But Patsy wasn’t ready to kick Gavin out. She loved him! He was always so sorry after he lost his temper. He was getting better.

“Leave him,” my father told her.

“Leave him,” my mother told her. “Come and live with us. Let my husband handle Gavin.”

I remembered what Patsy was wearing in my premonition when she was killed, and every day after school when she picked Emily up, I looked at her clothes. Nope. She wasn’t wearing the brown sweater, beige slacks, and a pumpkin scarf. I even told Emily, “When your mom is wearing the brown sweater and beige slacks and her scarf with pumpkins on it, bring her to our house. Hide her. That’s the day she’s going to get killed.”

“Okay, Evie.” She took a deep breath. “I’m scared.”

The school’s Halloween dance was coming up, and Emily and I and Jules and her friend Sunflower were going to be characters from The Wizard of Oz. My mom made our costumes. I was the wicked witch, Jules was the straw man, Sunflower was the good witch, and Emily was Dorothy.

We were all so excited that when I saw Miss Patsy in the car waiting to pick up Emily after school, I forgot to check her clothes. So did Emily. Emily and I decided that she should come to my house right after school. Her mom said yes, and we ran off while Patsy drove off to her bloody death, her life spilling out of her on her kitchen floor.

If I hadn’t been so excited about Halloween, I would have noticed what Patsy was wearing. I would have told my parents, and they would have helped me figure out what to do. Maybe they would have raced to get Patsy, or invented an errand, or my dad would have taken Gavin off for a beer or down to our boat.

We could have prevented it.

But I was young and having fun, and I forgot, and Emily, my best friend, and her mother, Miss Patsy, a beautiful young woman, who was trapped, paid the price.

* * *

“I’m coming over to the island soon!” Jules said. “I’m packing up all my wedding stuff in the truck. I’ve been painting motorcycles night and day because these orders keep coming in, and I’m almost done. Last night I painted a mermaid. The owner wanted her to have purple hair. So pretty. Anyhow, I’m going to take time off to relax before the wedding and the honeymoon because we’ll be in bed all the time, and I don’t want to be sleepy!”

I smiled at Jules through Skype. She was packing as we talked. “Look at our gifts for the wedding guests!”