Clark Carrados: Contrato Satánico

This issue of *Selección Terror* (No. 358, January 1980) presents "Contrato Satánico" by Clark Carrados, a crime and supernatural thriller. Jewel thief Ricky Hope, fleeing a robbery with nearly four hundred thousand dollars in gems from a fourteenth-floor apartment, witnesses a bizarre ritual: the beautiful naked woman Janice Edgellton invokes Satan in a red-lit room filled with incense smoke. A demonic face materializes, praising her obedience and commanding her to complete an unspecified task. Hope extorts her silence about the encounter by threatening to expose both her wealth and satanic activities to police. They spend the night together. The next morning, Hope discovers in the newspaper that Janice murdered a man named Victor Spotter the previous night, claiming Satan ordered it. Venus Gregor, daughter of a man Hope robbed, arrives at his luxurious Fifth Avenue residence confronting him about stolen jewelry, having found his initialed gold lighter at the crime scene.