Chapter 1
When Ellie awoke that morning, it was with the sense that
something terrible had happened.
Instinctively she reached for Bones, the soft and cuddly
stuffed dog who had shared her pillow ever since she could
remember. When she'd had her seventh birthday last month,
Andrea, her fifteen-year-old sister, had teased her that
it was time to toss Bones in the attic.
Then Ellie remembered what was wrong: Andrea hadn't come
home last night. After dinner, she had gone to her best
friend Joan's house to study for a math test. She had
promised to be home by nine o'clock. At quarter of nine,
Mommy went to Joan's house to walk Andrea home, but they
said Andrea had left at eight o'clock.
Mommy had come back home worried and almost crying, just
as Daddy got in from work. Daddy was a lieutenant in the
New York State Police. Right away he and Mommy had started
calling all of Andrea's friends, but no one had seen her.
Then Daddy said he was going to drive around to the
bowling alley and to the ice cream parlor, just in case
Andrea had gone there.
"If she lied about doing homework until nine o'clock, she
won't set foot out of this house for six months," he'd
said angrily, and then he'd turned to Mommy: "If I said it
once, I've said it a thousand times -- I don't want her to
go out after dark alone."
Despite his raised voice, Ellie could tell that Daddy was
more worried than angry.
"For heaven's sake, Ted, she went out at seven o'clock.
She got to Joan's. She was planning to be home by nine,
and I even walked over there to meet her."
"Then where is she?"
They made Ellie go to bed, and, eventually, she fell
asleep waking only now. Maybe Andrea was home by now, she
thought hopefully. She slipped out of bed, rushed across
the room, and darted down the hall to Andrea's room. Be
there, she begged. Please be there. She opened the door.
Andrea's bed had not been slept in.
Her bare feet silent on the steps, Ellie hurried
downstairs. Their neighbor, Mrs. Hilmer, was sitting with
Mommy in the kitchen. Mommy was wearing the same clothes
she had on last night, and she looked as if she'd been
crying for a long time.
Ellie ran to her. "Mommy."
Mommy hugged her and began to sob. Ellie felt Mommy's hand
clutching her shoulder, so hard that she was almost
hurting her.
"Mommy, where's Andrea?"
"We...don't...know. Daddy and the police are looking for
her."
"Ellie, why don't you get dressed, and I'll fix you some
breakfast?" Mrs. Hilmer asked.
No one was saying that she should hurry up because the
school bus would be coming pretty soon. Without asking,
Ellie knew she wouldn't be going to school today.
She dutifully washed her face and hands and brushed her
teeth and hair, and then put on play clothes -- a
turtleneck shirt and her favorite blue slacks -- and went
downstairs again.
Just as she sat at the table where Mrs. Hilmer had put out
juice and cornflakes, Daddy came through the kitchen
door. "No sign of her," he said. "We've looked everywhere.
There was a guy collecting for some phony charity ringing
doorbells in town yesterday. He was in the diner last
night and left around eight o'clock. He would have passed
Joan's house on the way to the highway around the time
Andrea left. They're looking for him."
Ellie could tell that Daddy was almost crying. He also
hadn't seemed to notice her, but she didn't mind.
Sometimes when Daddy came home he was upset because
something sad had happened while he was at work, and for a
while he'd be very quiet. He had that same look on his
face now.
Andrea was hiding -- Ellie was sure of it. She had
probably left Joan's house early on purpose because she
was meeting Rob Westerfield in the hideout, then maybe it
got late and she was afraid to come home. Daddy had said
that if she ever lied again about where she'd been, he'd
make her quit the school band. He'd said that when he
found out she had gone for a ride with Rob Westerfield in
his car when she was supposed to be at the library.
Andrea loved being in the band; last year she'd been the
only freshman chosen for the flute section. But if she'd
left Joan's house early and gone to the hideout to meet
Rob, and Daddy found out, that would mean she'd have to
give it up. Mommy always said that Andrea could twist
Daddy around her little finger, but she didn't say that
last month when one of the state troopers told Daddy he'd
stopped Rob Westerfield to give him a ticket for speeding
and that Andrea was with him at the time.
Daddy hadn't said anything about it until after dinner.
Then he asked Andrea how long she'd been at the library.
She didn't answer him.
Then he said, "I see you're smart enough to realize that
the trooper who gave Westerfield the ticket would tell me
you were with him. Andrea, that guy is not only rich and
spoiled, he's a bad apple through and through. When he
kills himself speeding, you're not going to be in the car.
You are absolutely forbidden to have anything to do with
him."
The hideout was in the garage behind the great big house
that old Mrs. Westerfield, Rob's grandmother, lived in all
summer. It was always unlocked, and sometimes Andrea and
her friends sneaked in there and smoked cigarettes. Andrea
had taken Ellie there a couple of times when she was
babysitting her.
Her friends had been really mad at Andrea for bringing her
along, but she had said, "Ellie is a good kid. She's not a
snitch." Hearing that had made Ellie feel great, but
Andrea hadn't let Ellie have even one puff of the
cigarette.
Ellie was sure that last night Andrea had left Joan's
house
early because she was planning to meet Rob Westerfield.
Ellie had heard her when she talked to him on the phone
yesterday, and when she was finished, she was practically
crying. "I told Rob I was going to the mixer with Paulie,"
she said, "and now he's really mad at me."
Ellie thought about the conversation as she finished the
cornflakes and juice. Daddy was standing at the stove. He
was holding a cup of coffee. Mommy was crying again but
making almost no sound.
Then, for the first time, Daddy seemed to notice
her: "Ellie, I think you'd be better off in school. At
lunchtime I'll take you over."
"Is it all right if I go outside now?"
"Yes. But stay around the house."
Ellie ran for her jacket and was quickly out the door. It
was the fifteenth of November, and the leaves were damp
and felt sloshy underfoot. The sky was heavy with clouds,
and she could tell it was going to rain again. Ellie
wished they were back in Irvington where they used to
live. It was lonesome here. Mrs. Hilmer's house was the
only other one on this road.
Daddy had liked living in Irvington, but they'd moved
here, five towns away, because Mommy wanted a bigger house
and more property. They found they could afford that if
they moved farther up in Westchester, to a town that
hadn't yet become a suburb of New York City.
When Daddy said he missed Irvington, where he'd grown up
and where they'd lived until two years ago, Mommy would
tell him how great the new house was. Then he'd say that
in Irvington we had a million-dollar view of the Hudson
River and the Tappan Zee Bridge, and he didn't have to
drive five miles for a newspaper or a loaf of bread.
There were woods all around their property. The big
Westerfield house was directly behind theirs, but on the
other side of the woods. Glancing back at the kitchen
window to make sure no one had seen her, Ellie began to
dart through the trees.
Five minutes later she reached the clearing and ran across
the field to where the Westerfield property began. Feeling
more and more alone, she raced up the long driveway and
darted around the mansion, a small figure lost in the
lengthening shadows of the approaching storm.
There was a side door to the garage, and that was the one
that was unlocked. Even so, it was hard for Ellie to turn
the handle.
Finally she succeeded and stepped into the gloom of the
interior. The garage was big enough to hold four cars, but
the only one Mrs. Westerfield left after the summer was
the van. Andrea and her friends had brought some old
blankets to sit on when they went there. They always sat
in the same spot, at the back of the garage behind the
van, so that if anyone happened to look in the window,
they wouldn't be able to see them. Ellie knew that was
where Andrea would be hiding if she was here.
She didn't know why she felt suddenly afraid, but she did.
Now, instead of running, she had to practically drag her
feet to make them move toward the back of the garage. But
then she saw it -- the edge of the blanket peeking out
from behind the van. Andrea was here! She and her friends
would never have left the blankets out; when they left,
they always folded them and hid them in the cabinet with
the cleaning supplies.
"Andrea..." Now she ran, calling softly so that Andrea
wouldn't be scared. She was probably asleep, Ellie
decided.
Yes, she was. Even though the garage was filled with
shadows, Ellie could see Andrea's long hair trailing out
from under the blankets.
"Andrea, it's me." Ellie sank to her knees beside Andrea
and pulled back the blanket covering her face.
Andrea had a mask on, a terrible monster mask that looked
all sticky and gummy. Ellie reached down to pull it off,
and her fingers went into a broken space in Andrea's
forehead. As she jerked back, she became aware of the pool
of Andrea's blood, soaking through her slacks.
Then, from somewhere in the big room, she was sure she
heard someone breathing -- harsh, heavy, sucking-in
breaths that broke off in a kind of giggle.
Terrified, she tried to get up, but her knees slid in the
blood and she fell forward across Andrea's chest. Her lips
grazed something smooth and cold -- Andrea's gold locket.
Then she managed to scramble to her feet, and she turned
and began to run.
She did not know she was shrieking until she was almost
home, and Ted and Genine Cavanaugh ran into the backyard
to see their younger daughter burst out of the woods, her
arms outstretched, her little form covered in her sister's
blood.
Copyright © 2002 by Mary Higgins Clark