Chapter 35

Halloween Plans

The last few weeks at Findley had been almost non-stop. With the out of state residents and the solidification of the process flow, productions had leveled at three eighty-four a day four days a week for the two Findley direct sites. Adding in M&H brought the total per week to almost two thousand head a week. Which had almost caught up the allocations requirements for the state. It was the first time in Illinois history.

And these were standard productions. Specials were two days a week dedicated and mixed on Tuesdays. All of which showed that the new processes were working well.

With the graduation of two of the Goats, and upcoming removals for several more,

“So, what are the themes for Halloween?” David asked his assembled group at dinner on Monday. “It is coming up on Thursday. Any ideas of what we can do for ourselves and our clients?”

“How gory do we want to get?” Helen asked. “It’s pretty campy anyway here. And we are limited in our costumes.”

“We could do a pick your executioner page” Sandy Maguire said.

“You know, it is a capacity thing. Kind of like hiring a DJ for a party during New Years.” Melanie said. “I could hire for a kids party for three or four hundred the same DJ in the summer that I paid two thousand for during New Years.”

“David, we could do that. Or we could have the Halloween operations go all night. A woman could make sure her kids were home and safe and then get her head chopped that night.” Elizabeth said. “Might make for a opening to our late night holiday hours too.”

“Do we want to test market any new ideas?” Nancy asked.

“I don’t” David said. “I really think our portfolio is both manageable and has the least amount of adverse press. We want to keep the panic and fear factor under control. I wouldn’t want to do to anyone what you would not want for yourselves.”

“That kind of limits us then.” Elizabeth said. “But we can inject some uncertainty and some other things. I do think late night would work best.”

“How about a Danse Macabre? We could have costumes, and an uncertainty factor? Tag the selectee with a bracelet or anklet early in the evening and then yank them out at random during the night?” Helen suggested.

“That is awfully close to a Merle Hill, isn’t it?” Margaret asked.

“I don’t think so.” Helen said. “Merle’s entire operation was set up that way. We are offering as an option. Keep that sort of stuff on the backside and not in the line with the production. We would have to do screening stuff early in the week. Or have them come with clothes that were expendable.”

“Like Jennifer did last summer?” Candy asked. “That was a pretty intense thing for its time.”

“True. We could sit it up as a party situation. Dance, drink and talk and have women picked up at odd times and termed. Really kinky” Cindy said.

“Have friends and family in a party atmosphere?” Helen said. “Sort of like a cookout without the spit stuff? Serve the early departed to the later guests?”

Vicky started to shake her head. “You guys ain’t right. You are seriously disturbed. How do you come up with this stuff?”

“Chalk it up to the advantages of a higher education with too much time on your hands and too little to do to amuse yourself.” Helen said. “Add to that a liberal education that has too much European history and arts in it.”

“You should enjoy it, Vicky. You get the advantage of that breadth of experience to add to your law studies.” Carol said while cracking a smile.

“So let me get it straight. We have a dance party, where we go in at odd times and drag someone off the floor and chop off their head at odd ball intervals?” Vicky said incredulously.

“Or hang them.” Carol said.

“Or lead them to the tub room.” Sandy said.

“Or give them the last ride of their life.” Melanie said. “That’s my way to go. Can we get Abby or Cathy back here to give lessons? I missed out on all of that.”

“What I want to know is how much booze we are going to serve to get the group liberated to be liquidated.” Candy asked.

After thinking quietly to herself, Vicky said, “Will you guys listen to yourselves? Where do we come up with this shit? NO one would ever believe this if they listened to us.”

“Seriously, Vicky. Think of this as a speed trap you are running on a busy highway. You have several cars pass you at high speed, and you go and the one you think looks appealing to you.” Melanie said.

“The only rule is you can’t have any tagged ones standing when the sun comes up.” Candy said.

“How do we do intakes for this?” Nancy asked.

“Or advertise? We don’t have a lot of days left.” Elizabeth said.

“True. But we don’t have a lot of competition in the market either.” Nancy said.

“Formal dress or Costume?” Candy asked.

“A little of both. Mask and tux, or full costume.” Helen said. “We could have fun with this.”

“You know, if you had this on Friday, and closed down Friday for general production, I wonder if we would get enough to cover the allocation for the day? Make it an end of the week thing?” Elizabeth asked.

“Let’s float it in to the chat and talk boards for this week and see.” Candy said.

Technical Improvements

“David” Cindy asked.

“Yes, dear?” David replied.

“Kim and I came up with an issue we need to share with you regarding Halloween production. We are a bit worried about too many chops with the Wooden Guillotine we have.”

“What’s the issue?”

“Well, the weight impact of 60 or so chops daily when it was at Merle’s beat it up a lot and that was one of the things we are worried about. Add to that the manual raise and drop we currently use will be a lot of work on the executioners. Especially if it is us.”

“Why is that coming up now?” David asked.

“Number of chops daily. We normally do 12 or so daily. We may be doing a bunch more overnight”. Cindy replied.

“So, what are you recommending?” David asked.

“Kim and I were thinking we should build a stainless-steel set of uprights and a bend over platform. Sort of “Guillotine Light””

“Ok. Does she have a sketch we can work on?” David asked.

“Yes, we have sketched it out. Myerson’s Fabrication gave us a quote of $1400 delivered the week before Halloween. But we didn’t want to submit it until we talked it over with you.”

“Kim still wary about spending money?” David asked.

“I won’t say that, but she doesn’t know how much rope she has here.” Cindy replied.

“Well, tell her to get fast track estimates, and determine terms. We probably should get a spare anyway, given the holiday atmosphere we have in the special events room”.

“So, what did David say?” Kim asked.

“He said what I said he would say. Get estimate and fast track it. So what is so special about what you are doing with this thing?”

“Well, I am going High tech. Remember those magnetic drivers that the rail cars ran on for the civic center?”

“Sure. Smooth and quick. No muss no fuss.”

“Exactly. The idea is to have magnetic pulses pull the blade along the through, from the top to the bottom, without having to have a lot of weight to follow the chop.”

“Ok. Sort of a rail driving the blade down?”

“Exactly. Attraction motors at each end of the Muton will drive the blade down from one the top of the track to the bottom. When it gets to the bottom, the switch at the stop does a reverse of the polarity on the blade motors and sends it back up to reload.”

“And the knife blade?”

“High carbon, stainless steel, one half inch thick. But that is almost the only weight on the cutting engine. It probably only weighs 25 lbs. As opposed to the conventional one which weighs 80, and needs a block and tackle to rearm it. This reverses the current between the two uprights, which brings the blade back to the top.”

“How long is the duration from start to finish?”

“Well, the engineer in me did some calculations. Our current machine has a 40 Kilo mouton plus blade as a cutting engine. It drops the 12 feet in 1/70^th of a second. Our engine will drop the travel of 8 feet to stop at waist height in 1/50^th of a second. So our drop is faster end to end. The neck will still be severed in about 2/100ths of a second. The big changes are restart/reset. Instead of raising almost 80lbs against gravity, we will have two electric motors doing the raising and dropping job of only 25 lbs. Fast up, fast down.”

“How quick is the re-start?”

“With the electric driver set we are looking at less than 5 seconds to travel 6 feet vertical”.

“What is the current draw?”

“Same as the electric pony. Remember we are only driving for a second each way.”

“What about cooling?”

“I looked into that. These are constant duty actuator motors. They handle approximately 120 cycles under full load. We are at ¼ load and doing, at most, 20 cycles in a 10-minute period. According to the charts, at that loading, our max temperature will be 40 degree rise, or from 70 to 110 degrees F.”

“What about support?”

“I think a platform built entirely of cross framed 2X8s measuring 6 feet by 6 feet will do the job.”

“That’s ¼ the size of the wooden one. So how do you envision this thing?”

“Two simple stainless-steel uprights 10 feet tall. The upright portion will have a cross bar tie at the top between the two uprights. A base will be the same to make sure that the bars are solid. The separation will be 2 feet, with the neck capture blocks being height adjustable from 30 to 40 inches. For this one, there is no table. Which means you simply bend over, we lock you in, and Off you Go”.

“So we strip em, set em, and clip em all in a single motion?” Cindy said with a smile.

“Yep. You push one button to drop the blade and it reloads for the next automatically. Faster than even the clippers in the production room”. Kim responded with a smile. “I got the idea for the design from the Dallas, Texas Swift premium plant. I got to tell you, though, this is going to be messy. Having no table to secure the body means a lot of chicken walking after separation, and the head will be going down in a trough to the catch basket. So it will be bloody all around. And cold. There won’t be any padding on the neck rests like on the wooden one.”

“That just means a lot less mess to clean up. I am all for that. Can we get the surface treated so it wipes down clean easily?” Cindy asked.

“Sure. No reason why not.”

“I like it. Can we get it built in 2 weeks?”

“It’s already framed. I am waiting on the drive motors right now. And I am ordering 3 sets in case we have any problems.” Kim said.

“Getting ahead of yourself, aren’t you?” Cindy asked with a smile.

“No, I didn’t think so. I know that David takes almost everything you and Candy say to heart. And you are a little more out there then Candy. I figured on using you to front it while I got it built.”

“Ok. What’s the budget?”

“Maybe we better wait until after we see how well it’s accepted before we give David that” Kim said.

“That bad?” Cindy asked.

“About what the cutters for here cost. Including blades”

“Naw. That isn’t bad. Now what you did with the Tub, that was bad” Cindy said.

“I know. But plumbing and high-volume trash disposal pumps are not cheap. And we had to go direct to the sewer for draining and had to have the waste plumbing enlarged” Kim replied.

“Well, this isn’t bad at all. If it gets 20 or so clips we can say it’s a success and we can add it to the experience. Stand around, drink, chat, and the guest of honor decides when to go.” Cindy said. “Besides, this is a real party toy. We probably will see it used more often over time. Might even put it on the Web page as “Express”

Making Arrangements

When the gates opened on Monday, and the Danse Macabre was announced as part of the intake, bookings got filled up quickly. By noon there were over two hundred selectees wanting admission, with over six hundred additional spectators and guests.

At noon, David made the executive decision to close Findley to normal processing on Friday to allow for the Danse Friday night and Saturday morning. Hen night would be suspended for this week only. After putting it to a vote (to keep himself out of trouble) it was generally agreed. Helen remarked that Saturday would be a night of recovery for a change.

Leaving his goats in charge of what the festivities would consist of, and giving them the responsibility to estimate what to charge, David then quietly backed out of it.

On Wednesday, two different bands were going to play in the auditorium area. One would be early and one would be later. The guillotines were going to be moved to the rear of the auditorium, and dancing would be in the front area where the bleachers normally would be run out. Tables would be left up in reception for guests to go back and forth for meals, passing through the interview hallway. Mattresses were to be set up in the six interview rooms to allow guests to “play” while they were waiting their turn.

Once again, David had to fight his way through all of the red tape for the different permits and license reviews needed to stage and have this particular extravaganza. This time he called Jane Carmichael and asked her for a contact, since she was in the midst of her election program and had been dealing with a lot of city offices.

This proved to be a very pleasant conversation indeed. Jane had visited Cindy almost every Sunday during family times and saw her as both busy and continuing her education. “David, I had no idea that this situation would go on as long as it has, and you would be working as hard as you have for my daughter.”

“Jane, it isn’t over. But I promise we will work as hard as we can for all of our people.” David replied

“I know you will. Don’t’ tell Margaret, but her smacking some sense into my head, and Carol talking to me the way she did, were the best things that could have been done with me, given Cindy’s situation.” Jane said. “I promise I will never forget this.”

“Don’t’ worry. My lips are sealed.” David said with a smile.

This time, armed with the right names, David flew through the permit process for an amazing party for Halloween.

Last Minute permit issues

Promptly at four o’clock Friday afternoon, Findley opened the doors. The band was set up in the auditorium room, and a catering truck had backed up to the door of the expanded area to unload. The clarification of “Property” was noted on the door of the building to include all property up to the sidewalk not just within the walls. This was so that the goats could help with decorations, packages, food and beverages. The entire goat population except for Helen, Elizabeth and a new girl, Carley Swanson, were at H&S for the festivities. Carl German and Helen were looking for a peaceful weekend, and Carley was awaiting her exemption for family hardship, and was working at H&S while the paperwork was being processed. It was expected she would be returned to the population on Monday. The four of them planned a quiet weekend away, since Findley and H&S were both closed Saturday and Sunday. Helen had planned with Mark to visit with the girls on Sunday at H&S. The atmosphere there would be a lot quieter and sedate, and cozy for group of them.

The first person through the door at four p.m. was the Chicago Fire Marshal Inspectors Office. Lucille McCall had been sent to do a complete and comprehensive inspection of the facility with respect to safety and public health.

Lucille was not accustomed to nudity, and was at first shocked at the appearance of over thirty women who were naked and about the premise. Add to that the limited number of showers and restrooms, and she was tempted to pull the permit. That was before she saw the Gallows, and the Guillotines and the Hot tub and the Sybian room.

“Under Chicago statutes, I can’t let this event continue. These items constitute a risk to the participants and we can’t allow it.”

“Ms. McCall, I understand your concerns, but they are a little misplaced. This party is actually supposed to make use of these items on the selectees. They have attended this as a private event as noted under 23.121 Chicago Code.” Carol explained. “We have specific language in the permit for both attendees and guests. With waivers of physical and emotional damage.”

“You can’t do that. Legally the responsibility for public safety falls on my department and I won’t allow this to continue. In fact, I intend to revoke your Use and occupancy permit entirely.”

“On what grounds?” Carol asked.

“Maintaining a public nuisance and public endangerment.” Lucille replied.

“I see. So you intend to interfere with the operations of a process center?” Carol asked.

“I intend to do more than that. I intend to cite you, close this down and have you all locked up.”

“Do you mind if I contact our manager about this?” Carol asked, as she was sending a message to Candy on the portable.

Seeing the incoming message, Candy asked Vicky if she wanted to keep her company for a minute. Then the two of them wandered over to where Carol was talking with Lucille and getting a little heated.

“What’s up, boss lady?” Candy asked as she approached.

“Ms. McCall was explaining that she intended to cite us, close us down and have us all locked up.” Carol said.

“Oh. Did you explain the situation to her?” Candy asked, nonchalantly entering some notes into her portable.”

“Young woman, I advise you to not interfere with an officer in pursuit of their duties.” Lucille said.

“Oh, I wouldn’t dream of it. Ms. McCall, could I have your Badge number please?” Candy quietly asked.

Producing her identification, Lucille looked around and said “And it is unhealthy to have nude women around food. Contamination is a critical issue here and we don’t allow it.”

“We wear lower garments when moving food about, but we have restrictions that are based on the PCA. Do you have all of your affairs in order?” Candy asked.

“What do you mean do I have my affairs in order?” Lucille asked.

Vicky started to get a nervous smile as she watched Candy’s calm demeanor. “Uh, Carol” Vicky began.

“Yes, Vicky. Don’t worry. Candy has this firmly under control. Ms. McCall. I understand that you are not entirely familiar with the PCA and the MAB selection process. Is that true?”

“I passed that age a long time ago, dear. I am not worried about that at all. But that does not matter to you. That has no bearing on this case.”

“Actually, it does.” Carol continued. “Candy, what are the preparations you are making?”

“Gus is coming with the wheelbarrow and an ESD. I have sent notification e-mail with her credential identification to the Chicago Fire department and am requesting that they check the area for any official autos to be towed back. I expect they will provide me an address to send the uniform and other materials.” Candy said calmly. “Is there anything besides that we should do?”

“Candy, why don’t Lucille and I have a little talk?” Vicky asked. “Just sort of police to fireman sort of thing.”

“Sure. But if she is still here when Gus get’s here, she is staying for dinner.” Candy said with a calm level stare.

“Understood, boss. Lucille, why don’t you and I have a little talk?”

“I don’t understand why. Who are you?”

“Detective Sargent Vicky Peterson, Homicide investigations. Currently in suspension here while they get the exemption paperwork is done.

“Really?” Lucille said. “Why are you calling that teenager boss?”

“Well, she is the operations director here. She is actually in charge of this place. And she is kind of managing who does what and where. She is excellent at her job and probably will make a great life for herself when she leaves here. You, on the other hand, are in danger of becoming steaks on the grill.”

“What do you mean?”

“Lucille, I can’t order you to get the hell out of here. I can strongly advise you to call in your headquarters and tell them you are in need of legal clarification of what you can do from somewhere else while you still can.” Vicky said.

“I am here on official business.” Lucille said, imperiously.

“And you are going to be officially terminated, cut into pieces and served as dinner tonight if you don’t get your stupid ass out of here.” Vicky said. Thinking Two by Four Therapy indeed, she continued “And I will watch and officially report that everything was in accordance with the law.”

“They wouldn’t dare.” Lucille said.

“They do it every day. They almost did my stupid captain. They will do you. That calm little blonde is the head killer here and I have watched her kill over two hundred women myself this week. So, get real, get it through your head and get the hell out of here. We are going to kill over a hundred women tonight during the evening, and putting you into the mix won’t even make a blip.” Vicky said.

Lucille’s face went sheet white. Listening, Vicky heard the squeaky wheel of the wheelbarrow. “That is your queue to get the hell out of here. Because you don’t want to be riding that back stage.” She said to Lucille’s face.

Hanging up the phone, Fire Marshal Joan Collins smiled. She had figured that they would term that bitch and get her out of my hair. Oh well. “So you didn’t stay?” she asked Lucille

“No. And when I called Legal they told me that I would have been termed if the manager decided I was interfering with operations. Why didn’t you tell me it was a slaughter house?”

“It’s unusual to have a social event in a place of that type. Do they have a valid U&O permit for the number of people attending?” Joan asked.

“According to the permit they are zoned for occupancy of seven hundred. Problem is that is seven hundred live. It does not list total living and dead.”

“Well, then go back and tell them they can’t have more then seven hundred live in there at any one time.” Joan said. And if you get nasty enough maybe they will keep you and I can get a replacement, Joan thought to herself.

Having ended her connection with her supervisor, Lucille contemplated her next move. There really was no reason she had to be physically present to present her recommendations and reminder of the zoning and occupancy limits to Findley. She could do that with e-mail and a phone call. After all, she had advice from legal to not get too physically close. She could request a permit inspection by Rodger on Monday.

Party Management

There were going to be a mix of selectees and their guests this evening. The ticket prices were high enough to discourage gatecrashers, and no one really wanted to crash a gate at a slaughterhouse. One of the first issues was keeping the party going all night long, without too many in any one time. To do that, Vicky, Kim and Candy came up with a scheme that would manage the affairs of the night.

All selectees had registered early for the weekend. When they were admitted, they presented their name and were given a selection from a cup. In this case all of the straws were Red on the bottom, but they had different numbers. The numbers were from ten to five. Meaning that ten was from ten to eleven, eleven was from eleven to midnight, twelve was midnight to one and so on. Thus the straw selection was for at least two hours from official opening at eight, and would spread out the activity through the evening.

Once a woman had drawn her straw, she was tagged with a bracelet with the number of the hour in black. That would let the goats check up on the selectees during the evening.

Nancy had juggled the numbers to reflect some lucky women getting the five, but most in the beginnings would get the ten, eleven, or twelve. The goal was to first keep them at least two hours out, but possibly as long as the early morning. Thus, the draw was a sheer gamble. The mix would change at each hour beginning when the doors opened at eight and when they closed at ten. The average in the cup was no more than the twenty-five per hour that Candy had planned on for the evening. Still it was going to be pretty busy to do two hundred before six in the morning. A full staff of men was available to run wheelbarrows from the complex. And the pet food trailer was totally empty tonight but due to pick up in the morning.

Thus, the plan was to have even activity throughout the evening.

“If we catch up with the group for the hour at the top of the hour, we can give them time to wrap up and start killing at the bottom of the hour. Giving that we only have to do twenty or so an hour, with all venues, we probably can keep up with no real frustration.” Cindy said.

“Might want to do the Sybian first” said Vicky. “Those are the most innocuous. Get the drunks and rowdies after eleven or so on the guillotines. Save hangings for later too.”

“That makes sense. This large a crowd might mean we have to open up the production line. I imagine we will have a few candidates turn chicken after they see no room on the saddle as we get later if we have a backlog.” Helen said.

“I don’t’ think we will have much backlog. If we have two Sybian, a gallows and two guillotines running, we won’t have a lot of problem doing twenty five in a half hour.” Candy said. “The numbers work for us.”

No plan survives first contact.

But things didn’t exactly work out that way. After Lucille’s hasty departure, people started to show up early. Apparently, the after-work crowd wanted to start early, with a lot of “Happy Hour” drinking arrivals beginning at six thirty. Figuring that it would probably not be a bad idea to let the early partiers start early, and that it would allow for longer party time, Candy got on the horn to order additional food and drink. Fortunately, that was not that much of a challenge for a Friday. A liquor store run and a grocery run for prepared foods were quickly done, with arrangements to do a second run at nine thirty.

Carla and Vicky were the designated Sybian operators for the evening. Abby and Cathy had been by earlier in the week to give special “lessons” on proper termination behavior on Tuesday and Thursday, giving Carla and Vicky a big boost in their professional confidence. Carla had never thought of herself as an electrocution artist. But she caught onto it early. Vicky was a bit conflicted on Tuesday, but after a good fucking Tuesday night and walking the floors on Wednesday, she got into the art of electrical transition Thursday night. By her third woman, she was gauging the kill shock at just the right time on the twenty-minute mark. That gave maximum pleasure and still left ten minutes to clean up before the next client. By her eighth, she was a master.

“Damn” Vicky thought to herself. “I am getting to like this. I better be careful or I will end up as sick as the rest of these sluts.”

Candy and Cindy were running the Gallows and Guillotines. Cindy had a special enjoyment of the ropes and drops, and Candy left her to do what she liked to do.

In the meantime, a new wrinkle was put in place for the new guillotine. There was no table to lay the body out on, nor was there any ties to prevent the body from moving around after termination. The woman simply walked up and bent over at the waist, with her head guided into the lower neck rest. After she was locked into place on the block she could either have her hands pinioned at her back, or she could grasp the handles on either end of the neck block and wait for the drop. After the chop, the body often jerked up or sideways after becoming disconnected from the head. Blood spray was generous but short-lived, and there was a bit of a “Headless Chicken” dance as the body shifted around without being tied down. This motion was intended as a crowd pleaser. The woman was already dead, so she could put on a show.

Candy had practiced all week and had the traditional chopper show down to a science. Working with Tim, she managed the game of “Pick the straw” and did escort up the steps. Later she also helped with the roll off of the body off of the platform after decapitation. Having Tim actually raise and drop blade kept things in a rhythm. Poor Gus and Marty were already complaining about having to walk so many trips, but since the platform had been moved to the rear of the auditorium next to the hallway, the trips were shorter.

The newer machine was different. A press of the button triggered the drive motors that drove the lightweight blade down the tracks inside of the rails to the bottom, where switches in the base then reversed course on the drive motors and pulled it up to the top. Total time was only a couple of seconds.

The operator activity was a lot simpler. Stand em up, strip em, walk them over, have them bend over at the waist, put their heads through the opening and lock them in place. Seconds later, head is rolling down the chute, the body is doing a short dance, blood is spraying everywhere, and when the body falls down, you roll it to the side for pick up while you wipe down the platform for the next client.