Dark Corners - Twelve Tales of Terror by Michael Bray Read Free Book Online Page B

all cases, I would dismember the victim after death. I would
always remove the head, but if I could, I would also take the arms. I
tried the legs too, but they were difficult to take off, so I gave
that up early on.
    “ Depending
on where I killed, I would try to conceal the bodies. Monde told me
the longer I could hide them and allow them to rot, the less chance
there was of the police linking me to any of the murders. I took to
dumping the body parts in rivers in weighted bags, and in the
woodland so the wildlife could finish the job I started.
    “ In
the winter of ’02, I reached my century. One hundred kills. By
then of course, despite my best efforts to hide them, many of my
previous victims had been found. It didn’t take long for the
police to notice the similarities between the mutilations, and as
soon as word reached the press, I was finally in the spotlight. They
dubbed me the Decap Killer, which I hated. I had worked too hard to
let them label me with such a flimsy name. Monde suggested I contact
them to let them know the error of their ways, so I sent a severed
head to the editor of the New York Times with a letter suggesting
they call me the Demon Dismemberer. The public went into frenzy, and
if anything, I think that one instance of self-indulgence was what
led to my downfall and capture.”
    Elgin
glanced at his watch. It was no more than a flicker of the eyes, but
it got the message across.
    “ How
long left?”
    “ Ten
minutes. We better wrap this up quickly.”
    “ Yeah,
time flies when ya’ havin’ fun, doesn’t it Elgin?”
    No
response. Roberts lifted his feet and crossed his legs on the bed,
his long, tattooed arms dangling down past his knees.
    “ It
was some smartass called Petrov who caught me. Petrov. Can you
believe that? A damn Russian, at least in name. Turns out he was
technically an American—had become a full citizen back in the
eighties. He was famous for thinking outside the box, thinking like a
killer. I don’t think he was too different from me at heart,
apart from the fact that he never had the balls to take that first
step… Anyway, Petrov was brought in to work the case because
he’d already caught the Green Bay rapist, and was fresh off the
back of catching that female serial killer in Rio De Janeiro. I had
read about him in the papers, and when I saw his picture for the
first time, I was concerned. He had these eyes Mr. Elgin, and—not
unlike yours—they were hungry, knowing eyes. Eyes that said he
knew secret things. Monde told me not to worry about him, but I had a
feeling the game had changed. I was feeling the pressure of my
notoriety then, and I had developed insomnia. There is nothing worse
than nights spent lying awake, waiting for daylight to come. By that
time, they had found fifty bodies that were attributed to me, and as
they widened their search, more and more of my handiwork was digging
itself out of shallow graves. The headlines proclaimed me as the
world’s most prolific serial killer—said that I was the
most feared man in history. Monde was thrilled, but I was starting to
feel scared. For the next few months, I didn’t kill as often.
It wasn’t that the opportunity wasn’t there. I just
assumed that my nationwide notoriety had put people on guard, but
the truth is: people never believe such things can happen to them.
No, Mr. Elgin, killing was as easy as ever. By May of ’04, my
tally was at one hundred and two, and unbeknownst to me, there it
would remain. The police had discovered eighty-seven bodies, and the
general public was demanding action. I was worried, but Monde’s
confidence assured me that it was ok. I imagined him flashing his big
Italian grin, telling me he would take care of everything. But Monde
was wrong.”
    Roberts
smiled reflectively as he continued.
    “ I
wonder if the circumstances of my capture were as random and
incidental as they appeared, or if there was some higher power at
work. Had the dart landed in Boston or