“Go to bed now, my sweet, and I will be along later to tuck you in.” She turned and ran toward the stairs. I halted her with a clashing of cymbals, a storm warning only she could hear. “Tell no one of this.” She looked at me, innocent eyes questioning. “Our secret,” I said. She nodded solemnly and went quietly to the world above.

I smiled to myself, then resealed the box and sat in the corner.

Boyd and the boy would be along presently.

I would meet them on equal terms.

“Even though I believed Will’s story, I didn’t let the mayor or the police know. I had several reasons. First, because they might go and blow her to pieces, or worse, let her escape in the confusion. Second, it might not be her at all, or she might have already gotten out and left. And third, which is probably the only real reason I kept it to myself, is that I wanted her all to myself. I didn’t want to share the confrontation with anyone else—especially not with a crowd. This had been my hunt all along, and it was only fair that I bring her down myself.

“I probably should have gone with Will the moment he told me she was in his basement. But I couldn’t. I couldn’t. It felt as though the appointment had been made, and I needed to sit and think, prepare for the moment. The moment I had been rushing toward in impotent frustration for years was suddenly here and I needed to consider it for a while. I needed to think of what to say to her, how to act, how to feel.

“Anyway, I was busy in meetings all day, talking to the people who were trying to control the town. Everybody had gone back home, like I said, but a handful of us knew the danger wasn’t over, so we were trying out new strategies for search as well as for keeping the townspeople from being killed and the media from turning Wilton into a carnival.

“All day long, through all the meetings, I knew where Angelina was, and I didn’t tell anyone.

“I finally met Will at the mayor’s house just before ten that night, and we walked over to his place. There was not a doubt in my mind that Angelina was in that house. I knew it when we were more than three blocks away. I could feel her.

“Will’s parents were watching the news. He introduced us and told them he was going to show me his collection of books on the occult. They were quite preoccupied and didn’t pay much attention. We went into Will’s room to wait for his folks to go to bed before we went downstairs.