Read Flesh Gothic by Edward Lee for Free Online Page B

on track. The girl
was distracting him---scratching at that innate, desperate
lust-but he was determined not to do that tonight. This
was his investigation. This was business. "Everyone, you
said? I heard the movie girls lived in the house."

    "They did, the guys too. But whenever they'd go out, I
mean. Sometimes they'd go out to dinner downtown, and
that side door's where they'd leave and come back in later."
    "I guess they just didn't want anybody seeing," Clements
said.
    "Sure, whatever. Hey, man, your time's up. Take me back
now. A deal's a deal. I'll show you that other road out of
here through the woods, but I need to get back."
    Clements gave her another hundred. "I want you with
me for another hour. I want to wait till the fumigators
leave."
    "Oh, man, come on!" she objected.
    Clements didn't get it. "That's two hundred bucks I've
given you for two hours. You're not going to make that
much on the street on a week night. What are you complaining about? You don't have to strut for it, and you don't
have to sweat cops."
    Now she was squeezing her knees till her knuckles
turned white. "I'm going nuts here, man. Don't you understand?" For a moment it looked like she would break out
into tears. "I'm a crack addict. I gotta fire up."
    Clements smirked, as much as he truly felt sorry for her.
It wasn't the users, it was the dealers, the suppliers. Line them
all up against the wall and machine-gun the motherfuckers. I'll
even volunteer to mop up the blood...
    "Outside," he said.
    In a half-second she was out of the car. He could hear
her lighter flick.

    Movement caught his eye in the binoculars. Finally,
they're done! He squinted. The sun was gone now and just as
he'd suspected, the outside floodlamps flicked on. Four
weary men in hazmat suits came out of the house. Damn,
nobody carrying anything, but then what did he expect? Dead
bodies? The police took all of those. Some occult relic? No,
they'rejust there to fumigate the house. The four sat on the long
stone front step, and Clements was curious about their facial
expressions when they pulled off their gas masks. Deadpan.
Faraway eyes. None of them were even talking.
    "Looks like your guys are out," the girl said when she got
back in the car. She sat in her stifled, keyed-up bliss.
    "Yeah. You should see their faces. They all look really
disturbed. Something about that place must've really
spooked them."
    "You don't have to tell me about that. It's the creepiest
place I've ever been in my life. Just walking around inside."
    "Yeah?"
    "Like walking around a graveyard where all the bodies
were just buried a day ago. I sure as shit never want to go in
there again."
    I do, Clements thought. He'd already been in once.
    The fumigation crew was just sitting there. Maybe they're
not done, he considered. Of course it would be a big job, and
he presumed that Vivica Hildreth had paid them big money.
Were they waiting for someone else? No, he was certain
there'd been only four of them, just after the clean-up crew
had left.
    "So it was pretty much just orgies going on there, huh?"
he continued to prod.
    "I mean, I guess. That's what it sounded like. Lot of hootin'
and hollerin'. Big party going on somewhere-downstairs."
    "Maybe they were shooting movies for the porn company."

    "Maybe. With all the naked people walking around, I can
believe it. Really good-looking people too. Most of the
men were all buffed up, and the women? There were beautiful women all over the place, not junkies, either. These
girls were tan, implants, great bods. Shit what I wouldn't
give. And they seemed normal too, party girls, sure, but not
whacked out. At first I thought they were just big-money
call girls, but then I started hearing about the porn company that Hildreth owned. Then the last few times I was
there..."
    "What?"
    "Shit, we could see them walking around, me and the
girls I was there with. We'd open the parlor door a crack
and look out. Really freaky