Free Suicide Serial by Matthew Boyd Page B

batteries, and a few different small hand tools.
     
    Mouse droppings littered nearly every surface and bugs crawled around everywhere. There were heavy iron bars welded into place on the small windows that let in only the smallest amount of light. There were literally years of human waste lining the edges of the basement. On the walls, there was writing. One large area had been devoted to keeping a tally of something, probably days. Tally marks extended for several feet down the wall, and there had to be well over one thousand such marks. In other areas, there were strange, cryptic messages. One of them that had been repeated many times read,
     
    “ Deliver unto me my vengeance, so that I can cover the world with the blood of the righteous.”
     
    It became clear that Henry had been held as a prisoner in the basement. Jake could barely breathe with the overwhelming stench.
     
    “No wonder this guy is so messed up,” Jake said, silently wishing he had brought a gas mask. “Looks like dear ol’ dad had been keeping him locked up down here for years.”
     
    “Jake, I’d swear that equipment on the table looks like someone has been making a bomb. If Henry has something like that…”
     
    Jake interjected, “I don’t even want to think about the repercussions, Stace. He seems to be a pretty smart guy so I can’t put it past him to construct something like that. Let’s keep looking to see if there’s anything else down here before we move on.”
     
    Stacey nodded and silently flipped through the books on chess and then the horror novel, looking for another message to give some insight into Henry’s next move.
     
    Jake shined his flashlight behind one of the large concrete support columns and saw something that caught his eye. “Over here, Stace. Check it.”
     
    Stacey flipped on her flashlight and walked over to where Jake was pointing. There was a torn white sheet barely covering something.
     
    Stacey reached down and removed the sheet. Underneath were the remains of what was most likely a female. The body was mostly a skeleton and had been almost completely stripped of flesh over time. The victim was wearing a patchy, ragged dress that looked like it had been coated in blood and allowed to dry out over the last decade. She had a gold necklace with a cross hanging around what was left of her neck, along with a fraying, ancient-looking rope. Her hands and feet were still bound with a similar type of rope. Above her hung the other half of the frayed noose, swaying quietly from the first-story floor supports that formed the basement roof. A pawn chess piece had been jammed into the mouth, which had broken front teeth and an obvious jaw fracture. Smeared in thick lines of dried blood on the support column was the word, “Mother.”
     
    Jake nearly jumped out of his skin when his cell phone rang out loudly.
     

Chapter 10
     
    She was beautiful, and everyone loved her, except for one person.
     
    Marci Harrington had been the 1998 Winchester High School Homecoming Queen. She was beautiful, popular, and had a bright future lined up for her. She had graduated college and worked as one of the town’s foremost interior designers. Marci had a penchant for style, and helped some of the richest people in town create some of the most attractive living spaces possible. Her husband Rick was an attorney, a real political mover and shaker, gnawing at the bit for a chance to become the next DA. They both came from privileged families and lived in a big house in a nice neighborhood. They had a two year old child, Michael, together. Everything was perfect, until today.
     
    Right now, Marci was facing the biggest decision of her life.
     
    A big man wearing a ski mask and holding a butcher knife had smashed through their sliding glass backdoor no more than five minutes ago. Marci ran and scooped up her son to try and protect him. The man kicked out hard with one powerful leg and had knocked her over before she could get