The Whispers by Lisa Unger Read Free Book Online

with this than the alternatives. Speaking of which—how are you doing?
    •    •    •
    Detective Muldune knocked on her door at five to midnight. It was a loud, insistent knock that woke both Amanda and her instantly.
    “Who is it?” Amanda whispered. She was still sleeping in Eloise’s bed, a habit Eloise had no intention of trying to break right now.
    “I have no idea,” she said. As Eloise climbed down the stairs, she saw the flashing lights in her driveway, Detective Muldune standing on her porch with his shield out. Eloise experienced a dump of fear. Oh, G od , she thought. I knew all sorts of things I shouldn’t know. Maybe they think I had something to do with it?
    “Mrs. Montgomery, can you open the door? Detective Ray Muldune of The Hollows PD.”
    She pulled it open, aware that Amanda, who was creeping down the stairs behind her, had come to sit on the middle step. Was Amanda going to have to witness Eloise being hauled off by the police?
    “Can I help you?” she asked.
    “I don’t know,” he said. “ Can you?”
    The desperation was coming off of him in waves. She saw that he was alone; there were no other cars, just his empty prowler in the driveway, red lights silently spinning.
    “We can’t find her,” he said. “We have no leads. Her parents are beside themselves. We’ve had people out looking for nearly forty-eight hours. Time is running out.”
    Eloise shook her head. She thought her job was finished; she didn’t know what to say. Was she supposed to help him further?
    “Trust me,” he said. “I wouldn’t be here if I had anywhere else to go.”
    “Let me get dressed,” she said. He offered a solemn nod and walked off her porch back to his car. She quietly closed the door and turned toward the stairs.
    “You’re going with him?” said Amanda. She wore this particular angry scowl when she looked at her mother now. She hates me , Eloise thought.
    “I have to,” said Eloise moving past her.
    “You don’t have to do anything,” she said nastily.
    “I think I do,” said Eloise.
    “You’re going to leave me here? It’s the middle of the night.”
    “You can come,” Eloise said.
    “The hell I will,” said her once sweet daughter. Amanda got to her feet and stormed up the stairs past Eloise. She slammed her door so hard that the china in the cabinet downstairs rattled, channeling Emily.
    “This is bullshit ,” her daughter screamed through the closed door. “You. Are. Not. A. Psychic.”
    A psychic? The word conjured women in flowing skirts and headscarves, crystal balls and fortune-telling cards. Is that what she was?
    Eloise got dressed and tried to push open Amanda’s door. It was locked.
    “Amanda,” she said. “I know you’re angry. Try to understand, okay?”
    Nothing.
    “I didn’t ask for any of this,” she said. She rested her forehead on the door. “I’m just—” What? What was she doing? “I’m just trying to do the right thing.”
    Nothing.
    “I love you.”
    Eloise waited.
    “I love you, too,” Amanda said after a moment. That was something, at least. She didn’t open the door, though. It had always been a rule of the family, never part without saying “I love you.” They both knew the worst thing could happen.
    •    •    •
    Ray Muldune’s car was overwarm and smelled of fast-food hamburgers. He filled his seat, belly hanging over his belt. His jacket was wrinkled and soft with overwear.
    “I brought you something,” he said. He pulled it out of his pocket and let it rest in his open palm. It was a red Goody barrette. There was one in the box in the man’s room. This must be the other one. “A volunteer found this in the woods.”
    They both looked at it. Eloise wasn’t sure why, but she didn’t want to touch it. She looked away, watched a squirrel run lithely across a branch of the great oak tree in her front yard.
    “I don’t know how this works,” he said. His wedding ring looked uncomfortably tight on