Before
I begin, I'm going to describe her to you, the way I see her. I
suppose that a lot of people will disagree with me and say that I
flatter her too much, and I suppose that's true. But this is what
she's like, the way I see her.
She's beautifully curved, like
a sculpture made of white marble. Not a model body; she's too curvy
and too short to qualify to be one, and I know because that's what
she wanted to do, model. She's 5"5, just an inch below model
requirements. It always used to drive her mad, that one inch she was
missing. She blamed it on her mother, who left her for her father to
pick up at the hospital, never to be heard of again until hours
before her mother was found dead; she blew her own brains out in a
motel 70 miles away. The autopsy said her she was 5"4.
I'm
getting off topic, sorry. But there's just so much about her that I
think you should know. Just know she existed and this is who she
was.
Back to her appearance. Her face is oval shaped, but her chin
comes to a perfectly square point at the bottom of her angular and
symmetrical face. She had hit her chin on a wall corner when she was
little and, testifying to the event, there was a tiny scar on the
underside of her chin where she split it open on that wall.
Her
cheeks and lips were eternally rosy, even in death they retained
colour. The coroner said it was because she had been left lying face
down, so what blood was left pooled there. That made me sick; to
think that some awful person had left her face down.
Ah, I loved
her lips! Particularly her lower lip. It was round, soft and pouty.
The first time I saw her was at the Christmas talent show at our
highschool. She sung Santa, Baby. I watched that pouty lip of hers
the entire time. Her voice is beautiful too, with an alto-soprano
range. She wanted to be in broadway if she couldn't be a model.
She
had long, pale eyelashes, the colour of wheat. If you looked at her
closely you could see the way they touched her rosy cheeks when she
closed her eyes, which were the colour of maple syrup. She hated her
eyes; she wanted to have blue eyes, like her mother did. The one
trait that her mother had that she wanted wasn't passed down to
her. But I loved her eyes, and that made her cheeks dimple as she
smiled at me. She had a wonderful smile too, did I mention it
already? I might mention it again. Tell me if I do. Because, no
matter what was happening, if she smiled at me, I'd just feel pure
elation
(except for that last smile it made me retch what a
sick smile that person had given her)
Except for
the way she was smiling when she was on that metal tray. The coroner
said someone had pulled her face like that just after she died and
they put her face down in the crate.
I burned that crate. They
stopped holding it for evidence and I asked for it. I wasn't really
expecting to get it, but I did. Maybe the psychiatrist had something
to do with it.
Oh! I've forgotten her hair
(there was some
in the crate when i burned it and oh god the smell)
It was a
pretty auburn that both reflected and absorbed sunlight. It lit up
when sun hit it, and the sun seemed to reside in her hair for hours
to come; it glowed in the dark in a way.
(but was it glowing
when she was on the metal tray was it was it no because that person
had kept her in the basement that basement five blocks away)
At
least it did to me. She gave me a lock of her hair once and I have it
with me right now.
(i burned her hair the hair from the crate
why why didn't i get it out of the crate why)
I put the lock
of hair in the ring she gave me; it's one of those pill box rings,
the kind old women keep their pills in for when they go out. Mine is
silver with emeralds inlaid into it, and it resides on my wedding
finger. It was her grandmothers on her dad's side who had arthritis
so it fit her swollen woman's fingers and fit my slender male
wedding finger. I rather like her dad, I always have. I'm worried
for him right now but he's strong. I think he'll keep on going
even if he doesn't keep that liveliness he had before
(before
it was done before that awful smile and her horrible open sightless
eyes that followed you as you ran out of the morgue to retch in the
linoleum hallway as people passed you and snickered because they all
thought it was you was it you was it you because they still think
it's you it's you who dunnit that's what the detective said to
you are you the killer are you shane are you a
killer)
she
was put in the crate. He still has his mother and his father alive so
he's not alone.
Right, I'm off topic again,
sorry.
So I've gone through her body, her face, her eyes, and
her hair, and my ring.
I gave her a ring too, she was wearing it
when it
(oh shane what a child you are you still don't want
to say what it is do you well I'll say it she was killed and was it
you shane are you the killer are you)
happened.
Ironically it was my grandmother's engagement ring. Of course, we
weren't engaged, we couldn't have been because I'm 17 and she's
(silly silly shane abbreviations don't make it any better
it's she was she was not she's because that's an abbreviation
for she is but she isn't don't you know that silly shane because
she's dead silly are you the killer silly
shane)
16,
but I gave her the ring anyway. Its silver, like mine, but with a
small diamond in the middle. It has little amethysts around the
diamond and on the top of the band. She'd giggle when people asked
her about it, and her giggle was so cute it made you smile. It made
everyone smile, and she giggled around me a lot so I smiled a lot. It
hurts my face to smile now.
I think I'm done describing her now
because I don't want to waste paper
(she hated when i wasted
paper because she wanted to be the president of greenpeace and meet
david suzuki why didn't i make it happen oh why)
(and
they're coming for you silly shane don't you know that you have
precious minutes to write it silly shane silly silly do you really
care about paper because are you the killer silly shane are
you)
and
the police are coming, I think, because they think I did it. But
here, on this paper, I need to write this, because-
I'll just
write what the coroner and the detective told me.
They reproduced
a semi-accurate telling of what might have happened.
(but it
happened and you know it did because are you the killer silly shane
are you)
She was walking home from work (the local Black's
Photography kiosk) when she met up with someone, probably someone she
knew and recognized. They went off course and started walking to the
west instead of northeast.
Five blocks off of her route home they
went into a house, 1126 Yale street. I'll never forget that
address.
It was the house of a 97 year old man who lived alone
with no living relations left. The neighbours said he was senile but
harmless. He was found upstairs, lying in bed, dead of a heart
attack. The coroner told me he died 5 days before she and that person
even entered the house, and that he smelled awful.
Anyway, they
watched TV for a while and the person made her some macaroni and
cheese, which was her favorite food. Two hours afterward her dad
tried calling her cell which had the batteries taken out, apparently
without her knowledge, because she broke the 9 key and the 1 key by
pressing them as hard as she could an hour before her dad called,
minutes before she died.
She and the person went down to the
basement, and she showed signs of resisting when they hit the 1st
landing. The person was carrying her on their shoulder and she was
kicking and scratching; her nails, painted red at the time, were
stuck in the soft wood walls as she tried to claw the wall to get
away. The neighbours said they heard screaming and assumed it was the
TV.
The person tried to force her in the box but she bit them;
there was flesh and blood in her mouth and under her nails, so the
person took her by her squared chin and round forehead, and snapped
her neck.
It took her 10 minutes to die, slowly suffocating, her
limbs useless in paralysis. Then the person pulled that smile onto
her face and lay her face down
(face down with a smile the best
smile she had silly shane you know why because she was dead and that
made me smile are you the killer did you kill her did
you)
in
a crate from her father's soap manufacturing business, Jameson
Soaps & Co.
The person nailed the crate shut.
A day later
a caretaker came to visit Mr. Andy Housser, the 97 year old man who
was dead in bed. The caretaker found him. The same day a demolishing
team started cleaning out the house when they found her.
The
coroner told me the flesh and blood under her nails and in her mouth
matched someone. The hair on the couch matched the same person, along
with the fingerprints on the remote for the TV and doorknobs.
The
detective told me that they matched me.
(that's right silly
shane they matched they matched)
But that can't be me!
(are
you the killer silly shane)
I can hear sirens now
(they're
coming to take you away ha ha)
but
I need you to know.
My name is Shane Trow and I loved Tammy
Salton.
(but I have no name and you are the killer because I am
the killer and you know what silly shane we're the same the very
same and I'm laughing because I can hear the sirens too and we
killed her shane we killed her shane we did it and you are the killer
you killed your love tammy salton and I'm laughing at you silly
shane silly silly YOU ARE THE KILLER SILLY SHANE WE ARE THE KILLER WE
ARE)
