"A midnight sacrifice," Hunter said. "Eleanor told me about it, I had her as my prisoner before you guys showed up. I was gonna take her over to the graveyard and try to make a trade... her for Connie and Laura and Shannon. But now she's gone. Thanks to you," Hunter added, looking at Tony. "Should've listened to me in the first place and we could've caught her."
Tony glanced at Charles. "Do you buy all this stuff?"
"I don't know."
Hunter muttered, "Sherlock Holmes, my butt."
"Shut up," Tony said.
"You
kissed
her. Haven't you ever kissed Shannon before? Couldn't you tell the difference?"
He hesitated. "I guess it might've been a little different, but..."
"And didn't you notice she didn't have any
clothes
on under the sheet?"
"Yeah, I noticed."
"What, did you think Shannon was gonna go
out
with you in nothing but a sheet? To a party or whatever it was supposed to be?"
He shrugged. "Maybe. I did think it was kind of funny she had the sheet on. I mean, we'd talked it over. I was supposed to be Holmes and she was supposed to be a hard-boiled private eye. I asked her about it, remember?"
"I remember," Charles said.
"What I really thought, I guess, was she'd put the sheet on to be funny. You know, like it wasn't really supposed to be her costume."
"You didn't happen to notice she didn't have Shannon's voice?"
Again, Tony shrugged.
"Forget Holmes," Hunter muttered. "You should've dressed like Clousseau."
Charles said, "
I
thought she sounded odd."
"And you with just one ear," said Hunter.
"Knock it off," Tony snapped.
Looking at him, Charles said, "I think he's telling the truth about the gal not being Shannon."
"It's the truth, all right." Still sprawled backward against the stairs, Hunter touched the wound on his chest. "This is where Eleanor stuck me with her sword." He patted the knife sheathed at his hip. "This is her knife." From the look on Tony's face, he hadn't even noticed Hunter had a knife. "The other two with her, they were a guy named Bryce and a woman named Simone. Bryce had a big old knife and Simone had a hatchet. They're the ones who took Laura and Shannon. Go look in the living room. You can see where they had the fight."
While Tony remained standing over Hunter, Charles walked into the living room. "Yeah," he said. "Things are pretty messed up in here."
"I was upstairs when the fight happened," Hunter said. "But I know how it turned out. They tied up Laura and Shannon with some rope they brought along. Eleanor stayed behind to take care of me. She told 'em to go on ahead without her."
"So they took Shannon and Laura away and left you two here," Tony said.
"That's right."
"So how do we know you're not in on it?"
Before Hunter could think of an answer, Charles came out of the living room carrying Shannon's fedora. "Found this," he told Tony.
Tony looked at the hat and seemed to go slack.
"She
was
in her private eye costume," Hunter said. "The ghost thing was just Eleanor. Shannon was dressed like she'd said she'd be... the hat..."
Staring at the hat with blank eyes, Tony asked in a dull voice, "Was there blood?"
"I didn't see any," Charles said.
"I think they want people alive for their ceremony," Hunter explained. "So I don't think they did anything... you know, like fatal... to Shannon or Laura. Or Connie," he added, and was a little surprised when, in the middle of saying her name, his voice broke and tears came to his eyes.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
"You haven't gotten us lost, have you?" Jeff asked.
Mandy looked over her shoulder at him. "Very funny. I know precisely where we are." Facing forward, she pointed ahead. "When we reach the corner there, you'll be able to see..." Her voice went dead.
Bret yelped.
Jeff himself flinched when he noticed the ghost running past the corner.
Phyllis said, "Get real, guys. It's someone in a
sheet."
Someone in
just
a sheet, Jeff realized.
The back of it fluttered and flapped behind her as she raced into the well-lighted intersection, and Jeff could see her beneath it: her bare legs, her naked buttocks, her low back.
"I can see her
can,"
Bret announced.
And Phyllis called out, "Hey, lady, you forgot something!"
At which the sheet-clad woman stopped running and turned in their direction.
Rhonda, standing close beside Jeff, muttered, "Oh, great."
Phyllis chuckled.
The woman began walking toward them. The windblown sheet, still Clapping behind her, dinged to the front of her body.
Jeff stepped past Mandy and Bret so that he would be the one to confront the woman... and protect the kids from her, if necessary.
"Stay here," he said and hurried forward.
Something isn't right about this, he thought. Even on Halloween, people don't normally run around naked under sheets. She's either a nutjob or...
"I need help!" she gasped.
"What's wrong?"
Stopping a few paces in front of him, she swung a bare arm out from under the sheet. Turning slightly, she gestured toward the corner. "I got jumped back there. Three guys... they attacked me. My friend, too. I got away, but... they've still got her. They took her. They were dragging her away. They're gonna... I don't know. Look what they did to me." She swept the front of her sheet aside.
Jeff glimpsed her bare breasts, belly, pubic mound, thighs. "No no no," he blurted. "Don't do that. Kids."
Still holding the sheet aside, she said, "Tore off my clothes. See where I got stabbed?" She pointed to a small, raw gash just above her navel.
"I see. Yeah. Cover up. Come on. Please. There're kids."
She let go of the sheet. The wind pasted it to her body, wouldn't let it fall, kept her bare all the way from her right shoulder down to her left hip as if it wanted everyone, kids included, to have a good long look at her.
Plucking the sheet down, she said, "They're gonna rape her and then... maybe kill her, I don't know. If we don't get to her fast..."
"Where are they?" Jeff asked.
"Around the corner." She pointed again. "Down the block... They got us by the dead-end. They were gonna take us into the graveyard."
"Cool," said Phyllis.
Jeff swung around. Phyllis was standing just behind him. "I told you to stay put."
"I don't have to take orders from you. You're not my father."
He turned to the woman. "Look, I've got these kids with me. We're trying to find some trick or treaters who disappeared."
"But they've got Julie and they're gonna..." She whirled around, the rear of her sheet blowing sideways before shifting position and finally moulding itself to her back and buttocks as she ran. "Follow me!" she called over her shoulder.
"We can't!" Jeff shouted.
Phyllis gave chase, Halloween bag swinging by her side.
"Phyllis, get back here!"
"Come on, everyone!" Phyllis yelled.
Jeff turned around to face the rest of the kids as they rushed toward him.
"What's going on?" Mandy asked.
"She says some guys attacked her. They've still got her friend She wanted me to..."
'To
the rescue!"
Bret shouted.
As he bolted by, Jeff reached out, grabbed his shoulder and stopped him. "Not so fast, buddy."
"We should help her," Mandy said.
"I can't let anything happen to you kids."
"I'll go and try to help," Rhonda said. When she ran by, Jeff almost reached out for her.
No touching!
Rhonda raced in pursuit of Phyllis. The woman in the sheet was almost to the corner.
"Dad," Mandy said, "we have to help. I mean,
Phyllis
is going-"
"The shit."
"Yeah," Mandy said, "but she's our responsibility, isn't she?
Jeff whirled around.
"Phyllis! Get hack here, damn it! Right now!"
"Sony, Mister W!" she called out, and didn't sound sorry at all.
"Oh," Jeff said. "This sucks so bad."
"Dad," Mandy said. "Come on."
Bret looked up at him. "Come on, Dad! We gotta go to the rescue!"
At the corner, the woman ran to the left and vanished behind a parked mini-van. Phyllis, close behind her, vanished a few seconds later. Rhonda, almost to the corner, glanced over her shoulder.
"Wait up!" Jeff shouted. "We're on our way!" He took off running, staying ahead of his kids but holding back, unwilling to pour on the speed.
Damn that Phyllis, he thought. It's all her fault. Never should've let her come along.
Had to. She's Mandy's best friend.
And her mom's Patsy's friend.
No choice in the matter.
Oughta just let her go.
But she
is
my responsibility, Mandy's right about that. I knew it without being told, but Mandy likes to remind people.
God I hate Phyllis!
But she's making me do what I wanted to do... wanted to help... just can't let the kids get hurt. Gotta keep them out of it.
Doing a wonderful job of it so far, Jeffery!
Rhonda, waiting just short of the corner, began to run again as Jeff neared her. A few strides behind her, he raced around the corner. Phyllis and the sheet woman were well in the lead, now running side by side.
"Rhonda," Jeff gasped.
"Yeah?"
"Stay with us." He glanced back. Mandy was running along just behind him and to his left, her treat bag swinging by her side, her poodle skirt flapping around her legs, her saddle shoes smacking the pavement. Bret was a little farther back. He now clutched his slingshot in one hand, his bag of Halloween candy in the other.
Both bags gave off dry papery sounds as the collected treats bounced and shook inside them.
"Whatever happens," Jeff said, "do exactly what I tell you. Understand?"
"You bet!" Bret called out, cheer in his voice.
"Whatever you say," said Mandy, sounding slightly peeved by the command.
"No ifs, ands, or buts. And no hesitation."
"Right, Dad."
He turned his head forward again. "Rhonda, same goes for you. I know you're not my kid, but I don't want you getting hurt."
"I'll do whatever you say, Jeff."
"Good deal."
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
"Gotta stop," Shannon gasped.
Laura grunted.
Can't stop with her on the bottom, Shannon thought. Squash her good.
But she didn't want to be on the bottom, either, so she ended her roll halfway up, lying on her side. "Okay?"
"Okay."
She huffed for air. Her heart pounded fast and hard. Sweat streamed down her body. Laura felt so slippery against her back and buttocks, it was as if someone had poured warm oil between them. She never would've guessed that rolling across the ground could be so tiring.
Well, she thought, I'm doing most of the work for both of us.
And I'm not exactly in the best condition.
Didn't help, getting trounced. Didn't help, getting...
Don 't think about it.
But she couldn't help thinking about it. In the midst of panting for air, she let a whimper slip out.
"Shan?"
"Huh?"
"You okay?"
"Yeah. No."
"Me either."
"Nobody's ever... done that to me."
"You mean... what he did?"
"Yeah. Or her."
"Me either. Not what she did. These three guys got me once. Kids. They were like sixteen."
"What about you?"
"Fourteen."
"God."
"It wasn't like this," Laura said. "It wasn't this bad. It was bad, but they didn't... they didn't
hurt
me... not much, anyhow. They just... screwed me, you know? No funny stuff."
"Funny ha-ha?" Shannon muttered.
"These two were... like deranged."
"You don't approve of... their alternative lifestyle?"
"Not much," Laura said.
"Sick fucks."
"I wonder why they went away."
"I don't know," Shannon said. "Glad they did, though."
"I
hope
they did."
"Huh?"
"Maybe they haven't... really left. Maybe they're watching us. You know, hanging around... somewhere out of sight... enjoying the show."
"Wonderful," Shannon muttered.
"Not that it matters."
"Not that it
matters?"
"We've gotta do... what we're doing. Whether they're watching or not. So it's... like irrelevant."
"Won't
feel
irrelevant if they come over and stomp our asses."
"How we doing?"
Stretched out on her right side, Shannon was facing the direction from which they'd come. Though they'd been forced to alter their course a few times to avoid obstacles such as trees, bushes and grave markers, she still had a clear line of sight to the marble bench near their starting point. The bench was pale under a splash of moonlight. Beyond it, the Kneeling Girl statue was a dim gray shape in the dark.