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pair, two more attendants wheeled a stretcher with a much larger body bag. |
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"Reports from inside the house indicate that the Moraleses were tortured before being killed, leading local authorities to fear the resumption of the perennial gang wars." |
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Cyrus was only half paying attention to the TV. He was trying to figure out if Kyna knew what the light was doing and if it was some kind of come-on. |
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Back on the TV, a third set of attendants wheeled a grossly misshapen body bag past the inexorable live eye of the television camera. Cyrus thought the bag looked like it had been stuffed full of modeling clay. |
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"Makes me glad I live in Memphis," he said. "Nothing like that ever happens there." |
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"This was filmed just minutes ago from inside the house," the reporter said. |
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The camera zoomed in on a section of linoleum floor with a white, chalky looking curlicue drawn in some kind of grainy powder. The lens brushed over a bloody sheet and then cut to an interior wall and the most chilling example of demonic art Cyrus had seen outside a New York City subway station. |
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Crescents, stars, what looked like the portrait of a grinning chicken and alien wordslike EKG graffitiscribbled in globs of what appeared to be thick maroon paint. |
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"I'm surprised that the cops would let" Cyrus started to say. |
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Kyna was so pale that her freckles stood out like red polka dots on a white bow tie. Cyrus jumped to his feet, took the remote from her and switched off the TV set. |
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She looked at him like she'd never seen him before. "Nothing. I detest violence." |
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She walked slowly to the door and slipped the chain on and then climbed into bed. "'Night." |
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Cyrus went into the bathroom, closed the door and took a |
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