The New Dead by John Connolly, Various Page A

who might be listening. ‘I need to get rid of it.’
     
    ‘Maisie, huh?’ I could practically hear the grin in his voice. ‘I wondered if things weren’t going to come to this. Now, we don’t need a full-blown party to have a good time. Something more casual can be whipped up pretty easily. You bring her over Saturday night; we’ll fix things up for you.’
     
     
    I didn’t go into work for the rest of the week. I didn’t call the office, and the office didn’t call me. I guessed that job was done. On Saturday night I went out, and Tori didn’t bother to argue. Things had never been the same since that fight we’d had after Charlie’s last party. They would get better, I knew. Things would improve once I’d dealt with Maisie. Everything would be patched up very, very soon.
     
    I picked up Maisie and brought her to Charlie’s house. I was expecting just a half dozen guys or less, but there were twenty- five or thirty people there - almost as big as the last party. I brought Maisie out of the car and led her inside.
     
    ‘Christ,’ said Charlie. ‘You sure you want to get rid of it? It’s pretty sweet.’
     
    ‘Trust me,’ I said. ‘It’s gone haywire. You don’t want it.’
     
    That was good enough for him. We ordered Maisie to stand in the middle of the living room, and we all got beers from a big bucket in the kitchen. A couple of the guys, including Ryan, said they wanted to taste her before the end, and I knew it would be ungracious to refuse. I just nodded and let them take her into the bedroom. There were probably eight guys in all who went with her. I was worried she would speak, but these were not exactly the sort of people who go to the police with their suspicions.
     
    It was maybe eleven before they brought her outside to stand on the plastic sheeting. She was still naked from the antics in the bedroom, and I arranged her so that she was facing the crowd. I knew this was something I had to do, but I didn’t feel right about it. I mean, it didn’t matter. It shouldn’t matter. She’d been stripping long before I stumbled into that club, and she’d been subjected to far more degrading things. I’d subjected her to them myself. What did one more indignity matter to an animated corpse running on some kind of weird biological batteries? But I knew that she wasn’t as oblivious as we’d always thought they were. I knew that it would be an indignity, that whatever Maisie was now, I thought she deserved to end this miserable existence with whatever measure of respect I could provide.
     
    Unfortunately, I couldn’t provide any. I needed her destroyed, and I didn’t have the guts to do it myself. I knew that much. I needed these guys to do my dirty work, and I would give them whatever they wanted, let them take their pleasure with her any way they chose, if only they would get rid of her for me. Anyhow, I knew that Maisie had some kind of will of her own. She could refuse if she wanted to. I wished she would. It would make me feel better, and it would demonstrate to the others why she needed to be destroyed.
     
    Charlie stepped forward with the hatchet, and though I meant to turn away, I could not resist taking one last look at Maisie as she stood naked in the night air. She looked in my direction, but her glassy eyes did not meet mine; they aimed themselves instead at nothingness. In that moment, I felt justified. It really just was some sort of misfiring biological machine. This wasn’t murder. It wasn’t anything like it. It was a mercy, really.
     
    Then Charlie handed me the axe. ‘You first,’ he said.
     
    I shook my head.
     
    He thrust the axe forward again. ‘No way, bucko. You have to get this party started.’
     
    Well, fuck , I thought. I was just standing on ceremony now. I’d already killed her once. There was no point in being squeamish. I told her to hold out her arm, and she did. She didn’t look at me, and there was no expression on her face. Maybe she