He’s too determined for that, she thought.
In fact, if he was somewhere nearby right now, maybe evenwatching her, he might be thrilled by the presence of an FBI agent. He mightconsider it some sort of challenge. If so, his overconfidence might yet proveto be his undoing. He might even get careless and show himself. If nobody elsecame along, perhaps he’d even try to come after Riley herself. A female FBIagent might prove to be irresistible bait to the kind of killer Riley sensedhim to be.
She went back to the spot where she’d been lying in wait anddisappeared back into the shadows.
I’ll just have to wait some more, she thought.
She crouched, watching keenly in all directions.
She was sure the killer would be out tonight. He would try totake someone and murder them. She had no way to guess who that might be.
Or where it might be.
If the Goatman killer wasn’t going to turn up here, then wherecould he be?
*
April’s frustration grew as she waited for Jilly and the costumedkids to visit yet another house. She kept thinking of Ted calling out to her ashe and his three friends walked away.
“Hope you change your mind.”
She growled under her breath.
If only it were up to me, she thought.
But then again, she considered, maybe it was up to her.Ted had said that Jilly would also be welcome at the party. What would be theharm of taking her? She knew the kind of kids who were likely to be there. Shedidn’t expect any drugs or drinking—nothing that her little sister needed to beprotected from. What would be the harm …?
When Jilly and her friends came back, April pulled her sisteraside. She saw that Jilly’s purple tote bag with a picture of a ghost on it wasbulging.
April smiled at her sister and said, “Quite a bit of loot you’vegot there, huh?”
She could hear Jilly sigh behind her zombie mask.
“I guess.”
“How much more do you want to get?”
“I don’t know.”
Again, April realized that Jilly really wasn’t having the greattime she’d hoped to have trick-or-treating. She hoped that maybe Jilly wasready to call it quits.
“Hey, how would you like to go somewhere else?” April asked.
“Where?” Jilly muttered, without any sign of enthusiasm.
“To a party?” April said.
“What kind of party?” Jilly asked.
April said cautiously, “It’s the one … well, you know. The one Imentioned a couple of days ago.”
“You mean the one Mom said you’re not supposed to go to?”
April nodded nervously. Then she heard Jilly gasp behind hermask.
“You mean an honest-to-God high school party, with seniors andjuniors and everything? I’m in!”
Unable to keep a note of guilt out of her voice, April added, “OK,but you know I’m supposed to be grounded, so … we can’t tell Mom about this.”
“I won’t say a word,” Jilly said. “But …”
“But what?” April said, worried about what Jilly was about tosay.
“What about Gabriela? She’ll be expecting us at home.”
April fought down a discouraged sigh. How could she haveforgotten about Gabriela?
April said, “Um, I guess I’ll call her and …”
“And what? Tell her we’re going to a party Mom said not to go to?”
“Not exactly,” April said.
“What, then?”
April didn’t reply. Instead, she took out her cell phone andcalled home.
When Gabriela answered, April gathered up her courage and said, “Hey,Gabriela, Jilly and I might be out longer than we’d expected.”
A deafening silence followed. April could positively feelGabriela frowning at her.
“How much longer?” Gabriela finally said.
April felt flustered.
“Oh … we don’t know exactly, it’s just …”
“Are you still trick-or-treating?” Gabriela interrupted.
“Yes,” April said.
As soon as the word was out, April more than half-wished shecould take it back. Of course, it wasn’t completely untrue. She and Jilly weretechnically still trick-or-treating at this very moment. At least they weren’ton their way to the party just yet. Nevertheless, April always found it hard tobe less than completely honest with Gabriela—actually a lot harder than it waswith Mom.
And she doubted very much that Gabriela believed her.
Another silence fell. Then Gabriela said firmly, “I expect youhome in an hour.”
April gulped down a gasp.
An hour?
That would give them hardly any time at the party at all. But sheknew she was in no position to negotiate.
“OK,” she said. “Bye.”
Gabriela said nothing, which made it really awkward for April toend the call.
As April put her phone away, Jilly asked, “So what did she say?”
“We’ve got to be home in an hour,” April said.
“An hour!” Jilly moaned with dismay. “We’ll get there just intime to leave.”
April shrugged and said, “Hey, don’t gripe at me about it. Do youwant to call Gabriela back and get her to change her mind?”
Jilly shook her head and looked down at the ground.
She looks like one discouraged zombie, thought April.
Then April said, “Look, it’s not much more than a ten-minute walkfrom here. We can get there in time to have some fun.”
“So where is this party exactly?” Jilly asked.
When April told her the address, Jilly seemed to perk up again.
“Hey, we can make it there in less than ten minutes,” Jilly said,pointing down the street. “All we’ve got to do is cut through that park.”
April looked where Jilly was pointing. She knew the park well,and it appeared to be reasonably well-lighted. Even so, she felt uneasy aboutthis shortcut. She wasn’t even sure how much time it would save them.
“Jilly, I don’t know …” she said.
Jilly was jumping from one foot to another with agitation.
“Come on, April. I was just starting to take you for a reallycool big sister. Don’t disillusion me now.”
April swallowed down her anxiety.
“OK,” she said. “But let’s get a move on. It’s only a shortcut ifwe hurry.”
April took off toward the park at a trot while Jilly skippedalong beside her, somehow managing not to spill any of her candy in her hasteand excitement.
As they followed the paved path, April realized that their routewas going to be quite a bit darker than she’d expected. A couple of lamps upahead had gone out. Feeling a bit nervous, she
