Inside Evil

Chapter 10 - Part II

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The wind hit Karl's face like a sheet of ice as he stepped away from Roberta Arlington's home. He pulled the lapels of his jacket up to try and warm his neck, and hurried back towards his car. Somehow the day had crept past him and though trailing after Roberta felt like minutes ago, the winter sun was already dropping from the sky. Rising from behind the houses in front of him he saw the ridge of firs ascending to the heavens, a thin veil of orange sunset spreading patches of gold on the upper most branches of the trees.

Climbing into his old blue Volvo, Karl fiddled with the glove compartment which tended to stick. It dropped down suddenly, almost catching his fingers, and he grasped around inside for the packet of Malboro Lights. He wasn't one to smoke, having kicked the habit several years earlier, but he turned on the engine and waited for a few minutes for the cigarette lighter to warm before sending a spark into one of the last smokes in the packet. Karl took a deep drag and spluttered almost instantly, coughing as he wound the window down a little so that the smoke could be swept away by the darkening sky.

Ridgewood had turned him into a joke. He'd finally managed to move away from this place, forget the incidents of the previous decade, and now he was back in this forsaken town again. Once again, he had no clue what was going on other than the fact that one death seemed to start the next, and the next, and so forth. He was absolutely sure that Roberta Arlington's days were numbered, but having never found out why the previous deaths had occurred, there was no way to link or solve anything. It simply couldn't be a coincidence. She was showing all of the signs that he'd seen in Barry, and there didn't seem to be a damn thing he could do to stop the almost certain event from occurring. His leave was coming to an end, and he'd soon have to head back to London. Perhaps that would be for the best. In the same way that he'd forgotten about his Ridgewood woes before, he could forget them again, leaving this place to fend for itself in the dark winter. Yet, he still felt a connection to Barry and found it hard to wrench himself away for a second time.

Karl started the engine and threw half of his cigarette onto the road before winding up his window. He wasn't going to leave before he tried at least one more time to get some answers from Martha.

Susan winced as her friend parted her hair and soothed the fingernail scrapes with an alcohol wipe. She looked down at her wrist where the individual indents of Roberta's teeth were clearly visible.

"What was Sam thinking?!" Martha exclaimed, picking up the Savlon beside her and squirting some of the antiseptic cream onto Susan's scalp. "Of all the things to do. Thank God Karl was here." She rubbed the cream into the gouges on Susan's head with her fingertips. "I think you got away lightly."

Susan nodded, tracing the dental indent on her wrist with her fingers. "Martha, I've been thinking. Vanessa's diary is getting us nowhere, I think it's about time we looked at Barry's journal."

"I've been thinking the same," Martha replied, smoothing Susan's hair through her hands. She pulled a blanket from one of the baskets at the end of the Best Book's sofas and wrapped it around herself before sitting down.

"It's not just about Vanessa now is it?" Susan said, still looking at her wrist. "Whatever happened to my daughter, happened to Barry too, and all those others that Karl mentioned. And now it's happening to Roberta. The journal just has to have something we can go on, there's the riddle that Barry wrote for starters." Susan looked up at Martha. "I miss her so much. I can't let it happen to Roberta too."

"Roberta? The woman who just tried to drag you by your hair into the cellar?"

"I know, but don't you see, it's not her fault. I know you can feel the turmoil going on inside her, but it's clear to me too, without any kind of psychic feelings, that she's conflicted. I can't let Roberta die in the same meaningless way that Vanessa did."