The Devil Next Door

“Sure, it’s wild,” Louis said. “I’m just telling you what happened. I wish I could tell you something that makes more sense. Trust me, if I was going to make up a story, I think I could do better than this.”

Shaw nodded. “Sure, sure. Maybe the kid panicked or something. Maybe he thought you were the guy that did it.”

“I wonder why he’d think something like that,” Kojozian said.

Louis was burning inside.

He had half a mind to punch Kojozian right in the nose. And maybe he would have if he wouldn’t have gotten thrown in jail…right after he got out of the hospital, that was. Because if he took a swing at this ape, he would have gotten his ass not only kicked, but pressed and folded. The funny thing was, he had a pretty good idea that Kojozian wanted him to try something like that. The man was baiting him, intimidating him, pushing him. But Louis would not be baited or pushed, not by an animal like Kojozian.

Not that Louis hadn’t known any good cops, because he had. But these two were not in that category.

He made himself breathe very slowly to calm himself. “I’m just telling you what happened, that’s all.”

“Sure,” Shaw said. “Sure.”

Kojozian looked at him and Louis felt a chill run up his spine. Those eyes were just as black and intense as the kid’s when he’d attacked.

Like the eyes of a mad dog.

“So you’re telling us this kid attacked you?” he said. “He don’t look like he’s in much shape to attack anyone.”

“He was.”

Kojozian shook his head. He walked over to the corpse. “Let’s see…compound fractures, split-open head, massive internal injuries…I’m not seeing it, Mr. Shears. I think you’re full of shit. This guy couldn’t have done nothing but die.” And to prove that, apparently, he kicked the corpse. It made a wet thudding sound. “Nope, he’s all busted up inside.” He kicked him again. “Hear that, Mr. Shears? Hear that slopping sound like Jello in a Ziplock bag? That’s his insides and they’re splashing around. People with injuries like that don’t do much attacking. What they do is they puke up blood and shit out their intestines, but that’s about it.”

Louis felt something drop inside of him.

Not only was this offensive and sickening, it was absolutely insane. The kid was dead and this cop was kicking him, saying those awful things. Louis backed away, his head beginning to spin and he wondered if maybe he was in a padded cell somewhere dreaming all this. Because it could not be real. It could not possibly be real.

“What’s a matter?” Kojozian said. “You got a weak stomach?”

Louis shook his head. “You can’t…you can’t treat a dead body like that. You can’t kick it.”

Kojozian kicked it again. “Why not?”

“Tell him to stop that!” Louis cried.

But Shaw just shrugged. “He’s just making a point, Mr. Shears. That’s all. Just a point. The kid don’t mind.”

Kojozian decided he needed to make another point.

He put his foot on top of the kid’s chest and pumped his leg up and down. The body shook and rolled with a slow, fluidic motion like it was filled with jelly. The sound of everything sloshing around inside was almost more than Louis could take. More blood pissed out of orifices, a blood that looked almost black.

“ Yeah, I’m just making a point, Mr. Shears. I’m teaching you something, that’s all,” Kojozian explained. He kept his foot up on the corpse’s chest, his shiny black shoe and the bottom of his creased pantleg wet with blood. He began pumping his leg up and down again but with much more force, so much that his shoe sank into the kid’s chest and came back out again with an appalling sucking sound like somebody working a plunger in a clogged toilet.

Louis took another step back, then went down on his knees, vomiting into the grass. It came and went quickly enough. But when he again looked at the two cops, the fever was still on him. Because Kojozian still had his foot up on the corpse’s chest and Shaw still looked unconcerned.

“ Please,” Louis breathed. “Please stop that.”

Kojozian shrugged and pulled his foot free. “Weak stomach,” he said.

Shaw was looking at his shoe and pants. “Lookit the mess you made. You’re not getting in my cruiser like that. Wipe your shoe off on the grass.”

Louis could feel a scream building in his throat…

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