Help Wanted

I checked the weekly local newspaper the other day. I came across this posting in the classifieds section.

HELP WANTED ANYONE APPLICABLE COME IMMEDIATELY

Apart from an address there was nothing else in the description. The newspaper was fairly recent, a day or two old, so I assumed they would still be hiring. More out of curiosity than my desire for an actual job, I drove to the address the next day.

I found myself outside of an old house in the middle of the countryside. There was no evidence anyone else had been here for the job, no other parked cars or pedestrians in sight. I was about to knock when I saw a rather crude note written on a piece of paper stuck to the door.

“Come in.”

I knocked regardless, but got no reply. The door was unlocked, as the sign implied, and as I opened it a faint, foul smell drifted out from inside. I peeked inside, through the darkness of the house, and saw a trail of blood leading down a flight of stairs near another paper note.

“I’m down here.”

I immediately got out of there and called the police. The place was investigated by patrol officers before the whole area was sectioned off, creating quite a stir in the nearby town.

I was called to the station a few days later. The detectives asked me some basic questions, taking particular interest in the newspaper post I had found, but it was clear they didn’t suspect me of foul play. I asked them what they found there, and after some hesitation they told me.

The house itself had been abandoned for the last year or so, and being in such an isolated area no one paid it any attention. The blood trail lead down to the house's basement door. Past that, investigators found the corpse of a young woman. She was chained up to the buildings foundations, naked with signs bruising and abuse over her body. The blood trail seemed to have come from several bandaged wounds around her legs and upper body. They told me nothing was certain, but they believe she was there for at least several days until she eventually died, either from the trauma. As the body was still in the beginning stages of decay, the officers were able to identify her quickly.

The newspaper advertisement post was purchased and printed around the day she died under the woman’s own name, although it was clearly impossible for her to do so. As far as they know, I was the first one to respond to the bizarre posting. Other ‘job applicants’ appeared at the scene during the beginning stages of the investigation, confused at the presence of the police, before being ushered away. Before the detectives finished the interview, they made an off-handed remark to me about how some killers have a twisted sense of humor.