Free A Sinister Sense by Allison Kingsley Page A

struggled to avoid telling an outright lie. “Clara suggested we go bowling tonight, and I thought it might be fun, that’s all.”
    “Uh-huh. Seems to me that whenever you two get together, something bad happens.”
    “Whatever are you talking about?” Stephanie heard the raised voices of her children floating down the stairs. “All we want to do is have a little fun. You know Clara doesn’t have friends here yet. She’s getting bored sitting at home at night.” She started walking toward the stairs. “It’s hard on her living back here after being used to big-city life.” She put a foot on the bottom step and yelled at the top of her voice. “
Michael! Olivia!
Stop fighting this instant.
Ethan?
Where are you? Stop those kids from fighting.
Now!
”
    Ethan’s eleven-year-old voice rose above the shouts of his younger siblings. “Aw,
Mom
. I’m doing homework.”
    Stephanie glared up at her invisible son. “No, you’re not. It’s summertime. You don’t have homework. Drag yourself away from Facebook for five minutes and find out what those two are fighting about.”
    Returning to George, she muttered, “Is it too much to ask to have an hour or so to myself?”
    George rolled his eyes. “All right, all right. Gobowling. Just don’t come crying to me if you get into trouble with Dan for interfering in police business.”
    Stephanie dropped her jaw. “Why on earth would I want to do that?”
    “You’ve done it before.”
    “That was different.”
    George stood up. “Stay out of this, Stephanie. I don’t want to have to identify your dead body in the morgue. Who would I get to iron my undies if you’re not around?”
    Stephanie uttered a dry laugh. “Don’t worry, there’s no chance of that.” She couldn’t help feeling a bit apprehensive as she hurried into the kitchen to start preparing dinner. She consoled herself with the thought that she and Clara had agreed that at the first sign of real danger they would hand everything over to Dan. That’s if they could find out anything useful.
    Dan and his deputies were far more experienced at tracking down a murderer, but the cousins had one thing that Dan didn’t. The Quinn Sense. Already it had pointed them toward the bowling alley with the cryptic message Clara had received.
Beware of the blind alley. Danger lies in the gutter.
Stephanie was impressed that Clara had seemed to instantly know what the words meant.
    True, the Sense was unpredictable, and not always there when needed, but Stephanie had a lot more faith in it than her cousin did, and felt reasonably sure that it would warn them if they were getting into more trouble than they could handle.
    With that firmly in mind, she pushed the uneasy thoughts out of her head and concentrated on making the salad.

    Clara arrived home from the bookstore full of apprehension. She’d been waiting all afternoon and evening for her mother to call and scream about some disaster caused by Tatters. When the call didn’t come, she didn’t know whether to be relieved or worried by the unexpected silence.
    Standing at the front door with her ear pressed against it, she listened for any sign of a commotion inside. Hearing nothing, she fitted her key into the lock and turned it. As she opened the door, she heard voices from the TV and thought she caught the sound of a low
Woof!
from the direction of the living room.
    She paused, waiting for the onslaught of furry paws. When no sign of Tatters materialized, her first thought was that her mother had done something dreadful to the dog. Or vice versa.
    Rushing into the living room, she felt a wave of relief at the sight of her mother sitting calmly on her chair in front of the blaring TV. That quickly changed to astonishment when she saw Tatters curled up at Jessie’s feet, nose on his paws. His big brown eyes watched Clara as she crossed the room toward him.
    Jessie looked up as Clara approached. “Oh, there you are. I’ve left a casserole in the fridge if