They turned to the last room. Once again he used his foot to open the door all the way. This time Evie did throw-up. Turning away from Anthony she lost what little was in her stomach. He rubbed her back as it emptied. The image would not leave her head.
There tied to the bed was a decomposing body of a woman on top of a tarp, without a head and all of her flesh peeled off. The smell was overwhelming and even in her head she could still see the maggots moving over her.
“Fuck. Let’s get out of here,” Anthony said.
She could only nod and try to make her feet move down the hall. When they got back to the living room, they stopped. Anthony started looking around.
“What do you think he did with the heads?”
Evie shuddered. “I don’t even want to think about that.”
She followed as he moved back into the kitchen and started opening cabinets.
“What do you think he put them under the sink with the cleaning supplies?” She was starting to lose it.
“This was the only other place we didn’t look through everything. Well, besides the last room.”
He paused with one hand on each of the handles for the refrigerator. She saw him take a deep breath before he opened it. “Don’t look.”
But it was too late, she already saw. There were seven heads in there. Because there was no electricity the smell was horrific. It looked as if their faces were melting in there, dripping things down on the bottom of the refrigerator. With the door open, some of it spilled out onto the floor.
Evie was picked up and Anthony moved quickly out the front door into the sunlight. He sat her down on the hood of the car. Shivering so hard, she thought her teeth would break as they chattered against each other, she was thankful the engine had left the hood still warm. Watching the grass blow in the breeze, she stared without blinking.
She didn’t acknowledge when Anthony put a shirt around her shoulders or when he climbed up behind her, wrapping his arms around her waist pulling her tight to him.
They stayed that way until Evie finally spoke. “It’s going to be another long night at a police station isn’t it.”
“Looks like it.”
“Why?” She knew she wasn’t going to have to fill in the blanks, he knew what she was talking about.
“I have no idea. Obviously he holds them responsible and because he grew up here, no matter how bad it was, it’s still a ‘safe’ place for him.”
“But to keep the decapitated heads in the fridge? Really?” Her eyes grew huge and a laugh escaped her lips. “Oh my god.”
“What?”
“I’ve always loved Halloween.” She giggled. “And every year…” She tried to control the laughter that was starting to bubble up. “I always put de…” Another laugh came out. “Fake decapitated heads in the fridge to scare people.” She completely lost it and couldn’t stop the laughter or the tears that started falling. Holding onto Anthony’s hands as he rocked her, she laughed and cried for the women inside the house.
*
It was a long couple of days. They spent hours talking to the police before they were finally able to get a room, clean up, and get some sleep. Everything Anthony had seen kept replaying in his head. Between that and the nightmares Evie had, he wasn’t sure he got any sleep. He held onto her as she clung to him most of the night. He was both scared and felt bad for her every time she screamed.
The next day they’d talked to anyone who’d known Jeremy and his parents. They didn’t learn much more than they already knew. But as Evie always said, every little bit will help put the whole puzzle together.
He was looking forward to getting together with Noah so they could analyze the new information. He looked over at Evie in the light of the setting sun on the drive to catch their plane to go back to Ipswich, wishing he could keep the women out of it, knowing it would be impossible. He could see the strain of everything that had been going on in Evie’s eyes. He wanted to bring light back into them. Once this was all over, and Jeremy was caught, he’d do just that.
*
Since Anthony and Evie were all the way across country, Jeremy decided to head back to where he knew they would end up eventually. Smiling at his luck, he couldn’t believe it. The old bat was home alone. He’d made sure Evie’s stupid brother went down to the city for the night. The only person he’d have to worry about was the guard. It was surprisingly easy to sneak up behind him and slice his neck open. Looking down, he tilted his head to the side. The knife didn’t cut as deeply as he’d hoped. He was going to have to sharpen it before he used it next.