Authors: Martin J Moss
Meta Zero One (12 page)
But there were no more evenings watching British crime dramas, which was a shame, Elroy had had to watch the complete run of Prime Suspect on his own.
"You're late Elroy," she said, the body on the table in front of her was covered with a fresh white cloth.
"Now Martha we both know you have nothing better to do tonight, and she, well she won't mind." He gave her a gentle peck on the check, which said, I know we've messed around and I enjoyed it, it was a peck that demonstrated a fondness and restricted intimacy.
"Hmm, you are so right," she looked at his hand, there was a cut across one of his knuckles, "have you been fighting in the playground Elroy? You know you should behave better."
"I crossed over Lowtown," he replied, letting her lead him to the sink, where she washed and dressed the cut, spraying antiseptic on it, which stung far more than it really should. He tried not to wince and failed.
"Poor baby," she crooned grinning at him, her perfect teeth flashing.
"Some MAH's were getting heavy with someone, and I put a stop to it."
"How many were there?"
"Three, just freaks really, one had a basic power of verbal compulsion, but I managed to ignore it."
"You should be careful," she said,"one of these days you're going to run into someone or something that you can't take down with swift kick in the nuts. There are more and more Metas out there, and it only takes one to get lucky and you'll end up on my slab, like this young woman here."
"I trust that if that happens you'll treat me in death with the same level of disrespect that you treat me in life."
"Absolutely," Martha smiled, walking back over to the body and pulling the white sheet down, exposing her subject to Elroy.
The woman was in her early twenties, well built, with the kind of hard muscled body that shouts of hours in the gym. She was naked, her skin very pale, but there were no obvious signs of damage or injury, other than to her face.
Her face was just not there.
Someone and taken an extremely sharp blade, and removed the layer of skin and muscle that had once been her face. Leaving behind a sight that was disturbing, even to Elroy.
"Janet Pascale Devior," Martha said, holding up the clipboard of notes, "aged 25 at time of death, lived in Cheshire England. She was here on holiday, staying at the Grosvenor Hotel on 54th street."
"Just by Lowtown," Elroy commented, taking the clipboard off her.
"Yes," she replied, "it's not that unusual, people like to take in the sights don't they, it's a decent cheap hotel, and Lowtown is a huge tourist attraction after all."
Elroy looked at the file, at the front of which was a picture of Janet Devoir, probably taken from her passport. It wasn't a very good shot, but he could clearly see how beautiful she had been.
"She was a looker," he said.
"Certainly was, just like all the others," over the last 2 years a series of murders had taken place, all with the same M.O. The victims were all young women, physically fit, with beautiful faces. There were no clues, no trace evidence, and no sign of a struggle.
Which was why Elroy and his team had been brought in.
It appeared that a super powered serial killer was on the lose, targeting beautiful women in the New York area.
23 victims, roughly at the rate of one a month had been identified.
23 women had had their faces cut off.
23 families had had their lives ruined.
"So it's definitely the Face Ripper," he said.
"Yes," Martha examined the wound closely, "although you might have to change the name soon. This face has not really been ripped of, it's been cut off, very very carefully and very very well. I've noticed this over the last few victims, the first few were extremely rough, there was more underlying tissue damage, but the last few, and particularly this one have been almost professionally done."
"Practice makes perfect" he said.
"I'd say so yes, anyway," Martha ran her hands down the victims arms, ending at the fingers. "There is no sign of a struggle, there are no defence wounds, and I will do a swab but I don't think there will be any of the murderers skin under her fingernails."
"The only wound," she continued, is on the back of the neck, here," Martha tilted Janet's head, so that Elroy could see the faint red mark. "As with all the others she has been injected with something, I expect it to be the same substance."
"Unknown Substance X," Elroy said.
"Unknown Substance X," she replied, every victim had been injected with a substance which the labs had singularly failed to identify. Traces were found in the blood but they decomposed whenever they were extracted and subjected to any tests.
It was almost as if they were designed to elude detection.
Which was another reason why Elroy and his team had been called in.
"So," he said, "the killer identifies his victim, sees her in the street, passes her, meets her in a pub something like that. He then gains access to, or is invited to the victims bedroom, where he injects her with Unknown Substance X. This presumably either knocks her out, kills her or just makes her unable to move, while he cuts her face off and takes it home."
"Sounds about right, he must be building up quite a collection by now."
"I don't think so."
"No, why not, there are 23 faces, so that's 23 he has taken home as you put it. I always assumed he preserved them in some way, as a memento. Unless you think he eats them with fava beans and a nice chianti."
"I don't think so no. I don't think he eats them, and I don't think he keeps them. Or of he does keep them then they don't last very long. It's roughly one every 4 weeks that he kills. So I think that he is using them, that he is using them up somehow. Whatever he does with them the faces only last for about 4 weeks. And then he needs a new one."
"So," he continued,"I reckon he's not going to stop, he'll carry on until we catch him, he dies of old age, or he runs put of pretty girls."
The Face Ripper
The face ripper watched themselves in the mirror. Janet Deviors face starred back at them.
She looked as beautiful as she had in life, and the hours the face ripper had spent smoothing the skin, tidying up the edges, had paid off wonderfully.
It almost fitted them perfectly.
Mounted carefully on a thin plastic mold, Janet's face moved in conjunction with the Face Ripper's own, mirroring the expression it looked almost alive.
Almost, but not quite alive.
Almost but not quite perfect.
The Face Ripper felt a tear run down their face between their skin and the plastic mold.
This one would not last, soon it too would fade away, soon, Janet's face would join all the others and have to be discarded.
Soon the Face Ripper would have to find another victim, another donor.
Soon...
To be continued
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Table of Contents
Chapter 1 – Stanley gets engaged, briefly.
Chapter 2 – Margaret’s life changes dramatically.
Chapter 3 - Elroy steps in something nasty
Chapter 4 - Stanley gets very drunk