Free Little Lost Angel by Michael Quinlan Page A

butt of one of Laurie’s jokes.
    “Yes we are.”
    Sure that they were pulling her leg, Toni changed the subject and nothing more was said about it.
    But it was still very much on Laurie’s mind. She had already selected the place to take Shanda, a place that Laurie and her friends called the Witches’ Castle. It was actually just the ruined remains of a grand old stone mansion that overlooked the Ohio River in Utica, a small town upstream from Jeffersonville. Laurie had taken Hope there before, and since it was on the way to Melinda’s, they stopped by to show it to Toni. During daylight hours the ruins were not that scary, but the house still gave the timid Toni the creeps, particularly when Laurie began calling the cellar a dungeon and told of the séances she and the Leatherburys had conducted there. After about half an hour spent wandering around the site, the girls got back in the car and drove to Melinda’s house.
    Melinda greeted the trio at her door, then invited them upstairs to her bedroom. No one else was home. Melinda had met Hope once before when she was with Laurie at the River Falls Mall in Clarksville. She had liked her immediately, though she was a bit surprised that Laurie had a friend who was—well, not weird. She was even more taken aback by Toni, who talked and acted like the preppy kids whom she knew Laurie so despised.
    In turn, Melinda was nothing like Toni had expected for a friend of Laurie’s. Toni couldn’t believe how many neat clothes Melinda had in her closet.
    “I love those shoes,” Toni said, eyeing all the different styles on display.
    “Go ahead and try a pair on,” Melinda said, eager to please. “If they fit, you can wear them tonight.”
    Hope joined in the fun, trying on a pair of Melinda’s jeans.
    In the middle of this girlish scene—one like so many Toni had experienced in other friends’ bedrooms—a dark specter was suddenly raised. As Toni was trying on the shoes, Melinda pulled a rusty old kitchen knife from one of her purses and said, “This is what I’m going to use to scare Shanda.”
    Having captured everyone’s attention, Melinda began a diatribe against her rival.
    “Melinda said that she was going with a girl named Amanda and that Shanda was flirting with her and had been trying to steal her away,” Toni said later. “She said they’d gotten into a lot of fistfights and that she wanted to kill her.”
    Toni’s first impression of Melinda as a nice, normal girl vanished immediately. As Melinda continued to rant about killing Shanda, Toni began to worry about what she’d gotten herself into. Surely she couldn’t be serious about wanting to kill the little girl. Surely she just wanted to scare her. Then she heard Melinda say how cute Shanda was and that she wouldn’t mind having sex with her if only she didn’t hate her so much. “I’d like to run the knife down her stomach and tease her with it,” Melinda said.
    The other girls listened as Melinda mapped out her plan to get Shanda alone. It was the same scheme that had goneawry that night with Kristie Brodfuehrer. They would go to Shanda’s house and somehow entice her to the car where Melinda would be hiding, waiting to spring. Melinda knew that Shanda usually spent the weekends with her father, so she called there several times, hoping to confirm that Shanda was home. The line was busy, but Melinda was undeterred.
    “I’ll bet she’s there,” Melinda said. “Let’s go get her.”

5

    S teve Sharer was a man of medium height with a solid build, wide shoulders, cord-strong wrists, and hands callused by his work as a heating and air-conditioning technician. Thirty-eight years old, he was growing bald and so had a habit of keeping his crown covered with a baseball cap. Not that he was a bit shy. He had a gregarious disposition and easy smile, and he spoke in the Southern drawl of the area.
    Steve worked long hours and enjoyed nothing more than relaxing with his wife, Sharon, his