But this isn't them, Hunter told himself. I heard their voices. They were kids.

But the boyfriends might show up any second.

Hunter wondered if he could get them to help. If they cared at all about Shannon and Laura, they'd probably be willing to help him.

Help me?

Go to the rescue.

Go to the rescue?

A chill scurried through his body.

They can save Shannon and Laura, I'll save Connie.

But it would be just the three of us against maybe a dozen of those creeps.

We can do it if we take them by surprise.

He noticed Shannon's remote phone on the floor near her chair. Staring at it, he realized he ought to forget about trying to pull off some sort of glorious rescue - might get myself killed - and just call the police instead.

What if they think I had something to do with all this?

He shifted the sword to his left hand, crouched and picked up the phone. It made no sound at all. Eleanor had probably used it last, shut it off and thrown it down after hearing him try the upstairs phone.

He thumbed the talk button. A tiny red dot of light appeared. He brought the phone closer to his ear and heard a dial tone.

"HUNTER!".

Startled by the distant outcry, he jumped and dropped the phone and whirled around.

"HUNTER! HELP!".

Panic in the voice. Eleanor's voice?

He raced for the stairs.

What the hell is she yelling about?

He leaped up the stairs, took them three at a time.

Might be a trick.

It probably is a trick, he told himself. What could be so wrong in that room that it would freak out Eleanor?

She screamed.

The terrified sound of it almost made Hunter scream. Throat tight, skin crawling, he sprang to the top of the stairs and lurched around the newel post. Sword raised overhead with both hands, he ran down the hall.

No more outcries or screams... just wild thumping sounds.

Skidding to a halt in front of the room, he glimpsed enough through the doorway to know it wasn't a trick. Eleanor had gotten herself loose, but...

He rushed in.

Legs kicking, she was being dragged on her back by the electrical cord. Its loop was around her neck. The length of the cord was stretched taut, close to the floor, at a slight upward angle. Plug first, it was moving slowly toward the nearest electrical outlet, towing her.

But only Eleanor was touching the cord - clutching it with both hands just above her head, holding on as it dragged her, kicking and twisting across the floor.

Her face was flushed and sweaty, her eyes bulging, her tongue sticking out.

Hunter thought, No way.

Then he rushed into the room, hurried past Eleanor's thrashing body and chopped downward with the sword. Midway between her hands and the plug, the cord leaped apart. The blade chomped into the floor. And Eleanor came to a halt, fingers digging into the loop around her neck.

She pulled it off and threw it aside. Sprawled on her back, she-gasped for air.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN.

Worried but not yet alarmed, Jeff hurried up the sidewalk with the girl keeping pace beside him.

"I'm Rhonda, by the way," she said. "Rhonda Gale."

"Hi, Rhonda. I'm Jeff."

Where are they?

"Gale, that's my last name. I'm not like Rhonda Gale Something. Just Rhonda Gale."

"Oh. Okay."

Far ahead of him, one house from the end of the block, Bret and Mandy and Phyllis came down from a driveway and gathered on the sidewalk.

Thank God.

"There they are," Jeff said.

All three of the kids turned toward him. The smallest of them, ret, waved.

"Wait for me!" Jeff shouted at them. "Don't go anywhere!"

They stayed. Probably not so much from obedience to Jell as from curiosity about the girl walking with him.

He looked at the girl. "So tell me what happened, Rhonda."

She shrugged both shoulders "I don't know what happened. I wish I did. They got away from me."

"Who did?"

"My little brother and... two of his friends. I was taking them around, you know? I was supposed to take care of 'em." As she said that, her voice broke. She was crying again, making quick, soft gasping sounds.

"It's all right," Jeff said. He reached behind her and patted her on the back. "I'm sure they're fine."

He realized he was a thirty-seven-year-old man with his hand on the back of a teenaged girl and he only meant to comfort her but the way things had gotten to be in recent years, the slightest little touch or glance or comment might be viewed as sexual misconduct or abuse.

He took his hand off Rhonda's back. "What are their names?" he asked.

Rhonda sniffed, rubbed her nose. "My brother, he's Gary. The others are Doug and Rosie." With a sleeve of her cheerleader sweater, she wiped her wet cheeks. "They're brother and sister, Doug and Rosie."

"How old?"

"They're all in first grade... six, I guess." She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "I know Gary's six. Guess the others are, too."

"My Bret's eight," Jeff said.

"My parents are gonna kill me."

"No they won't. Everything'll be fine."

"Hey!" Phyllis called out when they were still more than twenty feet away. "You're Rhonda Gale!"

"Hi," Rhonda said.

Phyllis turned and whispered something in Mandy's ear. Mandy nodded. Bret complained, "Isn't polite to whisper."

Ignoring him, Phyllis continued to whisper.

To Rhonda, Bret said, "Hi."

"Hi there," said Rhonda.

"My son, Bret," Jeff explained. "And the one in the poodle skirt's my daughter, Mandy."

Mandy nudged Phyllis aside and said, "Pleased to meet you."

"Hi, Mandy."

"And Elvira there, she's Phyllis."

"I'm not Elvira," she said, frowning. Then she cast a large smile at Rhonda and stepped up to her, extending a hand. "It's so nice to meet you."

Rhonda shook her hand, and Phyllis kept it, pumping it vigorously.

"I'm a huge fan. I've been to all the games. I'm Jason Filbert's sister. You know Jason?"

Rhonda nodded.

"You're the best on the whole squad, everybody says so. The prettiest, too."

"Well, thanks."

"I'm gonna be on the squad when / get to be in high school."

"It just takes a lot of hard work," Rhonda said. "I'm sure you'll make it if you really give it all you've got."

This is a very nice girl, Jeff thought.

Then Phyllis said, "You go with Brad Farris."

"Used to."

"Did you break up with him?"

"Phyllis," Jeff said. "Calm down and stop asking questions."

"Don't you know who she is?"

I do now.

To Phyllis, Rhonda said, "Say hi to Jason for me, okay?"

"Oh, I will."

Rhonda retrieved her hand.

"He'll wanta just die when he finds out he missed you. He could've been here, but he had better things to do. That's 'cause he didn't wanta go around with his 'punk sister,' meaning me. This'll teach him."

"You've got to excuse Phyllis," Mandy said. "She gets easily carried away."

"I'm not carried away."

Bret chuckled.

"So how come you broke up with Brad?"

"Hold the phone," Jeff said. "Look, kids, there's a problem. Rhonda was out with her brother and a couple of other little kids and now she doesn't know where they are. Two boys and a girl, all six years old."

"What're they wearing?" asked Mandy. Her tone was no-nonsense; she was on the case.

"Gary, my brother, he's a clown. Doug's dressed up like Dracula and Rosie's a tramp."