Dead Man Running (7 page)

At that moment,
a huge growl filled the room
.

"
Man, you must be hungry
.
"

Wiley reache
d
out and put his hands on the woman's head.  She look
ed up at him and smiled
.

"
Hey, I was thinking the same thing.  After I give you some head,
maybe
we can do the interview
, right?
"

"
Bring ya momma in and I'll heal her too!
" Wiley shouted.

Bernadette
pondered the proposal.  "
Well, if you want, she
's
playing canasta this afternoon...
"

Wiley's arm jerk
ed
upward and pull
ed
the woman's head off.  The reporter's body drop
ped
to the floor, legs twitching
,
and blood
gushing everywhere
.  His mouth open
ed
wide as a shark's. 

Jan enter
ed
the room just as Wiley swallow
ed
the head.
  She place
d
both hands over her mouth to stifle a scream.

Wiley
's suddenly long and sharp teeth crunched the woman's skull until it easily slid down his throat. 
With a gentle burp, the former Reverend
Wiley stare
d
straight ahead.  Jan walk
ed
into the room, closing the door behind her.  She
stepped past the dead woman,
over to the balcony,
where she
close
d
the door and dr
ew
the curtains.  She approache
d
Wiley.

"
You know and I know this is not the first time you've eaten a woman, Ben.  Next time
,
don't be so sloppy.
" 
She stare
d down at the woman and reached down to the woman wrist.  "
At least let me take her gold off.  No need to swallow all this nice jewelry.
"  She retrieved a wedding ring off a stiffening finger, a gold watch from her wrist.  "Now, Benjamin, you may finish your meal."

To Jan's surprise the zombie
understood her words,
reach
ing
down to the
corpse
.  H
e
took hold of an arm, ripped it out the socket, and began to munch it like it was a pretzel stick.

Retrieving supplies from the basement, Jan spent the rest of
her
day cleaning. 
Luck
il
y she had some experience tidying up after murders.

The body was
n't
a problem – Wiley's appetite seemed insatiable.  She cleaned the blood splatter from the walls.  Having built a fire
in the bedroom's fireplace
she burned the woman's belongings – handbag, clothes
, phone
and shoes.  The blood soaked rug was a problem.  She found Mrs. Wiley's sharp butcher's knife and put it to use cutting the worst of the rug into small chunks.  Over several hours she flushed the carpet pieces down the
toilet
.

She would explain the missing section of carpet by telling anyone who asked that Wiley had had an accident. 

Later, t
he sun was down, the reporters
were no longer
outside the building
and Elias and Chi
had
gone to whatever bars or clubs they haunted
. 

The house was empty except for Jan and Wiley – Mrs. Wiley having escaped to their place in the
Hamptons
to avoid the media crush.  Jan helped herself to some of the woman's clothes and added her own blood covered ones to the fireplace.

She readied Wiley for bed and gently guided him to lie
down
.  She showered and soon slipped in next to the dead man.  She
stroke
d
his face.

"
Next time, no mess.  That's too much work for your girl.  Okay?
"

Wiley, at the sound of her voice, tilted his face toward hers.  Jan imagined that he nodded slightly.  She smiled and closed her eyes.  She felt Wiley's dead eyes on her face and, somehow comforted by this, fell asleep as fast as her exhaustion could take her.

"The leader of the monsters has killed for the first time," announced
Eldina
Thomas to her granddaughter Tamesha
as the child ate her pork chops
. 

She said nothing more about the monsters over dinner, nor when she tucked Tamesha into bed. 

Tamesha lay in bed unable to sleep.  Outside
their apartment
, far below
on the street
, there were angry shouts, sirens and sporadic gunfire.  This noise had been Tamesha's lullaby since she was a baby but it would not help
her
sleep tonight.

Tamesha rolled out of bed, careful not to make any noise.  She reached under her bed and extracted a flashlight and
a
five subject
loose leaf
note
book.  Printed on the cover of the
note
book were the words "TAMESHAS BOOK".  She climbed back into bed, opened the
note
book and propped the flashlight on her pillow to illuminate the pages.

There was a ball point pen secured to the book's metal rings.  She took this pen in her left hand and began to write.
  It had been awhile since she recorded her thoughts in the book.

"Granny T say that the monsters are coming. 
Every day
I said hello to the drug dealers and the crack heads and hop heads and pet the dogs that aint got no home that hang round the courtyard.  I aint seen no monsters and tol
d
granny so.  She say that I should just wait.  She say that the monsters are coming sure as Jesus be coming.  I a
sk
ed why Jesus aint coming first to save us from the monsters.  She jus
t
laugh at me.  She say that the world jus
t
have to go threw somethin sometimes, and this be our time."

"I say to granny why aint we running away if the monsters be coming.  She say they aint no running for her.  She say that I gotta hide when they come.  I dont want to hide
. 
I wanna be with Granny T.  I dont want the monsters to get her."

"Granny T say that the head monster done kill somebody.  I don’t want him to kill my granny.  I
'
m afraid right now.  When I was getting ready for bed I asked granny again why Jesus wont help us.  I tol
d
her that we should tell the pastor Bryant that the monsters are coming.  She said that it would do no good.  She say that soon the pastor will be a monster and then even Jesus might not be able to save us."

She closed the notebook, tucking the pen back inside the rings.  She played with the flashlight by illuminating the roaches as they crawled on her walls and ceiling.  After a few minutes she stopped – she yawned mightily.  She dropped off the bed and put the light and book back in their places. 

She walked to the window and looked down. 

Far below the cop ants were chasing a brother ant.  She watched as one of the cop ants tackled the brother ant and slapped handcuffs on his back after giving him a couple
of kicks to his ant
buttocks.

Tamesha yawned again as the scene unfolded below.  She turned from the window and climbed into bed.  She soon fell asleep but her unconscious mind was busy. 

Where could she hide when the monsters finally c
a
me?

Plastered on the large window out front
of Wiley's
Harlem
campaign headquarters
we
re numerous campaign posters featuring the smiling candidate bracketed by the slogan:
SEND G
OD TO CONGRESS - VOTE FOR WILEY.

In his office
in the early morning
with the door closed,
Elias
made
busy at his desk
, reviewing the overnight poll numbers.  Wiley's support had actually risen after yesterday's incident.  He smiled broadly and thanked God for poor black folks.

There
wa
s a knock at the door.

"
Come in.
"

Two men
we
re standing there with Chi.  The cheap suits scream
ed
NYPD.  Elias st
ood
.

"
Hello,
detective
s, what can I do for you?
"

"
Elias, they're asking about a missing reporter
," said Chi.

"
Mr. Turnbull, as we told Mr. Bright, we're searching for a reporter,
Bernadette
Brinkman
, who was last seen outside of Reverend Wiley's home
," said the oldest of the pair.  The younger officer produce
d
a photograph and show
ed
it to Chi and Elias. 
It
was
a younger version of Brinkman,
maybe mid thirties, dressed in a bridesmaid gown.

Elias and
C
hi shook their heads in tandem, neither recall
ed
the woman from the throng of reporters.

"
I'm sure Mr. Bright told you that we don't know anything about the lady's disappearance.  After the
r
everend's comments yesterday, there were many reporters outside his house.
"

"
We're aware of that, Mr. Turnbull, we were just interested in interviewing Mr. Wiley
," said the younger cop.  "
Perhaps he had some contact with Ms.
Brinkman
?
"

Elias smiled.  "
That's easy, detectives.  After his ordeal, Reverend Wiley gave no interviews.  He simply did some reading and retired early.
"

"Yeah, he retired.  Early," echoed Chi.

"
Well, I guess there's not more here for us to do.  Let's go, Fred.
"  The older detective turned to leave.

The younger cop followed his partner then stopped.  He took a card from his wallet and a picture from the manila folder he carried.

"
I'll leave the lady's picture and my card.  If you happen to see her, give us a call.
"

He handed
the items to Chi.

"Of course, detective," said Elias.  "
Chi, please show the detectives out.
"

"
Sure.
"

Elias took
the objects from Chi and as soon as they le
ft
the room he
dump
ed
the items in a trash can. 
Bernadette Brinkman's photo stare
d
up at Elias from the trash.

A few moments later
Chi return
ed
to the office.  Elias motion
ed
for him to shut the door
and sit
.

"
What the hell was that all about?
" Elias asked.

"
I don't know anything about this woman.
"

"
The last thing we need is the cops interviewing Wiley.  They'll either find out he's dead or they'll send him to the
loony
bin.  Either way, we're screwed.
"

"
I have to admit, E, I got second thoughts about this whole thing.  Maybe this
is
connected to Wiley.  Maybe God is pissed we brought him back.
"

"
You're thinking too much, Chi.  Way too much.  Think about this.  You're my chief of staff pulling 110G's.  Driving a fat car in chocolate city with honeys coming out the ass.  Think about
that
.
"

"
That all sounds g
reat
Elias, b
ut I just got a bad feeling.
" 
Chi sh
ook
his head.

"
Hold it together, man. 
Seven
more days, we get rid of Wiley and your bad feeling all at once.
"