“I guess you think you’re pretty damn cute, huh, you two?” He nodded at them, his lips pressed into a sneer. “Pretty funny stuff, calling me away from the beach like that. What is this, Scare the Lifeguard Day?”

Donna looked flabbergasted. “Skip, what are you talking about?”

“Oh, come off it, Donna—okay, so I fell for your stupid joke. Dumb me, ha, ha. You just better hope nobody drowned back there while you’ve had me on this wild goose chase.” Skip shook his head and slammed the gate back into place. “Now get out of here. You can walk back.”

“Skip—”

“Hey, wait a minute!” Kelsey ran up, catching his arm, her eyes wide with disbelief. “This isn’t a joke! Believe me, there’s nothing funny about it—there’s a girl lying up there, and she was dead! Didn’t you see her?”

“No. And you didn’t, either.”

“Well, then, you must have looked in the wrong place,” Donna was babbling again, grabbing Skip’s shoulders, shaking him. “You must have stepped right over her…or maybe…she rolled down the hill! You shook the ground, and she rolled right down—”

“Rolled right—” Skip rolled his eyes and pushed Donna firmly away. “Donna, you are a typical, illogical, emotional female. Rolled down the hill!” he snorted and climbed back into the jeep. “There is nobody up there! Dead or alive! If you don’t believe me, go see for yourself.”

“No!” Donna looked stricken at the prospect of meeting up with a corpse for the second time, but then she saw the look on his face. “All right, we will go back! We’ll show you!”

“You will not. You’re not supposed to go up there and you know it. If you go back, I’ll have you arrested for trespassing.”

“Then come with us. I dare you!”

“Oh. Great, Donna. Terrific. You really do want me to lose my job. No way. I’ve listened to you enough for one day.” Skip gunned the motor and the jeep made a sharp half turn. “You’re crazy, Donna. A crazy, lamebrain female if there ever was one.”

“But I saw her, too!” Kelsey’s voice rang out, firm and clear over Donna’s protests, and Skip hesitated. “She was up there, and I fell over her, and her face was only this far from mine! I saw her! We both couldn’t have made her up!”

Skip pondered this, his green eyes lazily playing over her face, then finally he chuckled. “Okay, I’ll give you this one, you guys are pretty convincing. But you better watch out—I’ll get you back one way or another.”

“Jerk!” Donna shouted as the jeep sped off down the beach. “Didn’t I tell you he could be a real jerk? And a chauvinist? Sometimes he makes me so mad! Kelsey, where are you going?”

But Kelsey was already climbing up over the gate and didn’t stop to answer. By the time she reached the top of the cliff she was sweaty and out of breath, but she forced herself down the other side and began to search. Within seconds Donna ran up, gasping, behind her.