Games in the Dark
The Devil’s Road — CHAPTER 04: TALL IN THE SADDLE
Welcome to Issue #14 of The Devil’s Road, a serial novel following the exploits of Samantha Hart, a Sequoyah County Sheriff, full of vengeance and fury using her badge to hunt down her sister's killer as she uncovers a trail of bloodshed that coats the heartland. If you missed it, you can read last week’s Chapter 4: Tall in the Saddle, Issue 03: Crosshairs of Uncertainty.
If you are new to the series, I recommend you check out Chapter 1 which you can read or listen to for free here:
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And now, please enjoy Chapter 4 Issue 4 of … The Devil’s Road.
In 2004 an Oklahoma Bureau of Investigations analyst discovered a crime pattern along the Interstate 40 corridor between Oklahoma and Mississippi. Subsequently, The Federal Bureau of Investigations (F.B.I.) started the Highway Serial Killings Initiative. They discovered over 500 bodies of women along the interstate highway system with more than 200 potential suspects, a trail of bloodshed that coats the heartland. The Devil’s Road is a serialized novel based on this horrific discovery.
Sam’s cruiser is parked in the shadows behind a billboard. In the distance, the parking lot of the Sequoyah County Coroner’s Office is lit up against the night sky. She flips open her phone, painting her face in a green light.
The digital readout shows four missed calls, each with a subsequent voicemail. The calls arrive in rapid succession, each not more than two minutes apart. The last one comes at 2:12 AM. The clock on her dash reads 2:16 AM.
All the calls are from the same number—the main office of the county coroner, Dr. Bart Laurent, her ex-husband. She knows each message is another syrupy plea for attention. Sam still indulges his needs, and in exchange, he offers her information. She despises the transactional relationship almost as much as she despises the transaction he requires. She thinks for a moment, then decides to call him back.
“Samantha?” Bart answers.
Sam doesn’t respond. She sits in silence and waits.
“Okay, well. It looks like our right hander again. Bruising on the cheek suggests a baton of some sort, just like several of the others.” Bart shuffles papers around as he reads through the file.
“She’s a brunette, but was wearing a red wig. So, there are some similarities there, but I suppose you already knew,” Bart’s voice begins to quiver as he tries to continue.
Bart continues, “I was really hoping you’d come home tonight. It’s been, well, it’s been a hard couple of weeks, and I…” Samantha shushes him.
“I thought you would be home,” Sam whispers into the receiver.
“Oh, yes, well, we had this Jane Doe today. I thought you’d want to come by and,” Bart pauses, assuming that she may be waiting on him.
“Are you at our house?” he asks.
“Needed a night at home,” Sam replies.
The back door of the Sequoyah County Morgue slides open as Bart rushes through, fumbling to get his keys out of his pocket. He makes a beeline for the canary yellow Porsche, the only car in the lot. Nothing says carpetbagger in the South like a Porsche. Sam, now kneeling behind the bushes at the building’s exit, slips inside before the sliding door closes. Bart’s in too much of a hurry to notice.
Sam watches from inside as he pulls out of the lot, nearly clipping one of the light poles as he speeds toward the exit, and then waits until his taillights disappear into the darkness. She’s alone now, in the morgue. It’s quiet, which is how you want a morgue to sound when you’re the only one inside. She needs to get that autopsy report tonight. By tomorrow, it’ll be in the Captain’s hands, and she’ll never get close to a copy of it.
The body of Sandy lies naked on a cold metal slab table in the middle of the examination room. Sam stands over the body with her camera. She snaps a photo of Sandy’s hands first. The Tiffany Blue nails are well-manicured, and there doesn’t appear to be any residue underneath. She must have been surprised.
Next, Sam moves to her feet. The soles are dirty, and the skin on her heels is scratched. Perhaps she was dragged? She snaps another photo. The ankles, wrists, and midsection all show signs of bindings. The wrists and ankles are particularly red and worn. She was obviously bound. That explains the lack of evidence under the fingernails.
Now it’s time for the difficult bit. Sam focuses her camera on what remains of Sandy’s face. The skin appears to be sewn back on with what looks like dental floss. The flesh was roughly hewn away and sloppily reattached. Large pieces of flesh appear to have been lost in the process, forcing the perpetrator to stretch the skin in places to allow for reattachment. It looks like a melted mask has been placed over her skull.
Despite the damage to the tissue, there is an apparent bruise running along the left side of her face from the corner of her mouth up and over the eye and into the hairline. The weapon must have been some sort of bat or oblong stick. She snaps another photo before approaching the work desk covered in items recovered from the crime scene.
Sam opens the file left by Bart. Sure enough, she finds his note: “Fracture of the frontal bone over the left orbital plane. Weapon was oblong in shape and likely made of wood, as grain marks are apparent under microscopic examination.”
The camera clicks again and again as Sam photographs the other items displayed on the desk: the wig, a purse, and the loaded .22 pistol. Sam pulls on a pair of rubber gloves and picks up the small revolver. She pulls the pin and looks inside the chamber. Two of the chambers are empty. Interesting.
She places everything back the way she found it but holds on to the file. The sun will be up in a couple of hours. She’s got to move faster. A quick copy of the contents and she’s back to her cruiser.
Sam stands at the trunk of her cruiser, the box of files open inside. She looks down at the growing stack of cases that her superiors would prefer she forgot, but she’s not going to let them remain in the shadows. These women won’t be forgotten. Her sister won’t be forgotten. No, she’ll be avenged.
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