He stepped inside. It was much too dark to see anything. He knew from previous visits that the shed was stacked high with boxes and decorations and lawn care equipment, but he couldn’t detect any of that yet. Maybe in a moment, after his eyes adjusted. Although what they were going to adjust to, he didn’t know, because it was just as dark outside as it was in here.

“Hello?” he said into the darkness.

There was no response.

Maybe this was a mistake, he thought, staring out into the void, goose pimples crawling across his flesh. A killer had already struck twice at this church. Maybe for once he should play it smart and get out while the going-

He heard something. A rattling noise, something moving ever so slightly.

“Is someone in here?”

Still no answer. Ben’s pulse was racing. He was breathing harder and deeper and his knees were beginning to shake.

He was terrified, but it wouldn’t do to let that show. He tried to sound tough. “Look, if you have something to tell me, let’s get it over with, okay? Otherwise, I’m out of here.”

There was a sudden rustling sound in the rear of the shed. He heard footsteps fast approaching. And some kind of muffled shuffling or murmuring or-

Giggling? Did he really hear giggling?

All at once, the overhead light flashed on and Ben saw two small figures standing before him. Two teenage girls.

“Judy! Maura!” His eyes flashed red with anger. “What in the-?”

Control your language, he told himself. Not in front of the children. “What do you think you’re doing?”

“Only having a little fun,” Judy said. She was grinning from ear to ear. “Didn’t you think that was exciting? And mysterious?”

Ben could still feel his heart thumping in his chest. “You don’t want to know what I thought it was. Did you put that note under my windshield?”

Judy nodded her head guiltily.

“Judy, do you understand that I’m starting a murder trial tomorrow morning? You shouldn’t be telling me you need to talk if you don’t.”

“But I do need to talk to you,” she said. Both eyes and voice dropped a notch. “I-I’ve been needing to for a long time.”

“Why? What is it?”

For once, Judy appeared to have lost some of her brashness. “I… wanted to ask you something.”

“Yeah, yeah. What is it?”

“I wanted to ask…” Her eyes roamed all around the shed. “I wanted to ask if you’d like to go out to dinner with me.”

Ben’s lips parted. “You’re kidding me. You brought me here-to ask me out on a date?”

“She’s been wanting to ask you for weeks,” Maura said, piping in. “She has the most gigantic crush on you.”

“Maura,” Judy said out the corner of her mouth, “clam up.”

“Well, it’s not like he doesn’t already know. She worships you. She doodles your name in the margins of her papers with little hearts all around it.”

“I do not!” Judy turned back toward Ben. “She’s so immature sometimes. So what do you say?”

“What do I say? You mean-about going out with you?”

“Sure. Why not? I checked with your investigator, and he said you’re not seeing anyone.”

Remind me to give Loving my thanks, Ben thought silently. “Judy, you’re a charming girl with a lot of energy, but you’re-how old? Sixteen?”

“Fifteen. Sixteen in July. But I’m very mature for my age.”

“Granted. But I still can’t be dating someone who’s two decades younger than I am.”

“I don’t see why not. Lots of men marry younger women.”

Shades of Joni. Why was everyone trying to fix him up with teenyboppers? “Not fifteen-year-olds. Besides, what would your parents say?”

Maura made a slashing gesture across her throat, but too late.

“I haven’t seen my father for years,” Judy said quietly. “He doesn’t live with us anymore. And my mother is much too busy with the new baby and the rest of her brood to even notice that I’m alive.”

“I’m sure that isn’t true.”

“It is. She hates me. She thinks I ruined her life because she got pregnant with me and then she had to get married and she’s been screwed up ever since.”

It was amazing how in a few short strokes you could get a complete picture of where someone had come from and why they were what they were.

“Look,” Ben said, “you’re a great girl, but you’re just fifteen and I can’t date you.”

“Fine,” she said quietly.

“But I’m thinking this summer, when school lets out, I am going to have to hire a clerk for my law office.”

Her head turned up. “Seriously?”

“Seriously. And I can’t think of anyone who’d be better for the job than you. Since you’re an aspiring attorney and all.”

Her face was transformed by an unrestrained grin. “Seriously? And I could work with you on all your important life-or-death cases and stuff?”

“Well… in some capacity.”

“And you’d pay me and everything?”

“Of course.” He couldn’t wait to see the expression on Jones’s face when he heard about this.

Judy was bouncing up and down, bubbling with excitement. “Maura! He’s going to let me come to his office and work with him and be part of his elite dream team!” She stopped suddenly. “But what about Maura? Could you find a job for her? Maybe she could mop the floors or something.”

“I don’t mop,” Maura said flatly.

“I’m sure we could find something for you to do, Maura. If that’s what you want.”

“Oh, I’m so excited!” Judy said, bouncing again. “Thank you so much!” She plunged forward and, before Ben could avoid it, wrapped her arms around him. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome. Now get home, both of you.”

He watched as the two girls skittered out the door, talking excitedly as they went. Well, it would be fun to have some new blood in the office, come summer. And they could use an extra hand or two, particularly during trial crunch times. Although, if Christina and Judy ever got together, they might create an elemental force unstoppable by mortal man.

Well, he’d worry about that in June. For now, he had a trial coming up. He needed to get home and-

A terrifying scream pierced the darkness, splitting the night apart. Ben froze.

“Judy! Maura!”

If anything, the night seemed even darker than it had before. The lights in the church were out. Ben saw two shadowy figures about ten feet away, in the direction of the street, huddled beneath a river birch. He ran toward them.

“Judy? Maura? Was that you?”

“It was Judy.” Closer now, and with the faint glow of a street light somewhere on Seventy-first, he could barely make out their faces. “She got scared.”

Judy was sitting on the ground, her hands pressed against her face, breathing hard enough to induce hyperventilation.

“Take it easy,” Ben said, crouching beside her. He put his hand on her shoulder and tried to calm her. “You’re okay. What happened?”

“I-don’t-know,” she choked out between gasps. “I guess I panicked.”

“Why?”

“We-we were walking toward the street, and suddenly the lights in the church went out, and I felt something on my shoulder and-and-I guess I just freaked.” Her eyes were wide and teary. “I guess it was just the tree branch, but I thought I was dead. I thought-I thought-”

“I know what you thought,” Ben said. After two murders, who could blame her? He looked over his shoulder, back at the church. Sure enough, the lights in the top windows were now out. “Can you walk okay?”

“I-guess so,” Judy said quietly.

“Good girl. Now both of you-get out of here. Don’t stop till you’re home.”

Judy and Maura linked arms and started back toward the street. Ben headed for the back door of the church.

Inside was even blacker than out; all the lights appeared to be dead. He could hear movement and whispers in the parish hall.

“Is everyone all right?” Ben asked, shouting at figures he could barely perceive.

“How the hell should we know?” someone replied-George, Ben thought. “I can’t see a damn thing.”