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He’d been hoping Jack might phone, but there were no messages on his cell. Jack was probably spending a cold andwearying night dealing with one small disaster after another. Hopefully, nothing too serious.

He watched a meteor curve across the black bowl of night, followed almost immediately by another bright streak through the sky.

November was a great month for meteor showers. Were these the Taurids or the Leonids? Great-aunt Eudora would surely have known.

Hopefully, the skies would continue to clear—followed by the roads—and Jack would be home tomorrow night.

Watson, a furry footwarmer, was already snoring.

Ellery smiled faintly, his eyelids getting heavier and heavier.

It had been a long day even though it had largely been spent eating, drinking, and having snowball fights, and he was very tired...

He did not remember falling asleep.

But he would not forget waking up to the sound of a woman’s screams.

Chapter Sixteen

Watson began to scramble wildly, his barks muffled beneath the heavy comforter.

Arf. Arf. Arf.

Ellery half fell, half clambered out of the tall bed, and jumped to his feet, managing not to fall over Watson, who had also managed to escape the tangle of bedding. He grabbed his robe, his flashlight, knocked his phone off the nightstand, retrieved his phone and dropped it in his bathrobe pocket, jerked open the door and nearly fell over Watsonagain. Glimmering ghostly figures filled the hallway as doors flew open up and down the long corridor.

“What’s going on?”

“Did you hear that?”

“Is that Lenny?”

“Lenny’s with me,” Flip called from the opposite end of the hall. “That wasn’t Lenny.”

Arf! Arf! Arf!

Ellery tried flipping on the hall light switch and to his great relief, misty light flooded over them from the frosted glass globe overhead.

Oscar and Tosh, wide-eyed and rumpled, filled the doorway of Oscar’s bedroom.

Flip and Lenny stood in the middle of the hall, looking equally bewildered. Lenny clutched the tail end of Flip’s New York Athletic Club T-shirt. Flip was clutching a log from the fireplace.

At the top of the stairs, Freddie stood, primed for action but unsure of where to go. He was pale and wore red and blue checkerboard boxers and a navy-blue T-shirt.

Ellery scanned the hall again.Two, four, five...“Where’s Chelsea?”

Everyone stared at Chelsea’s closed door. Even Watson fell silent.

Tosh left Oscar’s side and went to Chelsea’s room. She thumped on the door.

“Chels? Chelsea?”

No response.

Tosh drew a breath and turned the door handle. “Chelsea? Are you awake?”

“Turn the light on,” Freddie ordered. He continued to stare uneasily into the darkness of the hall below.

Ellery moved past Tosh, groping over the wall to find the light switch—before remembering that there was no overhead light in this room. “Hang on.”