Page 154 of Evil Bones
Flash image. The lettersPEcarved into flesh.
Suddenly, I understood the meaning of the cryptic message.
Pure Evil.
There followed another long stretch of silence interrupted only by the bird. Then Ryan posed a series of questions.
“Ruthie never was missing, right?”
“Not to her thinking. She’d gone off on the spur of the moment with her UNCC pals, sans Meloy and Hall. In her haste to connect with them on time, she’d failed to leave a note. Figured she’d phone from the car.”
“But forgot.”
“Yep.”
Another slow back and forth, then Ryan asked, “If Long was offing people for fun, why didn’t he kill you?”
“I asked my friend Adina her opinion on that.”
“The psychologist?”
“Yes. She compared Long’s behavior toward me to that of a cat toying with a mouse.”
“Long enjoyed observing your reactions when you were under duress.”
“That washertheory.”
Another pause. Then,
“Danielle Hall. What’s the story there?”
“Just a grad student who took a liking to Ruthie.”
“Do you find that weird?”
“Hall told me she’d had a rough time fitting in her freshman year of college. She thinks because of her size. Now, when she gives campus tours, if she spots a kid that looks iffy, she tries to mentor a bit. Ruthie fit the bill with her vociferous bad-mouthing of higher education.”
I did some tweaking in the translation of Hall’s account. Her language had been more colorful than that.
“Who was the guy with the neck tattoo?”
“Lester Meloy. His club really did call itself Live, not Evil. Nothing sinister, just a group of idealistic students wanting to change the world.”
Teakettle-teakettle-teakettle.
“The black Honda you suspected was following you. What came of that?”
“Slidell tracked the owner. The car belongs to the grandson of a neighbor at Sharon Hall. Its presence near the Annex had nothing to do with me. Same goes for the one I spotted behind me in traffic.”
“What about all those hang-up calls?”
“That was the lovely Mr. Long, blocking his number. Apparently, the prick loves playing with gadgets that he learns about while doing deliveries. He used a voice modifier when talking to me down in the tunnels.”
“Does Slidell think it was Long who shoved the thumb drive up Quaashi Brown’s butt?”
“Long denies doing it. But yes, he does.”
“Why?”
