THE ROMAN LEE SERIES
"BENEATH DEVIL'S LAKE"
The Deli was one of the popular hangouts downtown
during lunch hour. They had a great
selection of gourmet sandwiches complimented by delicious soup. The quality was the result of decisions to
purchase ingredients locally by Burt Clement who had owned the business for
about a decade. Buying his ingredients
daily he had fresh bread from the best bakery and cuts of meat from a nearby
butcher. Situated near an alley and
across the street from the Brick Street Bureau office it gave Ned Harris an
idea. After closing hours, the alley was
often frequented by transients who retreated from the elements or merely found
a place to pass out from intoxication.
Some of the street people often were found seated in the Deli drinking
coffee most of the time on colder days.
Burt Clement didn’t mind their presence if they kept to themselves not
bothering his other customers. He found
it irritating sometimes when some of the mental cases would scrawl on his
tables with pen which took a little time to scrub out. But the alley was also a
source of contention at times because some of the college students would poke
fun at the homeless which upset him.
Burt Clement was homeless once and he knew there was a fine line between
a couple weeks pay and the streets.
As Ned waited in line to place his order he couldn’t
help but notice the woman in front of him with her cell phone in her hand. A picture of a white Persian kitten with a
red Santa hat was on the home screen.
His fascination with death had developed somewhat during his later teen
years he spent with his grandfather who owned a veterinary clinic. Ned was often left to euthanize terminally
ill pets after being taught to do it humanely.
When no one was around he would sometimes experiment with the animals to
see how much they could take before they died.
He would stare at the eyes watching them grow dark when they
expired. His fascination with death led
him to further research. He purchased
snuff films online through a site on the dark net. He would always pause the screen at the
moment of death. Once his grandfathers
practice closed Ned needed to feed his addiction. Stray animals in his neighborhood satisfied
his needs temporarily. When that source
dried up he began to lure others and dispose of them in different ways. It all came to a head one night as a neighbor
down the street pounded on his door in the middle of the night and directly
accused him of killing their family dog.
Ned even invited the neighbor inside to look around to see for himself
that he was not responsible. He was very
thorough in the disposal. This practice
would serve him later along with the ability to erase his tracks from a crime
scene. Considering killing the neighbor
Ned had picked up a hammer in the basement when the man had turned his back on
Ned. His impulse to kill when
opportunity presented itself was alluring however, Ned knew better than to do
it because it wasn’t planned and there were unknowns involved.
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