staying to buy an article or two out of guilt more than need.
Ray Norton was beginning to cite the cars that were habitually overparked on the square; he had decided on Thursday morning that an investigation of a missing child should not be used as an excuse for overlooking less serious matters.
Things were getting back to normal.
Mrs. Goodrich was once more in the laundry room, and when she saw the extra sets of filthy clothes she shook her head ruefully. She thought about separating them from the rest of the laundry and bringing them up again to Miz Rose, then remembered what had happened the last time she had taken such action. She decided it would be wasted effort. So she put the soiled clothing in a tub and added extra soap and bleach to them as they soaked. Two hours later, when they came out of the dryer, they were as clean as new. As clean as Mrs. Goodrich’s demanding standards called for.
Outside the Port Arbello school, Elizabeth Conger stood uncertainly, searching the faces of the children as they emerged from the building. For a moment she thought she might have missed the one she was watching for. Then she suddenly smiled and waved. When there was no response from the object of her efforts, she called. “Jimmy,” she yelled. A small boy looked up. “Over here,” she called, waving once again.
Jimmy Tyler was small for his age, but not by so much that it was a strong disadvantage to him. It was only an inch, and his father had told him that by the time he reached his next birthday he would surely be as big as the other eight-year-olds. But when you are seven, eight seems like a long way off, so Jimmy made up for his slight disadvantage in size by being more agile than anybody else. Particularly in climbing. Jimmy Tyler would climb anything, and one of his favorite sports was climbing higher and faster than any of his friends. Then he could look down on them, and that made him feel good.
He looked up when he heard his name, and saw Elizabeth Conger waving at him. He waved back, then saw that she was waiting for him. He hurried his step.
“Want to walk home with me?” Elizabeth asked him. The Tylers lived even farther out the Point Road than the Congers, and this week, much to Jimmy’s surprise and pleasure, Elizabeth had been waiting for him each afternoon, and walking home with him. He liked Elizabeth, even though she was a giri. He supposed that, since she was almost twice as old as he, that didn’t count Anyway, none of his friends had teased him about walking with a girl yet.
“Okay,” he said brightly.
They walked silently for most of the way, and it wasn’t until they were in front of the Stevenses’ house that Jimmy spoke.
“This is where it happened, isn’t it?” he said curiously.
“Where what happened?” Elizabeth asked.
“This is where Kathy Burton disappeared,” Jimmy said, his young voice expressing no particular reaction to Kathy’s disappearance.
“I don’t know,” Elizabeth said. “I guess it must be.”
“Do you suppose they got her?” Jimmy asked, pointing to the ugly old house above the sea.
“No, I don’t,” Elizabeth said flatly. “Those people aren’t like the Barneses were.”
“Well,” Jimmy said doubtfully. “I still don’t like that house.”
“I used to think it was haunted,” Elizabeth said, teasing him, “when I was your age.”
“I don’t believe in ghosts,” Jimmy said, wondering whether he did or not.
“You don’t?” Elizabeth said, but there was a new sound in her voice, as if she was suddenly talking more to herself than to Jimmy. “I didn’t used to, but now I’m not so sure.”
“Why?” Jimmy said.
Elizabeth seemed to jump back into the here and now. “What?” she asked.
“I said, why?” Jimmy asked again. “Why do you believe in them now if you didn’t used to?”
“Oh,” Elizabeth said. “I don’t know.” She suddenly felt uncomfortable, and quickened her pace. Jimmy Tyler almost had to trot to keep up with her.
“Slow down,” he said finally. “I can’t keep up.”
They were near the woods now, and Elizabeth paused, staring into the trees.
“If anything’s haunted around here, it’s in there,” she said.
“In the woods?” Jimmy asked. “Why would anybody want to haunt a woods?”
“Because of something that happened there. Something bad, a long time ago.”
“What happened?” Jimmy demanded.
“I don’t know,” Elizabeth said. “I almost know, but I don’t know yet.”
“Will you tell me when you find out?” Jimmy’s voice