Excerpt from The Death Collectors

By: Jack Kerley

Prologue

Mobile County Courthouse,

Mobile, Alabama, May 15, 1972

Detective Jacob Willow dodged a sign proclaiming, die you dam murdrer, ducked another saying, repent sinner! He shouldered past a pinched-faced preacher waving a bible, and squirmed between two agitated fat ladies in sweaty dresses. Breaking free of the mob surging in front of the courthouse, Willow bounded up the steps two at a time, tried three, tripped, went back to two. He flicked his cigarette into an urn at the door and stepped inside. The trial was upstairs and he ran those steps as well, dizzied when he reached the top. He peered around the corner into the hall leading to the courtroom, hoping he wouldn’t see the Crying Woman.

Sure as sunrise, there she sat, twenty steps away on an oaken bench the size of a church pew, black dress, veil, elbows on her knees, face in her hands. Willow felt guilt curdle through his stomach. He turned his eyes from the Crying Woman.

Courthouse guard Windell Latham sat behind a folding table at the top of the stairs, a checkpoint for major trials. Latham was tipped back in a chair and trimming his nails with a deer knife, white crescents dappling his outsized belly.

“See you’re on your late-as-usual schedule, ’tective Willow,” Latham said, barely looking up. “You gonna miss the sentencing you don’t get inside that courtroom ’bout now.”

Willow nodded toward the Crying Woman. “Doesn’t she ever leave?”

Another crescent tumbled. “Should be gone after today, Willow. Won’t be nothing to see no more.”

Willow walked toward the courtroom on the balls of his feet, hoping she kept her head in her hands. He hated the feelings the Crying Woman sparked in him, though he had no idea who she was. Some said she was mother to one of Marsden Hexcamp’s victims, others said sister, or aunt; those asking questions or offering comfort were waved off like wasps.

The strange, heavily veiled woman quickly became invisible to the courthouse crowd, as familiar as the brass cuspidors or overflowing ashtrays. Never entering the courtroom during the three-week trial, she’d claimed the marble-columned halls as her parlor of grief, weeping from opening statements through last week’s verdict of guilty. Believing her wounded by sorrow, the guards showed kindness, allowing the Crying Woman the run of the courthouse and occasional naps in an absent judge’s chambers.

Willow took a deep breath and started to the courtroom doors, walking light as hard-soled brogans allowed. Her head lifted as he passed, the veil askew. It was the first time Willow had seen the Crying Woman’s face, and he was startled by her eyes: tearless and resolute. Equally surprising was her youth; she looked barely out of her teens. He felt her eyes follow him to the door, as if riding his guilt into the courtroom.

He tried to rationalize his guilt – most often in the hours preceding dawn – telling himself he’d been an Alabama State Police detective for two years, lacking the experience to understand virulent madness powered by intellect. He reminded himself of scrapes with departmental major-domos, trying to convince them the seemingly random horrors occurring in South Alabama were connected, that a full-scale investigation involving State, County and Mobile City police was necessary. Like his entreaties to higher-ups, the rationalizations failed, and Willow’s pre-dawn sweats continued through the trial’s daily revelations of the sexually bizarre and murderously horrific.

Willow nodded to the guard at the door, then slipped into the packed room. He excused and pardoned his way to his assigned seat in the gallery, against the railing directly behind the defense table. He didn’t have time to sit. “All rise,” the bailiff cried, and two hundred people in the courtroom rose like a single wave.

Only one person remained seated, a blond and slender man at the defense table, wearing jailhouse stripes with the élan of a man in a Savile Row suit. Marsden Hexcamp sat with his legs crossed, the upper bobbing to some lazy internal rhythm. A wisp of hair dangled down his forehead, drawing attention to his water-blue eyes. He turned his head to the gallery and smiled as if hearing the punchline of a lively joke. His eyes found Willow and for a split-second Hexcamp’s smile wavered. The defense lawyer tapped Hexcamp’s shoulder and waved in an upward motion, imploring his client to rise to the judge’s entrance.

Marsden Hexcamp flicked his head sideways and spat into the lawyer’s palm.

Willow saw the lawyer shiver with disgust and wipe his hand on his pants. No one else noticed this miniature drama, all other eyes watching Circuit Judge Harlan T. Penfield striding to the bench. Small in stature, Penfield compensated through a voice as deep as a country well and hawk-bright eyes blazing at any hint of misconduct. Penfield’s eyes glared at Marsden Hexcamp, receiving a smile and lazy nod in return. The judge slipped on half-lens reading glasses and unfolded a sheet of paper with his sentencing decision, a conclusion reached by the end of the first week of trial.

“We gather today for the sentencing of Marsden Hexcamp,” Penfield intoned. “And with it end weeks of such revulsion and dismay that two jurors could not continue, one still hospitalized with a nervous condition …”

Marsden Hexcamp’s lawyer stood. “Your Honor, I do not think this is –”

“Sit,” commanded Judge Penfield. The lawyer sat, looking relieved to be finished with his role.

“The toll has not only been on the jurors,” Penfield continued in his rolling bass, “but on all who have smelled the brimstone rising from Mr Hexcamp like fog …”

Marsden Hexcamp mimed lifting a wineglass as if acknowledging a toast, the chains around his slender wrists ringing like chimes. Penfield paused, studied the defendant. “Your antics shall trouble this court no longer, Mr Hexcamp. By the power vested in me by the great state of Alabama, I sentence you to be conducted to Holman Prison, there, hopefully in record time, to receive the penalty of death by electrocution. And may God have mercy on whatever squirms inside you.”

Penfield’s gavel dropped as Marsden Hexcamp stood. He shrugged off his lawyer’s hand.

“No last words for the condemned, Your Honor?”

“Sit, Mr Hexcamp.”

“Am I not entitled? Does not sure and impending death allow a few final phrases?”

“Did you allow your victims a final say, Mr Hexcamp?”

Marsden Hexcamp paused and thought. Amusement flitted across his face. “Some of them spoke volumes, Your Honor.”

“Bastard!” A coarse-faced man in the gallery stood and waved his fist. He appeared drunk.

“Sit and behave, sir, or be removed,” Penfield said, almost gently. The man dropped to his seat, sunk his face into his hands.

Hexcamp said, “Well, Your Honor? May I speak?”

Willow saw Judge Penfield’s eyes sweep the expectant faces in the crowd, pause on reporters aching to record the final public words of Marsden Hexcamp. Penfield tapped his watch.

“I’ll grant you thirty seconds, Mr Hexcamp. I suggest a prayer for salvation.”

Hexcamp’s smile flattened. His eyes lit like flares. “Salvation is the province of fools, Judge. A vacant lot in empty minds. What counts is not where we go, but what we create while in the world’s humble studio –”

“Murderer,” a woman screamed from the gallery.

“Madman,” called another.

Penfield pounded his gavel. “Silence! Ten seconds, Mr Hexcamp.”

Hexcamp turned to the gallery. His eyes found Willow, held for a beat, returned to the judge. “It’s the art of our lives that endures – moments captured like spiders in amber. But magically able to crawl. To bite. To influence …”

“Five seconds.” Penfield dramatically stifled a yawn. Hexcamp’s face reddened at the slight.

“YOU are a WORM,” Hexcamp screamed at Penfield. “A wretched, despicable creature, a mere nothing, less than nothing, a vile insect risen in contempt against the majesty of ART!”

“Time’s up, Mr Hexcamp,” Penfield said. “Never let it be said you were at a loss for words.”

Marsden Hexcamp angled an eye at the judge. Then, agile as a gymnast, he leapt atop the defense table. “L’art du moment final,” he howled, spittle flying. “C’est moi! C’est moi! C’est moi!”

The art of the final moment, Willow thought, two years of high school French kicking in. It is me.

“Guards, seat that man,” Penfield said. His gavel again rang from the sounding block.

A motion behind Penfield caught Willow’s eye. He watched the door of the judge’s chambers open slowly, saw the desk, bookshelves, low table … and then, framed in the doorway, the Crying Woman. She strode into the room and stopped at Hexcamp’s feet, the crowd gasping. A large-bore pistol appeared from the folds of her dress. The weapon lifted, her finger tightening on the trigger.

She was crying again. She looked into Marsden Hexcamp’s eyes.

Said, “I love you.”

Willow dove across the railing, arms stretching for the gun. His foot caught the wood and he tumbled to the floor below the defense table. Thunder filled the room. Hexcamp’s shirtfront gained a red button the size of a dime, but the back of his shirt exploded. He crumpled to the floor, landing supine beside Willow. Spectators hugged the floor or jammed at the doorway, screaming.

Marsden Hexcamp lifted his head and moaned, his lips forming words. Willow laid his ear over the man’s mouth, listened. Hexcamp’s eyes closed and his head slumped. “Stay with me,” Willow yelled. He grabbed the man’s shirt and shook, as if freeing words trapped in Hexcamp’s throat. Hexcamp’s eyes snapped open. He sucked in breath.

“Follow, Jacob. You’ve got to follow …” A scarlet bubble escaped his mouth. “You … have to … follow …”

“What?” Willow yelled into Hexcamp’s glazing eyes. “FOLLOW WHAT?”

Marsden Hexcamp’s eyelids fluttered. “The art, Jacob,” he said, the blood now a red foam crawling down his chin. “Follow the … glorious art.”

Hexcamp’s eyes became wax, his mouth a frozen rictus. Willow heard a second roar of self-inflicted thunder. A body dropped to the floor six feet away. The Crying Woman became the Dying Woman.

CHAPTER 1

Mobile, Alabama, present time

“Awards are dumb,” Harry Nautilus said, aiming the big blue Crown Victoria away from the headquarters of the Mobile Police Department. “No good ever comes of stuff like this.”

“Lighten up, Harry,” I said, tightening my tie in the rear-view mirror. “We’re the Mayor’s Officers of the Year.”

“And I’m the state bird of Alabama. Tweet.”

“It’s an honor,” I reasoned.

“It’s a pain in the ass. And it ain’t nothing but a politician’s words.”

“At least we’ll get a free breakfast.” I checked my watch; we had an easy twenty minutes to get to the hotel where the Mayor’s Recognition Breakfast was being held. I’d already cleared a space on my ersatz wall at work, a gray divider. I’d never had an award before.

“You think I should mention the folks at Forensics?” I said, holding out my arms and wondering if my navy blazer had shrunk since the last wearing, or if I was still growing at age thirty.

“What are you talking about, Carson?”

“My acceptance speech.”

Harry growled, a low bass note. Government Street was under construction ahead, so we cut through the south edge of downtown, a poorer neighborhood of small houses and apartments. I was buffing my nails on my pants when a woman exploded into the street from an alley, arms waving, pink robe flying behind like a horseman’s cape. She launched herself in front of the car. Two hundred and forty pounds of Harry Nautilus stood on the brakes. The robed woman held up her hands as if that would ward off a two-ton car. Tires squealed. The Crown Vic fishtailed. Our bumper stopped three inches shy of the woman’s knees.

“They’s a dead woman in that alley,” the woman panted, clutching at her robe. She was in her thirties, skinny as rope, an Appalachian twang in her voice. “Got blood all up underneath her.”

I called it into the dispatcher as Harry turned into the alley. A woman’s body sprawled face-down on the concrete, arms above her head. Her blouse was white and I saw a crimson smear in the upper center of her back. Fearful of tainting evidence, we stopped the car short and sprinted to the body. We always ran, praying fast response and CPR might make a difference.

Not this time; seeing the amount of blood beneath her, Harry stopped running and so did I. We walked the last few steps gingerly, careful of the flood of red on the pavement. The blood was congealing and I figured the killer long gone. Sirens wailed in the distance. Harry knelt beside the body while I studied the scene: shattered glass, strewn trash, and other detritus of an inner-city alley. The concrete was bordered by dilapidated garages. Grass between them was yellow from scant rain. A bright object caught my eye: a plump orange nestled against a slumping garage twenty or so feet from the woman’s outstretched hand.

Another Crown Victoria entered the alley from the opposite direction, followed by a patrol car and ambulance. Detectives Roy Trent and Clay Bridges exited the Crown Vic. This was their territory, District Two. Harry and I were District One ninety-nine per cent of the time, part of a special unit the other one per cent.

We gave Trent and Bridges a three-line synopsis of what we knew. Bridges took the woman in the robe aside to calm her for questioning. Trent walked to the body, looked down. He ran heavy hands through thinning hair.

“Damn. It’s the Orange Lady.”

“Orange Lady?” I said.

“Name’s Nancy something. Lives in a group home a block over. Every morning she goes to the market and gets herself an orange. One orange. Does the same thing every night. I asked once why she didn’t get two oranges in the morning, or buy a bag. Know what she said?”

“What?”

“The oranges liked being at the store because they got to watch people. At her place they’d just see the inside of the refrigerator.”

Harry said, “This group home’s for folks with mental problems, I take it.”

Trent nodded. “Harmless types who need a little help getting by. Nancy might have been a tad disjointed in her thinking, but she was always happy, chattering at people, singing songs in French, whatever.”

“There’s the morning orange,” I said, pointing it out. I crouched and looked between the woman and the orange, then dropped to my stomach, eyeballing the topography and the drain grate in the middle of the alley.

“You need water to swim, Cars,” Trent said.

“And momentum to roll,” I added, standing and brushing gravel from my palms. Trent studied the body, shook his head. “Who’d shoot her dead while she was standing in an alley?”

“Running in the alley,” I suggested.

Trent raised an eyebrow.

“The orange is about twenty feet away. Slightly uphill. If she’d been standing or walking, the orange might have rolled a few feet. But the other way, toward the center of the alley. It’s concave for drainage. The shot knocked her forward, of course. But I think it took added momentum for the orange to travel that far. Forensics’ll do the math, but I’d bet a couple bucks she was running full-tilt.”

Trent thought a moment. “If she was running, she knew she was in danger; recognized the perp, probably.” He started to the patrol car to get the uniformed guys cordoning off the scene, then paused.

“Hey, did I hear the Mayor’s making you guys Officers of the Year?”

“It’s just a rumor,” Harry said.

Trent grinned. “Officers of the Year doesn’t quite cut it for you two. How about the Grand Pooh-bahs of Piss-it?”

Piss-it was departmental slang for the PSIT, or Psychopathological and Sociopathological Investigative Team, a specialty unit with a name longer than its roster: Harry and me. It was the one per cent of our jobs.

Harry sighed. “Don’t start, Roy.”

Trent thought a moment. “Or how about the Wizards of Weirdness?” He chuckled and started to invent another title, saw the look in Harry’s eyes, remembered his business with the patrol guys and retreated.

Our bit part in a too-familiar drama over, Harry and I climbed back into the car. The Orange Lady’s case would be cleared fast, we figured; the poor woman had pissed someone off and he or she had gotten revenge. Backshooting a fleeing woman in broad daylight was irrational, an act of emotion, not brains. Trent and Bridges would check the victim’s acquaintances, find who she’d recently irritated. Nail the case shut.

Bang. Just like that.