With a final, mighty tug, the golem pulled off Pascal’s head with a wet pop. Blood sprayed.

Zabel looked at his servant, who was cradling the head in the crook of his arm like a football. Perhaps he’d been hasty. Information was never a bad idea. Zabel took a large serving tray from his small closet and set it on his desk. He instructed Lars to set the head there. “Clean up the body in the usual manner, please, Lars.”

The golem threw the corpse over his shoulder and carried it away.

Zabel sat at his desk, facing Pascal’s head. He pulled a small velvet bag from his desk drawer, spilled the materials in front of him. He took a polished, dark red stone and placed it into Pascal’s mouth. He lit a candle, mixed some powders and herbs in a small bowl, then mumbled a few syllables and blew the mixture into Pascal’s face.

The head’s eyes fluttered and opened. “Wha hammpned?”

“Move the stone to the side of your mouth with your tongue,” Zabel instructed. “You’ll be able to talk.”

“What happened?” Pascal asked. His eyes darted to either side. “Good God! What’s happened to me?”

“Did you tell anyone else in the Society you’d hired me to construct the golem?”

“No,” Pascal said. “I was ordered to eliminate Evergreen. That’s all. How I went about it was my own business. Damn, why did I tell you that?”

“You’re a Truth Head now,” Zabel said. “You can’t lie. Who ordered you to eliminate Evergreen?”

“Jackson Fay,” said the head.

Zabel sucked in breath. Jackson Fay. The name was not unknown to him. A very dangerous spellcaster. “Why eliminate Evergreen?”

“I was told he’d persisted with unholy associations and would cause trouble if not handled. Fay did not elaborate. He simply trusted me to get the job done without going through the bureaucracy of a full Council vote.”

Zabel’s lip curled into a mocking grin. “It seems Fay’s trust was misplaced.”

“The Society will still be suspicious when I don’t report in,” Pascal said. “They have ways. They will find you and avenge me.”

“Perhaps, but not anytime soon.”

“What the hell is this in my mouth?”

“A bloodstone,” Zabel said. “If you spit it out, you’ll break the spell.”

“Then I will spit it out and damn your spell, you son of a bitch.”

“Go ahead. Spit.”

Pascal shifted the stone from one side of his mouth to the other but didn’t spit.

Zabel laughed. “You see? It’s not so easy to give up life, is it? To resign yourself to oblivion. How we do cling to hope, we pitiful human creatures. Even now you’re thinking there must be some way out of this, some way to reverse what has happened. Some do, in fact, spit out the bloodstone, but not you, Pascal. Oh no, not you.”

“Damn you to hell, Zabel.”

“Lars!”

The golem returned carrying a mop and a bucket.

Zabel said, “Before you clean up the blood, take Pascal’s head to the cupboard with the others.”

The golem scooped up the head, then carried it out of the room under its arm.

“This isn’t over!” Pascal screamed back at Zabel. “Do you hear me, you bastard? I might just be a head, but I’ll get you. I’ll get you, Zabel. I’ll see you rot in hell!”

Dr. Evergreen’s party was almost no fun at all after the discovery of the headless corpse.

The police showed up. Guests were questioned and questioned again. Efficient men in white coats zipped the body into a black bag and wheeled it away in an ambulance. A few special people like Allen were asked to come down to the station for further questioning. Allen dutifully went along and answered what he guessed were routine questions.

As if there’s ever anything routine about a decapitation.

Allen sat in the bland interrogation room sipping tepid coffee under fluorescent lights. His stomach was upset. He was tired. He vaguely felt like the cops suspected him of something even though he’d been assured numerous times they only wanted to be as complete as possible and if Allen could just be patient, they’d wrap all this up as soon as possible.

The police evidently had a very different definition of “as soon as possible.”

Another cop asked him the same list of questions for the third time. There were forms to sign. They confirmed Allen’s contact information. Just as it looked like they were about to let Allen go, a particularly dour-looking cop had one more question for him.

“You have any knowledge of what this might be about?” The cop held up a tiny glass vial, sealed at the top. It was three-quarters full of thick, red liquid. Crescent-shaped particles floated in the liquid, in addition to strands of what appeared to be thread.

“I’ve never seen that,” Allen said.

“It’s blood and fingernail clippings and hair,” the cop said. “It was found in the victim’s jacket pocket.”

“Okay, gross,” Allen said. “Hey, I have nothing to do with that, okay? All I did was find the body.”

“You ran into the woods after you heard the scream. That’s right?”

“Yes. I told you that.” He’d said nothing about Penny. They hadn’t asked.

“And there was a wolf at the scene, which ran away when the other party guests approached the scene?”

“It was dark. Like I said before, it was probably just a big dog.” Allen was eager not to seem crazy-cuckoo.

“We appreciate your time, Mr. Cabbot. We’ll call you if we think of anything else to ask.”

Allen left the police station. Fast. All he wanted to do was get back to his dorm and sleep. It was after midnight by the time he got there. He slouched up the stairs, unlocked his door, and went into the dorm room, already unbuttoning his shirt, anticipating nothing but deep, dark sleep.

“Allen!”

“Jesus!” Allen clutched his chest. “You scared the hell out of me.”

“Where have you been?” Penny curled on Allen’s bed in sweatpants and a T-shirt. “I’ve been waiting for hours and worried about you.”

“Where have I been? Where’d you go at the party? Jesus, I heard this scream and thought you were being murdered or something. Did you hear about Kurt Ramis?”

“Of course! It’s been all over the news. I went to my car to get something, and when I came back I couldn’t get near Dr. Evergreen’s house. The street was choked with police cars.”

“It was horrible. Penny, something ripped Kurt’s head right off his body. I’ve never seen anything like it, and I never want to again. The police kept me for hours.”

Penny sucked in breath, slid to the edge of the bed. “Holy shit, Allen, they don’t think you did it?”

“Of course not. But I found the body. They had a lot of questions. Something else.” Allen hesitated. “Penny, I swear I saw a huge wolf near the murder scene. I thought it was going to eat me, swear to God.”

Penny stood slowly. “Oh?”

“I mean, this fucking thing was snarling and going crazy. I really thought it was about to pounce.”

“Wolves are not indigenous to this area,” Penny said flatly.

“Well, I know what I saw, and it was-hey, are you mad at me or something?”

“It’s just that with everything going on, I don’t think you need to exaggerate, telling people your wolf story.”

“It’s not a story.”

“It was probably just a big dog.”

Allen blew out a sigh, flopped onto his bed. “Fine. A big dog.”

“Listen, Allen.” Penny eased down onto the bed next to him. “If you don’t want to be alone… I mean, if you want to talk or have some company, I know what you saw was probably upsetting and everything.”

“No, thanks. I’m exhausted. All I want to do is go to sleep.”

Penny stood again quickly. “Of course, I mean… sure. I know you’re probably exhausted. Right. I’ll just go.”

“I talked to your friend Father Paul at the party.”

Penny brightened slightly. “Isn’t he nice? I don’t get to mass as often as I should, but I go when he’s on duty.”