On Emma's Bluff by Sara Elizabeth Rice, edited by davebccanada (comprehension books txt) 📖

the two schoolmates were back in the car, Barbara Lee adjusted her seat and lay back to nap.

"You could help me stay awake." Beth suggested. "I am not used to getting this late of a start."

"Oh you'll be just fine." Barbara Lee smiled smugly and stretched further back into her seat.

Beth found herself livid all over again. She could not believe how blatantly Barbara Lee had taken advantage of her. She would have been back at school hours ago if she had not allowed herself to be talked into giving Barbara Lee a ride. To top it off she and Barbara Lee had never been close friends. In fact on campus Barbara often ignored her at best and ridiculed her when they did communicate. "It's your own fault." Beth told herself. "You should know better than to let assholes boss you around."

She grasped the steering wheel even tighter and peered into the highway before her. At first she ignored the light choking sound coming from Barbara Lee. But then the cough became a yelp and Barbara Lee jerked forward in her seat, her arms and legs thrashing.

Beth turned and what she saw froze the blood in her veins. Her foot automatically slammed on the brakes. From the back seat two hands extended and were placed tightly around Barbara Lee's throat. The hands were dark and claw like. Pieces of bone protruded where the fingertips should have been.   The hands had a dead lock grip on the hysterical Barbara Lee.

Slowly Beth turned and saw the face that had arisen from a pile in the back seat. The sight of it brought a dry scream to her lips. The face was rotted and moldy. Beth looked back at Barbara Lee's bulging eyes and protruding tongue. She could see blood running down Barbara Lee's face from where she had bit through her own tongue.

Leaving the car running and headlights on high, Beth bounded out her door. Scared beyond rationality she raced for the side of the road. She immediately slipped on the edge and landed on her elbows in the wet grass in the ditch. She could hear wild thrashing coming from her car. The passenger door burst open and Beth could see the creature from the back seat pulling Barbara Lee from the car. Beth laid face down in the ditch and screamed into her hands.

The sounds she heard coming from the road way were inhuman.   In her peripheral vision she saw something fly through the air and hit the grass in front of her. It was red and slimy like raw meat. Beth bit into her palm in terror. Then a louder thud hit the ditch.   She turned slightly to see a large round object tumble down the embankment. She blinked twice and recognized the bright red lipstick. It was Barbara Lee's head. Beth lost consciousness.

 

 

Chapter 20

The police officer who took the call on his radio late that night forced the caller to repeat his story twice. The caller had been headed down route 28, ultimately destined for Louisiana. He had come across a car stopped in the middle of the road. The car was still running and the headlights were on and both front doors were wide open. He got out to see if there was a problem and if he could help, but the car was empty of driver or passengers. It was when he walked around to investigate the passenger side that he had literally stumbled over the body. "I tell you, it was a woman, but she didn't have no head."

Finally the dispatcher radioed the highway patrol and asked the man on to please remain at the scene. He then called for an ambulance. Once the essentials were out of the way, he pushed back his chair and picked up the phone again.

"Kenny," he said running a hand down his face," Can you get me Harvey Johnson right away?"

Some twenty minutes later Harvey along with Kenneth Lender were headed, lights flashing, full speed up route 28. When they arrived the ambulance was already parked on the side of the road and two patrol cars blocked off a section of the highway. A man in dress slacks and a crisp white shirt huddled over the hood of a cruiser with a man Harvey assumed to be the caller who had discovered the body. Harvey walked straight up to them.

"Who found her?" he demanded.

"I did." Harvey noted the man's thin face and pallor.

"What time was that?"

"I don't know, about an hour ago, maybe less" His hands shook as he spoke.

"Have you recovered the head?" Harvey turned and asked one of the patrolmen.

"No sir, just got back ups here to start combing the area now."

Harvey could see plain clothed men walking up and down both sides of the highway. He left the other man to finish the questioning and walked over to the ambulance.

The dark red pool at the end of the sheet warned him of the grisly sight beneath. He took a deep breath and pulled the sheet back. The gaping hole where the head should have been attached appeared to be stretched wider than normal.

"Looks like whoever did this forced some foreign object down into the body cavity after removing the head." the ambulance attendant stated.   Another attendant stood bent double on the side of the road, puking into the grass. Even after having viewed Red's body one day earlier, Harvey still felt a wash of nausea himself. He jerked the sheet back over the remains.

"Oh my God," the heaving attendant croaked. Harvey turned toward him. The man was bent over something in the ditch.

"Oh my God," he repeated, "I found it. And there's another one."

Harvey now joined by Kenny Lender, both head towards the ditch.   There near the attendant they could see the pale face and flowing hair. Three feet away lay the prone body of another woman face down in the grass. Her head appeared to still be attached.

"Bobby, get someone over here to get this." Harvey yelled at one of the police officers. He took a few steps closer to the body and bent slightly down to examine it. He cautiously reached down to touch the woman. The body was still warm and then it shuddered beneath his touch. Careful to not move her for fear of internal injuries, Harvey dropped to his knees beside the girl and pushed the grass away from her face. Saucers of red eyes gazed up at him in fear.

"Get a stretcher over her! This one's alive, but it looks like she's in shock."

The phone rang at the Wilson's at three a.m. Monday morning. Roy and Liz having arrived home late the night before were sleeping soundly when the sound of the phone awoke them.

Roy glanced at the clock on the nightstand and knew that a call at this hour would probably not be good news. He ran into the kitchen to catch the phone hoping that Liz would not awaken.

"Hello."   He cleared his throat.

"Is this the Roy Wilson residence?" an official voice asked.

"Yes sir, it is."   Roy was frozen in place listening.

"Mr. Wilson, this is the Mississippi State Highway Patrol. I am afraid I have some bad news."

Roy felt the blood rush from his face. "What is it?" He had to strain to find his voice.

"Your daughter, Barbara Lee Wilson, has been involved in an accident. If you could..."

"Is she dead?" Roy cut the man off.

"Yes sir, I am afraid she is." There was no easier way to answer. "Do you have transportation to get to Yazoo City? Or should we send a car for you?"

"No." Roy answered. The word sounded like a denial.

"Mr. Wilson, do you need someone to come assist you?"

"Where is she?" A touch of panic was creeping into his voice.

"At Bardens and Lomands in Yazoo City." Roy recognized the name of the cities largest funeral home. "We need you for positive identification."

"Positive identification." Roy parroted the words.

"Yes sir, Mr. Wilson, perhaps you should wait and let me send a patrol car for you."

"Yes, we'll wait." He hung up the receiver without saying another word.

A black wave of grief shook his body. He had to grab the back of a chair to maintain his balance. "Oh Jesus, Oh God," he muttered. Then the sobs erupted dragging him down to his knees on the cold kitchen floor.

"Roy? Roy? What is it?" Liz whispered hoarsely from the doorway.   When he didn't answer she shouted, "Roy?" There was something wrong a voice inside tried to tell her. She had never seen her husband in this sort of state before. She was afraid he was having a seizure or a heart attack or something.

"Roy?" she dropped to the floor and threw her arms around him. She could feel him convulsing in some sort of fit. "Roy, what is it?" she cried.

He turned and for a brief minute he stared into her eyes. The pain Liz saw there jolted her.

"Barbara Lee." He stuttered.

"Dear God no!" Liz screamed because in that instant she knew. She broke down. Her heavy body fell against him and she slid down further on the floor. She grasped handfuls of her own hair and pulled savagely.

It was this scene Emma beheld as she stepped into the kitchen. She stopped dead still, afraid to move. Roy spotted her and held out his arms to her. "Emma." he said between sobs.

She ran across the room to him and he embraced her in a crushing hug. Together they reached for Liz. Emma's mind raced. She could not imagine what had happened here. Liz grabbed at her like a drowning child. She stroked Emma's hair, crooning out soft sobs.

"Aunt Liz?" Emma finally asked softly.

"Oh Emma, my baby, my baby's dead." Raspy wails filled the air.

A knife of pain slammed into Emma's stomach. "No." she denied. "No," she pulled away and ran as fast as she could.

Sometime during that dreadful night the specifics, as they were deciphered, were related to the Wilsons. It was worse than their worst nightmare. Hell had come for a visit.

Roy fumbled a bit with disbelief, hoping against hope for some kind of error, but once he actually saw the remains, a sight that would become tattooed on the back of his eye lids for the rest of his life, he fell deep into a guilty despair. Liz never recovered enough from the initial shock to even grasp what all was being said to her. Her doctor was summoned soon after they arrived in Yazoo City and Liz was mercifully sedated into a dreamless sleep. All through this Emma stood rigid and mute outside the circle of whispered communications.

When Harvey Johnson finally arrived at the police station, he had been delayed at the hospital where the other victim now lay, he immediately took Roy aside. In the harshly lighted ‘police lounge’ with its out-dated snack and coffee machines, Roy sat across from Harvey at a yellow Formica table.

"Roy, I have just left King's Daughter Hospital. Do you know a young woman by the name of Beth Riggins?"

"Yes sir. She was a classmate of my daughter. Beth was driving the two of them back to school." His words came out devoid of any feelings.

"It seems that Beth Riggins may have well witnessed your daughter's