Sunday 6 March 2011

The Blind Man

One day, not long after the end of World War Two, a young girl meets a blind man in the street. They get to talking, and after a while the blind man asks the girl if she could possibly do a favour for him. He needs a letter delivered by hand to an address in the town, but is having difficulty finding his way around. Perhaps she could deliver it for him?

Of course, the girl agrees. She takes the letter and sets off, but as she's about to leave the square she looks back and sees the blind man making his was hurriedly away through the crowd. Stranger still, he's now moving completely without the aid of his cane.

Suspicious, the girl takes the letter to the police. Several officers head to the address on the envelope. The door is opened by a grey-haired man who, on seeing the police at his door, dives past them and tries to make a run for it. He is arrested, and the police proceed to search the house.

Inside, in the basement, they discover an ice-box filled with bags of shredded meat. Lots of it. Is the man a butcher? A hunter? They burrow deeper into the ice-box. There at the bottom, wrapped in greaseproof paper is the body of a young girl.

It turns out the guy was a trader in human meat. He's taken away to jail. It's only later on that one of the officers thinks to open the envelope that the young girl gave them, the one that tipped them off in the first place. He slits it open. Inside is a handwritten note, saying simply: "This is the last one I'll deliver to you this week. Make her last."

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