Chapter 9

The Retribution

chapter 9

It was the first night of both men’s stay in Ravens Fair, in a room each, at the same motel as they had stayed at before, only that was for one night. Both of their rooms were small and basic, though nice with a single bed, which was ready made. Each room had a small coal fire, and a bedside table with a small lamp and a cushioned chair at the opposite side of the bed. The rooms were carpeted with a large, thick patterned rug covering most of the solid wooden floor.

Robert was lying on the bed talking to Carl, who was sitting in the chair beside him about home and how his wife phoned him, whilst he was at work just to ask him why he had been late home a lot and kept missing dinner. She was always asking him if he was drinking again, and if it was the stress of work causing this.

Carl got up and headed back to his own room, next door. "Good night," he whispered.

Robert reached over and switched off the lamp, before undressing and tucking up under the blanket, leaving his clothes strewn on the floor beside the bed, but he left his underpants and shirt on. He then slipped into a nightmare: why won't any of the locals say a word? Why do they all refuse to say a single word or spend a single moment with the police?

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Early, the next morning, the body of Mary Shaw was brought to Walker’s funeral home. It was the house of Henry and his family, but had a room which was a mortuary because it was a small family business. It was used by the locals; where they would send their dead,before they were buried at Ravens Fair Cemetery.

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It was 24 minutes past 10 am, and Mary’s body had been prepared for the burial by Richard Walker, Henry’s father. She had requested for all 101 dolls to be buried with her, each in individual coffins, and to have their own customized headstone each. She had also requested to be made into a doll herself, which had Walker having to deal with more blood and gore than usual; performing the huge surgical task. This was guaranteed to cause a stir! The journalists would use this and it would be all over the papers.

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"She what?!" Robert asked Carl furiously in utter disbelief, as he paced up and down his motel room, whilst Carl was sitting in the chair beside the bed.

"Well, she asked for her dolls to be buried with her. I mean, it’s a pain in the a*s, but you ain’t -"

"Not that, Simmons! I’m talking about her other request."

"Oh, yeah…Well she requested to be made into dummy."

"A dummy", Robert said, sounding annoyed and disbelieving. "Great, just marvellous! We drag ourselves down here, we pitch up in this s**t hole, we even waste time trying to interview these god damn rednecks, just to get one b*****d joker screw us around, and Shaw’s gone and what?"

"Being made into a dummy, sir. Who’s the joker?"

"I mean Hacking!"

"But how can this ruin our case? I mean, there’s…"

"It's god damn time wasting - is what it is!"

"The pathologist gave us everything we need to know, and I think it’s about time we called up Mr Ashen."

"After we visit Hacking. I had a call earlier from our department. They want us to interview Hacking, then we might be able to arrest any other assailant or assailants that he's covering for, if he says - that is."