The cold shock of water went through her instantly—the spongy feel of wet fabric against her skin—

She jerked her feet back with a cry and stared in horror at the braided rug between the beds… The rug was soaked with separate little puddles…wet spots the size of feet…and lying there, coiled like some dead snake, was a slimy tangle of seaweed in a damp smear of sand…

Kelsey jumped up onto the bed, hugging her robe tight around her, her lips forming cries for help that no one could hear…

Someone had been in her room.

And maybe…even now…that someone was still in the house.

Chapter 10

KELSEY HADN’T EXPECTED IT to be so dark. Now as she jerked her clothes on and raced out of the house, she was shocked at the heavy curtain of dusk which greeted her.

Night was rolling in fast with the fog, blurring the outlines of the trees, blotting out the beach but not the persistent sound of the ocean. As Kelsey hurried across the yard she could hear the water off behind her, its roar like mocking laughter—look at Kelsey run!—look at Kelsey run! She covered her ears and concentrated instead on reaching the pale glow of lights in Eric’s kitchen windows.

She started up the back steps and stretched out her arm for the door.

She never saw the hand come out of the darkness. Not until the gnarled old fingers clamped around her wrist and jerked her backward.

“You won’t scream, girl, ’cause I been waiting for you…” The voice was liquidy, thick with age and phlegm. “I been waiting for you all this time—”

“Let me go!” Kelsey shoved at him, but only succeeded in losing her balance. She heard him chuckle as she went down.

“I been waiting to tell you a thing or two, so you best listen to old Isaac, you hear me? You best have a care, girl; I see what goes on. And I know things, too, don’t think I don’t. Just like you know things. You’re a smart girl. Like that other one was smart. Only now she’s dead.” He threw back his head and cackled. From the jaundiced light of the windows, Kelsey could see his yellow teeth and the drool on his bristly chin. “You’ll hear it soon…the voice of the dead…it always comes before the squall…”

“Get away from me or I’ll scream—I mean it!” She scrambled to her knees, crying out as the porch light suddenly burst on, the door flinging open.

“Have a care!” Isaac hissed, and in the split second it took Kelsey to stand up, he was gone.

“What’s going on out here? You all right?”

Kelsey grabbed for the person beside her before she even realized it was Neale. He was squinting off into the dark, searching the shadows.

“That horrible old man—he—”

“Who? Isaac?”

“He’s following me!”

Neale gave her a strange look, shaking his head. “He wasn’t following you—he was using the phone.”