Zeke arose when the clock went off at 8AM on Christmas morning. He dressed and made himself a liesurely breakfast. Not much to do this morning so he tidied the place during the morning. Mrs. Jones arrived at 1 PM with the first of the flowers. She made several other deliveries of flowers throughout the afternoon. Zeke placed a red rose in the hands of each of the bodies. A little before 6PM Mrs. Carson and her son arrived. Ron had arrived from Korea at 10PM last night. They, along with Ashley’s grandparents on Mike’s side of the family and David, stood just past the last casket and people viewed the bodies and then spoke to them. There was quite a crowd of Brenda and Mike’s friends and business associates, Jane’s friends and associates from the city where she had lived and worked and Ashley’s friends and fellow students both from high school and college. The crowd continued to file through as the evening progressed. More than a few of the men had trouble concealing their erections as they viewed the beautiful women in repose. At about 7:30 Jane’s ex-husband filed through. He paused briefly at Brenda and Ashley’s caskets but when he reached Jane’s he took a long look at the beautiful body of his ex-wife. He still loved her and they would still have been married if had been up to him. But her career became more important to her than him or their marriage. So she had left him and went on to bigger and better positions in bigger markets. Alas; he still loved her. He wanted to steal a kiss but the crowd made him decide not to. He did however squeeze her hand and whisper “Goodbye, my love” as he filed on out. The crowd continued to file past and was starting to thin out at 8:45 when Benny Lawter , Lester and Carl filed through. Benny was smartly dressed in his 3 piece dark blue suit and Lester and Carl also had on dark suits. They stopped and viewed each of the beautiful women they had murdered and raped and were more than a little sexually aroused at seeing them in their coffins. They stopped to console each in the receiving line and introduced themselves as former business associates of Mike and filed out into the night.
At approx 9:30PM the viewers had stopped coming and Zeke said goodbye to the receiving line. He tidied up and then went to bed. He arose at 6AM, dressed and had his breakfast and then at 8AM called the mausoleum to be sure the crypts were ready. At approx 9; the casket lids were closed and the caskets were loaded into the waiting hearses for the trip to the church. Once arriving at the church; they were unloaded and carried into the church and reopened at the front to allow brief viewings before the actual funerals started. At 11 the joint funerals commenced and it wasn’t long until there weren’t many dry eyes in the place. The 550 seat church was packed and overflowing. During the funerals; Mrs. Carson and Mike’s parents thoughts wandered to him lying in a coma in intensive care at the hospital. He had been in this state since the attack and it wasn’t known when and if he would ever recover. It was so sad that he had lost his wife and daughter and couldn’t even attend their funerals. The poignant funeral service concluded and the caskets were closed for the last time. They were carried to the waiting hearses by the pallbearers and taken to the mausoleum for the internment. A brief graveside service was conducted and each casket was placed in its final resting place, the door closed and sealed. The bodies of the 3 beautiful women whose lives had been snuffed out were now in their final resting place and the services concluded.
A week later on January 2 in the evening; the nurse assigned to Mike in intensive care suddenly was startled when Mike began to open and close his eyes. She called his doctor and by the time the doctor arrived he had opened them and was looking around the room. Mike couldn’t use his hands because of the severe mauling that Benny and fellow thugs had done to them. He tried to speak but his sounds were unintelligible because the end of his tongue was missing. The surgeons had not been able to successfully attach the end that had been cut off. The doctor asked him if he remembered what happened to him. He shook his head no. At this point the police were notified that Mike was out of the coma. Detectives came to interview him. He had no memory of the night of the attack. Trying to get any useable information from was very difficult his speech and the condition of his hands. Mike was then shown a picture of his wife and daughter at a recent party. He smiled and indicated that he recognized them. His smile turned to uncontrollable sobbing when told that they had been murdered and that the funerals were held while he was in a coma. Mike’s weakened heart couldn’t take the strain of being without his wife and daughter. He went into cardiac arrest and had a massive heart attack and was pronounced dead despite the best efforts of staff that were on duty. His association with Benny had proved fatal for he and his family!