Inanimate (34 page)

“
Thanks for coming
detectives.”

“
No problem Sheriff”
said Graham. “To be
honest, we’re not really sure what to expect.”

Oates
smiled.

“
None of us are son. Doc, do me a
favor and go into the closet just outside the door there, grab us a
couple of chairs.”

Oates
knew that if MacNamee did not keep
busy he may shut down, and he needed the manpower today.

“
I’ll give you a hand”
said
Murdoch.

The office
was half empty, only the area
where the Sheriff’s desk was had some objects of use, the rest was
barren.
“Wasted space”
as Oates was fond of repeating. Sitting down at
his desk he watched the four organize the chairs and sit down, with
Jacobs naturally choosing his spot closest to the desk beside
MacNamee.

“
Now, where do we
start?”

Oates
spoke softly, clasping his hands
together. A moment passed before Murdoch responded.

“
Well
, we have the list of dolls we picked
up from Doctor Crass; it might be a good idea to get a clear
picture in our heads of what we’re looking for.”

“
Ok good,
can I see it?” Oates
asked.

Murdoch
walked over and handed him the note,
then sat back down again. Oates scoffed loudly.

“
Somehow I don’t think
this
will be
much help to us fellas.”

“
Why?”
asked Jacobs.

“
Look for yourself.”

Jacobs
took the note from Oates and suddenly
understood what he meant.

“
What
is it?” MacNamee enquired.

“
It’s so vague,
listen...”

Jacobs
began reading aloud.

“
Clown, Dog, Doll,
Bear...”

Bear
flashed into MacNamee’s head for a
split second before Jacobs continued.

“…
Dummy, two smaller dummies,
plastic soldiers. We’d have to round up toys from every kid in
town!”

“
Well that’s not an
option…
”
Oates said “…People are fretting as it is without raids on their
kid’s bedrooms. We do what the old doctor said, we find out who the
dolls are targeting and bring them here, together. As he pointed
out the murders aren’t random, we’re all targets too, so our best
chance is to stay together.”

Graham
interrupted MacNamee, having a clear
problem with what was said.

“
Sorry, what was that Sheriff?
Who are all targets?”

MacNamee
turned to Jacobs suspiciously,
apparently Jacobs never mentioned this.

“
We are
guys. Not you two, just
us.”

Jacobs
tried to clarify.

“
But surely we
are too, just by
being here” asked Murdoch.

“
We don’t
know that!” Jacobs said firmly, as if
strengthening his tone would strengthen his opinion as
well.

M
acNamee stared at him intently, speaking
quietly yet equally as firm.

“
Yes, we do!”

Murdoch
sat back in his chair and crossed his
arms.

“
Well that’s good to
know” said Graham
sarcastically.

“
Look! Even if we are all targets
it’s not a big deal as long as we stick to the plan! Sheriff, we
should hole up here, it’s gotta be the safest place in town. We
bring everyone back here, we arm them and we lock up the doors and
windows. I think the most important list we have to make is the
‘who aren’t targets’ list.”

Oates
looked at Jacobs,
pondering.

“
What do you
mean?”

“
Well, if we keep the station
business as normal while we’re here there will be extra lives at
risk because your officers will be here.”

Murdoch and Graham
share
d a
look, knowing they were put at risk without any of the same
concern. Jacobs continued:

“
But if we
can figure out who
wouldn’t
be at risk
as well as
who would be then we
could keep the number of targets to a minimum, and the town, in
theory, would be safer while we’re all holed up here.”

Oates
was nodding, he liked
this.

“
But how do we figure out
who
isn’t
safe?”

“
We don’t!”
interrupted MacNamee, fatigue
turning to anger “We make a list of who is, and exclude everyone
else,
it’s
that simple!
”

Matthew Bizet wasn’t the best
looking of men but that didn’t
seem to matter much. Rife with confidence, he
could charm any women he wanted. Most guys however found him
arrogant. This was most probably why he was friends with Tony
Oates, because, next to him anyone could appear humble. Lying awake
in bed next to his most recent trophy, he stared at the ceiling.
His little house wasn’t much. He worked in construction but thanks
to the recession, business was slow. Turning over to face him, the
little blond was feeling good. Matthew targeted inexperienced girls
so he could be selfish in bed and get away with it; she was unable
to tell the difference between his terrible performance and a good
one.

“
Morning lover” she
said, staring at the
side of his head.

Matthew squinted
his nose.

“
Wow Chloe, you’ve gotta watched
that morning breath. Tell you what, there’s some mouthwash in the
bathroom.”

The blonde
frowned; she threw the covers
off and stormed out of bed.

“
My name’s not Chloe” she
grumbled as she headed towards the bathroom.

“
Oh yeah that’s right”
Tony
said
quietly as he stared at her ass. “Ah to be eighteen
again”

He quietly recalled how Chloe was her
friend who he initially wanted to hook up with. He couldn’t
remember this one’s name at all.

Glenda
looked at herself in the mirror,
unhappy with what she saw despite her natural beauty. Really she
shouldn’t have cared about her breath or gone to the bathroom to
get mouthwash at all but with Glenda, vanity would supersede
dignity any day. Glenda scanned the area for the mouthwash but saw
nothing. Checking under the sink she saw nothing but a bag of
cotton balls and discarded toilet roll holders. Apparently Matthew
was too lazy to throw them away, instead, putting them out of mind
under the sink each time he used one up. She looked back at the
mirror, deciding to check the medicine cabinet. The boxy mirror
opened shakily revealing a varied selection of condoms and
lubricants. After a long look of disgust she spotted the mouthwash.
She took a swig and quickly spat it down the sink. Looking down
with a sigh she watched the green liquid swirl its way down the
black hole into the drain below. Closing the mirrored door she
checked her teeth, everything seemed fine so she turned to head
back to the bedroom. Frozen, she stopped. Dummy stood, staring
right at her, his eyes black. His mouth cracked into a devilish
grin, she opened her mouth to scream but something dropped on her
from above, taking her straight to the ground.

Matthew
looked at the clock; she had been in
there for twelve minutes. Normally he wouldn’t care but he had a
lot of things to do today and he wanted rid of her. She hadn’t even
dressed yet; normally he liked his conquests to be gone earlier
than this. Cursing her tardiness he got out of bed and slipped on
his clothes. He figured if she saw he was dressed it might
encourage her to leave. A convincing liar to women, Matthew already
had the apologetic tone picked out for her before he was finished
putting his clothes on. Experience had taught him that if you fake
apologize; girls were more likely to forgive you, thus avoiding a
time consuming argument. Sauntering, yawning out his bedroom; the
bathroom was halfway down the hall. He would really love the guy
who designed this house to get a punch in the face for putting in
wooden floors and having the bathroom so far away from the bedroom;
or how about the fact there were no windows in the hallway or the
bathroom, only ambient light when other doors around them were
open. He found this especially frustrating in the bathroom as you
always had to have a light on to see, otherwise he would be mopping
up his own urine from around the bowl on a constant basis. Nothing
was more of a turn-off for the girls he brought home than stepping
in a man’s pee. Matthew stopped outside the closed bathroom door
and put on his most sympathetic voice.

“
Hey babe, you
found the mouthwash?
I’m coming in ok.”

“
Ok sweetie”
came what sounded like Glenda’s
voice, only a little more strained”

“
Sounds
like she isn’t mad at me”
he thought to
himself
“maybe I can get rid of her faster than I thought.”
He opened the door
while yawning and looked ahead at where her eye level would be,
finding nothing. When his eyes focused to the bright bathroom light
he looked down and couldn’t believe what he saw. There she was on
the floor, her once beautiful naked body covered in toy soldiers,
the kind he used to play with as a kid. They were cutting her up,
her mouth was duct taped as were her arms and legs. Slicing her up
with knives and little muskets the soldiers were showing no mercy.
One soldier hacked at her eye with a tiny machete, causing blood to
flow freely. From the other eye she cried, screaming for help
through duct tape while she did. With the soldiers hacking at her
breasts, ribcage, arms and legs it would take the girl only a half
an hour to bleed out despite the small weapons. Despite Glenda’s
good eye staring at him, begging for help, Matthew could not move.
He stood for a few moments watching as the soldiers ignored him,
busy carving up Glenda as her body writhed in agony. After what
seemed like weeks he made his decision, he pulled the door shut
hard. When he closed it the noise stopped, but he knew her
suffering would not stop.

“
Where
are you going sweetie? Please don’t
leave me.”

The voice behind him
was similar to
Glenda’s but strained like before. He turned around and looked down
the hall. A small doll was standing looking right at him, its
classic black suit and smiling face belied a terrifying reality; it
was alive. The doll opened its mouth and Glenda’s voice came out
again.

“
Don’t
go baby, I just wanna have some
fun.”

Against the dolls
wishes, Matthew
turned and ran down the hallway into his room slamming the door
behind him. Grabbing a desk chair, he wedged it up against the
handle; he had never felt fear like this in his life and it wasn’t
about to get any better. Turning suddenly only to see the large
dummy at the other side of his room watching him, fear gripped
hard. Shakily, he tried reasoning with the imposing figure before
him.

“
What do you want? I didn’t kill
that guy, it was Ton
y and the others!”

Another smaller
dummy on a table by
the door announced its presence by speaking like Glenda.

“
Liar!”

He
didn’t know which one to watch, especially
when something started thumping at the bedroom door trying to get
in. Suddenly the larger dummy opened its mouth and spoke. His voice
was shrill and full of rhythm:

“
Truth
; is why we are here. You could have
told the truth but instead you went along with the lie, now you
must die.”

“
No
…” pleaded Matthew.

In desperation he
ripped the bedside
lamp out of the wall and wielded it as a weapon. Dummy looked
puzzled.

“
A lamp? You never were
the
brightest
were you Matthew?”

Cackling, Dummy
thrusted out his
arms and ran towards Matthew. Suddenly aware of his choice of
weapons may not have been great he panicked. Turning rapidly he
threw the lamp straight through his bedroom window; smashing it
instantly. With no time to care about the shards still protruding
he dove out, cutting his leg as he did so. Just as Glenda’s vanity
superseded her dignity, Matthew’s terror superseded his pain so he
got to his feet instantly. As he limped off down the lawn and
realized he wasn’t being chased he stopped. Unsure what was driving
him to look back didn’t stop him from doing so. Dummy stood at the
broken window watching him, hands by its side its eyes burned into
his. Speaking with Glenda’s voice Dummy yelled from the house while
Matthew stared in horror.

“
Don’t worry sweetie, we’ll
be seeing you soon!”

“
Ok I think that’s it”
stated Oates. “We
have seventeen names on the list including the five of us, my
nephew Tony is safe for now, Deputy Lynch will be with another cop
and Mayor Shannahan will be in his office which is quite protected.
That leaves nine people we need to pick up and get here before
anything else happens.”