Chapter 6

"Signs of a Spell"

Seeing the body of a half human, half donkey was a little unsettling to say the least. One thing was for sure, however, it wasn't William McCroskey and it had been dead for very little time. We took the body back to the forensics lab at the Rome Police Station and stuck it up on the table while Velma, donned in a white lab coat and putting on latex gloves, began to inspect it.

"So this guy was found on the beach? Jinkies!" she remarked as Clarice also donned her protective gear. "He seems to not have been dead for very long."

"We have to work quickly," Clarice urged, while the rest of us watched from behind a glass window. "If there are spirits in here, we need to extract them."

Taking a pair of scissors, Velma began to cut away the corpse's clothes, clothes soaked with the waters of the Mediterranean. With each cut, Velma could see the slowed transformation that took place on this poor soul. Rolling him over, Velma saw the long donkey's tail that stuck out of the body's behind. Taking her cross, Clarice began to chant an incantation in an effort to find any remaining spirits.

"Spirits," she called down to the corpse while dangling the cross like a watch. "If you are in this child, I banish you in the name of our lord, Jesus Christ! His power compels you! His power compels you!"

Suddenly, she seemed to hear the sounds of moaning and growling coming from the corpse.

"I hear something," she whispered, forcing Velma to look in the corpse's mouth as seawater seeped out of it.

"What are they saying?"

"They are saying that they work for…an evil ancient spirit that has harbored Pleasure Island for thousands of years."

"Ask them who the spirit is?"

Taking her request into account, Clarice chanted some more in hoping to get an answer, but she got nothing.

"They refuse to say."

Sighing, Velma then began the process of draining the blood out of the corpse, but she kept a small tube by her side because she wanted a sample of blood.

"What's that for?" Clarice asked.

"I want a sample of his blood to study because if there are spirits, they could even be in the bloodstream."

Turning on the machine, the blood was extracted from the corpse through a long pipe while blood filled up the small tube. By this point, the corpse was nearly naked, more donkey than human. Suddenly, Velma noticed some markers on the corpse's back, almost like lashings.

"Clarice, take a look at this!" Velma cried, motioning for Clarice to join her. "See these markings? They look like lashings!"

The red lashing marks were bright red which also confirmed that they were freshly made.

"Where do you think the lashings came from?" Clarice asked.

"Supposedly from a whip and not just any whip, a cat of nine tails. See how they covered the entire back?"

Velma showed Clarice the markings and soon, the lashings were soon being displayed on the back of the corpse's legs. She then noticed that the hands of the corpse were starting to undergo a transformation at the time of death.

"And his hands," she declared, gently picking up one of the hands with her own. "They seemed to have started a transformation at the time of death. See that they were beginning to become hooves?"

Clarice studied the half hand, half hoof and came to a conclusion.

"It seems that the spirits were injected into the body and began corrupting it to the point of forcing the body to give up its humanity."

Sighing, Velma turned to leave the forensics lab and gave us a look that meant that we had a ton of work on our hands.

"Well," Velma said, turning back to Clarice. "The spirits didn't answer us, but we found out their intentions. The question now is who do they work for?"

At that moment, we were approached once again by Inspector DiNucci who had the look of someone who was in a great hurry.

"Inspector, what is it?" I asked.

"A girl who claims to have escaped Pleasure Island was found on a raft just offshore," he answered.

"Is she alive?"

"Yes, and she's here now."

Telling Velma that were going to attend to this latest development, we left her and Clarice alone in the forensics lab to finish what they were doing and went to go meet this living survivor of Pleasure Island.

…

We then proceeded to one of the interrogation rooms and sitting inside was a young girl with cuts all over her body and the small white frock she was wearing was barely covering her nearly naked body.

"Where did she come from?" I asked Inspector DiNucci. "Who is she?"

"She claims to have been lured away from her home in the dead of night and ended up being forced onto the coach."

It also became apparent that the girl refused to comply with the demands of the Coachman to the point they she was forced against her will. Then, I saw Daphne place her hand on the doorknob.

"Daphne what are you doing?" I asked.

"I'm going to talk to her," Daphne answered firmly. "I think it's best if she talks to someone of the same gender. Wait here!"

Before any of us could say another word, Daphne went inside and all we could do was hope for the best with what Daphne was trying to do.

...

Meanwhile, the Coachman was just overseeing the latest shipment of boys and girls turned into donkeys being loaded onto boats where one of his ape like servants came forward.

"Did you find the girl?" he asked in a thick cockney accent to which the servant responded that he didn't find the girl. "What about that trash who nearly became an ass? Where's he?"

Again, the servant responded that he didn't find the other fugitive which made the Coachman cross.

"Damn blokes!" he hissed, cracking his whip in frustration. "It's so hard to get good help nowadays! Very well then, carry on!"

But just then, the ground they were standing on began to rumble and the Coachman turned to see Reverend Kane standing before him in the large doorway, wondering just exactly what he wanted out of the Coachman!

…

...