Page 20 of Landon (In Safe Hands)
“So,what, you think I’ll fire you if something happens between us?”
“No,but nothing can happen. I won’t be paid by a man I’m fucking. I’m not a whore.”
Hereyes widen as I lay a finger under her chin. “I never thought you were.”
“Ijust…we can be friends, but that’s it.” Her chin sticks out, and I almost laughat her stubborn attitude.
“Ifthat’s what you want.” She closes her eyes when I kiss her forehead. “Becareful driving home.”
Nodding,she grabs her purse and makes a beeline for the door. “See you tomorrow.”
Silencedescends, feeling thicker than usual. Friends. Damn it.
* * * *
Myphone beeps just past midnight with a message from Dare.
-Justusneeds help at farm.-
Shit.That was fast. This isn’t how I wanted to spend my night.
-Onmy way.-
Thisis the worst part of my job. And I do see working with Dare and the other guys asmy job. But I hate this part. I guess I’d have to be a monster not to despiseit. I change into a ratty pair of jeans and an old T-shirt before hopping intomy car.
It’san hour and a half drive to the farm south of the city and despite what I’mheading there to do, I enjoy the drive. I live my life at night, but this iswhat I think of as true night. Stars shine in the black sky, only shuttered bya random cloud blowing by. The air is warm and thick with the scent ofhoneysuckle and fresh cut grass. So different than the constant light andstench of the city.
Truenight. Where you can hear an owl hoot or a coyote howl. Where the cry of a loonand the smell of fresh water signals that I’m near the lake. Where I feel themost alive. I should bring Zoe out here one night and show her this world.
Along gravel driveway winds through the woods, ending in front of a largefarmhouse. I pull up behind Justus’s truck. “Hey,” he calls, jumping down fromthe cab.
Mystomach cramps as I get out of my car, but I ignore it. I have to man up. Shithas to be done. “He still in the back?”
“Yep.Heavy son of a bitch, too.”
“Well,let’s put those stripper muscles to good use.” I climb into the back of hiswhite box truck, and he follows.
“Fuckoff, Dracula.” He turns on the light and the empty truck brightens. It looksempty to anyone who doesn’t know what to look for. Justus runs a hand down anearly invisible seam in the front wall and pulls away a panel, revealing aspace just large enough to fit his cargo.
Alimp hand falls out of the makeshift shroud he’s wrapped the body in, and ashiver runs down my spine. We’re way out in the boonies and the chance ofgetting caught is extremely low, but if a cop were to stumble on us now, itwouldn’t matter who the guy was or why Justus killed him.
Thepolice are happy to work with us to locate child predators, but I’m sure theywouldn’t come to our defense if they knew we track down and dispose of the worstof the worst. The ones who repeat offend. Or go after pre-pubescent kids. Theones you know will never stop what they’re doing. This sick fuck, for example,was trying to buy an eight year old girl, and not for the first time.
He’san ex-con who has done ten years for raping a five year old girl and chokingher until she nearly died, and another five for a separate attempt to kidnap athird grade girl. We’ve had an eye on him since he was released last month andit didn’t take long for him to take the bait and try to buy a child.Thankfully, we were the ones doing the selling and no actual girl was ever indanger. It’s clear he’ll never stop targeting little girls, so I don’t have anymoral compunction when it comes to taking him out. Or Justus taking him out.
Thisisn’t something we do on a regular basis. I don’t kill. Even though I don’thave a problem with this, I just don’t have it in me. Dare and Justus take careof the dirty work. I mainly track the predators, chat with them and gain theirtrust until they reveal their depravity. And occasionally help dispose of abody.
Suppressinga shudder, I grab the guy’s legs and we manage to get him out of the truck. Aswe approach the farmhouse, Jed walks onto the porch. The thwack of the screendoor slamming shut makes me jump. “I got her all set for you boys,” he says.
Weown the farm, though it can’t be tracked back to us on paper, and Jed keeps theplace up for us. “Appreciate it. How have you been, Jed?”
“Can’tcomplain. You boys come in for a drink before you go.”
“Willdo,” I reply as we carry the corpse past him and towards the barn. A largeindustrial wood chipper waits behind the barn, a bag already attached to catchthe “clippings”. Justus gets the unfortunate job of stripping the body while Ibuild a fire in a large metal drum. Once it’s roaring, in go the dead man’sclothes and the rug he was wrapped in.
Nowfor the body. Justus turns on the chipper, and I help him tilt the man’s bodyin head first. It’s a good thing we’re far away from people because the soundof the wood chipper eating away at bone and flesh is deafening. It doesn’t takelong for the corpse to be completely shredded, the remains landing in thecollection bag.
Achipper doesn’t get rid of everything, even if you were to run the remainsthrough it more than once, so our next stop is the barn. I gag on the smell ofblood as we detach the bag and carry it to the pig trough. The asshole isn’tany lighter just because he’s ground up. The sloshing sound that echoes acrossthe night when we dump the human soup into the trough will haunt me forever.Apparently, it sounds appetizing to the hogs that instantly crowd in to, well,pig out.
