Dead Harvest

2

Sorry — it's nothing personal.

I wish I could tell you I have no idea how many times I've uttered that phrase. That I have no idea how many bodies I've left crumpled and inanimate in my wake. I wish I could tell you that, but I can't.

The truth is, there've been thousands. Some, like Gardner, are so damn surprised, they never even see it coming. Some spend their lives in fear of the moment, and catch my scent a mile away; they beg, they plead, they scream. In the end, it doesn't matter — I always get what I came for. And I remember each and every one of them. Every face. Every name.

I collect souls. The souls of the damned, to be precise. Not the most rewarding gig, I'll admit, but I didn't choose it — it chose me. Once upon a time, I was a man named Sam Thornton. I paid my taxes. I went to church. I didn't litter. I was a model fucking citizen, and then it all went to shit. That business with Gardner? Sixty-odd years ago that was me, and believe me, my collection was nowhere near as pretty.

The River Cherwell glimmered in the morning sun as I strolled along its bank, the path before me empty but for the occasional enterprising Oxford student out for a pre-class jog. By noon the place would be packed with folks eager to exorcise the demon winter — couples strolling hand in hand through gardens rife with fresh buds, tourists poling rented punts up and down the river — all manner of lively good cheer I'd just as well avoid. Now, though, I'd done my deed, burying Gardner's soul deep beneath a patch of dog's-tooth violet still weeks from flowering, and I thought that for a moment, at least, I could wander in peace. I should have known better. That's the bitch about being damned — things rarely shake out your way.

"Collector!"

Her call came from behind me, carried like a song on the breeze. "Morning, Lily," I said, turning. She was a few paces back on the path, her red hair cascading down over a whisper of a summer dress, her bare feet leaving no prints on the dirt path as she approached. "Aren't you up a little early?"

"When I rise is no concern of yours, Collector. And I've asked you not to call me that."

"Right," I replied. "Must've slipped my mind."

She cast an appraising glance my way, the faintest of smiles playing across her face, and despite myself, I flushed. "You look like shit," she said. "Why you persist in eschewing the living in favor of these rotting meatsuits, I'll never know."

"The living give me a headache."

"That is what they do best."

"This a social call?" I asked, shaking a Dunhill from the pack and striking a match.

"Hardly. Are you going to offer me one of those?"

"No," I replied, taking a long drag and slowly exhaling. "So who's the job?"

"Her name is Kate MacNeil."

"Contract or freelance?"

"She struck no bargain. Her actions are to blame."

"What'd she do?"

"As I understand it, she slaughtered her family."

"Christ," I said, noting her disdainful glare. "Where is she now?"

"Manhattan," she said. "I trust that's not a problem?"

"It's a place like any other," I replied.

"Of course it is. But as you well know, failure is not an option. I simply thought that, given your history there…"

"I'll get the job done."

"Yes," she said, "I expect you will. You should know that there's a timeline on this. It seems she's caught the eye of some rather influential… people. I wouldn't dally."

"I never do."

"No," she said. "You never do." She caressed my cheek, a teasing gesture, and then strolled northward past me up the footpath. A warm breeze kicked up from the south, and her sundress clung to her beautiful frame.

"Oh, and Collector?" she called, glancing backward.

"Yes?"

"Do try to enjoy yourself, won't you?"

And suddenly she was gone, replaced by a teeming swarm of butterflies, left to scatter on the warm southern wind.

A few streets from the river garden, I found myself a news stand. I managed to buy a copy of the New York Times, and tipped the guy a twenty pound note — after all, I wasn't going to need it. Under the shade of a massive oak, I lit another Dunhill, savoring the richness of the tobacco. I'll tell you, their food might be for shit, but the Brits sure as hell know how to make a cigarette. My pack was still half full, and I didn't relish the thought of leaving it behind, but I had a job to do.

MacNeil, it turns out, made the front page. My guess is it was the Park Avenue address as much as the three dead bodies that landed her there. Hell, a couple blocks further north, she might have been above the fold. I skimmed the article. Seems some neighbors heard screaming and called the police. By the time they arrived, Kate's brother and father were dead; the cops got there just in time to watch her slit her mother's throat. Took six officers to bring her down, and by the time they did, she was unconscious. Now they had her under guard at Bellevue Hospital, at least until she woke up. With a little luck, I thought, I could have this wrapped up before she even does.

I tossed aside the A-section and flipped through the paper until I found the obits. Papers like the Times, the obituaries are always a crapshoot. More days than not, they're stuffed front to back with octogenarians of some historical import — a touching gesture for friends and family, I'm sure, but it doesn't do me a load of good. Today, though, I was in luck. A playwright, thirty-five. Pills and booze, an apparent suicide. Not half-bad looking, either. It didn't get much better than that.

I closed my eyes and focused. My limbs grew heavy and ungainly as I pulled away. The jasmine scent of spring retreated, replaced by hollow nothingness.

Somewhere behind me, a body convulsed, thrashing about on the grass as a thousand synapses misfired. Then the world lurched, and it was gone.

The first thing I noticed was the smell — a harsh ammonia reek that burned my sinuses and caught in the back of my throat, making me gag. My stomach clenched and I doubled over, or tried to. My head clanged against something just a couple feet above, a muffled thud. I pressed against the liquid darkness. Cold vinyl pressed back, slick and unpleasant. Clumsy fingers fumbled in the darkness as I followed the line of the zipper. It ended just overhead. I forced a finger through, metal teeth digging flesh, and then pushed the zipper open.

I kicked free of the body bag. The chill of the morgue drawer stung my naked skin. My heart raced — the useless panic response of a fledgling meat-suit. I took a deep breath and closed my eyes, and the flutter slowed.

Hands against the back wall, I pushed, and the morgue drawer slid open. The room beyond was dimly lit, but after the absolute black of the drawer, I squinted still. I stumbled to a large utility sink, clumsy as a newborn foal. Bile rose in my throat, and I retched. It happens every time. A reflex, I suppose — just the body's way of trying to get rid of me. I try not to take it personally.

The water ran cool from the tap. I drank from cupped hands. Whiskey and pills and sick swirled toward the drain. The water calmed my stomach, and the act of drinking was an anchor, fixing me in place. The body no longer fought my movements, no longer coursed with fear. I stretched my limbs, testing each in turn. Not a bad fit, really. Possession can be a tricky thing, particularly with the dead. You've got to find one in decent working order, for one — if you don't get to them quick enough, they tend to run a little rough. And they've all got their quirks. The guy I left in Oxford, for example: bum hip, lousy stomach, and apparently scared shitless of bugs. You get something that ingrained, there's no stopping it, and considering he'd been on his floor a couple days before I found him, I was lucky he didn't have a fucking heart attack. I had to shower for an hour before his skin stopped crawling. Still, it beats taking the living — no thoughts, no memories, no baggage. Their constant yammering is enough to make you want to take a header off a bridge and bail on the way down.

I glanced at my wrist, a useless gesture. The watch I was looking for was a continent away, adorning the arm of a corpse. I looked around. The clock on the wall read 5am. If I were a betting man, I'd have said this place'd be deserted for least another hour. Of course, I'm not a betting man — in my line of work, I've seen my share of wagers, and believe me, the house always wins. Still, it couldn't hurt to poke around a bit.

I peered through the gloom at the bank of morgue drawers behind me. They gleamed faintly in the pale glow of the exit signs. Numbers, no names. I padded naked toward the door at the far end of the room. Beside the door hung a clipboard — a list of names, arranged by drawer. Three of them MacNeil.

I crossed the room and slid one out. As I unzipped the bag, the copper tang of blood prickled in my sinuses, and I went a little woozy. Great — New Guy had a thing about blood. That was gonna be a treat.

He was a boy of maybe twelve, with straw-colored hair and a smattering of freckles across his face. His feet were bare, his pajamas in tatters, and there was so much fucking blood, it was impossible to tell what color they were. His hands were nicked and scraped, his face mostly spared — it was clear he'd tried to protest, to protect himself. His chest was a tattered mess — bone protruding, soft tissue visible beneath. I zipped him up and slid him back.

The father was a mess as well. Well over six feet and not a slight man at that, he looked as though he'd been tossed about like a rag doll. He had at least a dozen fractures that I could see, arms kinked at improbable angles, legs a twisted wreck. His chest, too, was riddled with holes — knife wounds, like the boy — some flecked with chips of bone from the force of entry.

The mother, though — she was something else entirely. With her chestnut hair and her elegant features, she was beautiful once, no doubt, but now her body was a maze of tiny cuts — thousands of them, each no longer than an inch, marking her skin like some unholy etching. And there was something else, too. A familiar scent, mingled with the metallic bite of blood.

Alcohol.

Jesus — these cuts, they weren't intended to kill. They were meant to hurt like hell. To make this woman scream. I wondered how long it took before the neighbors took notice and called the cops. From the look of Kate's mom here, it could have been hours. And Kate just kept on cutting, waiting patiently for her audience to arrive before she slit her mother's throat.

I was suddenly glad Kate MacNeil would be cuffed and unconscious when I came to collect her. She wasn't to be trifled with, it seemed, and borrowed body or not, the pain's the same.

I slid the drawer closed, eyeing the gooseflesh on my arms as I did. It was cold in here, I realized, noting the tension in my muscles, the ache in my joints. I left the autopsy suite, snatching a lab coat from a line of hooks in the anteroom beyond. Pressing through a set of swinging double doors, I found myself in a hallway ablaze in fluorescent light. The hall was empty, its walls scarred with the scuff-marks of countless carelessly piloted stretchers, and I crept quietly down it, mindful of the doors on either side.

At the end of the hall was a locker room. A set of utility shelves stood along one wall, stacked high with clean scrubs, all neatly folded and arranged according to size. I took a set and slid them on, admiring myself in the mirror. I was a little pale, a little thin, but already my face showed signs of color, and for a dead guy, I cut a dashing figure in the powder blue scrubs. You could hardly even call it theft — in a couple hours I'd leave this body behind, and both it and the clothes I'd pilfered would wind up right back here.

I put the lab coat back on and headed for the door. An elderly woman pushed a mop bucket past me in the hall, but she paid me no mind. Between the lab coat and the few days' stubble that graced my cheeks, I looked like I'd just pulled a double shift.

I pushed through a set of glass doors and stepped out into the pre-dawn half-light. It was cold — bitterly so — as though the first kiss of spring I'd felt in Oxford was still some weeks away from warming the dead gray of New York's steel and concrete. From where I stood, First Avenue was pretty quiet — just the odd commuter among a dozen or so delivery trucks rumbling northward from the East Village. Bellevue lay a few blocks to the south. I pulled my lab coat tight around me and set off walking, my bare feet aching as the chill of the sidewalk leeched upward through my soles.