Key West Horror Story No. 15

This is a true story. A couple of years a customer of mine who I will call "Charlie" had to return to his home town to bury one of his siblings. Both of Charlie's parents had passed during the previous ten years or so. It was up to Charlie and his siblings to bury the first of their brood. There were seven. And then there were six.

Charlie returned to Key West late one night a few days later. The house he bought had a rental cottage at the rear. The tenant's truck was parked on the street. Charlie went to work the next day and life resumed. The following night there was rapping on the front door. Charlie opened the door to find a Key West policeman and another man standing on the front porch. The officer asked if Charlie had seen his tenant. "No." He explained he had been out of town. The officer said the tenant's friend had not seen him and feared something was wrong. Charlie, the officer, and the tenant's friend walked to the cottage at the rear. Charlie knocked on the door and then opened it. He turned on the light and found brain matter and blood on the walls and bed. The tenant's body was on the bed.

The police officer called the fire department. More police arrived. Charlie told me every cop and fireman in Key West must have been standing on the deck when all of a sudden the deck collapsed to the ground. Nobody was hurt.

Charlie said the tenant left a note apologizing for what he had done. He gave is pick-up truck to his friend - his only friend. He had no relatives. The city removed the body. I asked Charlie if there was a funeral. He did not know. Charlie cleaned up the cottage by himself. He said he could never ask someone else to do something so horrible.

A lot of single people move to Key West to find a new life here - to start over. Some buy puppies. Some buy cats. Some spend a lot of time in the bars. Some buy dope. Some pack up their bags and go back home. And some end up like this poor guy. Alone with nothing left to live for.