SALVE ROMA! A Felidae Novel - By Akif Pirincci Page 0,57

bodies were still partially covered with dirt, decayed and oozed a sickening sweet scent. At some of them worms, germs and decomposing gas had made amazing progress. Between yellow shimmering bones, extensively burst sections on the backs and stomachs by now offered sheer obscene insights into inner organs, which partially were barely existent anymore, partially still well »inhabited«! Leaked eyeballs, that dripped from the orbits like transparent wax, scalps along with fur, which had scaled off partially and revealed cranial bones, torn open mouths with blackened ivories ... Given this horror everything whirled around me like the clappers, just as if I had been sitting inside a spin top. The same seemed to go for the others.

But although I felt so bad and I was close to let the inside of my stomach see the sunlight again, the organ of curiosity gave some witty thought about the tableau of horror: 1. The killer of the Siamese at the Largo Argentina and the killer of these brothers and sisters here must be one and the same person. As even though the decay of the body was far advanced, it couldn’t hide the butchers gross signature feature. The hearing aids of all bodies had been completely removed at one side. The worms must have fulsomely taken a call at this discovery, as they were able to get to the tasty brain right away.

In contrary to the dead Siamese the newly found victims showed a tiny and yet very important difference though, one that only occurred to someone, who had really gotten to the bottom of the incident: 2. In regard to the »deseeding« the killer apparently had been in the early stage of his crimes. Let’s call it »the rough period«. The much clumsier manner of surgical intervention proved this assumption: some skulls were half-open, some even totally wrecked. So could it be that Signore X had wildly and maybe unsuccessfully experimented in Vatican City at the beginning of his project? And one step further: Could it be that he first wanted to gain surgical skills before he turned the removing of hearing aids into a career? 3. Although Vatican City was a secret kingdom hidden in itself, he had dared to entrust the great butchery and his experiments with the other clerics. In the history of Christianity animals had always played an ambivalent

role. (5) By now the great atonement was the order of the day even in this relationship, so he had rather kept his crimes to himself and had buried the victims in the park. But where did he move his experiments after that? According to the phase of decay of the bodies, he must have changed his operation room about a year ago.

»What is happening here, in God’s name?« I suddenly heard a bass voice behind my back. When I turned my head and saw a snow-white Persian walk along the lawn, I began to doubt about if I should actually be glad that I found Miracolo under these circumstances. I only knew about the racial characteristic from Sancta but now that he stood right in front of me, I immediately knew who he was.

He looked as if someone had pressed a ton of cotton into a hydraulic press and had then condensed it to a construct of the size of an arm’s length. Everything about him looked constrained: the tiny ears, which totally got lost in the blown-dry looking fur, the blue little eyes, the very short nose, that had a deep dent between the eyes, the miniature limbs, which only enabled him to scamper, the bushy tail, simply everything! Had a crazy sorcerer turned a peek into a Felidae, the result wouldn’t have been much different. The only impressive thing about Miracolo was this fluffed appearance, which was caused by overweight and that explosion of hair.

»We came across an old cemetery at this place, Excellency«, Pius said, who also wasn’t an adornment belong his breed. His voice sounded as if a blunger had sampled the sound of a toilet flushing and formed words from this material.

»Don’t you talk silly, Pius!« the piebald sitting next to me barked. »Don’t you see that these poor wretches were killed and then hidden in the ground? Even inside of a pea more brains can be found than inside your stupid head.«

»Silencium!« Miracolo said and stepped into our circle. »I don’t tolerate ranting and raving at this place ...«

The hair meatloaf’s lower jaw flapped down when his eyes met the unbelievable, that