Homepage Update: "The Spiteful Dead" (Short Story)

My official homepage has been updated, with the short story "The Spiteful Dead" -- another installment in the "Precinct 20: Dead Strange" story cycle.

"The Spiteful Dead"

Quote:
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The corpse in the gutter had been decapitated and the head was nowhere in sight. It was dressed in a black sweater, jogging pants and sneakers, and its stubby hands had been tied behind the back with duct tape.
The headless body was tall, Garris estimated over six feet.
"Find anything else on him?" he asked, and Schmidt handed him a sheet of paper in a clear plastic envelope. On it was a printout of a poem: 

No dawn in sight
I only see the gleam in the mind's weeping eye
And by that dying light I write this prayer
Will you be there on my final day?
Will you mourn this soul?
I shall be there to see
if you can shed a tear for me
For the earth is so cold
and she hates me
And the other poets in their marble tombs
Mutter that I bring down the property value.
 
Garris did not recognize the text, but instinctively he guessed:
"The victim's last words?"
Schmidt flashed a tight-lipped smile. "Yes."
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Read the rest.