“Kelsey—”

“It’s not here, Donna, Skip wasn’t playing around; it’s not here anywhere.”

“But that’s crazy, it must be! Something like that just couldn’t disappear! Let’s look for it! Oh, God, what am I saying? I must be out of my mind; I just said let’s look for a dead body! Oh, Kelsey—”

“It’s no use, it just isn’t here.” Kelsey shook her head angrily and plopped down on the ground. The lighthouse rose above them, watchful and silent, and Kelsey stared at it, thoroughly shaken.

Donna dropped down beside her. “What are we gonna do? Call the sheriff?”

Kelsey ripped a handful of weeds from between the rocks. “And tell him what?”

“You’re right. He’d think we’re crazy, too. We can’t prove a thing. And Sheriff Rickert hates practical jokes—he’d just as soon throw us in jail as look at us.” She grew silent for several long minutes, then glanced uncertainly at Kelsey. “We did see it, didn’t we? We didn’t imagine it?”

“Things like this only happen in movies,” Kelsey grumbled, “not in real life. Oh, I wish you’d seen her face!”

“You do? Why? So I could have nightmares till I die?” Donna was instantly contrite. “Sorry. I wouldn’t wish this on anybody, especially you. You think it might have been Beth? Can you remember anything about her face?”

Again Kelsey saw those wide-open eyes, staring and vacant, filled with fear. “No,” she squeezed her own eyes shut, forcing the memory away. “Just her eyes. The rest of her face was hidden in the grass.”

“Then we’re back to nothing,” Donna sighed. She shaded her eyes and stared off toward the ocean. “I guess I can’t really blame Skip for being mad. For thinking it was just some kind of sick joke. It is pretty hard to believe. I mean, this whole thing with Beth disappearing and all—he’s got to be thinking about all that horrible stuff at school. Those Brookfield Murders.”

Kelsey, scanning the slant of the cliff as it meandered to the sea, only half heard her. “What?”

“Oh, those coed killings. Don’t tell me you never heard about the Brookfield Murders—it was all over the news.”

This time Kelsey sat up and leaned forward.

“I do remember something about that. At least I think I do. Some boarding school, wasn’t it? But I don’t remember all the details.”

“Well, that was Skip’s school. Brookfield. Named after the town, also Brookfield. Where he and Justin were roommates.” Donna wrinkled her nose and tilted her face into the breeze. “Skip said it got really scary around there for a while, cops swarming everywhere you looked. Girls just started disappearing.”

“How horrible. Did he know any of them?”

“He dated some of them.” She gave a wry smile. “He told me about them, of course. Said they were all really nice girls—not the kind who’d just walk away with anybody or hop in some stranger’s car. He was really upset about it when he and Justin were home for spring break. No clues, no leads, nothing. Those girls vanished into thin air, and no one could find them. They still haven’t found them.”