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how he always knew. Once they staked out the bus station for twenty-four hours, but no one came. Finally I pulled them away and when I sent them back an hour later, the cash was there and the package was gone." |
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"So you cannot help me, is that correct?" |
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A knife appeared at the little girl's throat. The blade was long and thin, a lewd exclamation mark beneath the child's pale ear. |
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"Wait, wait!" the fat man screamed. "You . . . you swear you will not hurt my wife and child?" |
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"Of course. You have my word." |
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Paula tried not to think, not to breathe, but she couldn't help herself. |
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"Once . . . one time the drop was delayed and a woman called . . . here on my home phone." |
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"I have that service on my private telephonethe one that displays the number of the caller. I traced the number." |
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"It was a private telephone in Memphis, Tennessee." |
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Suddenly Paula felt as if her soul had fallen into a psychic cesspool. Sensing the rolling tide of blood and death that was coming, she recoiled in horror and slingshot her mind back to her own body. When she came to she was on the floor, staring up at her utilitarian furniture as if it had just beamed down from a spaceship. She was stunned, sickened. In all of her years dealing in the occult, Paula had never come in contact with a mind so totally vile. |
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Climbing to her feet, Paula saw her long gown was stained with tea and her foot was bleeding where she had stepped on the broken cup. She went to the mirror over her dresser and brushed the locks of her silky black hair out of her eyes. |
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Her eyes were smoldering red embersa sure sign that her vision had been real and not a hallucinationand her nor- |
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