She shouldn’t have said anything—yet, she had heard something—she couldn’t have imagined it—not after finding the wet footprints on the rug… Kelsey looked around nervously and leaned back against the door. She wished they would hurry.

They were coming back now; she could hear them laughing softly and mumbling to each other as they made their way through the shadows across the yard. No doubt Skip was telling them about her and Donna’s grisly discovery that day, and now the boys were finding everything immensely funny. She knew by their faces that they hadn’t found anything—but she stood her ground firmly, meeting their looks straight on.

“Kelsey—”

“I know. You didn’t find anything.”

“Hey, relax, it was probably just that body you and Donna met on the cliff today!” Skip gave her a playful hug, but she stiffened and pulled away, seeing those wide, lifeless eyes again in the grass.

“I don’t care what you say, Skip—I heard something just now. And how do you explain those footprints?”

“What footprints?” Skip chuckled. “I didn’t see any—”

“I saw them,” Justin broke in, “on the rug, right?” At her grateful nod he smiled. “I saw them. Really. They were there.”

“Okay, you saw them. So who put them there?” Skip asked.

“She probably did it herself,” Neale said matter-of-factly, shouldering past Kelsey into the kitchen. “She probably just tracked the water in from the beach—”

“You’re crazy,” Kelsey shot back, and he whirled on her with a look that stopped her cold. “If I tracked the water in, then why wasn’t there any in the hall outside my door or on the stairs?”

“There was water in the hall and on the stairs,” Skip said, deadpan. “You tracked in the whole damn ocean!”

“You’re lying,” Kelsey whispered, and her eyes fell on Justin, wide, pleading.

“Skip,” Justin sighed, and then to Kelsey, “He’s lying. But there were footprints from the tub across the floor and onto the rug. You…probably did it coming out of the shower.”

She couldn’t believe what she was hearing. As she stared at three pairs of expectant eyes, she could feel herself going rigid, could hear her voice going thin.

“I didn’t make those footprints on the rug! They were already there when I came out of the bathroom! I hadn’t even been on the rug before then!”

Justin looked uncomfortable. He dropped his eyes, his brow creased with an anxious frown, and Skip slapped Kelsey on the back with a loud guffaw.

“You’re just like Donna—two crazy females! You really expect us to believe that? Look here, Kelsey, if you didn’t do it, then who else could have? I mean, who’d be wandering around the island going into girls’ bedrooms and making puddles, huh? Was anything missing?”

Kelsey shook her head reluctantly. “Well…”

“Well, was it?”

“Well…no.”

“Okay. Nothing stolen. Nothing ransacked. Nothing vandalized. No murder weapon on the pillow, no suspicious note slipped under the door—”

Kelsey looked up, shocked at his words, but Skip didn’t notice and went on.