Beating Heart Read Online Free PDF Page A

saw one of them going out to the truck. He may be back by now, though, I don’t know. Why are you asking me this?”
    â€œBecause Libby said we have company.”
    Mom turns to Libby. “We don’t have any company, Libby. No one is here.”
    â€œBut I saw her when I was playing on the stairs,” Libby says with certainty. “She was standing outside Evan’s room.”
    Now Mom and Evan are both staring at her.
    â€œYou saw someone in the house,” Mom repeats, wanting to be sure.
    â€œUh-huh. It was a girl. She was wearing a white dress.”
    Mom rolls her chair back and stands up. “One of the workmen must have brought in his daughter or something.” She walks through the doorway and out into the hall.
    As she heads for the stairs, Libby catches up with her. And after a moment, Evan decides to follow along. He doesn’t want to miss a good scene.
    â€œI don’t want to be unreasonable,” Mom announces to no one in particular as she heads up the stairs, “but we can’t have strange kids running around the house unsupervised.”
    â€œThat’s right, ” Libby agrees. She’s stomping along eagerly next to Mom.
    â€œNow, you just stay out of it and let me do the talking,” Mom warns her. “Understand?”
    â€œUh-huh.”
    Evan now feels a little like he’s in a circus parade, so he hangs back a bit. By the time he gets to the third-floor rooms, Mom is standing with the only workmanup here at the moment, and her hands are on her hips.
    But it’s her daughter she’s looking at. “Libby,” she’s saying sternly, “I think maybe it was Mr. Estes you saw on the stairs.”
    â€œIt wasn’t a man, it was a girl.”
    â€œHey,” says Mr. Estes. “I used to have a pretend friend when I was her age. His name was Rufus,” he adds to Libby; apparently Mr. Estes is a genial kind of guy. “What’s your friend’s name, kid?”
    â€œI don’t know. She wouldn’t answer me.”
    â€œThat’s okay. Quiet friends are the best kind.” He winks at Mom and Evan, and goes back to his work.
    Mom turns on Evan. “Evan, did you lock the door behind you when you left?”
    â€œNo. What’s the point? The workmen are always going in and out.”
    Mom looks even more displeased. She’s about to let loose on Evan, he can tell, when miraculously he is saved by Mr. Estes.
    â€œOh, by the way, Ms. Calhoun,” he says. “We found something behind one of the walls. We weren’t sure ifyou wanted it thrown out or not.”
    He walks over to a pile of lumber odds and ends and picks up a steel box from the floor. He hands the box to Mom. “We were pulling off plasterboard, and there it was. Looked like there used to be a cabinet, maybe a safe, got boarded up.”
    â€œOoh,” Libby says, wide-eyed. “Is it treasure?”
    â€œNope—sorry, kid,” Mr. Estes tells her. “Just a bunch of papers.”
    â€œCan I see?” Libby leans over her mother’s arm. Mom opens the lid and shows her that it is, indeed, a pile of papers.
    â€œOh.” Libby is disappointed.
    Mom’s been thinking. “Okay,” she says, shutting the lid. “Evan. Just to be safe, will you help me check the rooms? And Libby, I don’t even know what to do with you. Do you see how much trouble you’re causing?”
    â€œI didn’t mean to.”
    â€œI know, I know. Just—oh, never mind. Come on, Evan. Mr. Estes, if you hear screams or gunshots, just call the police, please.”
    That’s Mom’s weird sense of humor. Sometimes it confuses people, but Mr. Estes just grins and says, “Sure thing.”
    Of course there is no one in the house. Libby loses interest less than halfway through the search and goes off to her room to play.
    Downstairs, the search ends back in Mom’s office. “Thank you,