at him. James knew! James realized he had known all along who it was. He had just never wanted to believe it.
He picked up the phone. It was Henry's job to track the killer down. He was too tired. When he finished the call, he saw the others, Lori, Jeffrey, Marion, John, Ben, Bob and Betty.
Marion said, 'Billy Jones. He was at the VFW right after you asked for help, Jeff.'
'I always thought he was a little strange. But a killer?' Jeffrey replied.
Lori, her face focused on the past stated, 'It's Jones.'
The others nodded and drank more of their morning coffee.
* * * *
_The table, the hands, the cards and the single light. The dark room is silent as the next card is turned over._
A lighted casement window with five yellow pentacles stands out on the bottom of the card. The scene is filled with snow. On the reversed card, a hunched man with a bell around his neck and a bandaged foot hobbles on homemade crutches behind a woman dressed in rags. Her head is bowed in the snow-filled night. Her bare feet leave meager prints in the fresh snow.
_The still room asks the question the card presents._
CHAPTER 17: The Five of Pentacles reversed
Nicole had always been a bitch. Although her parents were well off, she had not been spoiled by money and toys but by the absolute belief in her words by her parents. The first time she realized she had power over her parents was when she got in a fight with another girl in pre-school. Suzy was playing with a doll that she wanted. When she told her she wanted the doll, Suzy refused to stop playing with it. Nicole pulled the doll from Suzy's arms and raked her fingernails across her face. Nicole laughed at the sight of blood on Suzy's face, even when the jolt of pain from Suzy hitting her in the nose radiated through her head. When her mother picked her up from school that day, she complained how Suzy hurt her. Her mother held her so close to her breast that her bruised nose started to throb. Nicole's mother promised to take care of everything, and by the next week, Suzy was not in class.
The next time Nicole remembered using her control over her parents was in second grade. The teacher had been hired fresh from college. She was tough and wouldn't let Nicole get away with anything. Nicole came home every night for a month complaining how her teacher hated her. Nicole was transferred to another class and her parents hounded the teacher until she left the school at the end of the year.
By the time Nicole was fourteen, she had her parents totally deceived and in her control. She was the envy of every girl in school. She went to any concert or game she wanted to. She would stay out late at night, even during the school week. She wore the latest style hair and clothes. All the boys wanted her. Of course, she didn't want them. They were too immature!
In late spring that year, she heard about a keg party at a lake that the high school jocks were holding to celebrate the end of the school year.
She had to go. She told her parents that she was staying with a girl friend for the weekend. She packed a backpack with her clothes and make-up. A quick discussion with her parents and they drove her out to a lake cabin that she claimed belonged to her friend's family but was only a half mile from the party.
After her father dropped her off at the _supposed_ lake cabin of her friend, she walked down the road until she found an empty cottage. With a rock, she broke a window and climbed in. Inside she applied her make-up and dressed in a tight set of jeans, a satin blouse, and doused herself with some fifty dollar an ounce French perfume she'd stolen from her mother. It was still a quarter-mile walk to the site of the party. It was completely dark by the time she got there.
Nicole savored the sights and sounds of her first unchaperoned teenage party. The music from a tricked out car stereo echoed down the road for most of her quarter-mile walk. As she got within a few hundred feet of the party, tendrils of bonfire smoke hung over cars parked along both sides of the road. Soon a scattering of partygoers surrounded her. Couples were laughing and talking. Some couples made out by the sides of the cars or in the nearby woods. A few cars moved up and down, seemingly of their own accord. A figure shrouded by the dark was throwing up his last beer and another closer to the bonfire urinated noisily against some bushes. As she entered the circle of light, a beer was handed to her and she started to drink.
Nicole was spotted by a group of boys waiting off to the side. The group had prowled the keg parties for the last year, challenging themselves with wilder and wilder sexual exploits. A boy from the group soon had her drinking her second beer. Before the hour was up, three boys from the group led the staggering Nicole back into the woods where they had a van parked. The boys then took turns fucking her.
Nicole was mostly unconscious by the time she got to the van. She was grateful to lie down. She barely noticed the first boy on her but somehow the primitive movement between her legs registered in her mind. She raised her legs and tried to move back in rhythm but failed. Every time a new body shoved itself between her legs her body tried to react until it was Dean's turn.
Dean saw the sloppy mess between her legs and belched, 'Can't any of you fucking idiots clean up after yourselves? Somebody get me a God damn beer!'
Dean took the beer. Shook it. Stuck the foaming bottle up Nicole's vagina. As the beer washed away the sticky mass between her legs, Nicole tried to scream from the pain of the alcohol burning her raw abused tissues. All Nicole was able to do was a few sharp inhales of breath. A rough towel was used to wipe the last remaining drops of residue from between her legs. Nicole nearly made it back to full consciousness but then Dean entered her inflamed vagina. Beyond all reason, the tortured tissue delivered to Nicole her first orgasm. It would be her only clear memory of the night since drinking her first beer.
The next day Nicole awoke in the back of a pickup belonging to an old man living halfway between the lake and town. She had been dumped there by the boys. She talked the old man into letting her clean up in his house before driving her into town. A little fast talk to her parents and they never suspected anything unusual ever happened that weekend. But she was scared and sore.
Afraid to tell her mother about what had happened, she treated her inflamed tissues herself. She soaked for hours in the bathtub. She used various salves. Finally, later in the week when the healing of the flesh caused itching, she started to rub herself with a powerful antibiotic salve. The itching, the burning pain and the rubbing combined to give her a second, a third and a fourth orgasm. In her mind, the need to hurt to produce pleasure had been forged. She became an expert in both pleasure and pain. She loved to give it as well as receive. She would seduce younger boys in school, make them whimper in pain, and watch their faces when she left them for someone else.
Her sadistic swath of sexual conquests continued until her senior year in college when she met Jeff. He was more than a match for her. She decided to marry him the night they destroyed his ex-girlfriend.
Jeff left his apartment to pick up his ex-girlfriend on the pretext of getting back together. Nicole waited in his closet naked except for a dog choke collar around her neck and a small whip in her hands. Jeff brought his old girlfriend back to the apartment. A little wine and a little smooth talk and she was in bed with him. In the closet, Nicole used the whip on herself while Jeff slowly seduced the girl. He had regularly tied her to the bed before so the girl let herself be bound again. After she was strapped down, Nicole came out from hiding. Together they abused the girl through the night.
Later in the week the girl killed herself. That summer, Nicole and Jeff married. Nicole loved her marriage. Both shared their pleasure and pain with each other and the occasional innocent they caught. That was until a year or two ago. Jeff became a little bored with his job and it showed up in their bed. Nicole had been ready to leave him until just a few weeks ago when he came back from work rejuvenated. His thirst for pain and pleasure was unquenchable. Nicole planned to bring home a young girlfriend for them to enjoy, but everything started to fall apart. The murders and the investigation shook Jeff's assurance in himself. Nicole again planned to leave.
Last night, Jeff's uncle showed up. In amazement, she heard him confess everything to him. After his uncle left, he paced through the night. Nicole fingered herself while she watched her husband's strength crumble before her eyes. He was completely broken by the time the cops arrived for him that morning.
After Jeff left with the cops, Nicole started to pack. She had barely started when the doorbell rang. Two more
