Finn’s smile faded. He didn’t say anything in front of everyone, thank God, but she had the sneaking suspicion that he was wondering if she’d been lying about not receiving those phone calls. It suddenly struck Esa full force that Finn had been calling her evasive, manipulative little sister all week.
“Maybe my DMV information needs to be updated,” Esa answered Caleb evasively although her gaze remained on Finn.
No wonder he’d been so confused. She and Rachel sounded very similar and Rachel’s messages were always brief and to the point. But why hadn’t Rachel bothered to return his calls to alert him of his mistake? More importantly, why hadn’t Rachel told Esa about the misunderstanding?
Although that would have required that her sister had returned her calls at least once this week.
What was Rachel up to?
Esa shook her head in frustration and met Finn’s doubtful stare.
“I never received any phone calls from you,” she assured him. When he resumed chewing again slowly, his eyes still on her, she continued softly enough for only him to hear. “There’s been a misunderstanding. I’ll try to explain later.”
He merely nodded once.
Caleb looked excited when Esa told him she liked to play poker and was in the midst of asking people at the table who wanted to get a game going when a spine-chilling scream of terror reached all of their ears.
And this scream hadn’t been a child’s.
Her eyes widened in disbelief when the woman followed the eerie shriek by shouting a name.
“Eeesaaa!”
Esa flew out the front door directly after Finn. The once-crowded front porch was now empty. She tried to keep up with Finn’s long legs as he ran around the side of his mother’s house in the direction from which they’d heard the scream.
“What the hell…Jess?” Esa heard Finn ask a few seconds later when he came to an abrupt halt in the side yard. She tried to peer around his tall form but she couldn’t make out anything in the darkness.
“Get the hell off me, you animal!” a familiar voice shouted from the ground, followed by a man’s grunt of mixed surprise and pain.
“Rachel? Is that you?” Esa cried out.
“Esa? What kind of a party are you attending anyway? I heard the music and was going around to the back to find you and this…criminal, barbarian…asshole attacked me.”
“Give me a break. I thought you were one of the kids. You’re small enough to be one of the teenagers,” Jess said in a mellow tone that surprised Esa, given the bizarre circumstances.
“And that makes it all right, I suppose—attacking a child! Esa, call the police,” Rachel ordered.
The panic she heard in her sister’s tone took Esa by surprise. She was vaguely aware that several people had come up behind her and were listening to the entire conversation. “Rachel, he’s not a criminal. He was playing Wolf Man. It’s a game the Madigans play on Halloween—”
“He knocked me to the ground and then he…he…” Rachel made a strange choking sound of mixed disbelief and outrage. Esa was suddenly very curious as to what exactly Jess Madigan had done to her little sister in the dark. “Let me up, you jerk,” Rachel screeched.
“I think you need to calm down a little bit before I let you go. You almost gave me a black eye just now with that elbow,” Jess replied evenly.
“You bastard,” Esa heard Rachel hiss at him, her insult striking Esa as entirely too personal given the circumstances.
Esa opened her mouth to speak when someone stepped up beside her. “Who is that obnoxious person maligning my grandson?”
Esa blinked in surprise at the sheer outrage in Glory Madigan’s trembling voice. Great. This just kept getting better and better.
“It’s okay, Grandma Glory. This is just a misunderstanding,” Finn said. But instead of being placated by his reassuring tone, Glory stepped forward aggressively.
“Get off this property, you little strumpet, before I call the police and have you thrown in jail where you—”
“Grandma Glory, calm down,” Finn interrupted.
“I’m not calming down when that woman is attacking my grandson!”
Everyone began to talk at once