Some Degree of Murder

Wednesday, April 21 st Wales/Magnolia, 2:12 PM

VIRGIL

It took me less than forty-minutes to find Wales and Magnolia and the deserted building Brian described. I parked Rowdy’s motorcycle about a block away and walked up to the building. A white Chevy van was parked in the alley behind and just west of the building.

At the front door, I tried the door knob. It turned slightly but wouldn’t open. I pressed my ear against the door and heard music coming from inside. A man’s voice yelled out in excitement several times over the loud noise. From the inside pocket of my jacket, I pulled out a pair of black lambskin gloves and slipped them on.

I pressed my shoulder against the door and leaned in hard. It took several minutes but the lock eventually popped. The door must have been kicked in more than a few times from the way the door jamb looked.

The loud music continued, as did the excited male voice. “How do you like that, bitch?”

I closed the door behind me and pulled my Glock out of my jacket pocket. My second Glock was still at the hotel room, just in case I needed to make a hasty retreat. The heavy weight of Hiero’s larger Glock in the small of my back was re-assuring. With careful and quiet steps, I made my way through the dirty office building. Old desks and broken furniture littered the rooms. I passed several rooms that smelled like someone had shit in them.

I took a long hallway to the back of the building, where I found a large office with a smaller room connected to it. The screeching heavy metal music was coming from the smaller room. I stepped carefully around the corner into the room and leveled my gun at the back of Rowdy’s head.

Tied to a bed was a naked young girl with slicked back red hair. Both her arms and her ankles were tied to the headboard, folding her over at the waist. Her hips were forced in to the air. A cloth rag was stuffed into her mouth and a piece of duct taped wrapped around her head. As the music squealed and pounded from a boom box on the floor, Rowdy danced and angrily slammed a large green dildo into her.

“You like that, don’t ya, slut?”

On a short, metal stool by the bed was a blackened glass pipe and little baggie. Rowdy jumped up and down and shook his shoulders.

“I wanna fuck you like animal!” Rowdy screamed in chorus with the music.

The girl’s eyes caught mine and they widened in surprise. I stepped behind Rowdy and grabbed my gun by the barrel.

Rowdy hammered his fist into the girl’s face before spinning around to face me.

“Hiya, sport,” I said and brought the butt of my gun down on Rowdy’s face.

He looked surprised for a moment and then crumpled to the ground.

I looked at the girl and realized I’d seen her before on Sprague. She was one of the young hookers who was just earning her bones. Her eyes were closed, her mouth was slack and blood flowed from her nose.

“I wanna fuck you like an animal!” The words screamed at me from the boom box. With a kick, I sent the boom box into the wall, shattering it and knocking over the stool with Rowdy’s dope.

I grabbed Rowdy by his hair and dragged him into the other room.

When he came to I shoved the Glock in his eye socket and told him to get up on his knees. Rowdy wobbled upright and tried to focus on me. A thick trail of blood ran down his face from the gash above his left eye.

I pulled out Fawn’s picture and showed it to him. “Remember her?”

Rowdy continued to stare at me. I lifted the picture up in front of his eyes.

“Remember her?” I yelled at him.

“Nope.”

“You killed her.”

“Oh, her,” Rowdy muttered.

I shoved the picture back in my pocket before jamming the gun back into Rowdy’s eye. He wobbled before falling backward.

I stepped over him and leveled my Glock at him. “That was my daughter.”

“Drop the gun,” a deep voice yelled behind me.