Violets Are Blue

out looking for us, right? We’re a big deal now.”
    William continued to smile. He loved his brother’s naïveté. It amused him. “We are an incredibly big deal. We’re the next big thing. C’mon, little brother. We both need to feed. We deserve it. And besides, the police don’t know who we are. Always remember this: The police are incompetent fools.”
    William drove their white van back down the road they had traveled through Woodland Hills before they had stopped at the diner. He was sorry they couldn’t have brought the cat, but this trip was too long. He pulled the van into an obnoxiously lit shopping mall and studied the signs: Wal-Mart, Denny’s, Staples, Circuit City, Wells Fargo bank. He despised every one of them as well as the people who shopped there.
    “We’re
not
looking for prey here?” Michael asked. His bright blue eyes darted around the mall and he looked concerned.
    William shook his head. The blond ponytail wagged. “No, of course not. These people aren’t worthy of us, Michael. Well, maybe that blond girl in the tight blue jeans over there is marginally worthy.”
    Michael cocked his head sideways, then licked his lips. “She’ll do. For an appetizer.”
    William hopped out of the van and walked to the far end of the parking lot. He was strutting a little, smiling, his head held high. Michael followed. The brothers crossed through the backyard of the Wells Fargo bank. Then the full parking lot of the Denny’s restaurant, which William thought smelled of bacon grease and fat people.
    Michael began to smile when he saw what his brother was up to. They had done this kind of thing before.
    A somber black-and-white sign loomed straight ahead of them. It was backlit. Sorel Funeral Home.

Chapter 18

    THE BACK door to the funeral home took William less than a minute to crack open. It wasn’t a problem since security was minimal.
    “Now, we feed,” he said to Michael. He was starting to get excited, and his sense of smell led him to the embalming room. He discovered three bodies stored in the refrigerators. “Two males and a female,” he whispered.
    William quickly examined the bodies. They were fresh. Two had been embalmed, one hadn’t. William knew about necrology, including what went on in funeral homes. The embalming process involved draining blood from the veins, then injecting a formaldehyde-based fluid. Tubes connected to pumps were inserted into the carotid artery and the jugular vein. The next step involved emptying the internal organs of their fluids. After that, much of the work was cosmetic. The jaws of the dead were wired shut. The lips were arranged and sealed with some kind of glue. Eye caps were placed under each eyelid to prevent the eyeballs from sinking into the head.
    William pointed to a centrifuge, which was used to drain bodies of blood and other fluids. He laughed. “We won’t be needing
that
tonight.”
    All his senses were heightened. He felt larger than life. His night vision was excellent. Nothing more than the illumination from a table lamp would be needed.
    He opened a refrigerator and took the unembalmed body in his arms. He carried the corpse, a woman in her early forties, to a nearby porcelain table.
    William looked at his brother and gently rubbed his hands together. He took a deep breath. They had raided funeral homes before, and though it didn’t compare to a fresh kill, prey was prey.
    Besides, the dead woman was a fairly good physical specimen for her age. She was attractive and compared favorably to the female they had attacked and fed upon in San Francisco. There was a name tag on the body:
Diana Ginn
.
    “I hope some funeral director didn’t have Diana first,” William said to his brother. Pathetic geeks sometimes took jobs at funeral homes so that they could ravage the dead at their leisure. They’d do unnecessary searches into vaginal and anal cavities. Another kinky pastime was to have sex with the dead in a coffin. It happened more than people could imagine.
    William found that he was excited. There was nothing to compare to this. He climbed up onto the embalming table and poised himself above the woman.
    Diana Ginn’s naked body was ashen, but pretty enough in the dim light. Her lips were full and blue. He wondered how she had died, since she didn’t look sick. There were no obvious wounds. She hadn’t been in an accident.
    William carefully pried open the eyelids, looked into her eyes. “Hello, my sweet girl. You’re