She stepped closer and grabbed a fistful of the back of his shirt. “Mom, I’m going to take David and buy him some dinner. We’ll be back in a couple of hours.”
Her mom looked up, a little startled. “It’s after nine.”
“David’s hungry,” she said.
“Starving,” David agreed, smiling.
“And he did drive me down here on a school night,” Laurel added.
Laurel’s mom looked at them doubtfully for a few seconds, then turned her attention back to her sleeping husband. “Don’t try the cafeteria food,” she warned.
“Why are we doing this again?” David asked after they’d driven around for almost an hour looking for the right part of town.
“David, there’s something wrong with that guy. I can feel it.”
“Yeah, but sneaking to his office and peeking in the windows? That’s a little much.”
“Well, what do you expect me to do? Call up and ask him if he’d like to tell me why he creeped me out so badly? That’ll work,” Laurel muttered.
“So what are you going to tell the cops when they arrest us?” David asked sarcastically.
“Oh, come on,” Laurel said. “It’s dark. We’re just going to circle the office, peek into a few windows, and make sure everything looks legit.” She paused. “And if they happen to have left a window open, well, that’s not my fault.”
“You are so nuts.”
“Maybe, but you’re here with me.”
David rolled his eyes.
“This is Sea Cliff,” Laurel said suddenly. “Turn your lights off.”
David sighed but pulled over and killed the lights. In stealth mode, they crept to the end of the cul-de-sac and stopped in front of a dilapidated house that looked like it had been built in the early 1900s.
“That’s it,” Laurel whispered, squinting at the business card and the numbers on the curb.
David peered up at the imposing structure. “This doesn’t look like any real-estate office I’ve ever seen. It looks abandoned.”
“Less chance we’ll get caught, then. Come on.”
David pulled his jacket tighter as they crept around the side of the house and started peeking in the windows. It was dark and the moon was new, but Laurel still felt exposed in her light blue T-shirt. She wished she hadn’t left her black jacket in the car. But if she went back now, she might not have the nerve to return.
The house was an enormous, sprawling structure with slightly newer additions sprouting off from the main building like random appendages. Laurel and David peered into the windows and saw a few bulky, shadowy shapes in the dark rooms—“Old furniture,” David assured her — but the house was mostly empty. “There’s no way he’s actually doing business here,” David said. “Why would he put this address on the business card?”
“Because he’s hiding something,” Laurel whispered back. “I knew it.”
“Laurel, don’t you think we’re in a little over our heads here? We should go back to the hospital and call the police.”
“And tell them what? That a realtor has a fake address on his business card? That’s no crime.”
“Let’s tell your mom, then.”
Laurel shook her head. “She’s desperate to sell. And you saw her with this Barnes guy. It was like he had her in a trance. She just smiled and agreed with everything he said. I’ve never seen her do that before. And that stuff she signed, who knows what it was!” Laurel peered around the corner of a particularly crooked addition and waved at David. “I see a light.”
David hurried to crouch beside her. Sure enough, near the back of the house, light shone through a small window. Laurel shivered.
“Cold?”
She shook her head. “Nervous.”
“Have you changed your mind?”
“No way.” She crawled forward, trying to avoid the large branches and trash strewn across the yard. The window was short enough to peek into while kneeling on the ground, and Laurel and David positioned themselves on either side of it. Blinds covered the glass, but they were warped and easy to see through. They heard voices and movement from inside, but with the window closed, they couldn’t make out any words. Laurel took several calming breaths, then turned her head to look into the window.
She saw Jeremiah Barnes almost immediately, with his imposing figure and strange face. He was sitting at a table working on papers she could only assume he would be bringing for her mother to sign in the morning. There were two other men standing together, throwing darts at the wall. If Barnes was unattractive, these two were downright grotesque. Their skin hung on their faces as though not properly attached and their mouths were twisted into severe grins. One of the men’s faces was a mess of scars and discoloration and, even from across the room, she could tell one eye was nearly white and the other almost black. The other had bright red hair that grew in a strange patchy pattern that even his hat couldn’t completely hide.
“Laurel.” David was waving her over to his side of the window. She ducked under the sill and peered in from the other angle. “What the hell is that?”
Chained at the far side of the room was something that looked half human, half animal. Its face was twisted lumps of flesh patched together almost at random. Large, crooked teeth poked out between its lips from a distended jaw topped by a bulbous monstrosity that might have been a nose. It was vaguely humanoid, and Laurel could see scraps of clothing wrapped around its shoulders and abdomen. But a collar lined its corded neck, giving it the appearance of a bizarre house pet. The hulking form slouched on a dirty mat, apparently sleeping.
Laurel’s fingernails dug into the windowsill as she stared at the thing. Her breath came in ragged gasps, and somehow she couldn’t look away. Just when she thought she might be able to gather the nerve to turn her head, one blue eye cracked open and met hers.
LAUREL THREW HERSELF AWAY FROM THE WINDOW. “IT looked at me.”
“Do you think it saw you?”
“I don’t know. But we have to go. Now!” She heard guttural noises from inside and her knees felt glued to the ground.
The two men yelled at the creature to shut up, but Barnes silenced them with a loud word Laurel didn’t recognize. A gentle crooning followed, and within seconds the howling of the strange creature had quieted.
Laurel leaned back toward the window but felt a small tug at the back of her shirt. She turned.
David shook his head at her and pointed to the car.
Laurel paused, but she wasn’t quite satisfied. She held up one finger to David and snuck one more peek through the side of the window.
Her eyes met the mismatched gaze of Jeremiah Barnes.
“Go!” she hissed to David, and launched herself toward the front of the house. But before she got more than a step away, she heard the glass shatter and felt a large hand grab her by the neck, yanking her through the window into the filthy room. Rough fingers scraped at her throat as she felt the wooden window frame break against her back.
Then she was flying. She screamed for just an instant before she hit the wall on the opposite side of the room. Her head spun. Distantly she heard a grunt from David as he hit the wall beside her. Laurel tried to focus as the room around her seemed to spin. David reached out and pulled her to him, and she felt a trail of hot blood drip onto her shoulder.
The room finally stopped spinning, and she looked up into Barnes’s jeering face. “What have we here?” He smiled cruelly. “Sarah’s little girl. I’ve heard more about you today than I ever wanted to know.”
Laurel opened her mouth to retort, but David squeezed her arm. Laurel felt a thick, syrupy liquid trail down from the stinging wound on her back and wondered how much damage the window frame had done.
“Good girl, Bess,” Barnes said, patting the strange animal on her half-balding head. Then he dropped to a crouch beside Laurel and David. “Why are you here?” he asked in a soft yet commanding voice. Laurel felt her mouth begin to open of its own accord. “We…we had to find out why you…why you—” Then she managed to grab hold of her wits, forced her mouth shut, and glared at Barnes.
