last booth at the back. Corky and Chip slid in across from her. Sarah Beth ordered tea, while Corky asked for hot chocolate. Chip ordered a Coke float with chocolate ice cream. âI have a craving,â he said, shrugging his broad shoulders in reply to the stares of the other two.
The conversation was awkward at first. Corky began to wonder why she had agreed to come with this complete stranger. Sarah Beth seemed friendly enough. But Corky had an uneasy feeling about her, a suspicion she couldnât put into words.
âWhy do you have to do your gravestone rubbing at night?â she asked Sarah Beth.
Again Sarah Bethâs eyes narrowed, as if the question displeased her. âOh, Iâm just running late, as usual,â she said, stirring her tea. âThe assignment is due tomorrow morning, so of course I waited till the last possible minute.â
It seemed like a perfectly reasonable explanation. But to Corkyâs mind, it just didnât ring true.
âOops! Sorry.â Chip dropped his ice-cream spoon onto the seat. Moving to retrieve it, he accidentally bumped Corkyâs hand.
She cried out in pain, startling Sarah Beth.
âItâs my hand. I ⦠uh ⦠burned it,â Corky explained, holding up her bandaged hand.
Sarah Beth continued to stare at her. For a frightening moment Corky had the feeling that Sarah Beth knew
how
she had burned it.
But of course that was impossible.
Stop being so suspicious, Corky scolded herself.
âPlease tell us about Sarah Fear,â she urged Sarah Beth. âIâm really interested.â
Sarah Beth took a long sip of tea, then set the mug down. She reached for the aluminum sugar dispenser. âOkay, hereâs the little information Iâve been able to find,â she said, pouring a stream of sugar into the tea.
âThere isnât much information available about her. Strangely enough, Iâve been able to find out a lot more about her
death
than about her life.
âShe married a grandson of Simon Fear, a mysterious man who moved to Shadyside and built an enormous mansion back in the woods, away from everyone else inââ
âThatâs the burned-out old shell across from the cemetery,â Chip interrupted, busily scooping ice cream out of the tall soda glass.
âThere wasnât much of a cemetery when Simon built his house,â Sarah Beth replied. âHe was all alone out here for a while. Then they built the mill in this area. Soon after that, the city built a road through the woods, right past the Fear mansion. And it came to be named Fear Street.â
âWow, I never knew any of this,â Corky said, intrigued. âOf course my family is new in town. We just moved here this fall from Missouri. Have you lived in Shadyside a long time? Is that why youâre so interested in the town?â
Sarah Beth took a sip of her tea, staring over thebooths to the front window of the restaurant. âIâve lived here on and off,â she replied curtly.
Am I being too nosy? Corky wondered. Is that why she got so cold?
âAs I said, Sarah Fear married Simonâs grandson. She and her husband lived in a house near Simonâs mansion, a large house on Fear Lake.â
âThatâs the small lake with the island in the middle of it,â Chip explained to Corky. âItâs back in the woods, two or three blocks from your house.â
âAs I mentioned earlier, little is known of Sarah Fearâs life,â Sarah Beth continued, rolling the sugar dispenser between her long, slender hands. âHer husband died suddenly of pneumonia just two years after they were married, leaving her quite wealthy, according to the newspaper reports from the time. She had servants. Her house was always filled with people. After her husband died, her two brothers moved in with her, as did several cousins.
âDespite her wealth, she was never mentioned on the social pages of
Learning to Kill: Stories