April’s own bygone Halloween costumes—witches, vampires, ghosts,and such—paled by comparison.
April also admired how well Jilly was playing the part, lurchingand limping along with her arms wildly twisted, growling hoarsely and fiercelyat passersby and the people who answered doors. She really did look and act asthough she’d just dug herself out of a grave.
She’s really trying to make the best of things, April thought.She was sorry that it might be turning out to be a disappointment.
Watching from the sidewalk, April saw a smiling middle-aged womananswer the doorbell and squeal with feigned delight to see the costumedchildren. She noticed that Jilly was standing back from the others, no longergoing through her zombie act. She seemed to be just waiting for it all to beover.
The poor kid, April thought. We should talk about thislater.
April liked playing the role of the emotionally supportive bigsister, offering sympathy and understanding based on her own experiences as akid. But with a pang, she realized that conversation wasn’t likely to happentonight. Or maybe ever again.
Her little sister was growing up. Most of the time, Jilly made ashow of being independent and self-sufficient—too grown up for her big sister’shelp. April was starting to miss the days when Jilly had first joined thefamily.
I guess this is what it feels like to get older, Aprilthought sadly.
She turned at the sound of voices and saw three kids her own agewalking along the other side of the street. They weren’t wearing costumes, andshe shuddered as she recognized them from her own school.
Oh, no, she thought as she realized they’d spotted her.
How much teasing was she going to have to take for getting stuckwith this babysitting job?
“Hey, April, what’s up?” called Ted Kirkland as the group cametoward her.
April forced a smile.
“Not much,” she said. “Just helping my sister survivetrick-or-treating.”
Ted smiled a rakish smile that April had long admired.
He practically owns cute, she thought.
Ted was a track athlete and student council president, and heeven fronted his own band—a high school star in every possible way. He was socool that April hadn’t really dared even have a crush on him. She couldn’tremember him ever walking up to her and talking to her like this. April hadn’timagined that she’d ever registered on his social radar.
With him was his gawky, chinless sidekick Ian Black, as well asAndrea Fife and Lily Berry, each of whom was gazing at Ted with adolescentlonging.
Ted said to April, “We’re heading on over to Scarlet Gray’s party.You’ll be there too, right?”
April fought down a moan of despair.
I should have known, she thought.
Ted and his companions were on their way to the very party thatMom had told her not to attend.
Ian added with a note of awe in his reedy voice, “It’s reallygoing to be a big deal. Scarlet’s got a huge rec room, and absolutelyeveryone is going to be there.”
April gulped hard and said, “I can’t. As you can see, I’m kind ofoccupied this evening.”
April shuddered again as Andrea and Lily giggled and whispered toeach other, obviously amused by her current plight.
Ted shrugged and said, “Bring your sister along.”
April tried to keep her jaw from dropping. The possibility hadn’toccurred to her.
“I can’t,” she said. “That’s going to be really late and we don’thave a ride home.”
“No problem,” Ted said. “I live really close to Scarlet. When you’reready to go home, I’ll walk you over to my house, and then I can drive you bothhome in my dad’s car.”
April felt a little dizzy.
Ted Kirkland is offering to drive us home, she thought.
It felt like a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
But she remembered what her mother had said the day beforeyesterday.
“You’re not going to any party. You’re still grounded.”
Feeling almost ready to cry, she said, “Sorry, I just can’t.”
Ted seemed about to protest, but Andrea and Lily were tugging athim to get moving.
“Hope you change your mind,” Ted called back as he headedoff with his companions.
They quickly disappeared down the street.
April felt so frustrated, she thought she might explode.
This is just unacceptable, she thought.
But what was she going to do about it?
CHAPTER THIRTY
As she drove back into the Aurora Groves neighborhood, Riley wasworried by what she saw. She wasn’t bothered by the brightly lit jack-o’-lanternsand other Halloween images that decorated so many houses and lawns. The swayingghosts and glowing skeletons were innocent enough. It was the number of youngpeople out on the streets that bothered her. She sympathized with the plainclothescops she saw trying to herd them up and send them home.
It was obvious that Sheriff Wightman’s curfew wasn’t having mucheffect. And now she wondered—had it been such a good idea to give the publicthe impression that the killer had been caught? She hadn’t realized howcasually they would decide to defy the sheriff’s curfew. At least in thisneighborhood, people didn’t seem to be used to taking these sorts of orders.
As things were turning out, she thought that Ann Marie hadprobably been right to criticize her scheme. Maybe Riley should have listenedto her instead of sending her away. Not that there was much to be done aboutthat now. Ann Marie had surely long since gotten back to Quantico. Riley wasdefinitely working without a partner tonight.
Following the curving streets of Aurora Groves, she soon arrivedat the location she was looking for. She parked her car and got out, then stoodlooking over the grassy, sparsely wooded area of Garfield Park where she’d beentwo nights ago. If she was right, the Goatman killer might well be choosing histargets from this very piece of public land.
The last time she’d been here at night, the park had been emptyof people, but tonight there was a lot of activity out there beneath the trees.She headed toward the movement to see what was happening.
She tensed up when she heard a child’s voice squeal.
But the next thing she heard was laughter.
Kids
