All Night Long

Prologue
    Seventeen years earlier . . .
    The house at the end of the lane was filled with darkness and night. That wasn’t right, Irene thought.
    Her parents always left the lights on for her.
    “Don’t be mad, Irene.” Pamela stopped the car in the driveway. The convertible’s headlights blazed a short distance into the thick stand of fir trees that loomed beside the house. “It was just a joke, okay?
    Hey look, the lights are off
inside
your place. Your folks are in bed. They’ll never know you got home after curfew.”
    Irene pushed open the car door and scrambled out of the convertible. “They’ll know.
    You’ve ruined everything.”
    “So tell them it was my fault,” Pamela said carelessly. “I lost track of the time.”
    “It was my fault. I made the mistake of believing that you really were my friend. I thought I could trust you. My folks only have two rules. No drugs and no driving to the other side of the lake.”
    “Give me a break. You only broke one rule tonight.” In the lights of the dash, Pamela’s smile was very bright. “I didn’t even have any drugs in the car.”
    “We weren’t supposed to go beyond the town limits, and you know it. You just got your license. Dad says you haven’t had enough experience behind the wheel yet.”
    “I got you home safe and sound, didn’t I?”
    “That’s not the point and you know it. I made a promise to my folks.”
    “You are such a
good
girl.” Disgust and exasperation were thick in Pamela’s words.
    “Don’t you get tired of always following the rules?”
    Irene took a step back. “Is that what this was all about tonight? You wanted to see if you could make me break the rules? Well, you succeeded, so I hope you’re satisfied.
    This is the last time you and I will do anything together. But that’s probably just what you wanted, isn’t it? Good night, Pamela.”
    She turned toward the darkened house, digging into her purse to find her key.
    “Irene, wait—”
    Irene ignored her. Key in hand she hurried toward the front door. Her parents were going to be furious. They would probably ground her for life or, at the very least, for the rest of the summer.
    “Okay be that way” Pamela called after her. “Go back to your perfect, boring, good girl life and your perfect, boring little family. Next time I pick a best friend I’ll choose one who knows how to have fun.”
    Pamela drove off very quickly. When the convertible’s headlights disappeared, Irene found herself alone in the night. She was very conscious of the chill in the air. That was wrong, too, she thought. It was summer. The moon was shining out on the lake.
    She and Pamela had put the top down on the flash ew sports car this evening. It shouldn’t have felt so cold.
    Maybe this was what it was like when you discovered that you could not trust someone you though as a friend.
    Morosely she watched to see if a light came on in her parents’ bedroom at the side of the house. They must have heard Pamela’s car, she thought. Her father, especially, was a light sleeper.
    But the house remained dark. She felt a small flicker of relief. If her folks did not wake up tonight, she could put off the inevitable scene until morning. Breakfast would be soon enough to find out that she had been permanently grounded.
    She could just barely make out the front porch steps. Her dad had forgotten to turn on the light over the door. That was really weird. He always left that light and the one at the back of the house on all night. It was another one of his rules.
    She paused, key in hand. Her parents’ bedroom was directly to the right of the entrance. They would almost certainly hear her if she went in through the front door.
    But if they were still asleep, they migh ot notice the sound of the back door being opened. Going in through the kitchen would give her a sho t sneaking down the hall to her bedroom without arousing her folks.
    Turning away from the front porch steps, she hurried around the side of the house.
    It was so dark. Too bad she didn’t have a flashlight. In the silvery moonlight the small dock and the little boat that her father used for fishing were almost invisible.
    She was startled to discover that the light was off over the back porch, too. In the dense shadows, she tripped on the bottom step, stumbled and nearly fell. At the last instant she managed to grab the railing and right herself.
    What were the odds that her dad had forgotten to turn on both porch