Why do you suppose Mother didn’t just throw it away?”
“It wasn’t Mother,” Elizabeth said. “It was Dad who insisted on keeping everything. I think the whole history of the Congers is probably up here somewhere.”
Sarah snorted. “With the history we have, you’d think they’d have wanted to bury it, not store it,” she said. “Isn’t there supposed to be some sort of curse on us or something?”
Elizabeth looked at her sister curiously. “I didn’t know you knew about that,” she said slowly.
“Oh, sure,” Sarah said. “Didn’t you know? It’s all written up in my records, first at White Oaks, then at Ocean Crest. What nonsense. Secret caves and everything.”
“Ray Norton’s still looking,” Elizabeth said.
“Ray Norton?” Sarah said, without any particular interest “Who’s he?”
“The chief of police. Every year he comes out here, searching around in the woods and the embankment.”
“Well,” Sarah said, “I wish he’d find something. Then maybe I could remember those last few weeks and get on with it.” She reached into the bottom of the box. “What’s this?”
She held up a doll, one arm of which was broken off at the shoulder. It was an odd doll, old-fashioned, and dressed in a blue dress with ruffles down the front and around the hem. On its head, framing the faded porcelain face, was a tiny bonnet.
“I don’t remember this,” Sarah said. “Where do you suppose it came from?”
Elizabeth examined it carefully, and an odd feeling came over her. Then she realized that it was the right arm that was missing. Fifteen years ago it had been a child’s right arm that Sarah had dragged across the field from the woods.
“I don’t know,” Elizabeth said, quickly putting the doll down. “I’ve never seen it before either.”
She heard the doorbell sound two floors below, and felt a strange sense of relief at being called out of the attic. She didn’t know why, but the doll had affected her more than she thought it should have.
“Who could that be?” she said. Then, when Sarah started to rise, she spoke again. “Ill get it,” she said. “Why don’t you see if you can find the doll’s other arm? It looks terrible without it.”
Elizabeth left the attic and hurried down the stairs. She paused before she opened the door. “Who is it?” she called.
“Ray Norton,” a voice came back to her.
Elizabeth opened the door and let the police chief in. As soon as she saw his face she knew something was wrong. The blood had drained out of it, and there was a strange look in his eyes.
“What is it?” she said. “Has something happened?”
“Is Sarah with you?” Norton asked.
“She’s upstairs,” Elizabeth replied. “We’ve been poking around the attic. What’s happened?”
“I’m afraid I have some bad news for you,” Norton said. “Can we go into the study?”
“Of course,” Elizabeth said. “Shall I call Sarah?”
“No,” Norton said. “I’d like to talk to you alone.”
“All right,” Elizabeth said. “Go ahead. I just want to run up and tell Sarah I’ll be a while. Will it take long?”
“No.” The old policeman shook his head and started down the hall.
A minute later Elizabeth joined him in the study and closed the door behind her.
“You’ve found something, haven’t you?” she said. “In the woods.”
“We found something,” Norton agreed. “But it wasn’t in the woods. The construction workers broke through the roof of the cave today.”
“The cave?” Elizabeth said blankly. “You mean the cave in the legend? But I thought—we all thought it didn’t exist.”
“I know,” Norton said gently. “But it turns out it does exist.”
“Was—was there anything in it?”
Norton nodded mutely; then, after a pause during which he seemed to be trying to decide how much to tell her, he spoke.
“I know Sarah was supposed to be here for a couple of days, but you’d better take her back to the hospital in the morning,” he said.
“Tomorrow morning?” Elizabeth said. “Why? What did you find?”
“A mess,” Norton said. “There were four skeletons in the cave, and the remains of a dead cat as well. We’ve already identified three of the skeletons. All three of the kids that disappeared fifteen years ago. And Jimmy Tyler’s skeleton was missing a right arm.”
“You said four skeletons,” Elizabeth said softly. “Who is the fourth?”
“We don’t know, Norton said. It appears to be much older than the other three. All we know so far is that it was another child, probably a girl.”
“I see,” Elizabeth said.
“Anyway,” Norton said uncomfortably, “for now we’re keeping it quiet But by tomorrow afternoon the word will be