“She’s under the ledge! That’s where she ducked! Stop her when she comes out of the pool!”
Margo was groping madly among the cult members, to come face to face with Arlene, at whom Margo gave an almost accusing stare, which the other girl returned.
“I thought -”
Both said it at once, then laughed. “Let’s hunt the banshee together,” suggested Margo. “But we’d better get started while the cops are still coming from the copse.”
“Have you any idea who she is?”
Margo thought that Arlene asked the question and began to nod, only to see Arlene do the same. Then they were both looking into the face that wore the Mona Lisa smile above the severe cape, the face of Thara Lamoyne.
“If you know who she is,” reprimanded Thara, “you should tell the police. If you have any idea where she has gone, you should certainly try to find her.”
The banshee couldn’t be Thara, the girl who at that moment rated as Public Banshee Number One in the estimate of both Margo and Arlene. For Thara to return here so immediately without arriving dripping wet, cleared her of suspicion and completely. There was only one fair thing to do; that was to invite Thara on the search, which Margo promptly did.
It was Margo who set the pace, straight to the gully into which she had slipped that first night when she’d gone banshee hunting. Once you reached the gully you were in the groove because there was no getting out of it until the other end.
Finding no banshee, Margo decided they were ahead of schedule. Coming up from the gully, she saw Arlene close beside her, but Thara had dropped behind. Then from the underbrush came an elephantine plodding and Thara arrived, bringing Miss Sylvia, who was responsible for the pachydermic crushing of the shrubbery.