"If she didn't, I want them to let her go. And I want them to let Shannon and Laura go, too."

"Don't want much, do you?"

"If they want you back, they'll let 'em go."

She chuckled, patted her cut with the towel, then began drying herself below the cut. "You want to trade me for them, is that it?"

"That's the idea. Do you think it'll work?"

She shrugged. "Might." Running the towel down her right leg, she bent over and Hunter watched how her breasts hung from her chest and swayed. "You never know. I'm pretty popular... at least with the guys in the group." She straightened up, then bent over again and dried her left leg. "Yeah, they might go for a trade. It 's sure worth a try. Hell, I'm all for it."

Done drying herself, she tossed the towel to the floor.

Hunter backed away from the door as she walked toward him He stopped with his rump against the newel post at the top of the stairway. He held the sword in his right hand, its point resting on the floor near his foot.

In the doorway, Eleanor stopped. She casually leaned sideways Right shoulder against the door frame, she crossed her ankles, folded her arms beneath her breasts, and said, "Trading me isn't the best way to get 'em back, though. If you wanta play it really safe, we oughta gather up a few kids and take them along. Shouldn't be too hard to get our hands on some ankle-biters. I mean, it's Halloween." A smile spread across her face. "They're all over the place. I'll help you grab a few and we can take 'em out to the graveyard and trade 'em in for Connie and your other two friends."

"Kids? Children?"

"The younger the better," Eleanor said.

"What do they want kids for? What the hell are they doing out there? Why do they want anyone?"

"You know, for the ceremony The midnight sacrifices."

CHAPTER FIFTEEN.

From the rear, Mandy said, "We might want to stand still till we figure out where we're going."

Bret, a few paces in front of Jeff and Rhonda, raised an open hand and called out, "Halt."

They stopped, spread apart on the sidewalk and turned toward Mandy and Phyllis.

"Thank you," Mandy said. Looking into Rhonda's eyes, she-said, "Now here's what I think. I think we should go back to where you stopped to tie your shoe. We start from there and retrace your steps."

"Sounds good to me," Jeff said.

Frowning, Rhonda said, "I'm not sure I know where that was."

"I know how to make you remember," Bret said. "I'll hypnotize you. You can always remember everything when you get hypnotized."

"Get real," Phyllis told him.

"It's true."

"So what if it is true, you don't know how to hypnotize anyone."

"Well, I sorta know how to try."

"What do you remember about the house?" Mandy asked Rhonda.

"Well, it had a really long driveway. It's the house where the woman told me about the kid who'd gotten chased."

"What did she look like?"

"Gosh... She was about my size, only older. I guess she was sort of pretty. She had light brown hair and it was cut short... pixie style, you know?"

"Any distinguishing marks?"

"Good one," Phyllis muttered.

"I don't guess so," Rhonda said. "Not that I noticed."

"What was she wearing?"

"Oh, that I can tell you. A long-sleeved white blouse, open at the throat, and brown corduroy pants. I'm not sure about her shoes. She might've had sneakers on. Or maybe she was barefoot. I really don't know."

"Doesn't ring any bells with me," Jeff admitted. Glancing around at the kids, he asked, "Does she sound like anyone we saw tonight?"

Mandy shook her head. Phyllis shrugged, then reached into the open top of her gown and adjusted one of her fake breasts.

"Oh, something else," Rhonda said. "She had paint on her. The woman. Like on her hands, and some on her blouse, and she even had a little smudge on one cheek, like she'd touched her face with a painty finger."

"Laura does paintings," Bret pointed out.

"Who?" Jeff asked.

"Laura who lives in the old Witherspoon house," Mandy explained.

"Yeah, her," Bret said. "Maybe she's the one."

Mandy said, "Remember it, Dad? That was the big old house where we heard them inside but nobody came to the door. We thought maybe they'd run out of candy or gotten tired of trick or treaters, or something. Anyway, you made us leave."

"It did have a really long driveway," Phyllis pointed out.

Mandy turned to Rhonda. "The house where your shoe cam untied, was it like all by itself on a dead-end street?"

"It was! It sure was! There was the dead-end over to one side. I remember it, the barricade? And woods all around. And the nearest other houses were maybe half a block away and across the street."

Mandy nodded. "That's where we need to go. The old Witherspoon house."

Bret grinned. "Gonna go and see Laura and Shannon?"

"Well," Jeff said, "I suppose we'll start looking somewhere near there, anyway."

"Grrrrrr-ate!"

"Don't get your hopes up, dwarf," Phyllis said. "We won't be ringing their doorbell."

"We will, too. Won't we, Dad?"

"We'll see," Jeff told him.

" 'We'll see,' " Phyllis mimicked. "That's grown-up for 'No way in hell, dickhead.' "

Weary of Phyllis, Jeff said, "As a matter of fact, since they didn't answer their door when we went there the first time, maybe we should give it another try. No harm in that."

"We can ask if they've seen Gary and Rosie and Doug," Bret said.

Naturally, he would remember the names of the missing kids.

"Who says they'll even come to the door?" Phyllis asked.

"Didn't last time."

"Oh, they will. They're my friends. I'm pretty sure they are."

When Bret said that, Rhonda reached over to him and ruffled his hair. He beamed at her.

Mandy watched, a strange look on her face as if she didn't know whether to be amused or troubled. A corner of her mouth twitched. Then she turned to Jeff, "Do you know where it is?"

"Where what is?"

"Jeez, Dad. The Witherspoon house."

"Yeah, I think so."

"You don't know, do you?"

"I'm sure I can find it," he said. "I mean, we were just there. Not just there, but..."

"I'll lead the way," Mandy said. "I know exactly where it is." She gestured for her father to move. He stepped aside. She went striding between him and Rhonda, saying, "Follow me."

Out front, Bret shifted his treat bag to his other hand and took hold of his sister's hand.

Jeff smiled at Rhonda. "Mandy," he said, "has a thing about being in control."

"She seems to be very smart," said Rhonda.

"Oh, she is. She might or might not be as smart as she thinks she is, but she is smart."

Mandy glanced over her shoulder. "I heard that."

"Sorry."

CHAPTER SIXTEEN.

"I'm not gonna trade kids for them," Hunter said.

"Suit yourself."

"That'd be sick."

"Up to you," she said.

"I'll trade you back to your group, that's all." He stepped away from the upstairs newel post and put on his shoes. "Let's get you something to wear first."

She smiled. "You don't really wanta do that, do you?" Still standing in the bathroom doorway, leaning sideways with her arms and ankles crossed, she gave her shoulders a little shake. Hunter watched her breasts wobble from side to side.

"Gotta... Shannon's stuff might fit you."

"Up to you." Eleanor uncrossed her ankles, nudged the door fame with an elbow, and stood up straight.

"That way." Hunter pointed down the hallway with the sword. "If s that room there. You go first."

She started walking. "Just don't let something get me, okay? My ass gets killed in this spook house, I won't make much of a trade-in."

"I'll take care of you," Hunter followed her down the hallway toward Shannon's bedroom "That door there," he said.

It was the door he'd stood behind when trying to hide from Laura and Shannon - the door that had concealed him while Shannon wandered around naked, talking to him, trying to tempt him out of hiding though she hadn't realized he was in the same room with her.

Eleanor stepped through the doorway. Hunter went in behind her. The bedroom's lights were still on.

A few strides into the room, Eleanor turned around and faced him. Smirking, she said, "What would you like me to wear?"

"Doesn't matter. You just can't go around like that. We'll be outside. Somebody might see you."

"Not too likely if we go out the back. Nothing between here and the graveyard. Just trees and darkness. But I guess you know that, don't you?"

He nodded. "You need to put on something anyway."

"If you say so." Eleanor turned around and walked toward the closet. Its door was wide open, its light on. As she neared it, she raised an arm as if to reach in for a hanging garment. But she suddenly stopped. She lowered her arm and stood there, not moving.