“You-you-you,” the one pointing at her stuttered before he collapsed in the road, laughing so hard his bony shoulders shook.

Hope raised herself enough to peer over the rear of her car toward the house. “Did you see bats fly out after me?” she asked above their high-pitched laughter.

The boy holding himself shook his head.

“Are you sure?” She stood, then dusted off the knees of her jeans.

“Yep.” He giggled and finally dropped his hands to his sides. “Just saw you fly out.”

She reached for her sunglasses in the purse that was no longer on her shoulder. She placed a hand on her brow to shield her eyes and looked across the dirt yard. No Bally bag. No sunglasses. No car keys. She’d obviously dropped the purse inside. Probably upstairs. By the bat room.

“Do you boys want to earn a few bucks?”

At the offer of money, the boy on the ground jumped to his feet, although he couldn’t quite control his laughter. “How much?” he managed.

“Five dollars.”

“Five dollars!” the boy who’d been holding himself gasped. “To share or apiece?”

“Apiece.”

“Wally, we could get a bunch more darts for our guns.”

For the first time, Hope noticed the neon-orange pistols and matching rubber darts stuck in the waistbands of both boys’ shorts.

“Yeah, and candy, too,” Wally added.

“What do we gotta do?”

“Go in that house and get my purse.”

Their smiles fell. “In the Donnelly house?”

“It’s haunted.”

Hope studied the faces before her. The boy named Wally had copper-red hair and was covered with freckles. The other kid looked at her from big green eyes and a face framed by short dark curls. He had a missing front tooth, and the new one was growing in a bit crooked. “Ghosts live in there,” he said.