Part 1: Etaname ….. Part 2: Ruby Milner ….. Part 3: Old Bibi ….. Part 4: Som Pedersen ….. Part 5: Medusa
Part 6: Chief Harrison
Som had an uncanny way of being the first media coverage on the scene in Sandra Bay. Ruby was thrilled to accompany him. He hung a lanyard around her neck and handed her his tablet. “You’re my intern.”
The police let them into the condo but would not permit them to venture past the living room. Som interviewed some of the officers. They did not stay there long. From there, they drove to Hildegard’s, a hotel bar popular with Sandra Bay locals.
Som led Ruby to a small corner table on the back patio. They joined two other men, one whom Ruby recognized Delbert Harrison, Sandra Bay’s Chief of Police in Sandra Bay. The other man introduced himself as Ralph.
Som spoke to Chief Harrison. “I hate to sound so detached, but with people dying everyday, what is so special about this elderly man dying at home?”
“He was drowned in his own bathtub,” Chief Harrison explained. “Someone with soaking wet shoes and clothes walked into his condo, struggled with him in the kitchen, dragged him to his bathroom, and drowned him in the tub. It’s a murder that does not fit with the others.”
“The others!” Ruby sat up. “What others? Are there a whole bunch of murders happening around here?”
Chief Harrison did not believe in coddling. “Yes. Just within the last week. I won’t go into detail, but they are brutal, and this incident falls completely out of place with the rest. We also have good leads on the other murders. In fact, Som, this gets personal for you and me.”
Som told him, “Go ahead. I got relocated to her condo. I’m staying with her now. She’s affected.”
Chief Harrison proceeded. “They call themselves, ‘The Blue Fell Kings.’”
Som snorted, while Ralph laughed.
“You’ve seen what they’ve done, so you know this is not a joke, no matter how stupid the name sounds. Our informants counted thirty-six men in one building, forty-seven in another, and nineteen in the last one. That’s over a hundred followers already.
“You also need to know that you, Ralph, and I are on their list.”
“So?” came from a man who was used to having enemies.
“Our informants admitted to participating in ritualistic murder and cannibalization of already thirty-eight men just here in Sandra Bay. Those missing hearts, that’s what happened with them. And Som, that includes my four officers. You understand when I tell you that those were my men, not just some subordinates in a police uniform.
“According to the informants, the hearts of victims, or ‘Givers’, are pureed, mixed with an herbal compound, and ceremoniously consumed to draw the strength and fortitude.”
Ruby’s phone rang, and she took her call in a corner of the patio away from the crowd. It was her cousin Flore with news of their own tragedy: Granny Milner had passed to her next time and space. It was time for a trip to Guyana.
Part 7: MacNamara, Hound of the Sea ….. Part 8: The Treachery of Glenmore Williams ….. Part 9: A Very Blue Fell King ….. Part 10:
