“That’s beside the point, Lou. Something’s wrong.”
Without taking time to lock the car, the two girls hurried down the dark street toward the docks. Far ahead they could see the one they pursued walking swiftly. Then in the blinding, whirling snow, they lost sight of her.
Reaching the waterfront, Penny and Louise gazed about in disbelief and bewilderment. The girl had vanished.
“Now where could she have gone—” Penny murmured, only to break off as her gaze fell upon a trail of footsteps.
The prints led along the dock for a short distance, only to end at the river’s edge.
CHAPTER
4
VANISHING FOOTPRINTS
“That crazy girl must have jumped off here!” Louise exclaimed, as she too saw the footprints on the snowy planks.
“The river is solid ice—at least six inches thick,” Penny pointed out. “She couldn’t have crashed through.”
“Then where did she go?”
Far upstream toward the Main Street Bridge, an iceboat could be seen tacking back and forth. Otherwise, the river was a gleaming ribbon of deserted ice.