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you do not want to go. Dark, black, bleak places you can never forget. I damn near lost my mind.”
    â€œ Once the Devil takes you, he doesn’t give you back ,” she said, quoting his book a second time.
    â€œHe never had me.”
    â€œBut he was close, wasn’t he?” she asked without irony.
    He stared at her, this time seeing traces of Lonnie in her eyes.
    â€œA few days ago I came across an old video on YouTube of you and some others,” she said when he offered no reply. “It was a clip from one of those awful eighties tabloid TV shows where all the guests— experts so called—were talking about satanic crime and related topics. There was something different about you, though. I could tell the others were either trying to push some slanted religious or political agenda or simply selling the hype and making money from people’s ignorance and fear. But you weren’t like that. You were sincere. Haunted. Troubled. It showed in your writing, and it showed in your appearance on television.”
    â€œThis isn’t the same thing.”
    â€œYou look all right now,” she said. “Despite your difficulties in the past.”
    â€œI am all right.”
    â€œAre you?”
    â€œYes.”
    â€œBut it still haunts you, doesn’t it?”
    â€œWhat’s your point?”
    â€œThere’s still a part of you that needs truth, just like I do. Somewhere deep down that investigative reporter is still there. I’m asking you to resurrect him and to help me find out what happened to my father, to your friend.”
    Joel rose to his feet, unable to remain seated any longer. “Look, you read my book and it gave you this idea that I’m something I’m not, okay? I’m not capable of doing what you’re asking. And not to be rude, but you have no right to ask me to do it in the first place. I’m sincerely sorry about what happened to Lonnie, but it has nothing to do with me. I just want to live my life in peace. Please, let me do that.”
    â€œHe told me strange things were happening,” she said, as if she hadn’t heard a word he’d said. “He said people were following him. Or what he hoped were people. Whoever—or whatever—they were, they drove my father insane and then they killed him.”
    â€œAnd you don’t think the police would want to know this?”
    â€œThey certainly didn’t behave as if they did.” She took a moment to collect herself. “And there was something else. He had a strange tattoo—well, not exactly a tattoo but more of a brand really—on the back of his left shoulder. He had no idea what it was or how it had gotten there. It’s a symbol of some kind, I’d never seen anything quite like it before.”
    â€œDid you research it at all?”
    â€œYes. I thought it might be a satanic or occult symbol of some kind—you’d mentioned that kind of thing in your book was common when it came to these subjects—but I couldn’t find anything. When I did a regular search it came back as something called a triskele . Apparently it’s an ancient Celtic representation that symbolizes the power of life and rebirth. It combines spirals with the number three. Beyond that, I have no idea what it means or how it was burned into my father’s skin without his knowledge.”
    â€œLonnie claimed he had no idea how he got it?”
    â€œNone. And it frightened him.”
    â€œI’d imagine so. That’s bizarre, for sure, but it doesn’t necessarily mean—”
    â€œNot long before his murder, he kept talking about… demons . He said he thought that’s what might be after him.”
    â€œDemons don’t exist, Katelyn.” He pointed to his temple. “Only in here.”
    â€œMaybe that’s enough. Or maybe we choose not to see them, because if we do, the only thing it leads to is madness.”