Read ABC Amber LIT Converter for Free Online Page A

the eye. Rhonda slouched, sinking deeper into the tub, her chin resting on top of the steaming water.

    “I feel guilty as hell sitting here drinking beer when that little girl is out there somewhere because I let the rabbit take her,” Rhonda said.

    “What were you supposed to do, Ronnie?” Peter asked.

    “I don’t know. Beep the horn. Get out and yell. Call 911—that’swhy I have the frigging cell phone, right? Notice the license plate. Anything. I just sat on my ass. I felt…I don’t know…drugged or something. Hypnotized. Like the bunny put some kind of spell on me. And I was scared, Peter. I mean, it wasn’t until they drove off that I even realized I’d been holding my breath the whole time. My heart was racing.”

    “Of course you were scared,” Peter said.

    “And now I’m just sitting here soaking in this fucking tub when I should be out there doing something.”

    “What is it you want to do?” he asked.

    “Find Ernie.”

    Tock returned, a lit joint in her mouth.

    “We should check out the eleven o’clock news,” Tock said. “I bet they’ll have something about it. Hell, maybe they found her by now. Maybe it was just some kind of prank.”

    “Who would pull a prank like that?” Rhonda asked.

    “I dunno,” Tock said. “Maybe someone got the idea because of that girl in the hole in Virginia. It’s been all over the news for weeks. Maybe it’s just some gung-ho kid and he’ll just drop her off down the highway once he realizes what a totally fucked-up thing he’s done.”

    The Virginia girl, Ella Starkee, was found by a farmer and his border collie. The farmer and the dog had since made the rounds of every morning news show in the country. They posed with Ella for the cover of last week’sPeople magazine. The little girl was all smiles, rosy-cheeked, hair neatly braided.

    Rhonda found herself wondering what size beetles the little girl had eaten—tiny ones or something more like a June bug. Something substantial.

    “Where were you today, anyway?” Rhonda asked Peter. “Don’t you usually work Mondays?”

    “I took the day off to go hiking,” he said.

    “All of you went?” Rhonda asked.

    Tock passed the joint to Peter, exhaled, and said, “No. He snuck off without us. Suzy and I packed a lunch and drove out to the trailhead to join him, thinking he’d be up at Gunner’s Ridge, but he wasn’t there. So we had a little girls’-day-out picnic of our own.”

    “I hiked a different route,” Peter explained. “Over by Sawyer’s Pond.”

    “I bet the blackflies were god-awful,” Rhonda said.

    “Not too bad,” Peter told her, examining his arms. Rhonda didn’t see a single bite.

    “So you said the Florucci girl is a friend of Suzy’s?” Rhonda asked.

    “Yeah,” Tock said. “They’re in the same class. Suzy went to Ernie’s birthday party back in March. Lives with her mom in a little trailer out on Meckleson Hill Road. Kind of a dump. But Ernie’s a good kid. She’s been out here to play a few times, right, hon?”

    Peter nodded.

    “It could have been Suzy,” Rhonda said.

    Tock shivered and looked away.

    “That little girl could be cut into a hundred pieces right now and I could have done something to stop it,” Rhonda said. “I could have at least remembered the fucking license plate.”

    “You’re too hard on yourself, Ronnie,” Peter said, reaching through the water to take her hand and squeeze it. “You need to let shit go.”

    Like I let Ernie go?Rhonda thought to herself. She looked up into Peter’s watery blue eyes and let her fingers squeeze back.Like you let Daniel and Lizzy go?

    MAY 12, 1993

    LIZZY AND RHONDAdanced through the woods, hurrying to the stage. Just a month before, they’d chased the rabbit down the same path, but now the snow was gone and the maple trees that were mixed in with the spruce, hemlock, and white pines were just beginning to leaf out. It had rained the day before but now the sun was out and the woods smelled green and loamy.

    Lizzy was singing “Achy Breaky Heart” and getting