"Yeah, I'm eleven and it's late. I didn't know it was so far to this place."
"What do you mean you didn't know? You've been to my house and I told you Tamara Hunt got murdered almost right across the street."
"And down a dirt road. You didn't talk about the dirt road."
Actually Paige Meredith was frightened but she didn't want Jimmy to know it. She wanted him to be her boyfriend, even if he was a year older than she, and that was a lot to hope for. Still, there was always a chance. Unless he thought she was just a scared little kid.
He'd bicycled at top speed to her house this afternoon to inform her of the murder, which was sad and awful and absolutely thrilling to Paige, who was bored silly this summer stuck home with Mrs. Collins. Mrs. Collins was nice and meant well, but she was old-at least fifty-and she talked constantly about her baby grandchildren and recipes. Paige thought the woman was duller than dull, although she always tried to act interested in her stories. Her mother had taught her to be polite.
Her mother wouldn't like what she was doing right now, Paige thought as she and Jimmy crept down the dirt road, walking their bikes because of all the ruts and holes. Daddy had come home very late and Mrs. Collins had been all snippy. After she left, Daddy went straight to bed.
Jimmy had suggested earlier today that they sneak out tonight to see where Mrs. Hunt got murdered. It wouldn't be the first time they'd sneaked out, but never for anything so important as visiting a murder site. When Jimmy came back long after Daddy had gone to sleep and conditions were perfect, she couldn't refuse him without looking like a wimp. She had put her big doll in her bed, pulled up the quilt until only the doll's auburn hair-the same color as her own- showed on the pillow, and crawled out the window onto a limb of an oak tree and skimmed down slick as a cat. Jimmy looked proud of her and her heart had beaten a little faster. His approval was worth the minor risk that she might get caught. It was even worth knowing her mother was frowning in disapproval somewhere in Heaven.
Now she was beginning to have doubts. The night was darker than the last time she and Jimmy had ventured out. Of course then there had been a full moon and now there was only a crescent slice that looked really pretty as it glowed through a fog coming in off the lake, but it didn't put out a lot of light. There were only a few stars, too. And somewhere an owl was hooting.
"The Egyptians believed the owl meant death," Paige said.
Jimmy stopped in his tracks. "What?"
Paige felt silly. She hated it when things like that popped out of her mouth. "I read it."
"You read too much," Jimmy declared.
"But it makes sense. About the owl, I mean," Paige said defensively. "Somebody died here and now an owl is hooting."
"Owls always hoot. It's all they know how to do."
"I still think it's neat."
Jimmy snorted. "I think it's dumb."
Paige was crushed until the next time the owl hooted and
Jimmy looked around uneasily. She smiled in satisfaction. He took her more seriously than he pretended.
"Okay, here we are," Jimmy said. They both halted, staring wide-eyed at the mangled branch that had lain on Tamara Hunt's body. Yellow tape surrounded the area.
"That's crime-scene tape," Jimmy informed her.
"I know."
"We can't go past it. We might mess up important evidence."
"I know. Gee, Jimmy, my dad is a cop." Which was, Paige also knew, why Jimmy had befriended her even though she was younger and a girl. His dream was to become a detective like that guy on his favorite show, Street Life, Eddie Salva tore. Jimmy told Paige that Eddie was played by an actor named Paul Fiori who used to be married to some woman who lived right here in this very town? Jimmy was obsessed with Eddie Salvatore. Paige told him her dad said if any detective acted like Salvatore-always bossing around the other detectives, going off on hunches when his lieutenant ordered him not to-he'd get fired. "No way," Jimmy argued staunchly. "Eddie Salvatore is always right." Paige would roll her eyes, but she still thought Jimmy was basically wonderful.
Jimmy had brought a flashlight and bounced the beam around the area. "I see blood."
"Maybe it's blood. I'm not sure. Anything else?"
"Well… no actual clues. But I've got a theory."
Jimmy almost always had a theory. "What is it?"
"I think the murderer is hiding in Ariel Saunders's house."
"That big spooky house you're always talking about?"
"Yeah. The one at the end of this road. Let's go check it out."
"Wait a minute," Paige stalled. "What makes you think the murderer is hiding in that house?"
"I've got a hunch."
Oh, no. Jimmy was being Eddie Salvatore again. "How did you get your hunch?"
"Hunches can't be explained," Jimmy said loftily. "They just are." Which meant he had no idea what he was talking about, Paige thought. "You coming?"
"We've been gone an awful long time."
"You're right. I guess little girls should be home in bed."
"I am not a little girl," Paige answered hotly. "Everyone says I'm mature for my age."
"Whatever. You play it safe and run home. I'm gonna investigate."
He began guiding his bicycle around the crime-scene tape. Paige hesitated. It was late. It was dark. There was a murderer on the loose.
And there was Jimmy who looked kind of like Angel on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Gosh, life was hard when you were eleven and had a strict father and a better-than-cute potential boyfriend who thought he was tough and grownup.
"Okay, I'll come."
"Let's leave our bikes here. We can move faster without them."
They hid their bicycles in tall grass beside the road. Now that they were out of sight of other houses, Jimmy left the flashlight on. They walked in silence for a few moments. Somewhere close by frogs croaked and a dog barked.
"Is that the dog you said was hanging around out here with the body?" Paige asked.
"No, it's Old Man Harker's basset hound Malcolm. I think that woman took the other dog. The one I told you was with Tamara's sister. Your dad called her Dr. St. John."
"Was she pretty?" Paige asked, wondering if her dad had been talking to the woman because she was pretty. She wasn't sure how she'd feel about that.
"I don't know if she was pretty. She was older, but not as old as my mom. Maybe the same age as Tamara."
Paige heard the little catch in his voice when he said Tamara. She also thought he looked like he'd been crying when he came to her house earlier to tell her about the murdered woman. She considered being jealous, but Jimmy couldn't possibly have thought of Mrs. Hunt as a girlfriend. He'd just liked her and he was sad that she was dead.
"Hey, there's the house!" Jimmy said.
Paige frowned. She couldn't see much except for a hulking shape in the dull moonlight. "What's so great about this place?"
"It's over two hundred years old for one thing. And there was a shipwreck right down the beach and Ariel saved three guys including Zebediah Winthrop, the captain. He was her lover. Anyway, the place is really big and there's this really cool little walkway that goes all around the roof-"
"A widow's walk!"
"Yeah. Ariel was up there watching for Zebediah when she saw the shipwreck. It's an awesome house, but the woman who owns it now is letting it fall apart and Ariel's mad so she's coming back to haunt it."
Paige grinned. "You believe this place is haunted by a ghost?"
"No, not me!" Jimmy answered quickly. "But people are scared of it so they stay away. That makes it the perfect place for a murderer to hide out. And just look how close it is to the Hunt house. Tamara must have come out for a walk and-" He drew a finger across his throat, made a slashing sound and a horrible face.
Paige cringed. "Why would somebody kill her?"
"Murderers don't need reasons," Jimmy explained in a worldly-wise tone. "They just enjoy murdering people. Take your serial killers like… um… Ted Bundy who killed hundreds of girls and Jeffrey something who cut off people's heads and kept them in jars so they'd never leave him!"