The Mad and the MacAbre by Jeff Strand Read Free Book Online

don't think you'll be keeping
me awake with that thing," Charlie said, putting the toy on top of
the refrigerator. He gathered up Kutter's other toys and placed
them up there as well.
    Kutter sneezed at him.
    "Bless you. Good night."
    Ten minutes after Charlie got under the
covers, Kutter pushed open the bedroom door, jumped up onto the
mattress, and curled up at the foot of the bed. Charlie carried
Kutter back out to the living room and told him to knock it off.
The second time Kutter pushed open the door, which never seemed to
close properly, Charlie put him back down in the basement.
    Charlie gave the dog another chance the next
night, with the same result.
    "This is your last chance," Charlie warned,
tapping Kutter gently on the nose to emphasize his point. "If you
try to break into my room tonight, you'll be sorry."
    He was woken out of a sound sleep by the
stupid dog jumping up onto the bed. Kutter curled up next to his
right foot. Charlie was too tired to bother getting up to remove
the disobedient animal, so he simply rolled over and went back to
sleep.
    It was surprisingly comforting. When he woke
up the next morning, he decided that maybe the dog could sleep in
the bedroom from now on.
    * * *
    Charlie looked at the calendar on his desk
at work and realized that it was only a week until his next hunt
could begin. He was surprised--for some reason he'd thought it was
a couple more days than that. Great news.
    Since he was going after a
higher class of victim this time, he needed to change his cover
story. He couldn't lure these kinds of women in with promises of a
warm meal. Well, he could , but he'd have to sell the idea
in a different way. Find out which unsuspecting women wanted to
grab a quick cup of coffee with the trustworthy guy with the cute
dog. Kutter would win their heart, Charlie would talk them into his
car, and the chloroform would do the rest.
    Charlie wondered if he should make some
personal changes to assist with the success of his new plan. He'd
always kept his hair neatly trimmed, but what if he added a bit of
style? Nothing crazy and nothing unsuited to a guy in his
forties--just something slightly more contemporary.
    Then he wondered if that was the first sign
of a mid-life crisis.
    He'd do it. What could it hurt? He wasn't
quite ready to depart from his usual barber, but when he went in on
Friday he'd ask the guy to do something a little different.
    * * *
    It had been difficult to convince his barber
that "different" did not include coloring, spikes, or any sort of
hair product, but he'd eventually gotten the message across.
Charlie walked out with hair that was a little wavier on the sides
and a little mussed in the front. Though he wasn't sure if he liked
it or not, he'd promised his barber that he'd stick with it through
the weekend and give it a chance to grow on him.
    They'd both laughed at the "grow on him"
comment, although the barber laughed a little harder than
Charlie.
    Charlie knew that Kutter didn't care about
his hairstyle, and indeed the dog didn't treat him any differently,
but for the first time in his life Charlie found himself sort of
looking forward to returning to work on the following Monday.
    * * *
    "Nice! I like it!" said Alicia, giving him a
thumbs-up sign as she quickly walked past his desk on her way to a
meeting. Charlie was a bit disappointed that she hadn't stopped to
talk longer. The hair was staying for sure, though.

- 6 -
    January 24th. The first night of the first
hunt of the year. Charlie put on his nicest shirt--a dark blue,
long-sleeved dress shirt that he hadn't worn since his job
interview. It was sort of a wasted effort, since he'd be wearing a
winter jacket over the shirt, but dressing well might
subconsciously cause him to behave in a more charismatic
manner.
    He looked at himself in the mirror. Not
bad.
    He took down a bottle of unopened cologne
that he'd received from somebody one year for Christmas--he thought
it might have been a work gift exchange