Johnny Gruesome (14 page)

Beelock made a Y-shaped incision in Johnny’s chest, starting at each shoulder, meeting in the sternum, and continuing down to the pubis, cutting Johnny like a deer. He set the bloodied scalpel on the tray, then peeled back the folds of Johnny’s flesh like rubber, exposing his glistening red rib cage. For a moment, Matt regretted passing up Beelock’s offer of a drink.

Susan handed Beelock a pair of cutters that resembled pruning shears, and he positioned the blades over the lowest portion of the rib cage. Squeezing the long handles, he cut his way through Johnny’s ribs. The ensuing sounds reminded Matt of the crunching he made while eating breakfast cereal. Reaching the top ribs, Beelock started over at the bottom rib on the other side of the cage. Once finished, he returned the cutters to Susan. He leaned over Johnny and gripped opposite ends of the cage, then popped Johnny’s chest plate off like a manhole cover and set the bloody ribs down on a smaller autopsy table.

Johnny’s lungs and intestines sat fully exposed, pink and gray and surrounded by muscles and tissue. Susan photographed the organs from various angles, and Matt felt moisture on his forehead despite the frigid temperature.

Beelock removed Johnny’s lungs, heart, esophagus, and trachea. He weighed each organ on a hanging scale, and Susan set them aside in plastic containers for further dissection. Beelock described their condition while Susan used a syringe to withdraw fluids from the various cavities.

Matt stared at the wall clock: only 12:10. The second hand crawled around the face in slow motion. He could not decide which he wanted to do more: pass out or vomit.

Beelock stepped behind Johnny’s head. Selecting a fresh scalpel, he cut an intermastoid incision from behind Johnny’s left ear, along the top of his head to behind his right ear, then set the scalpel down. He parted the hair along the incision, seized the scalp in both hands, and yanked it down over Johnny’s face like an obscene mask, pink flesh out. Matt appreciated that the music on the CD player muted the squishy sounds of the scalp separating.

Susan handed Beelock a small electric bone saw, which hummed as he cut away the front quadrant of Johnny’s skull. He removed the skull fragment and set it down like a jigsaw-puzzle piece, exposing the soft pink brain. He took another clean scalpel and severed the arteries and connections that held the brain within the skull. He set the scalpel down, reached inside the skull with both hands, and removed Johnny’s quivering pink brain.

“Meet John Vincent Grissom.”

Matt felt the blood rushing from his head.

“This was a healthy young man,” Beelock said as he set the brain down on the scale. “Clean lungs, strong heart.” He picked up yet another scalpel. “Now, let’s get to the heart of the matter.” He made a vertical incision in Johnny’s throat, exposing his larynx, then picked up an instrument with a light on its end and prodded the damaged tissue inside Johnny’s neck. “The larynx has been crushed. There is a fracture of the hyoid bone and the thyroid cartilage.” He paused to set the instrument down. “It’s my opinion that John Grissom, a seventeen-year-old male, died as a result of severe and intensive injury to his neck, causing accidental asphyxiation.” He flicked off the microphone.

Matt leaned closer, gazing at the grisly mass where Johnny’s face should have been. “You’re sure this was an accident?”

Finally!

Beelock peeled off his gloves and deposited them in a metal wastebasket. “Are you suggesting someone else was in that car when it went off the bridge?”

“No, but that bruise on his neck—”

“It’s true that most ligature strangulations are homicides, but that’s not the case here. Look at your own photos. You and I both know that toxicology is going to show this boy was drunk when he drove off that bridge. The steering wheel crushed his throat on impact, depriving him of oxygen. Plain and simple.”

Matt bobbed his head. “You’re the expert.”

Nice going, Barney Fife.

“Join me for that drink now?”

“No, I think what I need is fresh air.”

“Understandable. Susan, would you mind fetching the chief’s garments?”

Susan disappeared into the adjacent room. Staring at the corpse, Matt said, “So what happens next?”

Beelock motioned to the plastic containers on the counter. “We’ll perform some additional dissection, then put all the pieces back together. They couldn’t do it for Humpty Dumpty, but Susan and I can do it for young Mr. Grissom.” He indicated the jagged edge where the skull fragment had been removed. “This special jigsaw cut makes reassembly easier.”

“Like a puzzle,” Matt said.

You couldn’t solve a crossword puzzle!

K
aren sat on the living room sofa, one leg folded beneath her, gazing at the television and flipping through the channels, searching for distraction. Rain spattered the windows, an unusual occurrence for winter.

She hated being alone.

Her mother had left work early the day before to comfort her, but Karen knew that couldn’t last. How would she survive without Johnny? Young women tended to either leave Red Hill after graduation or remain in town until their dying day. She and Johnny had discussed moving to LA, or to New York City, or to Florida. But they had discussed those trips in tones reserved for daydreams. Though Johnny had never said so, Karen had always believed they’d marry some day. The dream had died with Johnny, and she didn’t know how to pull herself together. She’d been “Johnny’s girl” for two years, and she didn’t know how to be with anyone else.

Tossing the remote control aside, she wandered into the kitchen and surveyed the leftover diner food in the refrigerator. She hadn’t been hungry for a day and a half. In the middle of the night, unable to sleep, she had smoked the remainder of the joint Gary had given her; even that had failed to revive her appetite. Thinking of the marijuana made her want to get high, not eat. She opened the cabinet where her mother kept her liquor and withdrew a blue bottle with an inch of cognac in it. She unscrewed the cap and sniffed the liquor, her nostrils flaring.

Good,
she thought. She raised the bottle to her lips and took a single sip, believing her mother would never notice her theft. The cognac numbed her tongue and burned her throat, its heat traveling down to her belly.
What the hell.
Taking a second sip, she gasped. Then she held the opening of the bottle beneath the faucet of the sink and turned the water on and off. The bottle appeared as full as it had before her indulgence. She put it away and closed the cabinet.

The doorbell rang and she froze.

Who could that be?
Not Chief Crane again, she hoped. He’d stopped by the previous evening, and she’d recited her story exactly as Gary had instructed. She thought he believed her, but maybe something had changed his mind. Darting into the bathroom, she gargled mouthwash. The doorbell rang again as she hurried into the living room and peeked around a curtain. Gary stood on the porch, hands stuffed in his pockets as usual. She let out a relieved sigh and opened the door, allowing cold air to snake around her. The rain had reduced the snow in the driveway to slush.

“I saw your mom’s car parked at the diner,” Gary said, “so I thought I’d stop by and see how you were getting along. Can I come in?”

“Sure.” She stepped back, allowing him to pass her, then closed the door.

Gary unlaced his boots, stepped out of them, and entered the living room. He sat on the sofa, close to the middle, so she had no choice but to sit beside him. “How are you holding up?”

“I’m glad it’s the weekend.” Friday had been unbearable for her. She had wept when Mr. Milton reported Johnny’s death, and had run to the girls’ bathroom to hide.

“I know what you mean. It takes the pressure off us. You want to get something to eat?”

Having no desire to show her face in public, she shook her head.

“You sure? We could do something else, just to take your mind off things.”

She shook her head again, holding back the emotions bursting to escape.

“I hear you. Let me know if you change your mind.”

He put one hand on her shoulder and she tensed up. He had used that hand to kill Johnny.