Briar Patch Boogie: A Hap and Leonard Novelette Read online

  “He killed her in anger?” Hanson asked.

  “No. I mean frenzy. I mean it in the same way it’s used to describe the feeding insanity of sharks and piranha. An uncontrollable urge, a temporary madness. In this case joy at the sight of blood and pain, or so I guess. The neck was hacked to pieces. You saw that.”

  “Don’t remind me,” Hanson said.

  “Any of the other wounds were enough to do her in, the stomach for instance, but that would have taken longer. From the looks of the cuts on her hands and feet, and the nicks below her eyelids, I’d say he tortured her some. Removal of the lips, sexual organs, that’s not uncommon in crimes like this.”

  “He did all that?” Hanson asked.

  “You weren’t looking very close,” Warren said.

  “I admit I didn’t get down on my hands and knees and sniff.”

  Warren made a sour smile. “He stuffed those items into the ripped cavity of her stomach.”

  “Christ,” Hanson said softly.

  “He also knocked out a couple of her front teeth, probably when he was forcing her panties down her throat. The missing eye—which the investigating officer discovered in the alley—was probably dug out with the point of a sharp instrument. Most likely, considering the damage to the eye socket and the lid, something bigger than a knife. A sword or bayonet maybe. I think after killing her he was working on the body when this man—what’s his name?—I have a terrible memory for those reports…”

  Like hell you do, thought Hanson, but he said, “Smokey, or at least that’s what’s on your preliminary report from Higgins.”

  “Yes. Well, when this Smokey came up he had to leave her. Or maybe he just quit. Her arms were bound behind her back with her pants. That and the gag meant he planned to stay awhile.”

  “She raped?” Hanson asked.

  “Can tell you later for sure. Probably. I can tell you this much. According to what the officer found after his search in the alley, and after reading his report and making my preliminary examination of the body, it’s a certainty that the killer sliced off the breasts and took them with him.”

  “Sonofabitch,” Clark said.

  “And he just took his time,” Hanson said. “Right there in the goddamned alley, easy as you please.”

  “People aren’t exactly the investigative type down there,” Doc

  Warren said. “Besides, that’s part of the thrill for this guy. The fear of discovery. Sex offenders—and this is a sex crime, I’ll stake my reputation on that—get off to that sort of thing. It heightens the act for them. It was probably that way with Jack the Ripper, the Zodiac Killer, the Boston Strangler and the Skid Row Slasher. All those crimes were committed right under people’s noses. I think we’ve got a real screwo here. ’Course I’m not a psychiatrist, but I’d say he’s a necrophiliac—a dead body lover; a dismemberer. That’s why I say he wasn’t finished with the body yet. I think he just got started with the head. The arms and legs were next.

  “You know, Hitler was reputed to be a necrophiliac. I read once where a mutilated soldier’s body excited him so much, they practically had to drag him off the battlefield.”

  “Yeah,” Clark said. “I think I’ve heard that story, too.”

  “But this guy,” Hanson said, “he’s going to try and pull this sort of thing again, isn’t he? He’s going to make it a string. Right?”

  “I’m no clairvoyant,” Doc Warren said, “but from what I’ve seen in the past, and I’ve seen quite a bit in the many years I’ve been at this, and from what I’ve read and studied—and I admit to a certain morbid fascination with this sort of thing…”

  “We always figured you were sort of…special…to want to do this sort of work in the first place,” Clark said dryly.

  Warren smiled, unoffended. “I’d say, my friends, just between us chickens, guessing you understand, this is probably just the beginning.”

  About the Author

  With more than thirty books to his credit, Joe R. Lansdale is the Champion Mojo Storyteller. He’s been called “an immense talent” by Booklist; “a born storyteller” by Robert Bloch; and The New York Times Book Review declares he has “a folklorist’s eye for telling detail and a front-porch raconteur’s sense of pace.”

  He’s won umpty–ump awards, including sixteen Bram Stoker Awards, the Grand Master Award from the World Horror Convention, a British Fantasy Award, the American Mystery Award, the Horror Critics Award, the Grinzane Cavour Prize for Literature, the “Shot in the Dark” International Crime Writer’s Award, the Golden Lion Award, the Booklist Editor’s Award, the Critic’s Choice Award, and a New York Times Notable Book Award. He’s got the most decorated mantle in all of Nacogdoches!

  The film adaptation of his novel Cold in July was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival.

  Lansdale lives in Nacogdoches, Texas, with his wife, Karen, writer and editor.

  Find him online at www.JoeRLansdale.com.

  Also by Joe R. Lansdale

  Hap Collins and Leonard Pine mysteries

  Savage Season (1990)

  Mucho Mojo (1994)

  Two-Bear Mambo (1995)

  Bad Chili (1997)

  Rumble Tumble (1998)

  Veil’s Visit(1999)

  Captains Outrageous (2001)

  Vanilla Ride (2009)

  Hyenas (a novella) (2011)

  Devil Red (2011)

  Blue to the Bone

  The Drive-In series

  The Drive-In: A “B” Movie with Blood and Popcorn, Made in Texas (1988)

  The Drive-In 2: Not Just One of Them Sequels (1989)

  The Drive-In: A Double-Feature (1997, omnibus)

  The Drive-In: The Bus Tour (2005) (limited edition)

  The Ned the Seal trilogy

  Zeppelins West (2001)

  Flaming London (2006)

  Flaming Zeppelins: The Adventures of Ned the Seal (2010)

  The Sky Done Ripped (release date unknown)

  Other novels

  Act of Love (1980)

  Texas Night Riders (1983) (published under the pseudonym Ray Slater)

  Dead in the West (1986) (written in 1980)

  Magic Wagon (1986)

  The Nightrunners (1987)

  Cold in July (1989)

  Tarzan: the Lost Adventure (1995) (with Edgar Rice Burroughs)

  The Boar (1998)

  Freezer Burn (1999)

  Waltz of Shadows (1999)

  Something Lumber This Way Comes (1999) (Children's book)

  The Big Blow (2000)

  Blood Dance (2000)

  The Bottoms (2000)

  A Fine Dark Line (2002)

  Sunset and Sawdust (2004)

  Lost Echoes (2007)

  Leather Maiden (2008)

  Under the Warrior Sun (2010)

  All the Earth, Thrown to the Sky (2011)

  Edge of Dark Water (2012)

  In Waders from Mars (children's book) (2012)

  The Thicket (2013)

  Hot in December (2013)

  …And that's not counting the pseudonymous novels, the short stories, the chapbooks, anthologies, graphic novels, comic books and all the rest. Get the full story at www.JoeRLansdale.com.

  Copyright

  This digital edition of Briar Patch Boogie (v1.0) was published in 2015 by Gere Donovan Press.

  If you downloaded this book from a filesharing network, either individually or as part of a larger torrent, the author has received no compensation. Please consider purchasing a legitimate copy—they are reasonably priced, and available from all major outlets. And if you enjoy it, leave a positive review. Your author thanks you.

  © Joe Lansdale

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