ISBN-13: 9781412089869 / Angielski / Miękka / 2006 / 312 str.
Sophia hurries through the check-out, clutching her bag of oranges. Her lip quivers, as it does when she is on the edge. It had been an unexpected encounter with Mitch Findley at the market. Triumphant, she is figuratively in Mitch's door. Fourteen years she has stalked his daughter, Casey, anticipating revenge.
Now, she would be nursing Mitch's dying wife, Loretta. She would seduce the new widower, take over his life and alienate him from his daughter, that siren who stole her sweet son from her, aborted his baby and caused him to "end it all" in a car with a deadly mix of booze and pills.
Comfortably nested in Mitch Findley's home, Sophia admires the new ring on her hand. Mitch had been weak, vulnerable and ...caught.
In order to force this creature away from her father, Casey must now tell him about her abortion and the years of stalking she had endured at the hands of Sophia. She would tell Dad about Sophia's sexual abuse of her son and her own discovery of the photos of Allen nursing at his mother's breast ...he was seven.
Devastated, Mitch tells Sophia, "Pack your toothbrush and get out." ...the last words she would ever hear him say to her. Later, the unbalanced woman is found wandering naked downtown. Casey's great need for a final face to face confrontation takes her to a mental facility where Sophia now resides. This vile encounter is too much for the old woman whose heart stops ...forever.
Casey, with a fresh start, counseling and valium, learns of a new tenant moving in next door. She seems oddly familiar. Unnerved by the woman's presence, but coping, Casey discovers the dark hole in the kitchen wall that connects the two apartments ...merely inches fromBlanch Poole whose body is gradually being possessed by the demonic spirit of Sophia. She is coming, and she is angry.
Jesse, the love of Casey's life, his dog Goober, plus a few colorful friends, now load the demoniac into a van headed for the Baptist church where Pastor Babbitt and Father Rooney assist in expelling the demon in the baptismal tank. The waters whirl, spinning Casey and the snarling demon-woman at a dizzying pace. When the water is gone, two women lie at the bottom like wet rag dolls. The elder of the two asks, "Where the hell am I?." Casey, looking upward at her entourage, weakly murmurs, "I think it's gone."