WILLOW MANOR

Chapter One

Katie had been the last person on the bus. She hadn't expected that. She knew Willow Grove was a small town—she had looked it up even before coming here. She'd even been here once. But she had been a small child then, excited and scared that she and her mom were picking up Grandma to come and live with them after Daddy was gone. She hadn't paid much attention to the town.

Even so, Katie had thought more people would be coming and going from the place. She didn't expect to spend the last thirty minutes of the trip with only the bus driver for company. And he wasn't much company, at that. When she'd told him she was going to Willow Manor for work, he'd shook his head and laughed humorlessly. "Good luck."

Any other efforts at conversation were wasted on his grunts and sighs. When the bus pulled into the small, dark terminal in the downtown area he turned to her before opening the door. "You sure you want to do this?"

"What do you mean?" Katie stood on the top step, clutching her purse to her side. "What's wrong with Willow Manor?"

"Nothing." He opened the door. "If you can sleep with your eyes open."

Katie frowned and stepped down from the bus to the sidewalk. She turned as the bus driver followed. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Nothing." He grunted and walked down the side of the bus to the luggage compartment. "Don't mean nothing."

"It means something, or you wouldn't have said it." She followed him. "Is there something I should know about?"

"Just rumors." He pulled her two suitcases from the bus and shut the door. "I hear things, driving in and out of this place."

"What kind of rumors?" She followed him back to the front of the bus. "You can't ignore me the whole trip and then, when I'm finally at my destination, tell me something vague and ominous like 'good luck' and 'sleep with your eyes open'. What do you mean?"

"Look," He stopped and turned on the bottom step of the bus. He looked around, as if he expected someone to be listening. "Mr. Barrington employs a lot of people around here. And it's probably just a lot of coincidence. But there are a bunch of rumors. Just watch out."

"Rumors about what?" She frowned. Sexual harassment? Unfair labor practices? Unsafe working conditions? What was he talking about? "My grandmother lived most of her life in this town. I've never heard of anything bad going on here."

"Is that so?" The bus driver climbed up the steps and into the driver's seat. It was hard to hear over the motor, but as he shut the door, Katie thought he might have said, "Try not to die."

As the taillights of the bus disappeared into the night, the dark wrapped around Katie like a cold blanket. She shivered and went to rescue her bags from the shadows, bringing them into the light of the bus shelter. She looked around.

For all its quaint charm—the manicured tree lawn, the vintage black streetlamps, and just the general cleanliness of the downtown—Willow Grove was definitely the kind of place that rolled up its sidewalks at eight pm. The restaurant across the street, the clothing shops, the jewelry store—all dark, all closed. She checked her phone for the time.

Just after midnight. Well, of course everything would be closed. The bus trip took a lot longer than she had expected. Her itinerary said ten p.m. arrival. She looked around. Someone was supposed to meet her here. Mrs. Barrington had said someone would be here to pick her up. But there was no one.

"Oh, Katie." She pulled her bags closer to her under the bus shelter. "What have you gotten yourself into this time? Stuck out here in the dark, in a strange town, in the middle of the night, with no one here to pick you up."