TWENTY MINUTES TO GO...
I am doing my best not to think about the dead man's shoes wrapped around my feet. Still, I cringe at the thought. Strangely, the only way to get rid of it is to occupy my mind with a twelve-year-old boy's corpse.
I put the Pillar on speaker as he keeps reminding me of the eighteen minutes I have left before the mortician arrives. Then I lay the phone on the edge of the metallic table and begin my work. I feel like Nancy Drew already.
Unzipping the first plastic bag, my hand shivers and trembles when I see the kid's corpse.
Somehow, I am not really sure of the corpse's gender. The face is so mutilated, my stomach churns. The sentence "Off with their heads" is scribbled in sticky blood on the forehead. This feels like one of those unnecessarily gory scenes in one of those slasher horror movies.
I intend to reach for the kid's face but realize my hands are still relatively numb. Not from the cold this time, but from the horror before my eyes.
I can't even swallow, feeling a lump in my throat. What is it about the real world that makes people commit such crimes? It's a kid, for God's sake! He was supposed to have a whole future ahead of him. Why am I staring at his chopped-off head in a morgue right now? Why?
"Too much gore?" The Pillar's munching echoes slightly in the boxed room. "Which reminds me, I need barbecue sauce for my snack."
Instead of screaming at him, I buckle down on my knees and vomit on the floor. I don't even have a chance to resist the urge.
"You're not vomiting, Alice. Or?" The munching stops. "Can't you see I am eating here? That's so Jub Jub."
The cold and fear seal my lips. I can't speak. All I do is wipe my mouth with the edge of the dead man's bloodstained duster. Last time, when I saved Constance, I hadn't come so close to a corpse. Let alone a young boy or girl.
"I need a minute," I tell the Pillar. His annoying attitude doesn't disturb me now. Seeing the corpse stirred the same emotions I felt toward Constance. Someone has to stop the Cheshire. At least, stop the killings from spreading. Someone has to stop this sane world's madness.
"You don't have a minute." The Pillar's voice is deadly serious. "All you have is sixteen minutes left before the mortician arrives to pick up your corpse."
"I just couldn't believe what I saw." I am on my feet again. Words worm their way out through my lips and cause me pain. I wipe my mouth again and force myself to stare at the chopped-off head. "I'm ready now, unzipping all five bags." I still do my best to suppress my inner screams. "Two boys, two girls, one I am not sure about since I can't tell from the head."
"That's fine," the Pillar says. "If we see it's necessary to know its gender, you can check the rest of the body later."
"I only unzipped the bags a few inches to examine the heads," I explain. "The rest of the bodies should be down there if I unzip it totally open."
"No need for that now," the Pillar says. "You came to check the heads. They are the body of the crime, after all. The bodies have been collected from the kids' houses after the discoveries of the heads."
"So the killer chopped off heads in the houses and took the heads with him? That's horrible."
"We're not sure, Alice. He could have chopped the heads and then sent the body back to the house. Anyhow, read the toe tags, please. Let's see if a name clicks."
I read the names, but none of them rings a bell. I read them aloud to the Pillar. They don't mean anything to him either.
"Strange. I thought the names would have a clue. Fifteen minutes." I don't know why he feels he needs to remind me. I'm aware of the scarcity of time. "Try to look for anything the five heads have in common."
"Nothing but the 'Off with their heads' message," I say as I look harder for any details I might have missed.
"That's it?" The Pillar is disappointed. I can tell he has no clue what's going on.
"No, wait!" I reach for one of the metal instruments on the table and use it to part a corpse's mouth. "There something in boy's mouth," I say. "It's wrapped in a small plastic Ziploc."
"What is it?" I've never heard the Pillar so curious.
"A muffin."