Forty-one-year-old school nurse Kate Cypher has returned home to rural Vermont to care for her mother who's afflicted with Alzheimer's. On the night she arrives, a young girl is murdered—a horrific crime that eerily mirrors another from Kate's childhood. Three decades earlier, her dirt-poor frien...
It was the artist’s job to open herself up, let herself be guided to whatever the next step might be. Today was not a day when things were going well. Work on the new box wasn’t off to a great start. She was having a hard time making any kind of decisions: Should she use a photo of Gary, or make ...
I remember the date clearly, even now, because it was later that evening that Del’s body was found. These two events—my betrayal and her murder—have become so strongly linked in my mind that it is like one could not have existed without the other. Other than her killer, I was the last person to s...
It’s a trap. Tess has been pacing in Henry’s dark little apartment on the south side of the barn, lying in wait like a spider, and as soon as he comes in the door, she flips the kitchen light on, hoping that if she catches him off guard he’ll be honest with her. She thinks she deserves that much ...
Amy said as she fitted the master key into the lock on Room 3 and turned it. “It was an actual, for-real ghost.” Their plan was to search each motel room for clues about what might have happened to Sylvie. Piper doubted they’d find anything, but, then again, she’d never have guessed they’d find l...
Sammy said. He was out of breath, dressed in his bright yellow rain slicker, plastered with mud and leaves. His shorts, sneakers, and socks were soaked. He stepped through the open garage door, out of the rain. Water pooled at his feet.Evie and Lisa were sitting on the dirty, grease-stained floor...
The phone was ringing. Reggie put a pillow over her head, waited for Lorraine to answer it. The pain in her ankle was down to a dull throb. The bag of frozen peas Lorraine had sent her to bed with lay clammily on her toes. After Reggie had called home from the pay phone outside the bowling alley,...
SCARED. EMMA’S been watching her father’s barn all night from her bedroom window. As soon as she saw him turn out the lights, she raced down to the Blazer and climbed into the backseat. When Emma called Mel earlier to promise to get Suz’s journal tomorrow, Mel said, “I’ve been thinking. Maybe you...
Jonah confesses in a whisper.The boy wizard has been doing a weird thing lately: he comes home from school, dumps the books out of his knapsack, then grabs a dusty rejected can from the back of the cupboard—fava beans, mandarin orange slices, cheddar-bacon soup—something given to them when they p...