Horoscope: The Astrology Murders Read Online Free PDF Page B

he had visited, she had left the porch light on. He didn’t wait until he got to the porch to put on the surgical gloves. He slipped them on and took the keys from his pocket—two of them this time—before he left the shadowed driveway. When he got to the front door, he felt exposed. He knew that someone passing by might see him there under the porch light. But he forced himself not to look over his shoulder as he unlocked the door. He just did it quickly, and did it as if he belonged there. He did,after all, didn’t he? It was part of his job, his vocation, his destiny.
    Once inside, he put on the ski mask and stared through the eye slits into the darkness until he could see the staircase that he knew would be there. It wasn’t until he was on the first step that he realized the stairs were uncarpeted. He ascended slowly, carefully, mentally reducing his body mass so that he was just the phantom, weightless essence of himself, making sure she could not hear him on the stairs.
    He reached the second floor and stepped onto a rug. For a while, he just stood there and waited. When his eyes got used to seeing in the small amount of light that came through a window at the end of the hall, he saw that the door across from him was open. He walked slowly to the wall on the left side of the doorway and listened. Nothing. No breathing. No turning in her sleep. Just silence. It reminded him of how his mother had slept. At least that was how she slept when she wasn’t having nightmares. When she had nightmares, she would scream in her sleep, and then she would get up, she would come into his room, and scream at him, and that’s when she would punish him.
    With a surge of anger, he made his way toward another open doorway down the hall. Again all he heard was silence. His eyes focused on a third doorway at the end of the hall. Even before he reached it, he could hear her breathing in her sleep inside the room.
    Her bedroom floor was covered with a thick white carpet. He knew it was white because of the tiny night-light she’d plugged into the wall just inside the doorway. He walked over to the bed, savoring each soundless step as it brought him closer to her. Taking out his leather cord, he saw her naked shoulders and realized that she was nude under the cover.
    He peeled back the blanket and straddled her. A momentlater, he was undoing his pants and pulling on the condom. Suddenly, she was awake, and he saw the terror in her face as she stared up at him. She picked up her head, and her long brown hair spilled onto the pillow.
    “No, please!” Her voice came out as a hoarse cry.
    He stretched the cord across her throat. “Say one more word and I’ll kill you.”
    She grabbed his arm and tried to push him away with a strength that momentarily surprised him, but it only made him more excited. He applied more pressure on the cord across her throat until she was so scared she stopped fighting.
    He was hard as he lowered himself down on top of her.
    “The transits aren’t too good for you right now. I guess that’s not a surprise, though, is it?”

Four
    K ELLY HAD BARELY EATEN anything for dinner. She’d spent the evening doing charts for clients and had become so engrossed that she hadn’t even thought about food. When she’d finally remembered that she hadn’t eaten anything since lunch, she’d gone into the kitchen and picked at leftovers from the refrigerator. Emma had been out all evening with Donald, whom she still referred to as her “friend,” although it was clear to Kelly and Sarah and anyone else who might have met Donald and Emma together that he was her boyfriend. Kelly was glad that Emma had someone, and she was glad that Emma hadn’t been home to see how little she’d eaten and worry even more about her.
    It had been almost twelve-thirty when she’d finally stopped working and gone to bed. First she’d taken a bath, to relax her body and try to relax her mind. The hot water had begun to make her feel