My heart nearly burst out of my chest, but I managed to stay very still. I moved away from the door, pressed myself up against the wall. I inched my way toward the stairs and mounted them as noiselessly as possible.

A dark figure met me at the top.

“Zack?”

It was Don. No one, wisely, had turned on any lights.

“Yeah,” I said. “There’s at least one. I just saw him move past the front door.”

Claire and Trixie were behind them. “Stay with Katie,” he told them, and they both slipped into the girl’s room. “Who is it?” he asked.

“I don’t know. But he was going around the south side of the house.”

“I’ve got a rifle, but it’s in the back of my pickup,” Don said. “Shit.”

I thought of the small garden shovel by the front door, the one Claire had swung at me, but we’d have to go outside to get it, too.

“There’s an old baseball bat in the basement,” Don said. “If I can see to get down there.”

We both went back down to the first floor. I tapped Don’s arm, pointed to the front door. The shadow was moving the other way, past the door and then the living room window. Then it crouched down, disappeared below the frame.

“Call the police,” I whispered.

“But if they, if they come and find Miran…”

“Don.”

“Jesus, I know.” I followed as he crept into the kitchen, took hold of the receiver from its wall mount, and put it to his ear. “Oh God,” he said.

“What?”

“There’s nothing. No dial tone.”

I took the receiver from him, put it to my own ear, then hit the receiver button a couple of times. I hung the phone back up.

“My cell,” I said. I tiptoed back into the living room, found my jacket draped over the back of a chair, fumbled around in the pocket until I had my cell phone out. I flipped it open, but because I’d left it on for so long, and had neglected to hook it up to a charger on the drive up here, it was dead.

“Are you kidding me?” Don whispered.

“Do you have a cell phone?” I whispered. Don shook his head. “Okay, go find your bat. I’ll stay up here, you see what you can find.” I trained my sights on the living room window and saw part of a head rise into view. Then another shadow moved across the window in the door.

“Oh no,” I said to myself.

I could hear Don bumping into things in the dark basement. Then footsteps coming back up. I could make out what appeared to be a bat in one hand, and a length of two-by-four in the other.

He handed me the bat.