I'd been at work about ten minutes when the Feebies marched in, intent on talking to McGuire. I received the usual Greer glare, but Thorwald didn't look at me at all. I tried to catch her eye, but it was like I didn't exist for her. Guess she didn't take kindly to being stood up.

  I called Victor Castle and told him that the Church of the True Cross seemed to be escalating its efforts to start a "race war" between humans and supes. He said he would do his best to keep the supe community from overreacting to the latest atrocities, but urged me to "bring this matter to a successful conclusion as soon as possible," as if I needed encouragement to do my job. Prick.

  Even if it wasn't my job to take down the Church of the True Cross, I'd do it, anyway. Burn somebody alive on my front lawn, I take it personally. I'm funny that way.

  On my way to the break room for a cup of what passes for java in the squad, I noticed that somebody had left a copy of the People's Voice on an empty desk. The front page headline grabbed my attention – which wasn't hard to do, since the letters were about two inches high.

DEMON MURDER!

 

  it said. Underneath, in somewhat smaller type was,

 

"Snuff films" show torture of innocent humans

  and below that even smaller letters promised,

(Story, page 3).

  "Motherfucker!" I muttered. Karl must've heard me, because he came up and looked over my shoulder.

  "Ah, shit!" he said. "How'd those fuckers get the story?" Before I could offer an answer he said, "Turn the page, will you?"

  The headline at the top of page 3 was in smaller print but equally hysterical: Videos Show Torture, Murder.

  The story was underneath.

Special to The People's Voice by Tod Solin

SCRANTON (Oct. 19) – A series of "underground" videos show the apparent torture and murder of innocent people at the hands of demon-possessed humans, humans who have no control over their macabre actions.

  Each video shows two naked prisoners, shackled to chairs facing each other. A voice off-camera can be heard summoning a foul creature from Hell. Then one of the prisoners is "possessed" by the newly arrived demon, who is then freed to commit bloody mayhem on the other screaming, pleading human.

  Despite advances in special-effects makeup that allow Hollywood filmmakers to realistically simulate torment and mutilation in the horror sub-genre known as "torture porn," it is highly unlikely that the atrocities shown in these videos are simulated.

  The People's Voice has obtained three of these so-called "snuff videos", and this reporter has been reliably informed that others exist as well. The videos have been…

• • • •

To the left of the story was a shot from the video that Thorwald and Greer had screened for the squad at the beginning of this nightmare. It showed the demon-possessed man at work on the other one, who we now knew as Edward Hudzinski. The image was carefully selected to avoid showing the participants' genitals or any actual explicit torture. But it had a good shot of Hudzinski's face in mid-scream.

  Karl stopped reading and stepped back. "Know that that splattering noise is?"

  I turned to face him. "What noise? I don't hear anything."

  "Sure you do," he said grimly. "It's the sound of all the shit that just hit the fan."

  I refolded the paper and took it with me to McGuire's office. The Feebies were still in there with him, but I rapped on the door a couple of times and opened it anyway.

  "Boss, I–"

  Thorwald gave me the kind of glare that Custer probably grew really tired of in his last moments. "This is a private conversation with your superior, Sergeant – which you have not been invited to take part in!" Hell hath no fury, and so on.

  "I know," I said. "And I've been feeling really bad about that, too. But I wondered if any of you folks had seen this." I tossed the newspaper onto McGuire's desk.

  McGuire reached for it, but Thorwald was faster. She snatched it up, stared at the headline, then ripped the paper open to page 3. She must have been a fast reader, because less than ten seconds went by before she closed the paper, folded it in one angry motion, and flung it back on the desk.

  "This is outrageous!" she cried.

  "I couldn't agree more," I said calmly. Next to me, Karl said, "Yeah, me neither."

  McGuire had acquired the paper by now and was reading the article with a look of horrified fascination.

  "This… this…" Thorwald seemed to be having trouble getting a sentence started. "Some cocksucker has leaked those fucking snuff videos to the motherfucking press. And since I didn't do it, and Greer didn't do it, do you know what that fucking means?"

  Normally, listening to an attractive woman talk dirty turns me on a little, but I think even a satyr's lust would have been quelled by Thorwald's fury.

  "Um, someone in Washington isn't to be trusted?" I asked innocently. I wasn't going to give Thorwald the fight she was obviously spoiling for. I wondered if she would have been quite this pissed off at me if she'd achieved the two hours of "good hard fucking" that she'd been seeking.

  I guess Greer was feeling neglected, because he pointed an index finger at me and said, "I've had just about enough out of you, pal."

  Before anybody could respond to that, Thorwald turned and headed for McGuire's door, with an expression that said as clear as words, "Don't get in my fucking way!"

  Karl and I stepped aside and let her pass. After a couple of seconds, Greer followed. I was glad Thorwald wasn't the last one out. She'd probably have slammed the door hard enough to shatter the glass.

  The three of us watched as the two agents made their angry way across the squad room and out the door. A couple of other detectives at their desks turned and looked, too. That much rage is impressive, even when it's not directed at you.

  McGuire sighed and tapped the newspaper a couple of times. "Histrionics aside," he said, "this is pretty goddamn bad."