Whispers from the Dead Read Online Free Page A

called. “I’m Dee Dee Pritchard. We’re next-door neighbors. I saw you leave on your bike, so I waited for you.”
    “I’m Sarah Darnell,” I answered.
    She giggled. “I know that, and I know we’re the same age. Believe me, Mom finds out
everything.
If you’ve got some time, come on in. We can get a Coke or something. I can fill you in on stuff, like the high school and … You
are
going to Memorial High, aren’t you?”
    “I don’t know.” Before Dee Dee began again, I said, “I’ve got to put my bike away and tell Mom where I am. Why don’t you come with me? By this time there’ll be ice in the refrigerator, and I know we’ve got some soft drinks in one of the packing boxes.”
    A peculiar look flickered in Dee Dee’s eyes. Curiosity? Fear? While I was trying to figure it out, she said slowly, “Okay. Sure. I’d like to see what the inside of your house looks like. It’s real modern, isn’t it? I mean, sort of like those pictures of rooms with wide, plain walls in
Architectural Digest
.”
    “I guess so,” I answered, but I was puzzled. “You live right next door. Haven’t you been inside the house?”
    “No,” she answered. “Oh, I sneaked over and looked in the window by the front door when—” She caught herself and quickly shifted the subject. “Have you got a cat or a dog?” she asked. “We’ve got a dog. We named him after my Uncle Billy. He’s really stupid—the dog not Uncle Billy—and a big pain when he’s tearing up aflower bed or some dumb thing like that, but we’re all crazy about him, and …”
    By the time Dee Dee wound down, we had reached the front door. She stopped talking and just stared as I opened it.
    “We’ve got a calico cat named Dinky,” I told Dee Dee. “She’s boarding at the vet’s. Mom thought it would be easier for her while we were moving in.” I could see that Dee Dee wasn’t paying attention to anything I was saying.
    I led the way into the house, and Dee Dee followed slowly. She stood very still just inside the entry hall as I closed the front door behind us, and I could swear that for a moment she stopped breathing. The pale blue pupils of her eyes darted back and forth as she tried to scan every inch of the entry hall.
    “The hall’s kind of plain right now,” I told her, “but Mom has a big potted plant and a large picture that should look good right over there.”
    With an effort Dee Dee looked directly into my eyes. “I’m ready for that Coke,” she said. “Which way is the kitchen?”
    Dad had left for his office already, but Mom was still at home. Mom had worked for years as a legal secretary, but she planned to give herself a month’s vacation before she started job-hunting. I introduced Dee Dee, and while we were finding the Cokes, Mom asked her about the people who had lived here before we bought the house.
    “Holt. That was their name, wasn’t it? Mr. and Mrs. Martin Holt,” Mom said.
    “They weren’t very neighborly,” Dee Dee added quickly. “None of the neighbors knew them very well.”
    “Oh,” Mom said. “I guess I just wondered a little about them—if they had children, things like that.”
    “They had one boy.” Dee Dee’s voice dropped almost to a whisper. “He wasn’t very friendly to most of us. Except he was to a guy down the block—Eric Hendrickson. They were friends.”
    I handed Dee Dee a Coke and a glass filled with ice cubes and motioned toward a chair. She sat on the edge and shifted and squirmed. I was pretty sure it wasn’t the chair that was making her uncomfortable.
    “You’re bound to meet Eric soon,” Dee Dee said to me. “He likes pretty girls.”
    “Will I like him?”
    She shrugged. “He’s okay, I guess, but he did stand up Cyndi Baker once, and she hates him. They were going to a dance at the country club her father belongs to, and she’d bought a new dress and—” I heard Dee Dee shift gears. She was back in safe territory again.
    “If you girls will excuse