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Back The Mother Next Door Save as PDF
Chapters (84)
  1. Cover
  2. Praise
  3. Dedication
  4. About the Author
  5. HALLOWEEN
  6. Seven Weeks Before Halloween
  7. ONE
  8. TWO
  9. THREE
  10. HALLOWEEN
  11. Six Weeks Before Halloween
  12. FOUR
  13. FIVE
  14. SIX
  15. HALLOWEEN
  16. Five Weeks Before Halloween
  17. SEVEN
  18. EIGHT
  19. HALLOWEEN
  20. NINE
  21. TEN
  22. HALLOWEEN
  23. ELEVEN
  24. TWELVE
  25. Twenty-Five Days Until Halloween
  26. THIRTEEN
  27. FOURTEEN
  28. HALLOWEEN
  29. FIFTEEN
  30. SIXTEEN
  31. SEVENTEEN
  32. EIGHTEEN
  33. NINETEEN
  34. TWENTY
  35. HALLOWEEN
  36. Eighteen Days Until Halloween
  37. TWENTY-ONE
  38. TWENTY-TWO
  39. HALLOWEEN
  40. TWENTY-THREE
  41. TWENTY-FOUR
  42. Eleven Days Until Halloween
  43. TWENTY-FIVE
  44. TWENTY-SIX
  45. Eight Days Until Halloween
  46. TWENTY-SEVEN
  47. TWENTY-EIGHT
  48. TWENTY-NINE
  49. HALLOWEEN
  50. THIRTY
  51. Four Days Until Halloween
  52. THIRTY-ONE
  53. HALLOWEEN
  54. THIRTY-TWO
  55. Two Days Until Halloween
  56. THIRTY-THREE
  57. The Night Before Halloween
  58. THIRTY-FOUR
  59. HALLOWEEN
  60. THIRTY-FIVE
  61. Halloween, Present Day
  62. THIRTY-SIX
  63. THIRTY-SEVEN
  64. HALLOWEEN
  65. THIRTY-EIGHT
  66. HALLOWEEN
  67. THIRTY-NINE
  68. HALLOWEEN
  69. FORTY
  70. HALLOWEEN
  71. FORTY-ONE
  72. FORTY-TWO
  73. FORTY-THREE
  74. FORTY-FOUR
  75. HALLOWEEN... NOW
  76. FORTY-FIVE
  77. Seven Months Later
  78. FORTY-SIX
  79. FORTY-SEVEN
  80. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
  81. ALICE SWANSON’S
  82. Reader's Guide
  83. Questions for Discussion
  84. Booklist

I drew myself up taller. “We are not going to be part of some...trashy news segment she’s doing for ratings, got it? So if she tries to bug you about it, you tell her no.”

“Oh yeah. Definitely.” Theresa nodded.

I smelled patchouli, thick and oily, as Ellen stepped between us, her hands pressed together in prayer. She hummed as she marched past, then through the crowd and toward the woods. Everyone murmured as she strode by.

Behind Theresa, Maggie and her cameraman were talking quietly to each other, headed our way again.

“Here she comes,” Bettina announced.

Theresa turned, then stammered that she had to go find Adam.

As she scampered off, Alice rushed up from behind, grabbing both our shoulders. “Y’all,” she whispered. “Come here. Now.”

Her face was as pale as her skirt as she ushered us over to a nearby tree.

“What is wrong?” I asked impatiently.

“I just had a conversation with Mrs. Vancavage, you know, that dear old woman who lives over in the town houses?” Alice was tripping over her words, like she couldn’t get them out fast enough. “She’s a peach, I love her to pieces, but lord she goes on about theater and opera and whatnot and I don’t know a blasted thing about any of it but”—she stopped, took a breath—“she was all excited because she recently heard from her old neighbor, Jackie Hendricks.”

“What?” Bettina burst out.

“Apparently they email now and again? And she was so excited to hear Jackie got some new part. Some revival of an Edward Albany play or something—”

“Albee,” I corrected her.

“Whatever. Point is, I said, ‘Oh is that in London?’ And she got all puzzled and said, ‘No. New York City.’”

I stared at Alice. “She must’ve gotten it wrong.”

Alice shook her head so fast her hair flew around her like a skirt. “She was sure as sugar. Even said Jackie was thrilled because the theater was easy to get to from the apartment she was staying at.”

I looked over to the crowd, where Theresa was standing with her husband, cheery face, shaking someone’s hand.

Jackie wasn’t unreachable. She was here, on the East Coast. A train ride away.

Had Theresa lied to me?

“What the flying fuck?” I whispered.

Four Days Until Halloween

FOUR DAYS UNTIL HALLOWEEN

THIRTY-ONE

Theresa

“Maggie? This is Theresa Pressley?”

I cringed. My voice was nowhere near as authoritative as I’d hoped. I sounded like a child trying to convince the usher that I was allowed in the R-rated movie theater.

“Theresa, yes of course. About to head out for a story. What’s up?” Maggie seemed to have me on speakerphone. I could hear the hum of other people in the background, static, a radio. It had taken several calls to the newsroom to even get through to her.