Blake Crouch - Birds of Prey

Luther popped open the trunk.

“Fuck me,” Kork said.

Inside the compartment lay a man, completely naked, his body wrapped tightly in cellophane, all except for his head. His lips bulged wide around a ball-gag. He was older, in his fifties, white and hairy. His green eyes were wide with fear.

“Think those crows are still hungry?” Luther said, his mouth twitching.

Kork lowered his gun. He wondered what the chances were of running into these two kindred spirits in the middle of Indiana. Then again, he’d heard that the FBI estimated there could be as many as five hundred active serial killers in the U.S., so maybe the odds weren’t as high as he might have guessed.

Luther walked around to the rear passenger door on the shoulder-side of the Lexus and pulled it open. He fumbled around for a moment inside, and then returned to the trunk.

“You want in on this, Kork?” Luther asked.

Kork was staring at the wide-eyed man, thinking that aside from wrapping him in cellophane, it didn’t appear that they’d so much as laid a finger on him yet.

Fresh, untouched meat.

“Kork?”

“Yeah. For sure. You guys planning on doing him right now? Right here?”

“That’s up to Luther. I know he’s been itching to get to it ever since we picked Winston up in Gary.” Orson looked at Luther. “Luther, you sure you’re all right with bringing him in on this?”

Luther stared at Charles. He had eyes like black pits.

“As long as he shuts the fuck up, and doesn’t do anything until he’s offered the chance.”

“Charles?” Orson asked. “You cool with that?”

Kork had killed many people on his own, but the ones that were most memorable, and the most fun, were the ones he did with his sister, Alex. Orson had nailed it when he said Charles didn’t like to share. But with murder, it was different. Sharing made it more exciting.

“So when you pulled over to help me,” Kork said, “were you thinking I’d wind up in your trunk as well?”

“It crossed our minds,” Orson said. “We hate to pass up low-hanging fruit. How about that body in the field?”

“Blow torch versus whore.”

“I thought I caught a whiff of BBQ in the air. So do you want to join in the fun?”

“Abso-fucking-lutely.”

Luther seemed distracted. He was kneeling against the back bumper, leaning over the terrified man wrapped in plastic, staring down into his eyes with a brutal, predatory intensity.

“What you did to my family,” Luther whispered. “To my sister…” He pulled something out of his pocket. “…is something you’re going to pay for with more pain than anyone could endure.”

“What’s he doing?” Kork asked.

“Just give him a moment,” Orson said.

Luther’s face was inches from the man in plastic. “You killed my sister, didn’t you?”

The man wildly shook his head.

“No? So you deny it?”

Wild nodding.

“That just made it worse for you.”

Now Luther held up whatever he’d taken out of his pocket—a small, metal cylinder with six tiny blades on the end.

“This is called an artificial leech. Old-school medical instrument. It’s for poking holes in skin.”

Orson put a hand on Luther’s shoulder. “Not in the trunk.”

“Help me get him…Winston…out.”

The two men wrestled the package from the trunk, one at the head, the other at the feet. Charles joined in, cinching an arm around the wiggling man’s waste. He was screaming around his ball gag, and Kork felt himself becoming aroused.

They set him down on the shoulder-side of the car, and Luther sat on top of him.

“Look at me, Green Eyes,” he said. “I still dream about your eyes, about your friend walking up the beach at night toward our bonfire. You’re going to tell me the truth. Do you understand that?”

Frantic nodding.

“If I take out your gag, you’ll tell me the truth?”

Nodding.

“And do you know what will happen if you tell me the truth?”

Shaking.

“I’ll let you go. I just want to hear you say what happened to my sister. I never saw her again, never heard from her again after that night you and Ben came along and destroyed my family. I just want to know what you did to her. Are you ready?”

The man nodded.

Luther reached around behind his head and unstrapped the ball-gag.

Winston’s chest rising and falling.

The man’s gray hair slicked back with sweat.

“Please,” he said, “please don’t do this—”

Luther silenced him by simply holding up a finger.

“I don’t want to hear a single word come out of your mouth except for your explanation of what happened to my Katie.”

“Katie?”

Kork saw Luther shut his eyes for a moment, then open them again.

“Winston, this is your last chance. Then I’m going to stick you with this artificial leech about five thousand times and feed you to the crows.”

“Just tell me what it is you want me to say. I’ll say it. I’ll say anything.”

The wind was whipping Luther’s long, black hair around his face.

He tucked it back behind his ears.

“What did you do to my sister?”

“I…I…I’m sorry.”

“Where is her body?”

“It’s…I don’t know.”

“You don’t remember?”

“No.”

“Did you kill her?”

Tears streamed out of the man’s eyes.

“Did you kill her, Winston? Tell me you killed her and how you did it, and I won’t kill you.”

“I…I did it.”

“You did. Okay. How?”

“With um…with a knife.”

“You killed my eight-year-old sister with a knife?”

He nodded.

“Did you rape her first, Winston?”

“I…”

“Like you raped my mother. Tell me if you raped her before you killed her.”

“No…I didn’t…”

“You didn’t rape my sister? Or my mother? Because I saw you, Winston. I watched you do it. Don’t you fucking lie to me.”

“If I tell you…admit…that I raped her, you won’t kill me?”

“That’s right. I won’t kill you.”

“Yes,” Winston said. “I did it.”

“Do you know where Ben is?”

“Ben?”

“You’re partner. Tell me where Ben is.”

“I…I don’t know…”

Luther sighed. He pinched the man’s cheeks together and jammed the ball-gag into his mouth and snapped it back into place around his skull.

“I know what you’re thinking,” Luther said, “but I didn’t lie. I have no intention of killing you. I’ll let the crows take care of that. But first, we have to let them know there’s something yummy inside of you.”

The man was still trying to speak through the ball when Luther stabbed him with the artificial leech. Blood appeared beneath the plastic and the man screamed through his gag, the sound racing out across the cornfield.

“All you had to say was the truth,” Luther said, and he stuck him again.

And again.

And again.

And again.

And again.

And again.

Andagainandagainandagainandagainandagainandagainandagainandagainandagainandagainandagainandagainandagainandagainandagainandagainandagainandagainandagainandagainandagainandagainandagainandagainandagainandagainandagainandagainandagainandagain…losing control, wild stabbing thrusts, until sweat poured down his face.

Orson grabbed him by the shoulders and pulled him back.

Luther was crying.

He wiped his eyes, breathless, screamed, “That son of a bitch took everything from me.”

“I know,” Orson said. “I know.” The man was screaming and choking under the gag, blood leaking through the puncture holes in the plastic onto the pavement. “But let’s give our new friend a turn.”

By this time, Kork was fully aroused, and he didn’t even bother hiding it.