Page 139 of 1001 Dark Nights: Bundle Forty-Two

Slicker still when the soap came out, bothof them washing themselves and then each other, the determination forabsolute cleanliness their one concession to the night they had just passed.They had learned long ago that to do what they did, they had leavework behind when they came home. That afforded them sanity and a real life withCorby and Victoria.

And themselves.

They should have been tired. They weretired. But soaping and shampooing each other became something erotic, slickhands sliding here and there, bodies pressing. Fingers touching andcaressing...

It was Angela who laughed softly and whispered that itwouldn’t be terribly sensual or exciting if one of them broke a leg attemptingsomething romantic in the shower.

Jackson had to be a little romantic, though. So, he swepther up to step out of the stall, then held her close and headed out of thebathroom. Angela grabbed for towels and assured him that he was incrediblyromantic but it wouldn’t lend itself to a great night if they totally soakedthe bed.

“Oh, you romance-crusher,” he accused her.

“I’ll make it up to you,” she promised.

She did. He smiled, gazing into her blue eyes, and felt theslide of her body against his. Her touch, her caress. Her kiss.

Again, he had a moment when he thought about how incrediblylucky he was. She was practically a super-agent at work. And at home?

She could make all the ugly and cruel in the world go away.

Making love expended the last of their energy. Angelawhispered that she loved him, and even as he replied, he realized that she wasasleep, curled against his shoulder.

He held her.

Then he closed his eyes and slept, hoping that neither ofthem contemplated the horrors of what they’d found in the tomb in their dreams.

Chapter 2

Two days before Halloween

“Debbie, I know how upsetting this must befor you,” Angela began, speaking with Debbie Nolan, the young woman who hadreported the man with the bloody knife at the cemetery. “But—”

“No one believed me,” Debbie said miserably. “Of course,they do now. But I was terrified. There was a minute, or at least a second,when I thought he turned and might have seen me. But one of the caretakers wason a cart going down the path, and he wasn’t that far past me. So maybe hedidn’t see me. I was afraid he would come after me if he did. Because he wasreal! I mean, really real. He wasn’t a Halloweendecoration or someone playing a prank. I saw him!”

The young woman was in her mid-twenties, small and slim withenormous brown eyes and a nervous manner. Angela reached a hand across thedistance that separated their chairs in the conference room and set it gentlyon Debbie’s knee.

“Debbie, yes. Of course, we believe you. And we need yourhelp.”

“Right. I saw the news. You found more than one body. Youfound three. I mean, it’s a cemetery, but—”

“Yes, and I’m afraid someone was murdered recently. Any helpyou might be able to give us—”

“I don’t know how I can help,” she interrupted.

“First, tell me what he looked like.”

“A monster.”

“Okay, so...”

“Maybe a demon. He was wearing a Halloween costume: like ablack jumpsuit with a hood and a skeleton’s maskbeneath it. I know the police believed it was a prank, but there was somethingabout him. I knew... I guess, well, people decorate. And they docome in costume, but usually only on Halloween day or evening.”

“Okay, how tall do you think he was?”

Debbie shook her head. “Regular-guy size? I’m pretty sure itwas a guy. I think maybe six feet and medium build?”

Angela nodded. “And where exactly did you see him? Was heheaded for one of the exits?”

Debbie almost smiled. “Exits? You don’t need an exit forthat place. The stone wall that surrounds it isn’t more than two feet high. Buthe seemed to be heading toward the... um, north side. Where the forest has kindof encroached on some of the stones. There’s a tree that’s half in the cemeteryand half out. I think he ran past it and into the woods.”