Der Schädelring: Thriller (German Edition)

ab.
    Amazon.de
     
    The Other Side of the Curtain (English)
    Cora Buhlert
     
    East Germany, 1966. Major Werner Gottwald has dedicated his life to Communism, keeping western visitors under constant surveillance as an agent of the secret police Stasi. His latest assignment is the American millionaire Zane Smith as well as Smith's lover, the beautiful Shoushan Kariyan. At first, it seems to be just another mission. But there is more to Zane Smith than meets the eye and soon Gottwald finds himself in over his head. For it turns out that he underestimated the deviousness of the Communist brethren of the KGB. And he definitely underestimated Shoushan Kariyan…
    Amazon.de
     
     
    Von Scott Nicholson sind im Verlag Haunted Computer folgende eBücher erschienen:
    Crime Beat
    Disintegration
    The Red Church
    Speed Dating with the Dead
    The Skull Ring
    Drummer Boy
    The Harvest
    As I Die Lying
    Burial to Follow
    Cursed! ) mit J. R. Rain)
    October Girls
    Curtains
    Flowers
    Ashes
    The First
    Murdermouth: Zombie Bits
    Head Cases
    Liquid Fear
    Chronic Fear
     
    Drehbücher:
    The Skull Ring: The Screenplay
    Creative Spirit: The Screenplay
     
    Omnibus-Ausgaben:
    Ethereal Messenger
    Mystery Dance
    Ghost Box Set
     
    Großbritannien:
    Creative Spirit
    Troubled
    Solom
    The Gorge

Julia Stone will remember, even if it kills her.
     
    THE SKULL RING
    By Scott Nicholson
     
    Copyright ©2010 Scott Nicholson
    Published by Haunted Computer Books
    www.hauntedcomputer.com/
    Table of Contents
     
    For Miranda and Lexie and our ring of love. May the circle be unbroken.

 
     
    THE SKULL RING
     
    CHAPTER ONE
     
    I locked the door .
    Didn’t I?
    Julia’s sweating palm gripped the doorknob, the click of the tumblers still echoing inside her skull. Would he be inside, waiting, his lungs holding a hateful breath? The years fell away, and for a moment, she was a child again. A scared little helpless—
    No.
    That was Memphis, this was Elkwood. This was the new and improved Julia Stone, the one who was on the path to healing. Imaginary Creeps no longer stalked the alleys of her mind. Thanks to Dr. Forrest.
    She glanced behind her at the woods, which seemed to have crept closer to the house since yesterday. The Appalachian Mountain shadows reached out like fingers, and she searched there for movement, any sign that people were watching. That he was watching.
    Julia let the door swing open and squinted into the dark throat of the house. Nobody home. Nothing to fear, just the bland patterns of her furniture to welcome her. Just another day in her new normal life.
    Nonetheless, her hand went into her purse and touched the cool canister of mace. She went inside, not letting herself look back. When you were cured, you didn't care what was behind you. Forward was all that mattered. Coat rack, recliner, sofa, television. Forward, another step, even though something was wrong with the coffee table.
    At first she thought they were small boxes of food, maybe delicate chocolates or caviar, arranged in a line across the table. Something Mitchell would buy her to make up for a slight. But how did the packages get inside?
    Her legs carried her closer, her fist clenched around the mace. The row of squares weren't boxes. She touched them in the dimness, let her fingers track over the raised surfaces. A child’s wooden blocks.
    She picked up the nearest one, her breath catching. Tilted toward the window, the embossed letter caught enough light to show its cruel hook, its sharp teeth.
    J .
    She placed the block back on the table, casting a look down the shadowed hall. Nothing there but dark and darker.
    Her hand trembled as she picked up the next block in line. She lifted it six inches before she dropped it, and the wood clacked against the table’s surface and tumbled under the couch like an oversized dice.
    She didn't need to read the letter to know what it said. Because the next block was the same, and so was the next.
    O .
    She slapped the blocks off the table and knelt on the carpet, her heart playing her ribs like a mad xylophonist, the melody broken, the rhythm spastic, the blows landing much too hard.
    A noise behind her, louder than her heartbeat. Nothing, she knew. She would be strong, because this was Elkwood, North Carolina, and bad things couldn't follow her here. She wouldn't look, because cured people didn't jump at every imagined sound.
    Kurr-chack chack.
    Nothing but the wind pushing branches against the house.
    Chack .
    Only in her head. She