The arrival of a stranger changes an ordinary evening into one of confusion and uncertainty. Wittmond departs with the mysterious visitor and as a result of his haste, his wife comes across a concealed diary. Entries dating back thirty years tell of exploits around the world. While he and his "associate" attempt to deal with the unexpected and dangerous consequences of a previous mission, she delves into a detailed account of a past she had only vaguely suspected. Perhaps it contains the reason why the danger has come so close to home. About the Author Dr. Lawrence G. Burch earned a PhD in physical chemistry at St. Louis University and began his career as a thermal engineer on both the NASA Apollo and Space Shuttle programs. With the ending of the space program, he went to medical school. After internship and residency, he returned to his hometown of Alton, Illinois, where he practiced internal medicine for thirty years. Now retired, he is engaged in part-time hospital administration consulting and is a guest lecturer on engineering at his high school alma mater. He and his wife now live on a farm in southwestern Illinois, a mile from the neighbor and an hour from "civilization."

Just before summer begins, 13-year-old Ali finds an odd photograph in the attic. She knows the two children in it are her mother, Claire, and her aunt Dulcie. But who’s the third person, the one who’s been torn out of the picture? Ali figures she’ll find out while she’s vacationing in Maine with Dulcie and her four-year-old daughter, Emma, in the house where Ali’s mother’s family used to spend summers. All hopes for relaxation are quashed shortly after their arrival, though, when the girls meet Sissy, a kid who’s mean and spiteful and a bad influence on Emma. Strangest of all, Sissy keeps talking about a girl named Teresa who drowned under mysterious circumstances back when Claire and Dulcie were kids, and whose body was never found. At first Ali thinks Sissy’s just trying to scare her with a ghost story, but soon she discovers the real reason why Sissy is so angry. . . . Mary Downing Hahn is at her chilling best in this new supernatural tale that’s certain to send shivers down her readers’ spines.

Reprint of the original, first published in 1877.