Chapter 11

CHAPTER 11

Bethany and I spend the next few weeks surreptitiously watching and studying Derek Johnson and his friends, trying to learn as much about them as we can. It’s still too early to have a comprehensive profile of our Herring, but we have been able to determine that—based on a number of t-shirts we have seen them wearing—they are Rob Zombie fans. We make the safe assumption they are fans of both his music and his movies. It’s a small start, but it’s a start.

For research, we spend a Saturday night—a Saturday night that Bethany is not spending with Tim ‘the Soccer Coach’ Collins—watching Zombie’s movies. A little too close to torture porn, for my tastes, but Bethany seems to be eating it up like the orphan Oliver at an all you can eat buffet. I’ve always preferred the classic slasher films; Friday the Thirteenth, Nightmare on Elm Street, Halloween. Cut a guy’s head off with a machete. Drive a pitchfork through a couple in the midst of coital throes. Hack someone to pieces with