Part 52
Posted by Barbanne on December 18, 2002 at 22:41:55:
PART FIFTY TWO
SARAH
"Rom?"
"Yes Sarah," sleepily. Rom looked at his bedside clock. Two am.
"You know you told me to report anything strange?"
"Yes Sarah, where are you anyway?"
"That's the thing, I'm in my apartment but I had to get the doorman to let me in. When I got home I couldn't find my keys and I know I had them."
"Sarah listen to me and listen carefully."
Sarah stood clutching the white cordless phone in her hand, bright red nails wrapped around it. She was a skinny redhead with a pale, pasty, complexion, liberally sprinkled with big brown freckles that continued down onto her chest and lined her thin arms. She was wearing a bright green silk peignor and high heeled, shiny vinyl shoes. The peignor gaped open to reveal a flattish bust tipped with big rose brown nipples and a wash board tummy leading to fine, downy, curly, red pubic hair.
"Sarah I want you to put down the phone, don't hang it up because I want to listen in and then go to the door and shut it loudly, slam it if necessary and then go down to the foyer and wait with the doorman. I'm on my way and I'll meet you there."
"Rom I can't I'm practically naked."
"Don't worry about that. I want you to get out of that apartment now, and anyway it should get the door guy's attention."
"OK."
Rom heard her put the phone down and then the clatter of heels on timber and then nothing when she crossed to the carpet and then.......................nothing. He did not hear the door slam.
After Frankie's close call with death she had left as soon as she was released from hospital. The incident had only attracted a small amount of publicity but the grisly details circulated amongst our girls like wild fire. Kathy, Jordan, Nadine and Corinne had all quit, worried that their work at Playdead was exposing them to the sort of wierdo creep that Chas had proved to be. We had advertised again and had got the two Sarah's, well, actually Sarah and Sara. Sarah was the skinny (as was fashionable with heaps of young girls) model who was working here under my direction and Sara was an older blonde, single mother with a gorgeous little daughter and she was in it expressly for the money which she needed badly.
Back to my photo shoot.
Rom arrived at the apartment building and rang the bell. The doorman (Alex in a wig) peered out and indicated that it was too late for callers. Rom rang the bell again and pounded on the door. Alex looked at him quizzically.
"I have to get in and go up to apartment two oh four," said Rom, "emergency."
"Miz Sarah," said Alex.
"Yes Miz Sarah you dill she's in real danger."
"How would that be? She just came home a little while back."
"And you had to let her in."
"That's right she'd lost her keys."
"Not lost you idiot, stolen and probably used to let the thief into her apartment to do who knows what."
"Oh." Alex let Rom in and followed as he raced up the stairs.
The door to Sarah's apartment was open and standing ajar. Rom pushed it the rest of the way and Alex crowded in behind him. Sarah lay just inside, on her back her arms bent at the elbows and her cupped fingers beside her head. Her peignor was open and her naked body visible all the way down. Her face was staring straight up at the ceiling but her closed eyes saw nothing. Her mouth gaped open, neat white teeth lined up in two rows and dribble sliding from her lips. Rom stooped beside her but his two fingertips found no pulse of life. The blackening bruise behind her ear and the cord ripped from one of the blinds told the story. As she ran for the door to do as Rom had told her Sarah had been coshed from behind with something heavy, probably the glass statuette lying a metre and a half away and then her assailant had hastily sought and found a garotte, the blind cord and this had been wrapped tightly around her neck and relentlessly used to strangle her to death.
Alex stood there saying, "Oh my goodness how terrible," and stuff like that while Rom used the discarded phone to call the police.
For this I used a wide angle lens with a really good depth of field and positioning myself low down and right beside Sarah I got a shot with her body occupying all of the lower foreground and pin sharp and the action taking place in the upper part of the frame and in the distance but also really sharp. I kept this worm's eye camera view for the whole of the action of the next few moments. Being so intimately close I also noticed that Sarah had a tendency to flicker her eyelids and swallow and quietly picked her up on this and that she also had quite a lot of acne that she had tried to conceal with foundation base and a bad shaving rash around her pussy mons and she smelled. I mean most people have a bit of a body whiff when you get close enough but Sarah actually smelt quite ripe and I wondered how often she bathed. Be that as it may, me with my camera and dead and pongy Sarah occupied the foreground and in the background Rom rang for the cops and Alex watched him and then the cops and others came and stepped over poor Sarah's corpse revealed as it was by her gaping peignor and they stooped and examined and prised up eyelids and measured and photographed and finally bagged her. Larry and Sherilee were the cops and Sherilee had only met Sarah briefly but that didn't stop her saying, "Hey Sarah honey you stink, how about a bath next time?"
Sarah went very red.
I finished up with Sarah on my stainless steel slab being stripped and examined. One thing with me when I'm photographing a corpse or being one is that unless someone moves that corpse it stays where it is from shot to shot. Dead girls may never say no but they also never move. For me dead is DEAD! I moved around the stainless steel table photographing Sarah's stretched out, skinny body from every angle I could conceive of, avoiding shots that distorted her and going for stuff that flattered her femininity. She was feminine, despite her awkward angles and her rather pointy nose and doughy complexion and she deserved my best efforts, besides the sexier the pictures the more the customers would love them and be inclined to come back for more. A horrible thought washed over me and I saw again Frankie gasping for her very life and I realised how much I would hate it if Sarah were really lying here dead. What an abomination, what a disgusting attack on her very humanity of spirit that would be. Imagine this attractive young body drained of life and vitality lying here like some dried husk, some dessicated corpse, agh I could hardly abide the thought and finished off very quickly and helped Sarah up.
She went bright red and I thought she was having a turn or something and anticipated her flopping down in a faint. She didn't but she looked at me and said, "I know you know."
"Hmmm," I said, "know what Sarah?"
"That I smell."
"Oh that, have you talked to anyone about it?"
"My doctor told me some people sweat more than others."
"Perspire darling, we girls perspire, men sweat."
She giggled nervously.
"It's got a name that. Perspiring a lot. I think its called hyperidrosis, I read about it once. There's things you can do about it. Try using an anti bacterial soap and that will help heaps with your zits too and there's some stuff you can get from the health shops that's a natural herb extract and that will make your perspiration smell nicer if you do sweat shall we say. But Sarah the best thing is to work on being just a little less emotional honey."
She giggled again, really, really nervously. It was bordering on sobbing.
"Sarah you're a love and we will just have to work on your nerves."
"Oh Barbanne how I wish I could be like you."
"No you don't girl believe me you don't."
"Well you always seem on top of everything and all and..................."
"Sarah I'm a fucking mess and you don't want to be anything like me. What you want to be is you but with more confidence."
"I wish."
"Don't wish, work on it."
She started to giggle and then her face crumpled and she looked on the verge of tears.
"Anyway how did you like your first photo set with us?"
"Oh well that's the funny thing I quite liked it but I think that's because I just feel so good working with you."
"Hmmm, let's not get carried away, but if you want I'll do the next few with you, until you settle in that is."
"I'd like that."
"Anyway you were good."
"Do you think so?"
"Sure. It's not easy playing dead like that."
"Huh, funny thing but I sort of enjoyed it."
"Sort of?"
"Well..........I wouldn't tell anyone but you but it sort of turned me on............er, now you know I'm odd."
"No way honey it turns more girls on than you'll hear admit it."
"Yeah," she looked at me weighing something up, "Barbanne..............."
"Call me Barb."
"Barb, would it be possible for me to bring my boyfriend here," the words started tumbling out, "it's just that he is really into computers and he'd love to see some of the stuff that Alex has here, er what do you think?"
I thought I was sort of amazed that Sarah had a boyfriend but heck if Alex didn't mind what harm could it do.
"I'll ask Alex. What's his name, your boyfriend?"
"Watson."
"Watson? like Doctor Watson?"
"Watson Smith."
"Right. Does Watson know what we do here Sarah?"
"I'll tell him."
"Is it going to be a problem? What will he think if he sees you playing dead?"
"He'll love it........absolutely love it."
Surprise followed surprise.
"Let's go and ask Alex then, and remember Sarah, medicinal soap, those herbals and less nerves."
"OK."
Alex didn't mind at all. He loves his computers and loves sharing with others who understand. I'm no slouch but I just haven't got his intensity.
Sarah came back the next day with Watson Smith.
NERD!
Thick framed unfashionable spectacles and a complexion as pale as Sarah's and skinny and polite and when he got in with Alex they got on like a house on fire. Sarah, I realised, was no PC dill either but she and I couldn't compete and so while Watson and Alex were tossing around acronyms like volley ballers toss a ball I took Sarah down and we had some green tea and talked. She was sweet I soon realised and she was bright and she had the same sort of sexy, dirty thoughts I had, it was just that she was painfully shy. She babbled out that she had started scrubbing herself with the anti bacterial soap and was gutsing the tablets from the health shop and she was working hard on being more positive.
I held her hand and she just loved that and I thought, oops Barb, danger of becoming a role model here.
We went back upstairs and found Alex showing Watson the photos Sarah had done. He was spellbound and when I glanced at Sarah I coud see she was bubbling with pride of achievement. I thought to myself that in Sarah, despite her hangups, we might just have found ourselves the second true necro "deadgirl" player in the place to myself.
Alex announced that Watson would be joining us on a temporary basis to work with Alex on improving our web page and Sarah squeezed my arm and I gave her a little hug and a kiss and realised that you never know someone until you know them.