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Heart pounding with instinctive dread, eyes pinned to the dark motionless shape of the bed, he made his way across the room, felt over the nightstand, and turned on the small lamp.

Soft light illuminated the empty sheets.

Chelsea was not in bed. She was not in the room. The bedclothes were rumpled and thrown back. The jeans and sweater she’d worn earlier were draped over the chair by the window. Her phone lay on the nightstand.

“She’s not here,” he called, which turned out not to be necessary since the others had all nervously crowded into the doorway with Tosh.

“Where is she?” Tosh asked blankly.

Ellery shook his head.

“Where did that scream come from?” Lenny asked.

“Downstairs?” Flip looked at Ellery.

Ellery was not sure. He tried to remember, but of course he had been deeply asleep.

Freddie exclaimed, “Wait a minute. Damn it. This is one of her pranks!”

There were gasps of outrage—and relief.

“Oh, my God!” Tosh sagged against Oscar. “Yes.” She gave a shaky laugh.

Oscar muttered, “I’ll murder her.”

Ellery was relieved, too. For about three seconds. Then unease began to creep in again.

Freddie returned to the top of the stairs and called down, “Not funny, Chels!”

No reply.

Wouldshe reply, though?

Flip said, “This is totally like her.” And yet, he didn’t sound convinced.

Ellery was not convinced either. He joined Freddie at the top of the stairs, and shone his flashlight into the murky darkness at the bottom of the staircase. “Chelsea?”

Still no reply.

“I’ll go down and look for her.” He was not thrilled at the idea.

To his relief, Freddie said, “I’ll go with you.”

“We’ll all go,” Flip chimed in. “We can cover more ground that way.”

“Serve her right if we all went back to bed,” Oscar said under his breath.

There was a murmur of agreement, but Tosh said, “No. She might have slipped and fallen or tripped over something in the dark...”

Ellery started cautiously down the staircase, Watson right on his heels, Freddie and the others a few steps behind.

“Be careful on the stairs,” Ellery warned. “Watson leaves his toys here sometimes.”

Midway down the staircase, his flashlight illuminated empty gleaming floor and the closed and secured front door.

Nothing appeared to be amiss.

He reached the bottom and turned on the wall switch.