CHAPTER 8

At the back door of the church, Bohdan dragged the dead woman from the wagon into the building and unraveled her from the blanket. He tossed the blanket aside, cleaned off the altar and lifted her dead body onto the clean area facing her towards the ceiling. Her head, arms and legs dangled off the sides. He walked back to the supply room and found some tools he had stored and waited for the pastor to show. He told the pastor he needed to meet with him at ten and it was important. He just didn’t know how important. The pastor argued and said they could talk at the house, but Bohdan insisted that they meet at the church.

Before the pastor showed up, Bohdan had something he had to finish. He took the bag of tools and found a knife inside. He approached the altar and stood at the side where the madam’s head was hanging back with her long hair touching the floor. Straddling her head between his legs, Bohdan placed his knife at her lower abdomen and stabbed down hard until he cut through the muscle. He then used an up and down motion to cut her open as he brought the knife closer to her chest. Once he hit her sternum, he cut across making a T that allowed him to split her open and pull her intestines out and drape them over her side and onto the floor.

It was then he heard the pastor call out to him. “What the fuck are you doing!” the pastor yelled.

Bohdan dropped the handful of bowel and turned to face the pastor who was stopped halfway between the front of the church and the altar. “I’m doing the Lord’s work, can’t you see?” Bohdan said with a grin.

“The Lord’s work? You’ve desecrated the altar! Who is that?” the pastor asked. “I don’t know her name, but she runs a brothel upstairs at the saloon.”

“Jane?” the pastor asked.

“You know her?” Bohdan asked. “Yes, I’ve known her for years.”

“Then you’ve known what she’s been doing all this time.” “Everyone knows what she does, but that’s no reason to kill her.”

“I’m sure the Lord is good with it, she was helping men commit adultery. I put an end to that.”

“Nowhere in the bible does Jesus say to kill the sinner. He says to turn the other cheek, to let those without sin cast the first stone. What you have done is commit the ultimate sin of murder.”

“I was doing your God a favor,” Bohdan said. “He wasn’t serious, but was enjoying the debate.

“Only God is the judge, not man. He will do it his way and in his own time. Jesus lived with the sinners, Jesus would never condone what you’ve done.” The pastor said.

Bohdan turned to face the pastor, dripping blood on the floor as he moved. He stabbed the knife into the wood altar and raised his hands to show what he had done. “Too late now, don’t you think?” Bohdan said with a grin.

“I can’t let you continue to murder innocent people,” the pastor said. “You’ve gone too far.”

“I would think killing your wife would have gone too far, but whatever. What are you going to do to me?”

The pastor stepped up closer and thought hard. “I’ll get the sheriff,” he said.

Bohdan didn’t think the pastor had the guts to follow through with his threat, but he needed him to be his patsy and frame him for the other murders. He didn’t need him turning and running off to tattle on him at this moment. “Wait,” Bohdan said.

“For what? I’ve seen enough,” the pastor said. “I want to show you something.”

The pastor hesitated and said, “Show me.” “You need to come closer,” Bohdan said.

“No, you can show me from here. You have a knife and you’ve murdered before.”

Bohdan knew the pastor was onto him. What could he do to stop the pastor from leaving before he finished what he came for in the first place? “I need your help,” Bohdan said, thinking fast.

“Help with what?” the pastor asked. “Your soul is beyond help.” “Not with that, with disposing of her body.”

“You’ve covered my altar with blood, how do you expect to clean that? And what makes you think I’d help you in the first place?”

“You know if you don’t, I’ll do to you what I did to your wife, that Mexican prostitute and Jane, your madam friend here.”

The pastor turned and looked behind him trying to judge how quickly he could escape if he took off running.

“You can run, but I’ll find you eventually. You know what I’m capable of, and if I say I’ll kill you, I mean it. And I can back that up. Turn me into the sheriff and you’ll be dead in a week.”

“Did you drink her blood?” the pastor asked. “Yes, why do you ask?” Bohdan asked.

“What kind of evil creature drinks the blood of another human?”

“I don’t know, the slave that turned me didn’t explain it very well. But I know what I have to have. Now get over here.”

The pastor stepped up closer, knowing that Bohdan was right and that running to the sheriff would not save him from death. As he climbed the steps to the altar, the pastor looked down at Jane who was lying on her back, her belly empty off its contents. “What are you going to do with her?” the pastor asked.

Bohdan picked the knife out of the wood and stabbed it into the pastor’s chest repeatedly until the pastor lie on his back gasping for air. After he died, Bohdan placed the knife in the Pastor’s hand in order to frame him and headed out of the church to alert someone to call the sheriff. It would have been a better plan on a Saturday night, but not everything works out as planned.