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gone, Ludmilla went on watching while Abby walked over to Sky. Abby could feel Ludmilla’s eyes boring into her back as she lifted Sky off the stool, and for that moment she almost believed Paige’s evil eye theory. But to Abby’s surprise, Ludmilla didn’t say anything or try to keep the two of them from leaving the room.
    Outside in the hall, Sky held Abby’s hand for quite a while. The color of his face was becoming a little more normal, but he still didn’t seem quite himself. She was curious. Squeezing his hand reassuringly, she asked, “Sky, why were you sitting on that stool?”
    Sky gulped before he said in a shaky whisper, “She did it. She put me up there.”
    “Okay. But why did you stay there?”
    “She said I had to. And… she said she was going to skin me alive.”
    Abby couldn’t help smiling. “What makes you think she’d do that?” she asked.
    “Because she said so,” Sky said, staring up at Abby with huge unblinking eyes.
    Abby hid another smile and started to explain that when people say they’re going to skin someone alive, they usually don’t mean it. At least not literally. But then, looking down at Skyler’s wide blue eyes, trembling lips, and small clinging hand, she thought better of it. Some six-year-old boys, she decided, were a lot more charming scared than not.
    “That’s okay,” she told him. “I don’t think she’s going to skin you alive. Not today anyway.”
    One good consequence of the orange juice disaster was that even after Skyler got over his fright, he continued to behave differently around Abby. The very next day, in fact, he warned her that Woody had written a nasty letter on Paige’s computer and signed it with Abby’s name. Abby appreciated the warning, even though after she read the message she knew Paige wouldn’t have been fooled for a minute. The letter read Deer Page, I wish you were ded. Aby.
    Although what happened that day definitely changed some things for the better, it left behind something new for Abby to worry about. Like, for instance, did it mean that she had read Sky’s mind, and did that mean Dorcas was right about the abnormal things she and Abby might have inherited? Those were questions Abby wasn’t sure she wanted answered, but she went ahead and checked them out anyway. But after she’d tested her mind-reading powers several times on different people, she pretty much stopped worrying. When she tried to guess what Dorcas or Tree or Paige was thinking—and then asked them—she didn’t come close even once. Just your imagination, she told herself. Nothing to worry about.

6
    O N THE FIRST SATURDAY in November, Abby made breakfast and took a plateful of pancakes to Tree in the office. Tree, who was there to catch up on her secretarial work, was really enthusiastic. Licking her syrupy fingers, she told Abby she’d overslept and had to skip breakfast. “No time even for a cup of coffee,” she said. “Or to put on my makeup.” She grinned, pointing at her face. “Didn’t you notice?”
    Abby checked her out and said she hadn’t, which was the truth. Even without makeup Tree looked better than your average female would after a week at a beauty spa. But Abby knew better than to say so.
    “Well, how’s the snoop business going?” she asked. “How many cases are you working on now?”
    Tree grinned ruefully. “Well, your mom had me doing surveillance on that fire insurance case. But I guess I didn’t do too well.”
    “Oh yeah,” Abby said. “I heard Mom talking to Dad about that.” What she’d heard was Dorcas on the phone to Abby’s dad, telling him about a new case that involved a fire in a vacant apartment building. The fire had started in a rather run-down neighborhood where there had been two other recent fires, and the insurance company thought that an arsonist must be at work. The insurance company was investigating, but it had been Mr. Barker, the owner of the third burnt-out building, who had hired the