Exorcist Road Read Online Free Page A

sanctity of his life.”
    Liz favored Sutherland with a grateful, teary-eyed smile, but Bittner only glowered as if the priest had just insulted him.
    Sutherland looked at Liz with that same soothing tact. “I understand Officers Hartman and Bittner restrained young Casey.”
    In a small, thin voice, Liz said, “He’s handcuffed to his bedposts.”
    Sutherland’s bushy eyebrows rose. “Both hands?”
    Liz nodded then raised her arms, demonstrating. She looked to me like she was signaling a touchdown. “Danny bound his legs too so he wouldn’t hurt himself.”
    “I see,” Sutherland said.
    Danny Hartman reentered, his hat in his hands. He nodded at Sutherland and murmured to Liz with a small grin. “She’s okay. She’s watching Tangled .”
    Liz touched Danny’s arm. “Thank you.”
    He shrugged. “I didn’t do anything. She just needed to blow off steam, so I let her talk a little bit.”
    “It’s nice to be listened to,” Liz said with a sour look in Ron’s direction.
    Ron didn’t seem to notice.
    Jack Bittner’s booming voice broke in, “Are we waiting for anything?”
    Danny glanced at me. “I think we’re ready. Do you two need anything else?”
    I nodded deferentially at Sutherland, who glanced at Ron Hartman. “If you don’t mind, I think we should have a word of prayer.”
    Ron shrugged like he couldn’t care less what we did. Father Sutherland bowed his head. Closing my eyes, I heard Sutherland begin, “Dear Lord, we pray you help us take refuge in the truth, for it is the antithesis of evil and Satan’s greatest bane. We pray you endow us with the resilience to face whatever awaits us with pure hearts and open minds. We pray you shield us with the truth, so that whatever afflicts young Casey be removed from his mind and body. We pray most of all that you guide us through the darkness, through the forest of lies and deceit that Satan uses to ensnare his victims. In your name, Amen.”
    Swallowing, I looked up and saw that the rest of the group looked unchanged:
    Jack Bittner hostile.
    Liz desperate and teetering on the edge of uncontrollable tears.
    Ron embarrassed and dubious, the look of a man plainly inconvenienced by some vexing development beyond his control.
    Danny as solemn and aggrieved by all of this as any caring family member would be.
    Father Sutherland placid and benign.
    Everyone was the same.
    Except for me. I had changed during the prayer. Far from comforting me and imbuing me with a steely resolve, Sutherland’s words had injected a black stream of dread into my being. I realized that this was not a dream, nor was it some performance to which I would be a disinterested observer. No, far from spectating from a safe distance, I was to be involved, perhaps in some central and fundamental way.
    Father Sutherland said, “Then let us help this young man.” Moving toward me, he reached into one deep side pocket of his robe and came out with a second Bible.
    I opened my mouth to tell him I’d brought my own, but he anticipated my protest. “This one,” he said, patting the aged brown cover of the Bible he held, “is a combination of the King James version and several others. You’ll notice that parts of it are handwritten to coincide with the version I now hold.”
    I’m afraid I showed my apprehension. I did not like to think of any Bible as having been tampered with.
    Again, he favored me with his knowing smile. “I understand your misgivings, Jason, but let us not forget that the Bible itself is an amalgam of an incredibly diverse group of sources spanning many centuries.”
    Somewhat reassured, I took the book he proffered.
    Sutherland turned to Liz. “Please show us the way, Mrs. Hartman.”
    Liz nodded and moved through the doorway.
    Feeling like an unprepared understudy who’d just been thrust into a leading role and was now withering in the torrid heat of the stage lights, I followed the others out of the kitchen, up the stairs, down the second-story hallway