Larry Ludwig, I knew. He'd been on the job a long time, but never took to get itrgeant's exam. He told me once that he liked the action of being a street cop. Casey's name didn't ring a bell, which meant he was probably a rookie. Scranton PD's not so big that the cops don't get to know each other pretty quick, if only by name and face.
"Looks as if Ludwig sent Casey around back, then went in through the front door," Milner said. "We found him… or what was…" Milner stopped for a second and cleared his throat. "We found him in the living room."
I waited, but he didn't say anything more. Looking toward the house, I said, "Forensics hasn't been here yet."
"No," Milner said. "I called for 'em. They'll take their sweet fuckin' time, like usual." He cleared his throat again. "SWAT was on the way, too, but I cancelled it, after we went through the place. There's nobody in there. Nobody… alive, anyway. That Proctor cunt is long gone."
I looked at him. "Rachel Proctor's the suspect?" I wasn't sure yet what she was suspected of, but for something to get to a cop like Milner's experience, it had to be real bad. "Was there a witness?"
"Nah, not that we know about. But it's her house, ain't it? And she's a fuckin' witch, ain't she?" He pointed toward the house as if he was aiming a gun. "What went down in there wasn't done by no fuckin' Girl Scouts."
Arguing with Milner about what Rachel Proctor was capable of was going to be a waste of time. Anyway, in her current state, I wasn't sure what Rachel was capable of.
"Guess we better check it out," I said. "Okay if we open the front door?"
"Yeah, I guess," he said. "Just don't go inside and fuck up the crime scene."
That's something every police trainee learns the first week at the academy, but I wasn't giving Milner the fight he was spoiling for. Let him take his feelings out on somebody else. His wife was in for a rough few hours, I figured. I hoped Milner wasn't a hitter.
"Let's go," I said to Karl, and we followed a narrow, meandering sidewalk to the front door of Rachel Proctor's house.
Three creaky wooden steps led up to the front door, which was painted white, with a light blue trim. Part of the doorframe near the knob was splintered and broken. Somebody had kicked the door in – either Officer Ludwig, or whoever came before him.
Using the back of my hand, I pushed against the door. After a moment's resistance, it came free of the frame and swung wide.
The thick, coppery scent of blood hit me in the face as soon as the door opened. Nothing else in the world smells like that. Once you've had it in your nose, it can stay a long time – maybe your whole life.
All the lights were on in the living room, which made it easy to see what had got Milner acting like he'd had a personal glimpse into Hell. It was hard to imagine Hell as bring much worse.
The walls were giant abstract murals done by an insane artist who had a thing for red. And you could add the ceiling to the exhibit. Display the whole thing in the Night Gallery.
And it wasn't just blood, either. Sticking to the walls, the ceiling, the furniture were globs of flesh that I figured had once been bodily organs. I saw what looked like a kidney wrapped around the leg of the coffee table, and flattened against one wall was a fist-sized ball of flesh that might once have been a human heart.
Next to me I heard Karl mutter, "Dear sweet merciful Jesus." I couldn't have put it better, myself.
The room looked like a World War II bunker that somebody had thrown a grenade into, except for one thing: the furniture.
Apart being covered in gore and guts, Rachel Proctor's living room furniture was intact and in place. All the window glass was still there, too. Whatever kind of explosion had caused the human damage, it had left the surroundings untouched.
How was that possible? There's only one answer, and it's the same one that had occurred to Milner, and probably to the other cops out there, too: magic. The blackest of black magic.
Which left Rachel off the list of suspects, as far as I was concerned. Rachel didn't practice black magic – I was sure of it.
But indications were that Rachel wasn't exactly traveling alone these days. And, judging by the books and gear we'd found in his house, George Kulick had known a few things about black magic. Enough to do this? I was hoping for the chance to ask him about it, and soon.
"Seen enough?" I asked Karl quietly.
"More than enough," he answered, his voice hoarse.
We walked back to where Milner was standing. "I assume that what we saw in there was… came from Ludwig," I said.
Milner nodded. "It was like he just… exploded from inside. They took what was left of him to the morgue. There's enough to bury, I guess." He looked at me. "Ludwig was a good cop, put in a lot of years. He didn't deserve to go out like that." Milner said it like he was expecting an argument from me, but I didn't give him one.
"What about his partner, what's-his-name, Casey?" Karl asked.
"We found him in back, on the ground, screaming. Know why?"
Karl shrugged. "Because he saw what had happened to his partner?"
"No," Milner said, "Casey was screaming because he was covered with spiders – fucking tarantulas, dozens of them."
"I know tarantulas are poisonous," I said, "and they look gross as hell. But their bite's not fatal to humans – probably not even a bunch of bites."
"It wasn't the poison," Milner said. "One of the other guys knows Casey, they're cousins or something. He says Casey had something-phobia. Fear of spiders."
"Arachnophobia," Karl said.
"Yeah, that's it. The cousin said Casey had it bad. Guess somebody else knew that, too, and covered him with the one thing he couldn't stand. He was still screaming once they got those things off him and loaded him into the ambulance."
"Tarantulas aren't native to this part of the world," I said, just to be saying something. "They come from the tropics."
"Yeah, I know," Milner said. "Funny how a whole bunch of them found their way to Casey, huh? Almost like magic." The bitterness could curdle milk.
"I know you like Rachel Proctor for it, but there's something-"
" Like her for it? She a fucking witch, and witches use magic, and it was magic that fucked up two cops, decent guys with families. It don't take fucking Einstein to connect the dots."
"I know, but-"
"But nothing, Markowski. I heard you was tight with that cunt, but you know what? I don't care how many times she sucked your cock, or how good she was at it. There's a BOLO out on her, and if everybody on the force doesn't know she's a cop killer, they will before end of third watch today. I guarantee it. Now get the fuck out of my sight."
We got.
We were almost back to the car when my cell phone rang.
"Markowski."
"So this guy goes to a whorehouse, but he doesn't know that all the girls working there are vampires, right? He says to the madam-"
"Lacey, I am really, really not in the mood for jokes right now."
"Suit yourself, Stan. But I'm looking at something I think you might wanna see."
"Which is…?"
"Another dead vamp."