Silent Night 3(6)

After a moment, a maid pulled the door open slightly and peered out at them. “Yes?”

“Hi. Remember me? I’m Pam, Reva’s cousin,” Pam told her. “She’s expecting us.” She picked up her shopping bag and waited for the maid to pull the door all the way open.

But the maid didn’t move. “I’m sorry. There must be some mistake,” she said.

“What do you mean?” Pam asked.

“I mean Miss Dalby isn’t home.”

“What? I just talked to her ten minutes ago,” Pam protested. “She knew we were coming.”

“I don’t know anything about that,” the maid informed her. “All I know is that Miss Dalby and her friend left five minutes ago.”

“But she told us to come over!” Pam insisted.

The maid shook her head. “Maybe you misunderstood her. I’ll be sure to tell her you were here.” She closed the door, leaving Pam and Willow alone on the cold stone porch.

Willow tossed her head. “Looks like the princess had something more important to do than talk to us.”

“Right.” Pam’s face burned with anger. “There was no ‘mistake’!” she cried, as she and Willow started back toward the car. “And I didn’t ‘misunderstand’ anything! Reva knew we were coming. She just wanted to put me in my place. Why does she always do this to me?”

Willow turned and glanced back at the mansion, her pale blue eyes narrowed. “Don’t worry,” she muttered. “We’ll find a way to pay her back.”

Pam stared at her. “What? What did you say?”

“Nothing.” Willow cracked her gum and smiled grimly. “Nothing at all.”





Chapter 4





NIGHT TERRORS


Reva stood on the main floor of Dalby’s Department Store and gazed around nervously.

I shouldn’t have come here to pick Daddy up. I should have let the driver bring him home.

The store stood empty, closed for the day. The main lights had been turned off and the dim security lights cast long shadows over the glass counters.

I shouldn’t have come here, Reva thought again. Being in the store after closing still gives me the creeps.

Turning quickly, Reva glanced behind her. No one stood there, aiming a gun, ready to kill her. It’s over, she reminded herself. The kidnapping happened a year ago.

Go upstairs and get Daddy. He’s waiting.

Reva gave herself a shake, then started across the darkened floor into the cosmetics department.

What was that noise?

Reva spun around again.

No one.

Running her hand along the cool glass of a perfume counter, Reva hurried through the cosmetics department. She crossed an aisle and began making her way past racks of winter coats and displays of sweaters.

A group of shadowy, dark-coated figures suddenly loomed up in front of her.

Gasping, Reva stumbled backward into a rack of parkas. The heavy jackets seemed to close in on her. She frantically batted at them and scrambled away.

The figures were still there.

They didn’t move or come after her. They just stared down at her with glassy eyes in their stony faces.

Glassy eyes.

Smooth, stony faces.

Mannequins.

Reva let out a shaky breath. She’d been terrified by a bunch of plastic mannequins.

Scolding herself, she continued through the clothing department.

More mannequins arranged in fashion-model poses peered down at her as she made her way toward the bank of elevators on the far wall.

When she reached it, she stopped, confused and stunned.

The elevators had disappeared.

The wall was totally solid.

What was going on? The elevators had to be here!

Reva ran her hands along the wall. No gleaming elevator doors, no shiny buttons to push.

Had she gotten turned around in the darkness?

It didn’t seem possible, but . . .

Reva gasped as a tune began to crackle from the loudspeakers.

“Silent Night.”

Reva shivered with fright. The same song had played the night of the kidnapping. The night she’d almost been killed.

And now it was playing again.

“Silent Night.”

Her heartbeat drummed in her ears. Sweat broke out on her forehead.

She had to get upstairs. Get her father. And get out of here!

The music seemed to grow louder as Reva hurried back through the clothing department toward the opposite side of the store.

Past the hovering mannequins, through the racks of coats, and back into the cosmetics department.

Find the elevators and get out of here!

The music soared. It was getting louder!

Breaking into a run, Reva knocked into a display of perfume bottles. Glass shattered on the polished floor. A sweet, overpowering scent rose into the air.

Reva kept running.

The music pounded in her ears.

Reva dashed past a display of designer makeup and raced toward the far wall.