There was a smattering of applause. Slim held out a large fishbowl with DONATIONS FOR BATTLE OF THE BANDS written on it, and Brett reluctantly dropped a couple of bills into it.
“Who would like to go next?” Slim asked. Nobody raised their hands, except, to my horror, my parents, who giggled like schoolgirls as they went up to the stage.
They made their selection from the karaoke list and then sang along to the words flashing on the TV screen next to them. They belted out “I Got You Babe,” the old Sonny and Cher tune. Then Dad did a solo of “Sweet Caroline,” which had the crowd roaring their approval. Caroline was my mom’s first name and she got all misty-eyed as he sang it to her.
I’d forgotten how musical my parents were. They both sang in chorus when they were in high school, and Mom had even sung in college. Maybe that’s why we all loved music, even my brother Sean, who couldn’t carry a tune to save his life.
My parents got a standing ovation and then came back to our table. “That was fun,” Mom said breathlessly.
“My turn,” Katie said. She walked to the stage, followed by Dominic. They consulted the playlist and then sang “You’ve Got a Friend in Me,” from Toy Story.
Next, Harmony stepped up to the mike and sang a super-melodramatic version of “The Rose.” Eva rolled her eyes as Harmony ended with a really long note.
“You have to admit, she sounds really good,” I said.
“Yeah,” Eva replied. “Weird, isn’t it?”
It was weird. “Do you think her mom paid for singing lessons?”
The next karaoke singers stepped up to the microphone. Ms. Johns and Harmony’s mom sang “9 to 5,” which drew a rousing round of applause.
By the time the night was over, Slim’s had raised more than a thousand dollars for the Battle of the Bands grand prize.
After karaoke, we headed for Andy’s. Harmony rode with Selena, who drove a sleek little white sports car that only fit two.
The rest of us rode with Andy, who parked in the street below. “Driveway’s kind of steep,” she explained. Selena parked behind Andy’s car, and we all walked up the long driveway, carrying our sleeping bags.
Andy and her father lived in a little white house with an ocean view. Moonlight lit the path to their house. To the right was a separate one-car garage with bougainvillea climbing up one wall. A basketball hoop hung above the garage door.
There were two chairs in front of the postage-stamp-sized front yard. “Your place is so cute,” Raven said as we all entered. “Like a dollhouse.”
“You can put your stuff in here,” Andy said. Her bedroom looked like a pink and white powder puff. A pink gingham comforter covered a queen-sized bed and there was wall-to-wall fluffy white carpet. A high shelf, which wrapped around the entire room, was lined with porcelain dolls. Their unblinking stares creeped me out.
Andy noticed me looking at them. “They were my mom’s.”
“Your room is so pretty,” Harmony raved.
“My dad hired an interior decorator,” Andy said, “as a surprise.”
The room didn’t reflect her personality at all.
We set our sleeping bags down.
“What should we do now?” Andy said. She gave the bed a little bounce. Raven sat next to her and kicked off her shoes.
“Let’s go down to the beach,” Selena suggested.
“It’s pretty late,” Andy objected.
“What’s the matter?” Selena asked. “Are you scared?”
She and Harmony broke into gales of laughter.
“I’m fine with staying here,” I said. “The water is probably freezing.”
Harmony rolled her eyes, imitating Selena. “Don’t be such a baby, Jessica.”
“Let’s go,” Raven said. She grabbed her shoes and put them back on.
“I’ll get flashlights,” Andy said. “I’ve heard there’s a cave down there somewhere.”
“Seems like the perfect time to go exploring,” I said dryly. “After midnight. On a full moon. In Nightshade.”
But they all had their shoes and jackets back on. I grabbed mine and followed behind them.
We tiptoed out the back door. “Which way?” Harmony asked in a loud voice.
“Shh, you’ll wake up my dad,” Andy said. She pointed to the wooden stairs going down the cliff to the beach.
We crept down to the sand. There was a lone figure walking along the surf toward us. His hoodie was up, which concealed most of his face, but there was something familiar about him. He seemed lost in thought and didn’t notice us until we were close enough to recognize him.
“Hey, that’s Connor,” Andy said in a carrying voice. I was walking a little bit ahead of the others and was almost upon him, but he didn’t even seem to recognize the sound of his own name.
“Hi, Connor,” I said. “What brings you out here tonight?”
His head whipped up and for a second, I saw panic in his eyes.
Something was wrong. “Connor, are you okay?” I asked. I took a step closer to him. “We missed you at karaoke tonight.”
“Leave me alone, Jessica,” he said. His voice was gravelly and rough, like he’d been gargling sand or something.
“Is something wrong?” I asked. “Is there something I can do?”
“Yeah, get away from me,” he growled.
“Fine,” I said. I stomped back to the others, who had held back to give us a moment of privacy. When I turned to look at him again, he was running up the beach in the direction he’d just come.
“That was weird,” Eva commented.
“Boys can be so moody,” Selena said.
I stared after Connor. “Yeah, especially during a full moon.”
Selena was obviously already tired of the subject. “Where to now?”
“The caves are supposed to be over there somewhere.” Andy pointed the flashlight to a cliff about a hundred yards away. We walked along the sand, huddled against the wind that had just sprung up.
“If this was a slasher film, we’d be down here in our nighties, running from the murdering psycho,” Eva said in a spooky tone of voice. She was more of a fan of old-school horror than those films about the victimized woman running in peril from the crazy killer.
“I’d like to see someone try it,” Andy said.
Raven shuddered. “I don’t know how people watch that stuff.” Though she was a virago, Raven was appalled by violence.
We scrambled across the rocks near the tide pool to get to the cave entrance.
Selena slipped and I reached out a hand to steady her. “Thanks,” she said. “I’m not exactly wearing the right shoes for this.” Her cute wedges were soaked and sandy.
Harmony said, “Can’t you just, you know?” She snapped her fingers.
“This isn’t an episode of Sabrina, the Teenage Witch,” Selena said harshly. Harmony stomped ahead of us. “Besides, I’m not using magic right now.”
“You’re not?” I asked. “But I thought that you’d . . .” I trailed off, realizing as I said the words how insulting they might seem.
“I’d what?” Selena asked. She didn’t seem mad, just curious.
“Helped Harmony get in tune,” I said in a low voice.
She shook her head. “Not me,” she said. “But now that you mention it, she’s really improved. You don’t think she went somewhere else to get a little magical makeover, do you?”
“It’s possible,” I said. “Nobody could improve that much in such a short time.”
“She’s lost a lot of weight, too,” Selena said. “And very quickly.”
“Have you tried talking to her?” I asked.
Selena nodded. “She says she’s fine, but she gets these headaches.”
A lonely howl sounded in the distance. We stopped moving, waiting silently. An answering howl came a minute later, this one closer to us.
My sneakers squelched as I walked through the wet sand to the cave’s entrance.
Andy stopped at the mouth and shone her flashlight int
o the darkness. There was a skittering noise and then the gleam of tiny eyes. “It’s just a couple of rats,” Andy said dismissively, but her voice shook. She walked into the cave. “Are you guys coming or not?” came floating back.
“Why are we doing this again?” Eva asked.
“Complete and utter stupidity,” I said. Then I followed Andy into the cave. I gripped my flashlight tightly.
It was cold in the cave, and it had a peculiar odor.
“It smells horrible in here,” Harmony commented. “Hold this for me.” She handed me her flashlight and then wound a scarf more tightly around her neck. “I need to take care of the voice.”
My foot crunched something and I shone my flashlight on the ground. I’d stepped on a small piece of plastic. I don’t know why, but I picked it up and put it in the pocket of my hoodie.
There was a pile of trash in one corner and what looked like a pile of clothes against the low wall of the cave. My flashlight hit the shine of a hand sticking out from the ragged clothing.
That’s when Harmony started to scream.
Chapter Fourteen
It was a young man in his early twenties. He looked like he was sleeping, but when I took a deep breath and then felt for a pulse, there wasn’t one.
I whipped out my phone, but there was no reception. “Let’s get out of here,” I said. “We can call the police from Andy’s house.”
We climbed over the rocks and ran on the beach, up the steps, and toward Andy’s. Harmony shrieked the entire time. Lights went on all over the neighborhood.
“Harmony, put a sock in it,” Andy snapped. Harmony’s shriek turned into a hiccupping sob.
“Andy? Where are you?” Her dad ran out of the house. He carried a baseball bat in one hand and his cell in the other.
“Over here, Dad,” Andy said. “I’m so grounded,” she added under her breath. “Can you call the PD? We found a dead body in the cave.”
“What were you doing in the cave?” he asked. “I’ve told you a hundred times that . . .” Then the rest of what she said sunk in, and he snapped open his cell phone and dialed.
The dead guy had been wearing a familiar-looking T-shirt. I tried to remember where I’d seen him before, but the memory escaped me.
When the police and coroner arrived, we all went back down to the beach to watch the action. The grownups weren’t aware that I was eavesdropping. It was obvious they were too shaken up about the dead body to notice I was within listening distance.
“I think I recognize that young man,” Mr. Bone said. “He performed the other day.” I assumed Mr. Bone was here in an official capacity. He owned Mort’s Mortuary.
“Who is he?” Officer Denton asked.
“I don’t know his name,” Mr. Bone replied. “But he plays—I mean played—for a band. I saw them at the mall the other day.”
“That means,” Chief Wells replied, “that the body has been here for”—she looked at Mr. Bone for confirmation—“less than five days.”
“Any guesses about how he died?” Officer Denton asked.
“The body looks waterlogged,” the chief observed. “Could have drowned.”
From what I could see of him, the body didn’t look drained of blood, so it couldn’t have been vampires.
“Can I take the girls inside now?” Andy’s dad interrupted.
The chief looked at Officer Denton. “Did we get contact information?”
“Yes, Chief,” the officer replied.
She nodded. “Go ahead,” she said. “And I’d suggest that in the future, you keep a closer eye on these girls. I will be.”
She made us sound like juvenile delinquents. Which, fortunately, made Andy’s dad less mad at us and madder at the chief.
“It’s getting late,” he said. “And I want to call their parents as soon as possible.”
“I’ll be in touch,” Chief Wells said. It sounded like a threat.
We trudged back to the house. “What is it about us and slumber parties?” Raven finally said.
I couldn’t help it. I giggled, despite the freakiness of the evening. Or maybe because of it. “At least we didn’t run into anything with fangs or fur,” I said. Except maybe Connor, I thought, but I wasn’t going to share my suspicion with the group.
“Why don’t you girls head to Andy’s room,” her dad suggested. “It’s late. Andy, I want to talk to you a minute. Alone.”
We left them in the living room and went to Andy’s room to change. When I took off my hoodie, the piece of plastic I’d found in the cave fell onto the carpet.
It was cracked, but still recognizable. A guitar pick. This one had a B and an O on it. The Black Opal? I put it in my overnight bag. Was it a clue or just coincidence? After all, the dead guy played in a band. Used to play in a band, I corrected myself, before someone killed him.
“I need a shower,” Raven said. “I smell like cave.”
I didn’t blame her for wanting to wash off.
“I could use a shower too,” Selena admitted.
“Help yourself,” Andy said, strolling in. “My bathroom is right through that door.”
“Can I go first?” Harmony suddenly said.
“Sure,” Selena said.
“I’ll put a movie on in the living room,” Andy said. “What do you want to watch? Horror or cheesy romantic comedy?”
“Romantic comedy!” we said in unison. Finding the body had kind of ruined the idea of a scary movie. Even Eva was up for something light.
“Start the movie without me,” Harmony said. “I’ll be out in a few minutes.”
We took our sleeping bags into the living room and Andy started the movie. We were a few minutes in when I realized I’d left my cell in Andy’s bedroom and I’d promised Mom I’d check in. She’d probably already talked to Andy’s dad and would be freaking out.
“I’ll be right back,” I said.
There was a humming noise coming from Andy’s room. When I opened the door, Harmony was standing near the window. She had faded sheet music clutched in her hands. As I watched, she climbed out of the window onto the roof.
“Harmony?” I asked. “Harmony, what are you doing?” I followed her, but stopped at the window’s ledge.
She didn’t answer me, but started to sing a German song. She slipped and skittered down the roof. Her shirt snagged on something and it stopped her.
I stretched out and grabbed her. “A little help here!” I yelled.
Harmony didn’t even flinch. She tried to wriggle from my grasp.
“Jessica, what’s taking you so long?” Raven asked from the doorway.
“Get over here and help me,” I said through gritted teeth.
“What are you doing?” I felt her peer over my shoulder. “Harmony!” she gasped.
“Grab her other arm,” I ordered.
Raven was strong, stronger than me, and between the two of us, we managed to haul Harmony inside. We guided her to the bed and she sat docilely. She dropped the sheet music to the floor. She stared at a spot on the wall.
“What is wrong with you, Harmony?” Raven asked.
“She was singing in German again,” I said. I had told my fellow viragos about what I had seen that day in the chorus room.
Harmony was shivering and Raven draped a blanket around her shoulders.
“Where am I?” Harmony asked. The dazed look was leaving her eyes. “I thought we were going to watch a movie.”
Raven and I exchanged glances. There wasn’t much we could do to help her tonight, but we could keep her away from the sheet music. When Harmony wasn’t looking, I slid the music into my back pocket.
“You’re right,” I finally said. “Let’s go watch a movie. Raven, why don’t you take her downstairs.” Raven gave me a look as she escorted Harmony out of the room.
When they were gone, I took a closer look at the sheet music. Sure enough, it was the same piece that Harmony had snatched out from under me at the estate sale. I supposed I should be glad I didn’t get it, sinc
e it seemed to have some kind of evil power. It felt electric in my hand. I didn’t want to take a chance on Harmony doing anything else dangerous, so I took a breath, went to the window, and tossed the sheet music out. I watched as it was whisked down to the beach on the chilly night breeze. Then I closed the window and went downstairs to join the other girls.
Chapter Fifteen
Eva and I had volunteered to help collect donations at the high school’s recycling drop-off on our lunch break. We sat at a little table at the end of the parking lot. There was a tiny canopy over it to shade us.
“Did you hear?” she asked me.
“Hear what?” Whatever it was, Eva was positively bursting to tell me.
“They identified the body we found,” she said. “It was Scotty Turntable.”
I finally realized where Mr. Bone had seen him. “From Drew Barrymore’s Boyfriends,” I said. “I knew he looked familiar.”
“What do you think will happen to the band now?” she asked. “Will they have to drop out of the Battle of the Bands?”
“I don’t know,” I said. “Did you hear anything about how he died?”
She shook her head. “Nope. Not one word.”
Over the course of our shift, a sizable pile of donated cans and bottles accumulated behind us.
Eva yawned. “Did you finish the history homework yet?” she asked me idly.
I started to answer her, but then my tattoo began to burn. I glanced at my bicep and the whirlwind circled furiously. I looked around, but the parking lot was empty. There wasn’t even a cloud in the sky.
A rustling sound came from the pile of aluminum cans behind us, followed by a strange scratching noise. “What is that?” Eva asked. She reached over and grabbed the bag in question. It started to squirm.
“Eva, don’t open that!” I said. But it was too late.
A stream of rats burst out of the plastic bag and one climbed onto Eva’s arm. Her scream rang through the parking lot.
“Get it off me! Get it off me!”
I shuddered, but managed to knock the rat off her arm. But others still emerged from the plastic bag, each one bigger than the last.