When Mr. Finn got home, he did everything he could. Made phone calls to animal hospitals and veterinarians, even to the police. He hauled the kids into the car and they drove the streets in slow circles, shouting out, over and over, “Doolin, Doolin! Here, girl. Come!”

But she did not come.

Home again, it all came out. Liam talked, and Kelly talked, and Mr. Finn listened. They told him everything. He nodded, and asked questions—but mostly he listened.

He finally leaned back in his chair. Ran a hand through his hair. “I don’t know, kids,” he finally said. “I can see that you’re upset. But it sounds to me like maybe your imaginations got the best of you. You have to admit that it’s possible—”

A sharp, angry scraping noise interrupted Mr. Finn midsentence.

They turned to locate the source of the piercing sound. It came from the refrigerator door. Mr. Finn had senselessly, and uselessly, brought from the old house a bucket of magnetic letters. They came in bright colors —red, yellow, green, and blue. The kids used to play with them all the time, writing words: C-A-T and M-O-M and F-O-O-D. But no one used them anymore. The letters were arrayed in a confused jumble on the door. An outgrown toy.

But now the letters slid and moved across the white surface of the refrigerator. Up and down, diagonal and across.

Nothing touched them. The letters … just … moved.

“It’s a message,” Liam said.

“GET OUT NOW,” Kelly read.

They looked at one another, unsure of what to do.

More letters continued to slide into place.

Beneath the first message, it read:

LOVE,
MOM

Loud, urgent barking erupted from the front lawn. They raced to the front door, opened it wide. “Doolin!” cried Liam. “You’re back!”

The dog barked and barked from the middle of the lawn, turned to run, scampered back, and then barked more urgently. She would not come into the house.

So Liam walked out onto the cool night grass to soothe the distressed animal. Kelly and Mr. Finn came with him, all murmuring gentle noises. “What’s the matter, girl? Did you miss us? What’s wrong?”

KA-BOOM!

A violent blast roared from the basement. It shook the walls and blew out the windows. The house filled with smoke and danced with roiling flames. In seconds, it was all ablaze.

They had gotten out just in time.

13. What They Found

13

WHAT THEY FOUND

The fire raged for hours, its wild flames licking at the sky like the tongues of a thousand angry snakes. For the volunteer firefighters, there was not much to be done —dry, old timber burns quick. Instead they worked to control the damage, laying down a steady rain of foam along the borders of the house to keep the fire from spreading.

Wind was the enemy now, for wind could stoke the flames ever higher, but the night was strangely calm. Not even a breeze.