David was just finishing his tea when Beck walked into the lunch room. “How was the date last night?” She asked, knowing the answer already, thanks to Paul. “It went alright” David lied. “Are you going to see her again?” Beck kidded, knowing the answer to this too. “No!” David replied as he turned the teacup on the table. “She wasn’t my type”. Beck knew all the details of what happened thanks to Paul who couldn’t keep a secret if his life depended on it, but she continued to pry. “Nobody is your type. They don’t call you Stone cold for no reason” Beck teased. David looked at her with no reaction. “You know how it is” he said. “once they find out what job we do, they lose interest.” David held her gaze and she looked away. He didn’t mean to hurt her but this was always how the conversation ended when she tried to tease him about his non existent relationship status. Beck stood up and walked to the coffee machine, then look her coffee and walked out to the garage to smoke.
David and Beck drove in silence for 35 minutes and arrived at around twelve at night to a house in the affluent suburb in the hills South of the city. The view from up here was spectacular. The lights of the city below and the shimmer of the sea beyond made David wish he could wake up to this view everyday. They pulled up to the private gates with long tall walls on either side that ran the length of the property. A cop waved them forward and opened the gates to let them in. The paved driveway wound around large manicured grounds to reveal an impressive mansion with black BMW and Mercedes in the open garage. David always loved coming to the houses in this area. They always surprised him in their splendor. There is always a little bit of tension until he really knows what happened there. This kind of money usually means crime or drugs.
David parked the car in front of the garage, and got out. The familiar smell of decomposition filled his nostrils. He then that he realized it was going to be a long night. The cop standing on the edge of the driveway pointed them in the direction of the pool. David led the way down the stone steps to the pool and noticed the windows to the kitchen was open. There were 6 to 8 cops standing outside the door. This is a bad sign, he knew, when the cops prefer it outside, its always bad news. David nodded to them as he passed and stepped into the kitchen.
There on the floor, with magnified glasses on her head, was the Police forensic’s Doctor Li. She was writing her findings on a clip board. Doctor Li was always happy, always smiling and always having fun with her job. She was the most intelligent of all the Doctors, David thought, but she always had the worst jobs. He stood there watching her write for a few minutes, waiting for her to notice their arrival. She was too involved in her work to notice, so David spoke “Doctor Li” he said. She looked up at them and said “OK! Here, come with me” She lead them through the house from the kitchen to a grand main hallway. They passed by the study, the library and room after room. Everything was gold, glass and ornate. David couldn’t imagine how much this stuff must have cost, or where someone would even buy it. He felt like he was in a Royal palace. The smell grew thicker as they walked. The hall they were in opened to a large area with the main double staircase leading to the upper floors. Between the stair cases hung a chandelier, from the chandelier hung a person sized black deformed ball. David and Beck stopped to look up at it with mouths open.
Liquified fat, jelly was dripping down from the black ball, onto the floor. On the floor the thick brown jelly was everywhere with worms and flies crawling around in it. It was a scene from a nightmare. Every inch of the floor was moving in a mass of slime. David looked down and realized he was standing in it. As he moved he slipped and grabbed Beck’s shoulder. Beck gave him a stare that could have curdled milk, and moved away following the doctor to the stairs. David followed carefully, looking where he stepped, making sure not to make any sudden movement and fall in the slime. They walked up the stairs to the landing where they stood at the same level as the things head. David stared hard at the ugly mass in front of him. The smell was so strong that his eyes began to sting. The black ball had been a man, the face was so black it was impossible to see which part he was looking at. “45 Year old Male, in advance stage of decomposition” said the Doctor. “Hung by his neck. Suicide” she continued. “No shit” thought David. “Good luck” she chuckled, then walked back down the stair and out of site.
The two of them stood there looking at it “what are we going to do now?” David said. Beck swallowed and said “OK lets go, we have to take some sheets because if we touch him he’s going to explode.” David looked at her in disbelief. Then looked back at the bulging mass, he could see the skin on the swollen leg was so tight that an explosion wasn’t impossible to imagine. “Take a sheet from one of the bedrooms” Beck said and she began examining the rope tied to the rail, and looking down to where the body would be lowered. David took the stairs with his long legs two at a time and entered the first bedroom on the right. Flicking on the light he moved over to the bed and took off the sheet. As he moved to leave the bedroom he noticed a small ladder leaning against the wall behind the door. He registered this weird detail and left the room. Who keeps a ladder in their bedroom he thought as he ascended back to the landing with the sheet.
Beck began laying the sheet on the jelly on the floor below the body. David took the other side of the sheet and they positioned it directly underneath the dripping mass that was around 50cm from the floor. A blob of the jelly drips onto Davids hand and he instantly realized he didn’t have his gloves on. His face drained white in shock as he reeled back and half slipped. Quickly he regained his composure and edged towards the kitchen and out to the car to get a pair of gloves.
Beck was on the landing again when David returned to the scene with two pairs of gloves on. “We need to cut the rope, I can’t untie it” she said. “We can either cut it from up here or down there with a ladder.” David instantly remembered the one in the bedroom. “I’ll cut it from up here” she said as she produced her Leatherman from her belt. The cops had now come into the room to watch the spectical. David was standing right in the centre of the sheet in the pool of jelly with the body bag open and ready. The swollen mass was ten centimetres from his face. “catch the body when it falls” shouted Beck as she reached to cut the rope. David had a flash of thought -its physically impossible to catch this bag of flesh and blood without it exploding. An image of the 100kg mass falling on top of him as he slips in the worms while all the cops laughed, sent a panic through him. David braced himself and readied his stance for the extra weight. “This has to go wrong” he thought as sweat began to bead on his forehead. “STOP” shouted David. “Can you all please give us some privacy” he said to the cops. “I need one of you to hold the rope at the top with Beck” they all looked at one another, then one of them moved forward, and ran up the stairs. The cop twisted the rope around his arm and leaned back to take the weight. The rest of the cops pretended to leave but stayed to watch in amusement.
David looked up at Beck who was also sweating under pressure of so many guys watching. David shouted “OK i’m ready” as he looked for a place to hold. Beck touched the blade to the rope. Instantly the rope frayed and snapped. The cop was instantly catapulted forward, but pushed with his foot against the rail to prevent the body from taking him over. David grabbed the wrist somehow which pulled tight between his fingers and tore like an onion skin. As David guided the body, the cop lowered the rope, and Beck lunged to take a hold of the rope too. They both lowered the body onto the body bag as David guided the mass into place as it changed shape to meet the floor.
Beck thanked the cop for his help and smiled sheepishly. David manoeuvred the blob into the bag as best he could. Beck thanked the cop again at the bottom of the stairs and joined David in closing the bag. The cop walked out of sight. “Who’s your new boyfriend?” David teased. Beck blushed “he’s cute!” she They closed the bag and then started to lift it but realized instantly that there was liquid dripping out of the bag, the body had burst. It was impossible to lift or carry so they pulled the bag through the jelly like a sled through snow. At the door they rolled it into another bag and closed that too. Rolling the package onto the trolley, they slid it into the car.
David and Beck sat in the car for a few minutes, then looked at each other. “that was bad” Said David. ”You know it reminded me of a Ham in the butchers shop back home, with the fat dripping down.” Replied Beck “They say the ham is sweating.” “Stop” said David “You’re making me hungry!” as he started the engine. “You should call the cop, you looked good together” he kidded as he accelerated away.
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