House Infernal by Edward Lee Read Online Free PDF

free coffee."
    "Won't argue with you there, Freddie."
    And I resent you, man, for sayin' I'd do something sexual to a kid. You got doctors who can tell that I didn't, and you damn well know we didn't do anything sexual to the
nun either, and that other woman last spring."

    Berns gave him a long look.
    "They can't be sexually tainted, but I don't expect you
to get that. And I bent over backwards to be careful with
the little girl. She was unconscious the whole time, 'cos I
didn't want her all terrified and shit. I made it so she'd
have smothered to death underground, never would've
regained consciousness."
    Berns glanced to Lee, who stood with his arms crossed.
"He's not pulling your leg on that one, Captain. He
knocked the girl out with ether he stole from a veterinarian. He must've been casing the trailer park she lived in
because he knew when her parents would be gone.
Knocked out the fifteen-year-old brother baby-sitting,
then knocked the girl out, both with the ether. He already
had the hole dug in the woods."
    "How'd he get fingered?"
    Lee smiled. "Next-door neighbor saw him hauling the
girl out the window, so he called nine-one-one." He
looked to Johnson. "Pretty bonehead move, Freddie.
Maybe you're the one who should eat more fish."
    "Damn straight," Johnson said and got his smile back.
    "And the good news is the girl didn't remember anything that happened. Didn't even remember getting
snatched or being in the hole. Shrink says she won't be all
screwed up in the head later. I guess we at least have to
give Freddie some credit. For a flaked-out demented sociopath and would-be child-killer, he's pretty considerate.
Oh, and here's something. When we searched Freddie's
pad, we found forty grand in cash."
    Berns raised a brow. "That's righteous bucks, Freddie.
How's an itinerant crabber get forty grand?"
    The big shuck-and-jive smile returned in full. "Let's just
say that my boss appreciates loyal employees."
    "Tell the Captain your boss' name, Freddie," Lee urged.
    "Eosphorus," " Freddie said. "But trust me. You wouldn't
understand."
    Eosphorus? What the hell is that? "Back to the girl you tried to bury," Berns said. "What do you mean, she had to
be naked?"

    Johnson lay back on the cot, crossed his feet. "The revelation of her innocence, Captain. It's an epiphany, see? It's
transpositional. We'd call it a precursory oblation."
    Epiphany? Oblation? Berns wondered.
    Johnson held up an elucidating finger. "And you already know-the nun and the church woman? Their bodies were naked, too. And I killed 'em on March twentieth,
the night before the vernal equinox. But I'm just trying to
make it easy for you, Captain. You wouldn't understand
what I'm all about, so just leave it ... and charge me with
capital murder." He shrugged in the bunk. "I'll take a
polygraph any time you say. Type me up a confession. I'll
sign it right now."
    What's making this guy tick? Berns wondered. He's not
crazy, and he's not fucked-up from drugs. What gives? "So
you had two accomplices for the Wammsport job?"
    "That's right. Another dude and a chick."
    Berns whipped out a notebook. "Names."
    "Uh-uh. It was me who did the cutting anyway. They
just helped. Forget them. It's me you want. They were just
help on the side. Adjuncts."
    Johnson's recent selection of words began to bother
Berns. "Equinox, adjuncts, oblations-shit, Freddie, that's
a mouthful for a guy like you, and it bugs me. They can't
be sexually tainted? You talking about sacrifice? Is that
what this is all about-you're some kind of Satanist?"
    "Let's just say that I'm an Eosphorian, man." Johnson
winked again.
    "The occult, huh?" Lee remarked. "He's got a pretty
creepy looking tattoo, by the way."
    "Ohs yeah?"
    "Freddie, you want to show the Captain your tattoo?"
    Johnson hopped back up. "Shit-yeah, man. I'm proud
out it," and he unbuttoned his utilities, dragged his arms
out, and began to drag them down past his waist.
    Berns signed. "I did not