My heart nearly stopped, and my arms began to prickle with goose bumps. An electric current ran through my body as I looked down at the map, at the seemingly innocuous dark rectangle, and tried to reconcile it with the horror of what Mary Ellen had just told us. Jess put her hands on either side of her face, her mouth hanging open, while I froze in place, my shoulders unable to move.

Melissa was the first to regain her composure. “What happened after they found Mavis and her family?”

Mary Ellen looked disappointed that our fugue state hadn’t lasted longer, and I suspected that she was the school gossip in high school, a human vault of secrets that she revealed when it suited her.

“The land was auctioned off by the town after no one claimed it. I doubt anyone wanted to take ownership of a place where such a tragedy had occurred. The orchard was purchased by the Kingery family, who eventually developed it into your subdivision in the 1960s,” she said.

I cleared my throat and asked the question that I almost didn’t want the answer to. “What happened to the bodies?”

Mary Ellen’s upper lip curled. “I suppose they were reinterred in a local cemetery, although that was never documented.”

Jess shook her head, her hands still on her face. “Nope. They weren’t.”

Melissa’s head jerked as Mary Ellen slowly looked at Jess. “Why do you say that?” Mary Ellen asked.

I put a hand up. “She’s kidding. Right?” I shot Jess a murderous look, and she shrugged. “Being home with the kids for the summer has made us all a little off-kilter.” I forced a laugh, and Melissa and Jess did the same.

Mary Ellen slowly looked at us, her eyes stopping at each one, and I knew our time was short before she got suspicious. I had the feeling that as soon as we left, she would be on the phone with Heather’s mom, telling her about us.

We thanked her and quickly left, walking normally out of the historical society before it was safe to remove the veneer, then we huddled around the sidewalk like teenagers trying to light a contraband joint, next to a reproduction of a 1960s advertisement:

Want to make a better life for your family?

Want a safe home, away from the dirt and noise of the city?

Want a neighborhood respite, filled with children and well-kept lawns?

Then come to Winchester, Illinois, and be a founding member of Whispering Farms subdivision! With easy access on the train to downtown Chicago, and major highways just minutes away, Whispering Farms is the perfect, safe place to raise a happy family.

As I put on sunglasses to block the bright sunlight, visions of Mavis’s murdered family danced behind my eyes.

“Do you think Emily is in danger?” Melissa said on the sidewalk.