Inside Evil

Chapter 10 - Part III

*Inside Evil and its sequels are available on Amazon, Kobo, B&N, Smashwords and iBooks* 

Huddled in the front seat of the car and once again trying to look as inconspicuous as possible, Karl watched as a young girl hurried away from Best Books, leaving Susan's frame illuminated in the doorway. A look of relief flooded the girls face; quite the comparison when Karl noted the troubled expression on Susan's. He wondered how his police work had ended up with him spending every moment of his spare time trapped in his cold Volvo spying on various Ridgewood residents. Though he'd been cut out of the previous investigations, at least he'd been involved in an indirect manner. Here, he was looking in from the outside without a clue as to who knew what.

He'd come to have one final attempt to speak to Martha, but upon seeing the two women inside the bookshop talking to the young girl, had instead decided to wait out events.

"Susan, wait." Karl leapt out the car and hurried across the street as Susan Lingly went to close the door. She allowed him into the warm interior, once again locking the door behind them so that the world outside was not allowed to penetrate. "Martha, Susan," Karl pleaded. "Please, you need to tell me what you know."

"Not now," Martha replied, looking to Susan for approval.

"A woman's life is on the line here. You may not care, but I'm not about to let whatever this is take someone else," Karl said angrily towards the two stubborn women.

"We care," Susan said forcefully, "perhaps more than you think. Who have you lost Karl? A friend, maybe. But I lost a daughter, Martha lost her husband."

"Then help me," Karl said, realising that he had to show his cards if he were in any way to gain some trust. "Look. I'll admit, I am not here on duty. I'm here because of Vanessa, because of Barry, because of all the others that have died. I don't know what's going on, all I know is that whatever has happened to your loved ones is currently happening to Roberta Arlington. And, we all know what happens in the end."

"We don't know anything Karl," Martha said. "All that we keep discovering is that the deaths are no coincidence. That some force passes between each victim and seems to consume their thoughts. That they gradually lose grip upon this world and reality. But what it is, how it happens, how to stop it, we have no idea."

"What about Barry's journal, Martha? There must have been something in it."

"You know as well as I do that we never found the journal," Martha replied sharply. "It was the only thing he ever wrote in at that time, and was the only thing that may have offered help."

Susan was standing with her hands in her cardigan pocket, and Karl could see that she was running her fingers over something.

"There is something," she said at length, "Something that you should see. But I warn you, it doesn't offer any explanation, just more questions."

Karl nodded, and followed Susan as she beckoned him across to the fireplace. Earlier in the day, both Susan and Martha had been tight lipped about the room below the store, neither of them allowing him to descend into the dark. Nor had they answered his questions regarding what was down there. In the furore of the moment and having had Roberta writhing in his arms, he hadn't had much of a chance to press the issue, but now he was allowed to descend into the gloom of the small square room. Dankness filled his nose, and he almost shouted out as Susan held her hand over the burning flame of a candle before pushing her hand into the wax. She held her hand out to him and he saw that there was not a mark on her hand aside from a slight waxy residue which peppered her palm.

"What is this place?"

"If we knew that, we wouldn't have let you down here," Martha said as she too descended the ladder.

"I only discovered it the day of Vanessa's funeral," Susan said, picking at where the soft wax had dried into granules upon her hand.

"Who knows about it?"

"Only us three, Roberta and Sam. And those on the other side of course," Susan said informatively, seemingly unfazed by events as she revealed the two figures that she'd seen.

"I think I need a drink," Karl replied, climbing out of the hole and sitting quietly as Susan and Martha explained all that they knew of Vanessa's death and the cellar under the bookstore. 

*I will be posting one or two scenes a week as the story builds. However, if you can't wait that long, Inside Evil is available on Amazon, Kobo, B&N, Smashwords and iBooks.

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