The Cleaner ~ Chapter 1
How much longer for this hole to be ready, dammit? She thought to herself. It is not a surprise, it wasn't her first hole and it sure as hell wont be her last. She picked up the shovel and started aggressively stabbing and the surrounding ledge. She had her headphones in, in hopes the beat of the music would energize her, in her last hour of digging. Keeping track of the amount of holes she had dug in her career was like counting the notches on a bedpost of a teenage boys conquests. It was her 7th hole she had spent the hours digging, getting it perfect for the body. She learned much about the soils in the regions and where the best ground was. She knew where to look for future holes and kept herself current on any new construction happening. Each hole brought a new experience, a few new lessons learned and she will not forget them. She would make note of any disturbed landscaping around her holes and move on. She wasn't worried about the bodies being discovered as long as the decomposition had already started. She always made sure to clean her area and not leave any evidence. She would visit a site more than once but in a random way to where no one knew what the hell she was doing. It took time to map out a good hole, like she said. Another thought that could haunt the job is the wildlife. Rodents help uncover items buried too quickly for her liking so she always went for the construction sites unless she could go country. That was dangerous in itself, because of transporting the body always had undetermined consequences. She gave herself 6 hours from the beginning to the end. She didn't like to dilly dally. this wasn't the time or place for such activities.
After she had dug her first hole, she realized why she got paid the big bucks. She needed to find ways to make it easier for her without anyone getting suspicious.
Even at 7:30 am the heat was getting unbearable. The sun hadn't been up for long, but it is letting her know, its here. She quickened her pace with the shovel. She needed to hurry up unless she wanted to bury the body somewhere else and right now, there was no where else. She was not going to waste more time cutting the body into pieces, because she was "too hawt", making a face she knew what needed to be done. She stabbed the ground with her shovel and continued digging. The hole was long enough she just needed a little more depth. It was still pliable enough that she was done digging, she was able to maneuver the body into the hole. Her last dig, she had to drain the blood, then cut the body into pieces, put a few pieces with normal trash into the trash bag. She didn't want the black trash bag to looked weighed down by something that might look valuable, ensuring she had enough regular trash to make it look like normal spring cleaning trash, to where no one would be too nosey and look. she made sure to put food or clothes with paint all over it on the top in case there was a looky loo. As long as it was picked up before the heat started it shouldn't smell. She got rid of the bags before they puffed up from the decomposition of the body parts rotting. Since it was Nevada, there would be no cool morning drizzle. Lake Mead was close by, but with the reports of hikers finding those oil barrels earlier this year, one of which had a decomposing body, not mine, there have been extra patrol cars driving through. The closest town to her, was too small to hide a body, and the longer it took to find the body, the harder it was to identify. Sometimes there was a bit of research needed when getting rid of evidence.
One of her jobs along with getting rid of the body was to collect and destroy any personal items. She used these items to help ease the physical labor required for the job. She learned a lot about the person, if they had a family, if they were in debt, cheating, gambling, etc etc. She determined if their items would be buried with them. She gathered wallets, purses, coins, lighters, jewelry, dental work that had serial numbers but she never really pulled out gear, she just took any gold teeth that were visible and able to grasp. She would put the gold teeth in a glass of coca cola and the soda disintegrated the tooth, leaving the gold. The gold, would be thrown into a scrap bucket, and when there was a substantial amount she took it to her local gold dealer, selling it for scrap.
With some jobs, she would sort of connect with a piece of their personal items and use that to create a story of why they were killed. This helped the time go by faster and she was able to get lost in the story and it helped to not feel personally responsible for the persons death. She never really knew what they did to get the axe and she knew not to ask questions. She was paid to keep her mouth shut and it was good pay. She knew she was not going to be able to do this kind of work forever, maybe until she was 40, tops. Shit, she would probably fall victim to her own job if she wasn't careful. Her boss was a mean man. Always nice to her, but she never even tried to push his buttons. He respected her, and she him. She learned what would happen if she ever crossed him. She saw it first hand and has a keepsake to ensure she keeps her mouth shut. It was a cat. His name was Chester. He was only one years old, but his story was something of a crime boss novella. He's seen a lot in his little feline life.
Let me backtrack a bit.
After she was discharged from the Military, she threw a dart at a map of the United States of America and she told herself wherever it landed that's where she was going. She grabbed her dart case and her bunky laughed at her, "Where you gonna go, Maine?" He said, "What are you going to do there? We haven't really any hard core office skills with being special forces. Bodyguards and females of your size don't mix." He laughed. She grinned at him, took a dart out of the case, put the flight on the end and twirled the body between her fingers, getting used to the weight. "We shall see" She said. "Hey, wait.. you need to be blindfolded Ma'am, I don't trust you."
"Okay then, get it done" throwing a bandana his way, She said "Tie this over my eyes." She made sure that she could not see. She told him, "Spin me around 3 times and then make sure I am facing the map and let me know when to throw". "Yes Ma'am, Geesh bossy much?" He obliged and tied the banana tightly around her head. He then flipped her off and asked if she could see what he was doing. After she responded with No, he put both his hands on her shoulders and turned her around, "Once, twice three times the lady," he sung. He then made sure she was facing the map and said, "Go for it, make it a state we all can visit." She laughed, twirled the dart between her fingers, playing with the weight, making sure she would throw it straight. She put her left foot forward and threw the dart. Her follow through was tight, she was too worried about not hitting the wall. She didn't realize she was holding her breathe until she heard the darts impact on the wall. She loudly let her breathe out. She turned toward James voice, and took off her bandana. She was looking at his face and reaction because he wasn't saying much, but there was a smirk on his face. "What? Did I land in Alaska?" she said, "What's with the face?" He wasn't saying anything but there was a smirk on his face. She looked at him quizzically, "Come on, I am afraid to look, Is it a good state?" she asked. He laughed and said, "It all depends, you could live here and never see snow, that would suck but you could buy a cheapo house, get a 9-5 job..." Hi voice trails off teasingly. "Oh screw you James, what state is it?" She threw her bandana at his head and slowly turned around. She tried focusing on where she thought that the dart went but when she looked there, East Coast, there was no dart. Okay West Coast, cool. Nope no dart there. Oh god not the Midwest, as she glances at the Yellowstone region hoping to meet s cowboy and have little cow boys and girls running around but no dart. She blinked and out of the corner of her eye she saw it. The dart, its flight was sticking out. Nevada. The was the state that I picked. Nevada. Seriously,, between the heat and the gambling addictions that could develop she wasn't really feeling Nevada. Well I guess I am going to Vegas, she thought to herself. "Okay" she said, nodding. "I will give it a year... or two and then throw another dart. "Okay James, time for me to go and live a life, wanna grab a beer before I go?" He was quick to respond, "Nah, I have to go check in for duty this weekend. You got any plans this weekend? When are you leaving?" He fired these questions quickly and problem was, she didn't even know the answer. She sighed. All valid questions but she didn't have a single answer. "Now", she said, surprised it came out of her mouth no quickly. "I am going to leave now." She looked surprised she had just blurted it out as fast as he was asking her all the questions. He was just as surprised as she, "Alrighty then, You take care, send me a letter and invite if you ever have a spare room" He hugged her and smacked her upside the head. "Go on, get going to your new state, Nevada." She assumed that was his new nickname for her. Problem was, she will never hear it again. She smiled and sent him a wave with a "Take care James, stay out of trouble. keep in touch blah blah" BYE!" She picked up her duffle grabbed her keys and purse and walked down the bunkhouse and out the door, letting it slam loudly behind her. As if to tell her, this chapter of your life is SLAM, over.
Her military career was over. She was a veteran for the most part, the military still owned a piece her for two years, but that is in an inactive role. She was off to see her new state. Nevada. Being in Virginia, this was going to be a beautiful drive. She sat in her truck while she looked at the map to figure out how to get on 70. She mapped out the route and started the truck, The cool air of the A/C blasted and her hair went everywhere. She took a rubber band and fixed her hair, tucked it under a ballcap, put the truck in gear and headed off. She got on 95, and started driving.
Her new life.
Comments
Post a Comment