Justin lowered his eyes, took a deep breath. “He says she’s dead. He’s sure of it.” His eyes raised slowly, blue and clear and plaintive, drawing hers with their desperation. “How can he be so sure? How can he be so positive she’s dead unless he knows something the rest of us don’t know?”

There was something about the way he said it, the way his voice went suddenly hollow—Kelsey felt an unexpected shudder and gazed at him, unsettled. There was fear in his voice, she suddenly realized—fear—unmistakable and real and cold—and as their eyes held, she heard him speak again, as from a long way off.

“You don’t know Neale,” he whispered. “Nobody knows Neale…nobody…”

“Justin!”

Kelsey jumped as Eric came around the corner of the cottage, and Justin got to his feet.

“Over here, Dad—”

“Where’s Neale?” Eric looked from one of them to the other.

“On the beach somewhere; I don’t know.” Justin made a vague gesture as Eric stared.

“Well, go find him, will you? We need to talk, and I want both of you here.” Eric hesitated. I’m sorry Kelsey. I’m really sorry you had to be here for all this.”

She opened her mouth to reassure him, but Justin took her arm and pulled her to her feet. “It’s okay, he can’t hear you anyway. Look, why don’t you go on in? You’ll have the whole place to yourself for a while.”

Despite her troubled curiosity over their discussion, she nodded and watched him go off through the trees. A shower and a nap would feel wonderful after everything that had happened today—but first she would call Jenny and tell her about Beth’s note. She still felt guilty keeping it to herself if it really did mean something. But if it didn’t—if it was only going to cause more worry and heartbreak—but that body on the cliff…we didn’t imagine that…and all that talk about girls disappearing…

Kelsey went into the kitchen and found the phone. As she waited for the call to go through, her fingers groped through her pocket and closed around the paper Justin had given her that morning with his private number on it. Kelsey counted the rings—four—seven—and was just about to give up when the familiar voice answered.

“Jen! It’s me! I—”

“Kelsey!” A shriek, and then static, while Jenny rambled on about things Kelsey couldn’t quite hear.

“Jen, be quiet for a minute, will you? I have something important to tell you—”

“A matter of life and death?”

Kelsey’s stomach fluttered. “Could be. Look, Jen—”

“Kelsey, my dad’s having a fit out there—we’re just leaving for the cabin and—”

“You’ve got to listen to me! There’s this note—”

“Kelsey, I can hardly hear you! What are you on, a twelve-party line? There’s this echo—”

“No, it’s a private number—Jen—”

“In a minute, Dad! He’s really yelling—Kelsey, can I call you when we get back?”

“But that’ll be two weeks! Jen, listen to me, please!” Kelsey’s voice rose. “There’s this note, the girl I’m staying with thinks someone’s going to kill her—thought someone was going to kill her, and—”