Page 46 of Want to Know a Secret?

“Maria.” I offer her my warmest smile when we get to the door—one I usually reserve for the camera. “Thank you so much for having Bobby over this afternoon.”

She doesn’t return the smile. “Well, Sean was the one watching them.”

“Yes, but…” I take a deep breath. “I just wanted to tell you how nice it is having you next door. It’s nice having a friend who lives so close.”

“Yes.” She still isn’t smiling. “It is nice.”

“Really.” I know I should probably shut up, but I can’t help babbling on. “This is exactly what I always wanted. I don’t think I told you this, but for years, we had a neighbor living here who was just so unpleasant…”

“Doris Kirkland,” she says.

I stop, my mouth hanging open. “Oh. I didn’t know you knew her.”

And then I think back to the other day, when Mrs. Kirkland’s niece came by. How she had been talking about the life alert necklace. She was scared about breaking a hip, you know? I couldn’t believe she didn’t have it on.

If this were a movie, I’d say for sure somebody pushed her.

“Well, we bought the house from her niece.” Maria shrugs. “Guess the name must’ve come up.”

Coming over here with my pineapple upside-down cake was a mistake. I sort of want to go back to the kitchen and retrieve it, but I don’t dare.

“Anyway,” I say. “I just wanted to say thank you for being a good neighbor and… well, that’s all.”

Finally, Maria’s lips curl into a smile. “It’s nice having you as a neighbor too.”

And then I get the hell off her front porch.

Chapter 22

Julie and Maria are coming over today to help do some last-minute planning for the fall carnival in a few days. I was nervous about having Maria over after that weird encounter when she found me and Sean alone in her kitchen, but she seemed perfectly normal at school drop off the next day. So it was hard to argue when Julie insisted we needed to talk about the carnival. It’s always difficult to say no to Julie.

With everything going on, I have let cleaning fall to the wayside. We do have a cleaning woman who comes once a week, but in between, the house gets cluttered with Bobby’s toys and the floors get muddy with his footprints. And everything gets so sticky. I swear, that child’s hands are perpetually sticky.

It takes me about two hours to put away all of Bobby’s toys, mop the floors, and vacuum, and I clean the kitchen and bathrooms top to bottom. At first, I tried to get Bobby to help, but that was a lost cause. And then I make a flourless chocolate cake. That is Julie’s absolute favorite thing. It’s the only thing she says is “worth the calories.”

Maria and Julie are supposed to arrive at three o’clock, so by a quarter to three, I’ve got everything perfect. My house is sparkling clean, Bobby is occupied up in his room, and the cake is out of the oven. I’m about to sit down on the sofa to relax a bit before they arrive when my phone buzzes on the coffee table. I have a text message. From a blocked number.

Want to know a secret, April?

I stare down at the phone, frowning. I see the three dots, which means the person is still typing. I hold my breath, terrified to see what it’s going to appear on the screen next. It’s been such a long time since I got a text message from this person. I thought they had decided to leave me alone.

And then the words appear on the screen:

There’s a surprise buried in your backyard.

I inhale sharply. What does that mean? A surprise in my backyard?

I look down at my watch. I still have at least ten minutes before Julie and Maria arrive. I’m not going to be able to concentrate if I don’t check my backyard.

I hurry out the back door into our huge backyard. We hire a professional to mow our lawn because both Elliot and I are hopeless at gardening. So the grass is freshly trimmed, and it’s a vivid shade of green. Well, all of it except for one little area.

I step out onto the lawn, feeling the soft grass crunch under my feet. There’s a little patch, no more than a foot wide, where the grass has been uprooted. The dirt is loose, like somebody had been digging there.

Oh my God, what is in my backyard?

I run over to the corner of the yard, where we have a shovel that can be used for gardening and digging out the car in the winter. I don’t have much time, but I have to see what’s buried in my yard. I won’t be able to think straight until I do.

I mean, it can’t be a dead body. It’s not big enough for that.