The Skull Ring Read Online Free PDF Page B

just because they want to please some higher or lower power. They do it because they like it. They get off on it. And they keep doing it until they're caught or dead."
    "So, you took 'Creep 101' in college, too?" Julia asked.
    "The home course."
    "Then why do the authorities think this was a Satanic killing?"
    "They don't. Not yet. But the victim was male. Gutted. And here's the kicker. The guy's pinkie was chopped off."
    "Chopped off?" Julia was hooked, despite herself. She loathed the public's unending appetite for atrocity, the hunger for controversy, the prurient fascination for the dark side of humanity. She’d even made it her stock in trade, trafficking in human misery to deliver juicy headlines for her Memphis editors. She was as guilty as anyone for wallowing in bad news, but she could understand it. She had her own built-in dichotomy, the black past that she kept re-entering like a prospector probing a shaky mine shaft.
    "Sure. Now, a chopped finger doesn't seem so bad compared to being gut-hauled, but the thing is, the pinkie wound was healed . A stump of scar tissue. Meaning the injury had been inflicted years ago."
    "So? He could have had an accident, caught it in a textile machine or a car door."
    "He could have," Rick agreed, adjusting his already-perfect jet-black curl. "But pinkie amputation is another ritual practiced by the you-know-whos."
    "Our old buddies, the Satanists." Julia shook her head. "Rick, you've watched too many 'X-Files' reruns."
    "I've got plenty more evidence. Let me buy you a beer at the Whistle Gate and I'll tell you all about it."
    "No, thanks," she said, smiling to disarm him. Then she thought about going home, with darkness falling and her house waiting and the clock in her bedroom still stuck on 4:06.
    Better the Creep you know, I suppose . At least this one has a face.
    "On second thought," she said. "I haven't eaten out for a few weeks. Might do me some good to see what civilization is up to these days."
    Rick's chest swelled visibly. "Great. Great !"
    "I'll meet you there. Six-ish."
    He backed down the hall, grinning like a kindergartner who'd put a worm down a girl's dress. "Wonderful. I'll get us a good table."
    As Julia went to her desk to put her notes and papers away, she wondered if Dr. Forrest would approve.
     
     
    CHAPTER FIVE
     
    Julia got home after dark. The Subaru's headlights swept over the house as she drove up. Lights blazed from the neighboring apartments, and Mabel Covington's front porch light was on, a flotilla of moths seeking out its heat. Even though the forest hovered dark and thick, Julia was determined not to be afraid.
    Music spilled from one of the bottom apartments, the Rolling Stones' "Sympathy for the Devil." Mick Jagger was the one that needed sympathy. Hobbling out on stage with his cane and hearing aid, but still dressed in Spandex and feather boas. The Devil had obviously not kept his end of the bargain in that deal.
    A tan boxer barked at her from the ragged grounds of the apartment. The dog was friendly, but it made a habit of dropping smelly little presents around Julia’s door. She was torn between shooing it away and feeding it snacks, and in the end they’d reached an uneasy truce in which Julia gave the dog a pat on the head instead of bacon bits, and Fido kept his poop to the edge of the driveway.
    Rick had practically invited himself over to Julia's for a nightcap. Julia had deflected him, casually mentioning her fiancé and all the work she needed to get done. Now, entering the dark, silent house, she almost wished she'd accepted his offer, assuming he could keep his hands in his pockets. Maybe a little platonic companionship would ease her sense of isolation.
    But she wanted to beat the fear alone. Even with Dr. Forrest helping, Julia knew that only one person could clean the mental house. Only one person could go into those rooms, sweep away the cobwebs, roll up the shades and let in the light. Only one person held the key.
    She