Wassahatchka County — Hardware Store
A chalk outline with no body appears outside a mom-and-pop hardware store. Inside, detectives Midge Sumpter and Jake Leon discover a severed ear in a plastic bag on the glue aisle. Soon, more body parts turn up - including one in the tailpipe of their own cruiser - leading them into a race against time and a twisted killer who dismantles victims piece by piece.
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‘“Would you care to lose the finger first or the ear first?”
The kitchen knife gleams, but the blades of the garden clippers are dull and black.
The response is muffled, but despite the muffling of the heavy cloth gag, the words nevertheless come out: “Don’t do this! Why are you doing this?”
The other figure garbles out in its own muffled tones, “You’re insane! You’ll never get away with this!”
The unmuffled voice says simply, “Oh, but I’ll get away with it, all right. Nobody, nobody, nobody! I repeat, nobody knows you’re here! Nobody knows either one of you is here! What’s to stop me?”
Muffled complaints from the figure bound and squirming on the floor. Despite the thick muffling of the cotton cloth gag, the fear and confusion are evident. Muffled screams from the second person likewise bound and gagged.. Both are hogtied, hands bound behind them and tied to their ankles, and a length of rope attached to the frame of a heavy four-poster bed. The bindings are tight but circulation is still possible, though barely. Both figures struggle against their bindings, but it’s hopeless. The first has a nasty welt on the head; blood has soaked a bathroom towel from the injury.
Struggle seems just to make their limbs swell and the bindings tighter.”
— Excerpt from Chapter One