BooksBarbecue
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

Still, the air in the house felt strange—I smelled a faint burning smell, like charred food or a recently extinguished candle. On the kitchen linoleum, I spotted a small, hard semicircle of dried mud that had fallen off a shoe sole. Like someone was there, or had just been there.

The hair on my arms bristled. “Hello?” I called again, moving into the living room. “Paul? Cole?” I opened the front door, checked the porch. Nothing was hanging in the tree in the front yard.

In the hallway outside the powder room was a sock of Cole’s that Barney had fished from the laundry and chewed to death, but nothing else seemed out of place. I walked through the rest of the house, making noise just in case some creep really was inside. Barney wasn’t much of a watchdog.

Nothing.

I went back downstairs and let Barney out, then stepped into the living room.

Someone grabbed my arm.

I screamed. Leaped back.

“Kendra!” a voice cried. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you.” It was Theresa. She pointed behind her. “Your front door was wide open, so I wanted to make sure everything was okay.”

I put my hand to my chest. “Fuck, Theresa. Call out or something.” I must’ve forgotten to close the front door when I looked outside.

“I’m so sorry.” She held out a bundle. “I kept forgetting to return your blanket. Thanks for letting us borrow it at the game.”

I took the blanket and tossed it on the couch. “You could’ve kept it. We have a million.”

She slunk back, as if I might bite. I was being unfair.

“Sorry, it’s been a long day at work,” I said. “I’m just extra on edge.”

Theresa did the polite thing and shrugged it off. “That kind of thing happens to me sometimes, too. Especially in the new house. It’s so much bigger than anywhere else I’ve lived. I hear noises all the time. Something about the space. I don’t know.”

The attic especially, I thought. But I couldn’t talk about that house, not now.

Barney barked in the yard, scratching at the door.

“I need to let Barney in. Come back with me.”

“Oh you sure?” Theresa tugged the end of her ponytail. Something about the gesture—I felt a strong sense of déjà vu. Some memory, some vague sense of alarm descended over me, but before I could name it, it was gone.

Lord, what the hell was wrong with me?

“You were talking about your house being big?” I asked in the kitchen as Barney bounded in, nearly knocking Theresa over. I gave him a bone to settle him down.