Inside Evil

Chapter 10 - Part 1

"It's my fault, I should've never put us in that position. It was stupid, I thought I could get us in and out without any trouble. If I hadn't wanted to see those candles again so much. And, I think Sue's seen the stone engraving too."

Roberta shuddered at the mention of the stone disc and how it had caused such a violent reaction in her.

"Does it matter if she has or hasn't? I mean, we have no idea what any of this means. All I know is that a few weeks ago life was fine, dreary but fine. Now, I can't keep my mind together and I feel like I've descended into a world of nightmares."

Sam hugged her tightly again and rolled away.

"OK, come on, time to get up."

Roberta groaned as Sam tugged on her arm. "Can't I just stay here? What's the point of getting up?"

"Err, because we're not going to figure this thing out with you hiding in bed all day. Oh, and because there's a police detective who's been sitting in your living room all morning and I'm running out of dull conversation."

"What?" Roberta sat up in bed "Who?"

"DC Frans. The kind soul that gave you that," Sam pointed at the large swelling on Roberta's face.

"Yes, well, I did need it," Roberta said quickly and quietly. "But why's he here?"

"Don't ask me. He's taking too keen an interest in my books and research paper if you ask me. Please, come and get rid of him."

As Sam left the room, Roberta pulled herself out of bed, stumbled to the bathroom and looked in the mirror. The gash on her cheek was already healing well, but one end must have been split in the morning's events as there was dried blood crusted around the corner. On her other cheek a large and purple swelling ran from just below her eye, diagonally down her face towards her chin. Very tenderly Roberta splashed cold water, wincing in pain as her fingers met the bruised skin with only the softest touch. She ran her hand through her hair and felt a small bump on the back of her head. She actually felt worse than she looked if the truth was told.

Taking a couple of breaths and clenching her jaw with renewed determination to not succumb to the cauldron of bubbling feelings in her gut, Roberta took the stairs two steps at a time.

"Detective, let's get this over and done with."

DC Frans looked over to her, dropping the fluffy black cat on his lap onto the floor as he got to his feet.

"Miss Arlington, take a seat."

"I'll stand thanks, I've been lying down all morning."

"As you wish," he nodded, standing slightly uncertainly in her cluttered living room. "I can't pretend that this morning didn't happen. Nor can I pretend that you didn't trespass upon premises illegally."

"Nor can you pretend that you didn't smash me across the face with your baton without warning," Roberta interjected, causing Sam to stifle a grin as he sat at the dining table and pretended to work away at his laptop. "I'm sure this will show up quite well in police pictures."

"Well, yes, that was unfortunate," Karl said, shifting his feet uncomfortably. "But, in my defence, you were attacking Susan Lingly and I don't believe you would have stopped if you were warned or not."

"Assumptions like that can be costly," Roberta replied.

"Miss Arlington, I didn't wait here all morning for you to be difficult."

"And why did you wait? You could have just as easily arrested me, taken me to A&E, or both. Yet you didn't. Instead you've sat in my living room, uninvited."

"I think you'll agree that something is not quite right here. That there's something far deeper going on than any of us can comprehend."

Roberta looked at DC Frans with quizzical eyes. How much did he know? He had been the one to initially intimate that a cycle had started. Had he seen the cellar? Did he know about the woman in the mirror? Could he help her?

"I do agree," Roberta said nodding. "But does that give you the right to trail me? I've seen you on several occasions, too many for it to be a coincidence. And then, this morning, you just happened to be at Best Books? I don't believe it."

"It seems that you've been more observant than I thought," DC Frans said. "I've only been trying to look out for you and Susan Lingly."

"Well maybe you should go and look out for Susan Lingly," Roberta said with irritable sarcasm. "She's obviously the victim of my attacks here. Shouldn't you be protecting her from me?"

"She seems to think she can protect herself. And you'll be glad to know that she's decided against pressing charges," DC Frans said, keeping a calm tone in an attempt to pacify Roberta's annoyance.

"And I can protect myself without any trouble, as you saw this morning," Roberta said with rising anger, the increased pronunciation of her words causing her face to sting. "Detective, if you're not here to arrest me, then please could you leave. As you might imagine, I'm feeling rather fragile from this morning and need to take care of this bruise that is rapidly covering my face."

DC Frans hesitated and looked to Sam as if his brain were working overtime to find a reason for remaining in Roberta's house. Roberta, however, had realised some minutes before that the detective hadn't been there to arrest her. In fact, she had the increasing suspicion that he wasn't acting under any authority and, as such, couldn't really intervene in anything that was occurring. Her police matters with the school would be allocated to an appropriate team who she expected to arrive on her doorstep at any minute. The case with Vanessa was closed; the girl was six feet under and there was absolutely no reason for officials to be pursuing it even if DC Frans had raised questions at their first meeting. He had been at the bookstore only due to following her every movement since he'd arrived in Ridgewood, and Roberta also knew that his beating her around the face with a baton would not be taken lightly if the earlier incident drew police questioning. All in all, Roberta decided that he was doing what police did best; trying to fish for clues because he had nothing else to go on.

"Roberta," DC Frans said carefully as he picked up his coat from the sofa, "Be careful. We both know that something's going on here, but you seem unwilling to share the burden with anyone."

"I have Sam," Roberta replied flatly.

"Well, I hope you two are ready," Frans said as Sam got up from the table and came to stand by Roberta's side. "And I hope you know what you're doing, because if you think this all ends at Vanessa, you're very wrong. You're not safe Roberta."

"Tell me something I don't know," Roberta replied, winding her arms around herself as if they were a protective blanket. She already knew his words to be true, but it was the first time that anyone had vocalised them. Roberta didn't notice the detective leave her house as she sank down onto the sofa and grabbed the purring cat that was sprawled over the cushions. He flattened his ears, hissed, and disappeared across the room, the fur on his back bristling at Roberta's touch.

*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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