Judy Dykton decided to get some early morning studying done for a neurology exam. Steamy July weather had forced Judy to run her fan for days. She switched it off and heard a sound like an animal crying outside. Ignoring it, she decided to do some laundry before hitting the books. Downstairs she turned on the washer then headed back upstairs to study. Once more she heard something. This time she thought it sounded like a child crying out. She pulled open the blinds and saw a woman across the street at 2319, perched on a ledge. Judy pushed open the window and heard Cora's tearful cry. "Oh, my God, they are all dead!"

Gloria Davy

chapter continues

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Snatching her robe, Judy ran to 2319. Cora Amurao, crouched on the window ledge, was shaking and crying. Judy entered the open door of the townhouse and stepped into the living room. She found Gloria Davy nude, her hands tied behind her, a strip of cloth knotted so tightly that a roll of skin puffed over the cloth around her neck, her head hanging from the couch, her skin a dusty blue. Murdered.

She fled to the town house of the housemother, Mrs. Bisone, yelling, "There's trouble in 19!"

The housemother woke her other student nurses and ran from the house toward 2319, Leona Bonczak trailing behind.

Cora jumped from the 10-foot ledge and stood on the front stairs, frozen between the horror in the house and the outside world. "Everyone on the sampan has been killed." She kept pleading to everyone not to go in, the killer might still be inside.

Patricia Matusek

Leona and Mrs. Bisone arrived on the scene. Leona touched Gloria Davy on the couch and said. "Davy," as if what she was seeing could not be true and Gloria Davy would moan or stir to give some sign of life. She didn't.

Slowly Leona mounted the stairs and looked down the hall. In the bathroom she found a body. "Matusek!" she said. No answer. Another dead classmate. She crept into the other two bedrooms where she found the rest of the students drenched with so much blood that she was unable to recognize all of them except for Nina Schmale. A pillow covered most of her face, but she could see it was Nina. She lay on her back, hands tied behind her, legs spread for all the world to see, a knife wound in her heart, a tight cloth around her neck.

Nina Schmale

Cold, numb with the reality that eight of her fellow students were dead, Leona walked downstairs. Mrs. Bisone was waiting. She told her not to go up, that everyone was dead, and there's nothing that can be done.

Mrs. Bisone grabbed the phone, shaking, sick, called South Chicago Community Hospital and told them all her girls had been murdered. When the hospital asked who had been killed, she told them she was unable to tell them, the only thing she said was "I need help."

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