.

  “Your boyfriend has arms like chicken legs, hun.” He looked back at the trail they’d all trampled through, seriously wondering if there were any more bodies hidden in the greenery. Although he hadn’t shown it, the sight of that body had shaken him up more than it should. Christ, he almost lost his burger and chips when the smell slammed into his nostrils. His obsession of horror movies had never prepared him for that. It pissed him off more to see that Joshua hadn’t even blinked.

  Clarice didn’t even bother to reply. Instead, she folded her arms protectively around Joshua’s waist, leaned forward, and whispered something into his ear. Joshua released a quiet snort.

  “Don’t even think about it,” warned Tommy, resting his hand over Bryan’s shoulder. “Put your hormones back in the box, you idiot.” His brother pulled him away from the other three and spun him around. “We’re facing the biggest cover up of this decade and all you’re thinking about is getting into her panties.”

  Bryan looked into his brother’s eyes while estimating his chances of dropping Tommy without the big guy wupping his ass.

  “Oh hell, you bloody idiot. I told you not to take them, at least not until we knew they were safe.”

  “Crap, of course they’re safe. What’s wrong, bro, don’t you trust me?” Right at that moment, he knew his brother was no longer the strongest one, he could see the weakness in his eyes, the doubt was written all over his face. Okay, so he’d taken the steroids before they set off from their shared flat this morning. So what? Christ, he and Tommy had been taking the drugs for three years now, ever since Tommy hit the big eighteen mark, and they’d never had a single bad batch despite using a variety of suppliers. This lot had come from a new guy who’d only just started working out at their gym. They looked, tasted, and acted the same as their last batch, so Bryan had no idea what had made Tommy so cautious all of a sudden.

  “I want you to try and chill, at least until we are out of here, dude.” He turned away from him when Joshua had finally opened the door. “Please, just for me, try to keep a level head, and for God’s sake, will you leave those two alone?”

  Bryan nodded, intending to do no such thing. If they wanted to play Scooby Doo then let them get on with it. He couldn’t care less about the missing bodies, unexplained murders, or for that matter, Joshua’s crooked dad. Right now his wired brain only had one desire: to get Chicken legs away from Clarice. The other four disappeared into the house, leaving him alone. He stood back and gazed up, noticing for the first time just how big this old house actually was. With three floors and no doubt an attic and a cellar, it must have more rooms than his college.

  “I would have gotten away with it if it hadn’t been for you meddling kids,” he muttered, following them inside. The gloom hid his shark-like smile. So dearest brother wanted him to chill out, at least until they got back to the flat. He could play along.

  As he leaned against the wall watching Tommy and chicken legs play torch beams across the floor, Bryan considered their immediate future. These idiots would soon get bored with this bullshit, and the decision to get pizza and watch a movie would inevitably crop up,

  If that did happen then, he’d end up taking out his frustration on his weights whilst those two with the torches would have an alternate method of exercise. No way. He intended to make damn sure that the two brothers would be enjoying woman juice tonight, even if it meant losing chicken legs in this house.

  ***

  The daylight streaming through the open doorway gave Joshua a hint of what the five of them would find in this derelict building. Their torch confirmed his initial findings. He shone the beam along the ceiling, the light bouncing off rotting plaster. The illumination disturbed the largest spider he had ever seen. It raced across the surface and disappeared through a two foot hole. From where he stood, Joshua saw the remnants of a metal bed and what looked a like a pair of handcuffs fastened to the end of the frame. He followed the spider’s progress as it crawled up the far wall towards an irregular patch of darkness covering most of the wallpaper. At first he assumed it was mould, until the patch moved.

  “You have got to be having a laugh!” The torch almost slipped from his grasp. His last image before the torch beam stopped on a broken wall mirror was of the one spider losing itself in that patch.

  “Are you okay?”

  He nodded. “Sorry, Clarice. I thought I saw a spider.”

  “I hate those things.” Clarice took his hand. “I bet this old place is crawling with them.”

  Bryan chuckled. “No worry, sweetheart. I can protect you from one little spider.”

  The big lad stood directly under the hole now. Joshua so wished those things would fall right on him. Bryan screaming like a big girl made such a pleasing thought as thousands of them scuttled into every one of the goon’s entry points

  Not for the first time Joshua wished Tommy would stop being such a softy and tell his younger brother to bugger off. It’s not like the kid didn’t have mates his own age. Then again, considering how Bryan behaved around him and the girls, his proper mates were probably glad to see the back of the little shit.

  He’d known Bryan since he wore short pants and Joshua had never seen eye to eye with him. Even back before Bryan followed his brother into the world of body building, he used to be a cocky little shit.

  Strange how at the time Joshua actually welcomed the idea, believing the work outs could channel away a lot of that built up aggression.

  Bryan had planted his feet apart with hands on hips, his eyes running up and down the length of his girlfriend’s body. If anything, the weights had made him worse.

  Joshua had yet to come to blows with the lad, and he hoped that occasion would never arise. He believed that after all these years he knew how the lad’s brain worked, and right now Bryan’s mind had travelled down to his groin.

  As soon as Bryan found the right girl he was sure that the goon would drop all of this ridiculous posturing; swaggering about like a drunk gorilla all the time couldn’t be good for anybody’s pose. Yet despite his self assurance, this time Joshua failed to convince himself.

  He thought he knew his dad. Joshua thrust his hand into his pocket, stroking the paper’s surface. Oh boy, had he been wrong on that one! If he didn’t even know his father, what chance did he have in figuring out the sex-starved ape?

  “Josh, where do we go from here? This place is not what I expected.” Tommy shone the beam on Joshua’s chest. “It’s not safe for a start. No offence, but lounging on the sofa, drinking a cold one is now beginning to really appeal.”

  His words struck a cord with Joshua. Whilst still outside, the need to get in here to discover the truth was all he could think of; even Bryan’s constant bitching took a back seat. Now that they were finally in here, though, he wanted out. “The bodies were all found in the cellar, so I guess that we should start looking down there.”

  The words had left Joshua’s mouth without any prompting, without any prior consideration to his reluctance to continue. It didn’t shock him either to find his body following through with his suggestion. He swept the beam along the wall from left to right, the light catching more decay and evidence of the house’s new owners. The webs old and new created their own patterns, softening the sharp edges between the wall and the ceiling. When the beam found the first door, he stilled his arm. “It’s there,”

  “You sound so sure.”

  From a thousand miles away, Joshua heard himself explaining to Tommy that the other doors in here wouldn’t have a key plate under the handle. His hand plunged into his right trouser pocket and clumsily pulled out the keys that he took from the file that he’d found under his dad’s bed. “You can do the honours, Tommy.”

  As soon as the keys left his fingers, all feeling returned to his body. Joshua reached out needing to feel Clarice’s warmth, his fingers slipping between hers. Joshua shook his head, trying to cl
ear the miasma. Right now, the need to go took control, and he took one step towards the door, only to find his way blocked by Tommy’s brother.

  “I hope you weren’t thinking of leaving us here, Josh?” he said, staring at Clarice’s breasts.

  “Move out of the way, Bryan. I just need some air, that’s all.”

  “Well, you see. I can’t do that. Cos, I just don’t think it fair that you gave our Tommy some keys but not me. Tell you what, if you hand over your car keys, I’ll let you pass.”

  Clarice took the torch out of Joshua’s hand. “I’ll tell you what, you annoying little man. If you don’t shift your fat carcass, I’ll brain you with this.”

  Joshua jumped back, but not because of Bryan’s threats or the dark look in the lad’s eyes. He moved back because he saw they were no longer alone in the house. A man shaped shadow blocked out the daylight, streaming through the open door.

  “Don’t just stand there gawping, Arnold, get yer arse down those stairs!”

  The shadow moved away from the open door, back towards the foot of the stairs. Joshua could now make out the details of an overcoat stretching to the man’s knees, a hat, belonging several decades in the past, and a beard. The figure put one hand on the bottom of the banister and turned to face them. “Don’t just stand there, sweet little things, get out of here while you still can! Arnold, for crying out loud!” he yelled, turning back to the stairs.

  Joshua heard creaking floorboards above him, followed by low muttering. Clarice squeezed his hand, her fingers gripped the torch just as tight. Evidently the thought that she might have to use that on more than just Bryan had probably just entered her mind. “Who the hell are you?”

  “Misdeeds and urges for introductions can wait, little mister! Please, exit this foul place before its spirit dances with your bones.” The man began to climb the stairs. “Arnold, come on, man!” He spun around, a low groan leaving his throat.