Caution! This chapter is extremely graphic! All you kiddies out there better not read this or it will damage your fragile little minds. All you brave ones out there, don't say I didn't warn you!!! Ha ha ha ha ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Chapter 4 Gore and Bets

The blood closed around the plastic bootie, not quite to the top of it, not quite rolling over her shoe, but close. *I swear, even through the plastic and my shoe I can feel the blood. I hate my overactive imagination at times like this. Dear Lord, why did I ever go into this line of work?*

She slid her foot forward, slowly, cautiously, and kept her fingers on the doorjamb as long as possible. Actually, the room wasn't that large, and it wasn't that big a reach between the door and the tub. She got a death grip on the edge of the tub with her glove covered hands, and when she had both her feet planted as steady as she could get them, she looked down at the water.

It was like some kind of read soup. The water seemed to swirl, heavier than it was. Probably an illusion, but she suddenly had an image of something floating right below the surface. *I've been watching too many horror movies.*

She glanced back at Cooney. "You guys don't have any rookies to do this?"

"How do you think we got the first piece out?" he asked.

"That would explain the uniform throwing his guts up in the bushes as I came through."

"His second day on the job."

"You ass."

"Maybe, but no one else wanted to put their hand in there."

"God, I hope this is only one killer and not two. If not, we have bigger problems on our hands."

He blinked at her. "You'd be happier if it's one killer?"

"Traditionally two separate killers slaughter more people that just one."

"You still think more like a cop than an ME."

"Thanks." She turned back to the tub, and knew she was going to have to do it.

The water was cold, even through the gloves. She reached down, the line of cold, bloody water creeping up her skin, and with her hand less that halfway in, she hit something solid.

She froze for a moment, took a shallow breath, and ran her hand down along what she touched. It was soft and solid at the same time, meaty flesh. She came to bone, and it was enough to grip, and raised it free of the water. It was what was left of a woman's arm. The bone showed pinkish white as the water streamed from it. The end that had attached to the shoulder was crushed.

She set the arm aside and went back to where she found it. Her hand sunk in farther this time, and she pulled out a nearly meatless bone. It didn't look like a piece of a person, so she didn't think of it that way. She looked at it as if she had found an animal in the woods and was trying to figure out what had eaten it. *I doubt that some hyena had escaped from the zoo to rampage in a suburban bathroom.*

She let the bone drift back into the water, slowly, easing it down, because for some reason she really didn't want it to splash on her.

She turned from the bathtub and carefully made her way back to the doorway, stripped off the gloves and the booties and threw them in the garbage bag. She stepped out of that awful room, and kept walking until she hit the bedroom.

The air seemed cooler, more breathable here.

Cooney followed her out, and it was Sgt. Nichols who said. "She did it, didn't she?"

"Yep."

Nichols made a sort of crowing sound. "I knew it, I won."

Sarah looked at him, then at Cooney. "I'm sorry, what did you say?"

Cooney didn't even look embarrassed. "We had a bet going on whether you'd actually fish around in the tub."

She sighed and shook her head. "You are all such unmitigated bastards."

"Unmitigated, ooh," Nichols said, "if you use such big words to insult us, Williams, we'll never figure it out."

She looked back at her Lt. "There's at least two people cut up in the bathtub, Cooney."

"Why two?"

"Because the pile is too damn high only to be one woman's body, especially since it almost looks like he ate parts of it."

"You say 'he' like you know."

Sarah shook her head, "I don't know, but I'm assuming male, because you don't find many women willing to do this kind of shit. It happens, but it's rare."

"We actually have a witness saying that two women were seen entering this house about 2am." Cooney said. "They appeared to be drink, and there was a man with them."

"You have a witness?"

"If the man who brought them home is not part of what is in the tub, yeah."

She thought about that. "He could be in the tub. By the way, why is the water so deep, why isn't the overflow valve working?"

"Our rookie says a piece of body has been stuffed into the valve."

Sarah shivered. "No wonder he fucking threw up"

"I lost on that one," Nichols said.

"Lost on what?" She asked.

"Most of us bet you'd be sick"

"Who bet I wouldn't?"

Cooney cleared his throat. "Me."

"What did you win?"

"Dinner for two at Chili's."

"What did you win for me fishing in the tub?" Sarah asked Nichols.

"Money."

Sarah shook her head. "I fucking hate you all." She turned toward the door. "I hope you enjoy your dinner Lt. Cooney. Enjoy your money, Sgt. Nichols. I quit."

She walked out of the House of Horror, got in her Jeep Grand Cherokee Limited and drove away.

Not once did she look back.