The Devil, the Witch and the Whore (The Deal Book 1) Read online

  “Ramsey, the front door's locked!” she calls after me.

  “Just try giving it a shove!” I yell. “It sticks sometimes!”

  At the same time, I look down into my right hand and see the set of car keys I purloined from her purse while I was giving her that hug. She's calling out to me again, but I ignore her as I hurry to the rental car and climb into the driver's seat. I've driven a couple of times before, back when Dan was trying to teach me, so I'm pretty sure I can get this damn thing out to Devil's Lookout. In fact, as I slide the keys into the ignition and give them a turn, I find that the engine purrs into life at the very first attempt.

  Result.

  “Ramsey!” Mom yells, clearly realizing what I'm doing. “Stop!”

  Without even turning to look at her as she runs down the steps, I put the car into gear and hit the gas pedal, sending the vehicle thudding forward. I struggle for a moment to get the power down more smoothly, but I'm able to pull away before Mom has a chance to reach me, and finally I manage to drive the car in a more or less straight line toward the end of the street, at which point I slow and take a left turn.

  Mom's still yelling far behind me, but she can yell all she likes. She doesn't have a clue, and I don't have time to explain everything to her.

  I have to save Dad.

  Part Eight

  The Devil, the Witch and the Whore

  Fifty-Eight

  Leanne Halperin

  Ten years ago

  “Ramsey, stop!” I yell, stopping as soon as I see that she's at the entrance to the tunnel system. “Ramsey, don't be stupid! We have to go home!”

  I wait, but she's staring into the darkness, almost as if she can see or hear something. Taking a cautious step forward, I can't deny that I'm starting to wish I'd stayed in the house today. It's a sunny morning, and Ramsey didn't have to work too hard to persuade me to bike out to the forest with her, but I should have realized that she was going to start talking about the tunnels.

  Sometimes Ramsey can be really annoying.

  “Do you feel it?” she asks suddenly.

  “Feel what?”

  “Come closer.”

  “I don't want to.”

  “Are you scared?”

  “No, I just don't want to.”

  “You're scared. You're a chicken.”

  “I'm not scared!” I say firmly. “I just don't want to go and look at a stupid tunnel! It's stupid!”

  “You're scared you'll feel it,” she continues. “I can't feel it right now, but I know it's going to come back soon. It's like the weather. It's like this invisible thing that's in the air, and sometimes it's closer and sometimes it further away, and sometimes you can't feel it at all and sometimes it's so close, you can almost touch it.”

  I wait for her to continue, and after a moment she turns to me.

  “It's real,” she adds.

  “What is?”

  “There's something in these tunnels, Leanne. Something that moves, something that makes you scared. Haven't you ever noticed? One minute you can be standing at the entrance to a tunnel, and you feel absolutely fine, and then suddenly you get this feeling like you're really scared, and you can't explain why. And it always passes, it goes away, but it's real while it lasts. And it really feels like weather, like there are these invisible clouds of fear that you can't see. But they're down in the tunnels and they make you really scared.”

  I wait for her to start laughing, but she's staring at me with a very serious look on her face, like she truly believes what she's saying.

  “You don't feel it,” she adds finally, “do you?”

  “Feel what?” I ask. “There's nothing to feel!”

  She reaches a hand out toward me. “You have to come closer, Leanne. Maybe you have to be at the very edge of the tunnels to feel it.”

  “I don't want to feel it.”

  “Just come closer, so you know it's real.”

  “I don't care if it's real! I want to go back!”

  She watches me for a moment longer, before turning and looking into the tunnel again. And then, just as I think she might be about to agree that I'm right, she suddenly steps forward until she's very slightly inside the entrance of the tunnel system.

  “Stop!” I shout, before I even have a chance to stop myself. “Ramsey, don't go in!”

  “Why not?” she asks, with her back still turned to me. “If you don't believe there's anything in there, then why shouldn't I go all the way?”

  “Because it's crazy and you're stupid and -”

  I let out a gasp as she takes another step forward, and this time it's as if the darkness of the tunnel has just slightly started to reach out, darkening her shoulders and welcoming her inside.

  “Do you still not believe that anything's down there?” she asks.

  “Of course there's nothing down there! It's just -”

  I gasp again as she takes yet another step forward. Again, the shadows seem to claim her just that little bit more.

  “Then why are you scared something might happen to me?” she continues.

  “I'm not scared,” I reply through gritted teeth, “I'm just -”

  “There!” she adds, interrupting me. She sounds excited, and after a moment I notice that her hands seem to be trembling slightly. “I can feel it, Leanne! The fear, the thing I told you about, it's really strong!”

  “You're just making stuff up,” I mutter.

  “It's getting closer,” she continues, still staring into the darkness of the tunnel. “It's closer than ever before, it's coming this way! I can feel the fear reaching out to me!”

  I open my mouth to tell her I'm not remotely scared, that I don't believe her at all, but instead I find myself staring into the tunnel, imagining some kind of awful monster coming running out toward us. I know monsters aren't real, but I still can't quite bring myself to laugh the whole thing off. Ramsey's hands are really trembling hard now, and I can just about hear her snatched breaths.

  “How can it be so close,” she whispers, “and we still can't see it?”

  “There's nothing there,” I reply, although I know my voice sounds tense and scared now.

  “It's getting stronger,” she continues, and now her voice is shaking. “I feel so scared, Leanne. If you come and stand with me, you won't doubt it, not anymore. It's so real, it almost hurts.”

  “I want to go home,” I tell her. “This is boring!”

  I wait for her to reply, but she seems mesmerized by the sight of the tunnel, and I can't help noticing that her arms look stiff, as if she can't move them properly. I want to go over and grab her arm, so I can pull her away, but at the same time I'm starting to feel a very faint flicker of fear tugging at my chest. I know I'm just being dumb, and that I've allowed Ramsey to get into my mind, but the fear builds for a few more seconds before fading just as abruptly as it arrived. Within just another second or two, it's gone entirely.

  “There,” Ramsey says, turning to me with the faintest of smiles on her face. “It's done. Did you really not feel it at all?”

  “No,” I reply as she comes back over to join me. “I didn't feel anything.”

  “Are you sure? Your eyes -”

  “I didn't feel anything!” I hiss, turning and heading back toward the tree where we left our bikes. “I don't like it when you talk about boring things, Ramsey! It's really boring!”

  “There's something in those tunnels. It's -”

  “So what?” I snap, grabbing my bike but finding that the handlebars are interlocked with Ramsey's. I pull harder, and then with a final tug I end up tipping both bikes over. They fall against my legs, and I let out a gasp of pain as my knee gets scratched. “Stupid bikes!” I mutter, kicking them before taking a step back.

  I feel really scared for a moment, and really angry. And all around us, the forest seems to fall completely silent.

  “You're right,” Ramsey says finally. “We should head home. I just wanted to test out a theory, but I think maybe we shoul
dn't go into the tunnels. Like, not ever. Let's go back to my place. My dad should still be at work, so we can play in the front room.”

  “I just want to go home to my house,” I mutter, pulling my bike up and climbing on. “I don't want to hang out today after all.”

  “But -”

  “We'll do something tomorrow. If I feel like it.”

  With that, I start riding away, not daring to look back at Ramsey. If I saw her disappointed face, I'd only end up changing my mind and agreeing to do something together. Most of the time, Ramsey is really fun, and we're still totally best friends. But occasionally she can get weird, especially when she talks about ghosts and monsters and things out here in the forest, and those are the times when I don't like hanging out with her so much. I'll just go home and watch stuff on TV by myself, and there'll be plenty of time to see Ramsey tomorrow. It's not like she's going anywhere. We're friends for life, and that's just how it's always, always going to be.

  We've got forever to hang out. One day doesn't matter at all.

  Fifty-Nine

  Sheriff James Kopperud

  Today

  “What happened to Molly Abernathy?”

  I wait, standing on the porch at the front of Buddy's house, but this time he doesn't look up at me. Instead, he stays completely still, staring out at the dark street. Somehow, I get the feeling that maybe he's been waiting his whole life for me to ask him properly about Molly. I've mentioned her casually in the past, wondering where she really went, but I always let him brush me off. This time, I'm asking him directly.

  “I'm going to find out anyway,” I continue, “so you might as well tell me. I've already figured out that the report you filed was a pack of lies. She didn't wander off into the forest to investigate a disturbance and end up getting attacked by wolves. But the thing is, I need to know whether what killed her was something ordinary, like an accident or just some maniac, or whether it was...”

  My voice trails off.

  I still can't bring myself to say the words out loud.

  “And I know you can answer me,” I add finally. “Your mind might be fraying at the edges, old man, but you still have that little core in there somewhere. And if I'm right, the truth about Molly Abernathy's death is a part of you that you'll never be able to leave behind. Even if you'd prefer to forget.”

  Again, I wait, and after a moment he turns and looks up to me with tears in his eyes.

  “What happened to her?” I ask firmly.

  “James...”

  “Who killed her? What killed her?”

  “Do you remember that night when Mikey Cane died?” he replies. “That night, I told you that -”

  “Don't change the subject, Buddy. Tell me about Molly Abernathy!”

  “I'm not changing the subject!” he hisses, his voice filled with a kind of anger that I haven't heard from him in many years. “The night Mikey Cane died, I told you not to go poking about in that forest! I told you to have some respect for what's out there and to leave it the hell alone! That's the same advice I gave to Molly all those years ago, except she ignored it and that's why she ended up...”

  He hesitates for a moment.

  “That's why she died,” he continues finally. “She ignored my advice. Please, James, don't make the same mistake.”

  “What's out there?” I ask.

  He shakes his head.

  “Fine,” I mutter, turning to walk back down the steps, “I'll go find out for myself.”

  “I don't know what's out there!” he spits. “I've always been smart enough to stay the hell away and not ask too many questions!”

  I turn back to him.

  “I don't need to know what it is!” he splutters, almost tripping over his own tongue as his anger rises. “I accepted a long time ago that everything beyond the edge of town is off limits! There's something in that forest, James, and whatever it is, it'll kill anyone who gets too close! I could've gone out there, demanding answers, but I made a better choice. I was smart. I accepted the limits of my jurisdiction, and I told myself to stick to the town, and to the part of this land that men have already cleared and made their own!”

  “Because there's something in the forest?” I ask.

  “Damn straight there is!”

  “Something that got to Mikey Cane? And to Liam, too?”

  “James...”

  “Something that killed Molly Abernathy?”

  “It gets to people occasionally,” he explains. “Somebody strays too far into the forest, then they stray into the wrong part of the forest, and then they wind up on the edge of something that no man oughta see. They never last long after that, they always end up dead, and that's another reason why I always respected whatever the hell is out there!” He pauses, as a single tear runs down his cheek. “Molly didn't listen,” he continues after a moment. “I left her to look after a wreck, I told her to stay put and not go into the forest while I was gone, but off she went anyway! And when I got back, she...”

  I wait for him to continue.

  “She was dead?” I ask finally.

  He shakes his head. “Not quite. She was still alive, but the forest had noticed her. The things that live out there... They wanted her, and I had no choice but to leave her for them.”

  “You left her to die?”

  “If I hadn't, they'd have come out of the forest to get her! I did what was right for the town! I showed respect for those things, whatever they are, and do you know what else happened that night? They showed respect for me too! They realized I'd honored the boundary line, so they honored it as well! I did a good thing, I did the right thing, and I'm sorry that Molly had to die but it's not my fault that she wandered off into the forest!”

  Staring at him, I realize that he seems to believe every word of this garbage. I always had Buddy down as a rational, practical man, but by God he actually seems to think that he was right to leave someone out there to die.

  “Don't do this,” he adds after a moment. “Don't go poking about. It won't end well for you.”

  “Because there's a bogeyman out there, and he'll come for me?” I reply.

  “I don't know what he is, James. I only know to keep out of his way. He won't bother you, he won't bother any of us, so long as we just leave him alone.”

  “Even if I was remotely tempted to agree with you,” I tell him, “there's one thing that means I don't have a choice. He's already tried to kill my daughter, and unless you think I should leave her to die at his hands, the same way you left Molly Abernathy to die, then I really don't think I have any other option. I have to go out there, and I have to find out what this thing is, and I have to make damn sure that it never goes anywhere near Ramsey again.”

  I wait for him to reply, but he simply stares at me, and finally I see him for what he is: a scared, tired old man who made a terrible choice many years ago, and who has struggled to live with the consequences ever since. I guess dementia was a blessing for him, although it seems that there are some things he still can't forget.

  A moment later, hearing a faint bumping sound, I turn and realize that there seems to be someone standing just inside the back room. I guess Harry is awake after all, and maybe she's heard every word of this conversation. I was hoping to keep her out of it all, but I don't have time right now to explain things to her. Maybe Buddy can do that after I'm gone.

  “I'm heading out to Devil's Lookout,” I tell Buddy, as I turn and make my way down the steps. “If I happen to run into a big bad bogeyman, I'll give him your regards.”

  “I did the right thing!” he calls after me, his voice sounding hoarse and desperate. “I did what was right for this town! It's a deal this town had to make! Keep to ourselves, and respect whatever's out there in the forest!”

  “And I'm doing what's right for my daughter,” I mutter, opening the car door and climbing into the driver's seat. “I don't make deals with the devil. Or whatever the hell this thing really is.”

  Glancing back toward the house,
I see Buddy staring at me, and a moment later I spot a shadow inside the house. Harry must be horrified by what she just heard, but that's her problem.

  Staring the engine, I floor the pedal and start the long drive out to meet the deputies at Devil's Lookout.

  Sixty

  Ramsey Kopperud

  The car lurches slightly every time I change gear, but other than that I think I'm getting the hang of this driving business. I mean, it's not that hard, and I'm helped by the fact that I'm out here all alone on a remote mountain road. I guess if I was dealing with New York traffic, things might be a little more difficult.

  The rental car's headlights pick out a bend ahead, and I slow slightly so that I'm well within safe limits. As easy as I'm finding this so far, I know I shouldn't get cocky and start taking risks.

  Fortunately, the car has a GPS system installed, so I'm able to work out roughly which way to go. I'm still a few miles from Devil's Lookout, but I figure I'm making decent progress and I shouldn't be too far behind Dad. Then I just have to finish the last part of the journey on foot, and try to catch him before he makes the biggest mistake of his life. And I have to somehow persuade him to come back to town with me.

  Glancing out the window, I see the vast, dark forest spread out beneath a blanket of stars. There's so much wild and untamed land in this part of the world, and I guess it shouldn't be such a huge surprise if it turns out that there are things lurking in the shadows, creatures that never -

  Suddenly the car spins, and I let out a gasp as I feel the back end swing around. Slamming my foot on the brake pedal, I'm nevertheless powerless to stop the car as it screeches backward along the road and bumps against the guardrail. I've barely scrubbed off any speed at all, and the locked tires are smoking as the car finally thuds against one of the guardrail's other sections. Gripping the steering wheel, I stare straight ahead, and after a few more seconds I realize I'm stationary again.

  I have no idea what I just did wrong, but it's like the car just snapped around on itself. The engine is still running, and I peer out at the road, figuring that maybe I hit a random patch of ice.