A Crying Shame

As the chief of police entered the state medical examiner’s office, he straightened his hat and cleared his throat. The hallway was bright with fluorescent light and nothing else. Pale walls. Scuffed linoleum. No pictures. No plants. The air smelled like disinfectant and cold metal.

He knocked three times. “Hello,” said Bill. “Good to see you, Chief. Come on in.”

The exam room was the same as the hall. A steel desk. A chair that did not invite sitting. White walls with no marks of a life lived in them. The light was even and cold. The chief did not take the chair. He stood with his hat still on.

“So,” the chief said. “What have you found, Bill? What do we know about the cause of death?”

The examiner turned to pick up his clipboard. His long white coat hung straight and moved with him, nothing extra in it. He read like a man checking a list.

“It’s brutal, sir. Just a crying shame. Are you ready for this report?”

“Yeah,” the chief said. He stayed on his feet. “I guess I am.”

“It appears the body had been at the scene for several days. It was discovered by two young men hiking through the Green Mountains. The body had already started to rot, and it looks like scavengers got to it—birds, I guess. Her face was pretty torn apart. The animals just picked the flesh off the bone.

“Before she was murdered, it appears her attacker strung her by the wrists and feet to four separate trees. The style of the killing? Ritual sacrifice. At least it seems that way. The trees seemed prepared in advance, with occult symbols carved into them. The rope stretched her into an X. She was pulled so tightly it separated the joints. The elbows, shoulders, knees, and ankles were mangled, honestly.”

The chief looked up at the ceiling, then at the examiner’s desk, then at him. Under the disinfectant he could still smell the house. “Awful,” he muttered.

The examiner continued. “We are waiting for the toxicology report. But it seems as though substances were not found at the scene. From the way the scene played out, I am assuming he wanted her fully alert and present for the kill.”

“As you know, there was a glass bottle shoved in her mouth which busted her teeth and broke the jaw. Not far enough to suffocate her, but enough to take out most of her teeth.”

“She died from internal bleeding. It appears that there were multiple objects inserted into her vagina and rectum. I can’t tell exactly what they were, but there were several different kinds of cuts and lacerations from a variety of tools.”

“What probably killed her was the sword.”

The chief looked up. He had been staring at his shoes. He could still smell the rot of the witch’s house in his nostrils. “What sword?”

The examiner cleared his throat and straightened his glasses. “Well, sir, it appears that there was a medieval-style sword, a crusader sword, that had been rammed up her vagina and ruptured her internal organs. It went through the back of her body and out the other side. If she was still conscious, that’s what killed her. She would have bled out fast.”

The chief had a sick look on his face. He swallowed once and kept his eyes off the clipboard. “I feel so disgusted right now,” he confessed.

The examiner put down his clipboard. “What did you find in the house?”

“Evil. Pure evil, and filth.” The chief shook his head. “Dead animals. A shit ton. Sacrificed animals. Animals in cages. Occult symbols all over the walls. Blood on the walls over graffiti. A goat’s head sitting on top of an altar. I went to church this morning. I still have the smell of the rot in my nose.” The clean room could not cover it.

“Fascinating,” the examiner said. “So the woman was into the occult, into blood, into animal torture, into… whatever dark magic she was into, and ended up sacrificed herself. That’s a lot. We don’t have evidence that there was more than one individual involved in the killing. The tracks only point to one person dragging the woman to the location she was sacrificed at. Was she in a cult?”

“We are still investigating her history. Going through her TrickTok account. She had a house in Wilmington. She had a son that lived with her on and off for years. The neighbors said that they had not seen him in about six months. We can’t locate him. They both had mental and behavioral health records. It does not seem that she was in a relationship. A TrickTok she made about two weeks ago explicitly said that she was single,” the chief said.

The examiner huffed. “Well, looks like you got a real mystery to solve, sir.” Then he gently smiled, as if to clear the air. The smile did not last.

“Yes,” the chief said. He touched the brim of his hat. “Yes, I do.”