“Sorry.” He shook his head. “But I want to know more about this girl. Dawn. When you saw her in the alley, when you dreamed about her, she looked like she did… then?”

“She looked exactly the same.”

“You think she was killed, too?”

“I don’t know. I don’t think so.”

“You think you saw a ghost?”

“No.”

“A hallucination?”

“No.”

They were both silent for a moment.

“So what happened while you were there?” Laurie asked finally. “What else do you remember?”

Josh chewed his lower lip, a thinking habit he’d had since childhood. “I remember being scared. I remember a long hallway. With dark wood and red velvet. Like a Victorian whorehouse. I remember not being able to sleep because I kept hearing weird noises. A tapping. Like someone was knocking on my door, trying to get in. I remember that I thought your parents didn’t really seem happy to see us. Like we’d come at a bad time or something. Like they were fighting but had to pretend to get along because they had company.” He met her eyes. “And I remember that your dad got really mad at me because I was late for breakfast. I was tired and Mom and Dad let me oversleep, and your dad went crazy. My parents and your parents almost got in a screaming match, and I felt really guilty. I’d already woken up and come downstairs to eat, and I heard them fighting and I started crying. Mom and Dad tried to comfort me, but your dad said something like, ‘That’s what he deserves.’” Josh’s voice had fallen almost to a whisper. “Your dad scared me. I didn’t like him.”

Laurie hugged her brother. “I don’t think I would’ve either.” She smiled at him. “I’m glad Mom and Dad adopted me.”

“I am too.”

She pulled away. “What else?”

“That’s it, really. I think we did buy some blankets from them, although I’m not sure that’s why we really went over there.”

“Then what?”

He shrugged. “We left. Continued on with our vacation or our travels or whatever it was. We finally settled in Thripp’s Crossing, and a couple months later, you showed up.”

“I just showed up?”

“Well no, not literally. Mom and Dad left. I stayed with Mrs. Kylie, and when they came back they had you.”

“They never told you why? Never explained why you suddenly had a new sister?”

“Nope.”

Laurie sighed. “I don’t remember any of that at all. I wish I did, but it’s all a big blank.”

Josh handed her back the photo. “I never put two and two together before this. I never realized that those people were your real parents. I remembered them, I remembered the trip, but I don’t remember you there, so I never connected it. When I saw that picture, though… something clicked.”