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Ja, as she wiped her hands She walked into the living roo at her, saying nothing nohich was only polite since they’d probably been talking about her before she’d coirl?"

She froze Her heart pounded fast and painfully hard It was him She remembered his voice too well to believe now that it was so to be Amory St John

"You don’t want to talk to et you, Sally?"

She said clearly, "You’re dead Long dead I don’t knoho killed you, but I wish I had Go back to hell where you belong"

"Soon, Sally I can’t wait, can you? Very soon now I’ll have you with ain"

"No, you won’t," she screa on? Who was that?"

"It wasas she walked up the stairs

Amabel called after her, "But Sally, that couldn’t have been so to make you believe it was your father That was a woman on the line Martha said she sounded all fuzzy, but it was a woht it sounded a bit like Thelma Nettro, but that couldn’t be I didn’t know of any woman who knew you were here"

Sally stopped on the second step from the top The steps were narrow, the distance between the steps too steep She turned slowly and looked back downstairs She couldn’t see her aunt or Martha She didn’t want to see them A woman? Maybe Thelma Nettro? No way

She ran back down the stairs into the living roo and unclasping her pearls, her glasses sliding down her nose

"My dear," she began, only to stop at the ferocious look of anger on the girl’s face "Whatever is wrong? Aht It was a woman on the phone"

"When I answered it wasn’t a wo to be my father" It had been her father She knew it, knew it deep down She was so scared she wondered if a person could die of just being scared, nothing else, just being scared

"Baby," A I think you and I should talk about this later"