I nodded, my chest tight.
“Before she died, she mailed a letter to the Franklin Police Department. She said that after Billy disappeared, you told her Scamp would be safe now…even before his body was found in those woods.”
“Because I knew he was dead. We all did.”
“After Sue disappeared, your mother found blood on your Halloween costume.”
“I tripped and cut myself. I told her that.”
“People in Franklin remember seeing you hanging around the forest. Were you visiting Sue’s grave? Reliving her murder? Or finding new hiding spots for new victims, like Richie Gibson?”
“Richie got lost. He disappeared. It happens some?—”
“Your mother said she worried about Richie. She knew you were jealous. She tried to tell herself she was wrong about Sue, that it wasn’t her blood on your costume. Still, she didn’t want Richie going trick-or-treating with you that night. You did take him, though, didn’t you? Your friends said you quit early. You found Mr. Webster and snuck Richie away.”
“That’s not how I remember it.”
“But that’s how it happened.”
Sweat trickled down my temple. I took a deep breath and blurted the truth.
“There’s a monster in that forest. I saw it the night Richie disappeared. I went into the woods to save him, only it wasn’t him—it was a monster. I ran away, and it chased me, and I almost got lost, but I found my way back. Other kids don’t. They lose their way, and they’re never found. The monster takes them. Every year, the monster takes one.”
“No, Dale,” Walker said. “There were only three kids who disappeared in Franklin. Billy was found in the forest a week after he went missing. Sue and Richie were found just last week, with cadaver dogs, after the local police received your mother’s letter. The letter where she confessed to her suspicions. Where she pointed us to the truth.”
“And that truth?” Myles leaned across the table. “The only person who lost his way was you. The only monster in that forest was you.”
They’re wrong. They must be.
Because that’s not how I remember it.
Not at all.
Tarot in the Town Square
When Ellie saw the tarot-card tent, she tried to steer Mina away, but it was already too late. Ellie still made the effort, pretending to have just noticed the food stalls across the town square and making a beeline for them with “Oooh, caramel apples!” Mina only snagged her arm and yanked her back hard enough that Ellie stumbled.
“Do you see that?” Mina whispered, jerking her chin toward the fortune-teller’s tent.
Ellie pretended to squint over in the gathering dark. Then she pulled back with a feigned exclamation of shock.
“Yeah,” Mina whispered. “I wonder who approvedthat.”
The town fair had been organized by the local churches, including the one Mina and Ellie attended, which would definitelynothave authorized a fortune-teller. But there were some less strict churches in town, and someone must have deemed this harmless fun.
“Did you see the caramel—?” Ellie began.
“Brad’s over there,” Mina said. “If he sees you getting a caramel apple, you know what he’s going to say.”
Ellie’s cheeks heated, and she wanted to lift her chin and say she didn’t care what Brad thought of her. But he was with Jin,and she did care what Jin thought. Also, at thirteen, you cared about whateveryonethought, even when you didn’t want to.
Ellie didn’t need some jerk boy snarking about whether she needed a snack or not. The apple could wait. Still, she had to find a distraction?—
“Let’s get our fortunes read,” Mina said.
Ellie lowered her voice to a whisper, her gaze skittering about. “What if someone from church sees us?”
“You worry too much.”
