Shadow Witch Read Online Free Page B

it was you’d let me. I know, ’cause you’re a good person.”
    “I’m glad you think so. Will you do me a favor and remind my mother of that sometime?”
    * * *
    Duane Gundy waited in his car, slumped low behind the steering wheel, watching the Carter’s house until the lights in the front room went off. Then he quietly stepped out and opened the trunk, rummaging around in the clutter until he found what he needed — the old stethoscope that he’d bought at a second-hand shop. He tucked it under his arm, put his hands in his pockets, and walked down the dark street, back to the home of Libby’s best friend.
    The windows on the near side were lit — bedrooms, he figured — and he gingerly picked his way through the overgrown grass and junk in the yard to the first one. He put the stethoscope on and held the small, round metal chest piece to the window, careful not to make a sound against the glass.
    If this is Libby’s room, she and Sammi will be talking . He listened for a minute or more, but heard nothing. He moved stealthily to the second window, but froze when the next-door neighbor’s back porch light suddenly came on. He crouched, cursing silently to himself, until a door opened.
    “Who’s there?” someone said.
    Gundy took off sprinting for the street, heedless of the dark, but stumbled and groaned when he banged his shin against something hard — a discarded lawnmower or some other junk — and limped the rest of the way to his car. He jumped inside, fumbled the keys out of his pocket, started the motor and stomped the accelerator, peeling up twin rooster tails of gravel as he sped away.

Chapter 2
    Evelyn walked inside the Callahan’s house the next morning and found Lisa kneeling in front of Sammi, getting her ready for her shopping trip with Evelyn.
    “Where is everybody?” Evelyn said.
    Lisa glanced at her and resumed tying Sammi’s sneaker. “Fred is teaching her dance class and Larry is running errands.” Lisa tsked and shook her head as she regarded Sammi’s clothes. “I hate to send you out in public like this, honey. Are these the only things you brought?”
    “Yes ma’am. These are my best ones I have.” Sammi wore a faded yellow top with a small hole in one sleeve and red shorts with a frayed hem at the waist.
    Lisa felt one of Sammi’s dingy pink shoes. “These are too tight for you, and they’re about worn out.” Lisa looked up at Evelyn. “If I give you some money, will you get her some new sneakers, too?”
    “I’ll get them, and you can pay me back later,” Evelyn said, though she had no intention of letting Lisa pay her for anything. Evelyn fingered the sleeve of Sammi’s shirt. “Didn’t your foster parents buy you any clothes?”
    “Only from the thrift store.”
    “Are those the only shoes you have?”
    “Yes ma’am. I can’t get new ones ’cause Mr. Gundy gets mad if Mrs. Gundy spends too much money. He said they have to make their car payments.”
    “That’s shameful,” Evelyn said. “They shouldn’t have taken you as a foster child if they can’t afford you. Why did they do that, I wonder?”
    “Mrs. Gundy wanted to. She can’t have babies of her own, so she talked Mr. Gundy into being a foster parent.”
    “Did they tell you that, or did you listen to them with your power?”
    “I didn’t have to use magic to hear them. They argued really loud all the time, and I could hear everything through the walls of my bedroom.”
    “Hmm.” Lisa flipped a hand through Sammi’s ragged dark hair and frowned. “What happened here?”
    “Oh, well, me and Libby — that’s my best friend — we were playing beauty parlor, and we were going to cut each other’s hair like this fashion magazine her mommy had, but her mommy caught us before we could finish.”
    “It’s a good thing, or this could’ve been worse.” Lisa sighed and pushed a stray lock from Sammi’s forehead. “Oh well, nothing we can do about it.” Lisa stood and turned to Evelyn.