The Locker by Richie Tankersley Cusick

 **This blog contains adult language.**

Warning: Spoilers Ahead!!! This is a recap blog which means I read the book and tell you everything that happens so you don't have to read it yourself. Please do not continue to read if you don't want to know who the “bad guy” is.

Tag Line: Is someone reaching for help – from the grave?

From the Back of the Book: Final Assignment.... After the nightmarish death of her parents, Marlee Fleming was starting over – a new school a “happy life”. But her new friends Tyler and Noreen acted strangely when they saw the locker she'd been assigned. They said it had belonged to Suellen who had mysteriously disappeared. The moment Marlee opened the locker and saw the horrifying vision, she was afraid. Afraid of the future. Afraid of her own premonitions, of powers she tried to deny. With a thrill of terror, Marlee knew she'd been chosen to find Suellen – even at the cost of her own life!

This book was published in 1994 and this is my first time reading it. I don't think I've ever seen it in person but it was offered on Kindle Unlimited so I figured I'd give it a go. The cover is okay. Not my favorite but better than anything we get now.

We begin with our protagonist Marlee getting out of her Aunt Celia's van. It's her first day at a new school and she's nervous. She leans back in the passenger window to say goodbye and Celia tells her that she looks “strange”. When Marlee asks what she means, Celia says “your mother would....” but never finishes the sentence. When Marlee asks for clarification, Celia simply tells her to be careful.

😮

Well, that's not ominous.

Celia reminds her that she's supposed to pick her little brother up from his after school program later. Dobkin (yes, that's his real name) asks her if she remembers the password to tell his teacher. She says that she does and he also tells her to be careful. Marlee tells us that Dobkin is wise for his age. Which is five, by the way. Dude's in kindergarten.

Marlee and Dobkin have been living with their aunt for the last two years because their parents were killed in a car accident. Celia doesn't like to stay in one place for long. To determine their next location, she pulls out a big map of the United States and has one of the kids close their eyes and put their finger somewhere. Marlee's finger chose Edison Missouri so here they are. She tells us she has no idea where Celia gets her money. She's a sculptor but she never seems to sell anything.

Celia drives off to take Dobkin to school and Marlee stands outside for awhile talking to herself. Out loud. I'm sure that will help her fit in. She gives herself a pep talk and then weirdly swings her purse out to the side and then behind her in a wide arc. It completely nails some poor guy walking behind her and he drops his books, clutching his stomach.

Marlee apologizes and offers to help him pick up his stuff but he waves her off, afraid she might do him some more damage. Marlee tells us that he's super cute with long black hair, dark eyes and delicate features. He moves with a grace that she finds “sexy” and he's wearing an intriguing outfit made up of an over-sized black overcoat and a backwards black baseball cap.

After he picks up his stuff, he looks her right in the eye and says “I don't know you” and it just reminds me of this....

Marlee says that it's her first day and he nods and says “you live on Walnut Street” which freaks her out. Then he creepily touches her face with his fingertip and tells her he likes her perfume. This guy is bizarre. While she's standing there trying to figure out what the hell is going on, he offers to show her where the office is. Oh, and he eventually introduces himself as Tyler.

Tyler shows her the office and then walks off. Halfway down the hall, he turns and tells her to be careful. She's freaked out all over again because it's the third time she's heard it in the last ten minutes and “warnings always come in threes”.

Marlee gets her schedule from the office and is assigned a guide to show her around. The girl's name is Noreen and she's super teeny tiny with frizzy brown hair. Noreen also seems to know what house she moved into and even knows that it came with furniture. Her mom is the realtor that rented it to Celia. Marlee asks her about the person who lived there before and Noreen says that “old lady Turley” was a crazy cat lady who snooped on the neighbors and yelled at kids to get off her lawn.

{{{Note from future me: I totally thought old lady Turley was going to be important in some way but she's never mentioned again.}}}

Noreen warns her that people are nice but it's probably going to take awhile before they accept her. New people rarely move to town so the other kids have been together since kindergarten and already have established friend groups. Marlee isn't worried about it. Since they move so much, she tries not to make friends at all.

Noreen shows her the entire school which doesn't take long because it's not very big. Then she takes Marlee to her locker. As soon as she sees which one it is, she starts acting weird. She won't even look at the locker and she stays a few feet away from it. Marlee tries the lock but it won't open. She tries again. And again. It finally opens on the third attempt. A foul smell comes out of the locker making Marlee gag and claw at her throat. She hears screams coming from inside her locker and then everything goes black.

When she comes to, Tyler is holding her in his arms. He asks if she's okay. For some reason she starts hyper-focusing on things like the mole on Noreen's ear and the scar on Tyler's wrist. Noreen asks if she should get the nurse but Marlee says she's okay. Tyler suggests some fresh air and then takes her outside. He sits her on the front steps and them moves away and starts whistling a song.

Tyler is odd, y'all.

Marlee is internally spiraling, and it seems like she's had experiences like this before and she doesn't like them. Noreen frets around her and Tyler tells her to chill. Marlee asks them what that horrible smell in her locker was and they both just stare at her without saying anything. Finally Noreen timidly says that she didn't smell anything. Tyler helps Marlee up and then leads her back inside to her locker. He puts his entire head inside it and sniffs like a loon. He doesn't smell anything either so Marlee comes up to sniff it. There's no smell. Marlee tries to clear her mind like she always does when something like this happens. Because I guess it happens a lot?

Tyler blames the smell on the nearby biology lab. Marlee is sure that isn't it but she nods and agrees anyway because she doesn't want them to think she's crazy. She apologizes to Tyler for some reason and he smiles at her and asks her if she's always this much trouble. Before she can answer, Noreen starts fretting about a gas leak. Tyler makes some joke about it being as possible as him being bitten by a werewolf and running around naked in the woods. Noreen says no one wants to see him naked and he salutes them both and walks off.

These people are all weird.

After he's gone, Noreen tells Marlee that Tyler actually “looks pretty damn wonderful” without his clothes on.

So apparently Noreen caught a bunch of guys skinny dipping at some point. She goes on to tell Marlee all about it but we don't get to hear any of it because Marlee is obsessing in her head about the locker. It's probably for the best. These are underage guys and we don't need to hear more than we heard. She interrupts Noreen's rambling to ask about the person who had the locker before her. Noreen says it hasn't been used since last fall. She looks nervous and that makes Marlee nervous. Noreen says it belonged to Suellen who went missing after school one day and was never found.

Before they part ways to go to class, Marlee asks Noreen if she's dating Tyler. Noreen acts like the idea is repulsive despite what she just said about him looking wonderful naked. She says they've been friends since kindergarten and she doesn't see him that way.

I'm not sure I believe her.

Marlee makes it through her day. Everyone is nice but they stare at her. She can't stop thinking about her locker, the smell and Suellen. Surprisingly she never mentions the scream. She's avoided her locker all day but finally goes back to it after the last bell. A guy wearing denim and boots rocks up and asks her why the hell she moved to Edison. She tells us that he's tall, muscular, tan and blonde. She asks him what he means and he says he knows for a fact that she's not related to anyone in town so he can't figure out why she moved here. She says it's a free country and he accuses her of wanting to make fun of all the small town hillbillies. Marlee is offended by this and walks off.

Maybe there's something in the water in Edison that makes everyone a weirdo.  Marlee should probably switch to  Evian while she's there.

When she picks up Dobkin she finds out that he got in trouble for trying to dye another student's shirt purple with grape juice (the other kid wanted a purple shirt). He asks about her day and she tells him that her locker attacked her. She tells him everything about it and he tells her that she knows what the smell was. She starts shaking her head and repeating 'no' over and over but he tells her to stop blocking it out of her mind. He tells her that it was the smell of fear and she's smelled it before. She starts screaming at him for bringing it up.

Ma'am, he's a literal child. I know Cusick is writing him like he's 50 which is annoying as shit but he's practically a baby. Stop screaming at him.

Marlee screeches that he promised he'd never mention it again and Dobkin looks guilty.

Later, Marlee goes to her room to wallow. She tells us that she smelled fear two years ago when her parents died. She wasn't with them. She was at home watching Dobkin when the accident happened but she got a sick feeling in her gut and smelled fear at the exact instant when they died.

Marlee seeks out Dobkin. He asks her about Suellen and says they should look for newspaper articles about the disappearance. He suggests her locker might be haunted and she kind of laughs at him and shoos him away.

Marlee goes to look out her window. She can see the house next door but it's mostly blocked by a tree. She opens her window and leans out for some reason. She wonders why her finger picked this place and if it was guided by some unseen force. Then she gets a prickly feeling like someone's watching her. She screams and her aunt comes running up to see what's going on. Marlee tells her that she felt eyes on her. Celia wants to talk about it but Marlee says she's going to go for a walk.

Marlee gets outside and realizes Tyler is sitting on the porch of the house next door.

I guess that's how he knew where she lived.

She stares at him and he notices and asks her why she keeps doing that. She tells him she isn't staring even though she clearly is and he has mercy on her and changes the subject. He asks about her first day and then if her locker played nice for the rest of the day. They end up talking about Suellen. Tyler says she was nice but she hadn't been in town long. Her dad was working on a construction project nearby and they were in Edison temporarily. He changes the subject and asks her if she likes living in “the museum”. I guess because of all the old furniture? She laughs and tells him he's welcome to come inside if he's that curious. She says he can “check for dead teenagers in the basement”.

That was an incredibly insensitive thing to say when they were just talking about a missing girl. Yikes. Tyler kind of freezes and then brushes it off. Marlee never fucking realizes what she's said. This girl is clueless. Tyler says he has to run an errand to Lost River before dinner and invites Marlee to come along. I don't know why. He's being way too nice to this train wreck.

Tyler drives a decrepit Mustang. They drive out into the country and it's super dark because there are no streetlights. He points out a house and tells her that Suellen used to live there. She says it looks haunted which is honestly just another boneheaded thing to say. She goes on to say that it's sad that Suellen was never found and wonders if the town would have tried harder to find her if she wasn't an outsider.

Girl, you have no idea what the town did or didn't do.

I can't with this one.

Marlee starts staring at him again and he calls her out for it again. She says she can't stop looking at him because his smile is so “whimsical”. He doesn't really care for that adjective and she responds by leaning over and putting her face right next to his and staring at him from an inch away. While he's trying to drive. Because that's normal.

Marlee eventually moves back to her own seat and then asks if Tyler ever dated Suellen. He says once but doesn't elaborate. He stops at a chain across the road and gets out to move it. She finally asks him where the fuck they're going and he says his family has a cabin out here and his dad asked him to check on it because they haven't been up there in awhile.

They're right on the river and Tyler tells her that it floods the cabin when they get a lot of rain. The ground is kind of boggy and he warns her to be careful. He goes up to the cabin while she stands in the yard and looks at the water. Suddenly she hears a sound and turns to see Tyler standing right behind her. She feels something hit her arm and then she falls and slides down the hill toward the river. Tyler sprints after her. Her foot snags on something and stops her. Tyler bends down and tries to free her. He finally gets her foot free and then throws her shoe into the water for some reason.

What is with the people in this town?  Seriously.

Tyler helps her up and then Marlee has another episode. She feels panic and pain and something suffocating her. Tyler says something and she snaps out of it. She remembers something hitting her arm before she fell and mentions it. He doesn't seem to know what she's talking about. He says he saw her slip and he tried to grab her but she was already sliding down the hill. She insists that she was pushed and he insists that she just slipped.  It's a very productive conversation and ever so much fun to read.

They make it back up to the cabin. They're both covered in mud so Tyler leads her inside and then gives her some clothes to change into. While she's getting dressed, he looks around the cabin. He tells Marlee that people break into these cabins all the time and his dad lost a boat motor and some guns the previous year. His dad sent him up here to check things out because Jimmy the caretaker was concerned that the place had been broken into again. I assumed it was some old guy but then Tyler says that Jimmy is in some of her classes.

Oh. The blonde guy. Right.

Marlee thinks the cabin is pretty cool and Tyler tells her she's welcome to come up any time she wants to be alone to think or whatever.  His family mostly uses it during the summer so it's empty most of the time during the rest of the year.  I don't know.  He just finished telling her that people break into the cabins all the time.  I'm not sure I'd want to go up there alone.

Tyler doesn't find anything amiss so they get back in the car and leave. She asks him why the river is called Lost River and he tells her it's dangerous because it's super deep and has a strong undercurrent. He says that some people believe the river is possessed. That it calls to people and they go into it and drown.

We skip ahead to the next morning. Marlee convinces herself that everything that happened yesterday was due to “small-town gossip and a bad case of new-school jitters”. She says as much out loud because she's always talking to herself out loud and Dobkin hears her and tells her that she's fooling herself. He hands her a small mirror, a family photo and an index card with “SUELLEN DOESN'T LIVE HERE ANYMORE” and tells her to put them around her locker.

Okay, but why a mirror?  A lot of people believe mirrors are gateways between this world and the next.  It seems like the last think you'd want to put in a locker that you believed was haunted.

What?  Oh.  Cusick needs a plot device?  I'm sorry.  Carry on.

Noreen is waiting for her in front of the school. She starts jabbering about some assignment she didn't get done and Marlee can't get a word in edgewise. Tyler comes up and tells Marlee that she forgot her clothes at his cabin. Noreen is scandalized when he hands Marlee her muddy shirt and jeans. She asks what's going on but Tyler just smiles and says it's their secret. Marlee explains and Noreen laughs.

Noreen tells Marlee that Tyler's always been “just a little out of sync with the rest of the human race”. She says he's really unpredictable. I guess we're supposed to suspect him of killing Suellen or something.

So......Suellen disappeared after a date with Tyler. Do we think Noreen is in love with him and she's getting rid of the interlopers who catch his eye?

If so, Marlee better watch out.

Noreen goes on to explain that she used to believe that Tyler was an alien and she was always following him around hoping to get a glimpse of his ship. She used to wish he'd take her back to his home planet because it had to be cooler than Edison. Marlee interrupts this to point out blonde guy down the hall. Sure enough, Noreen identifies him as Jimmy. Noreen says he's the sheriff's son and she think he's totally gorgeous. Jimmy, not the sheriff. She acts like she's madly in love with Jimmy but I think she's just pretending so no one knows she's obsessed with Tyler.

Am I way off base here? Probably. But think of how fun it will be to read this and then find out I'm wrong. You know you'll enjoy that.

Noreen drags her over to formally introduce her to Jimmy. Marlee wants to disappear into the floor. She goes to her locker which is right beside Jimmy's and yanks it open with so much force that the other two just stare at her. She then proceeds to drop a book and then drop two more when she tries to pick up the first. Jimmy looks at her suspiciously and asks why she's so nervous. Noreen deflects him and then she and Jimmy walk off to homeroom leaving Marlee at her locker. Marlee puts in Dobkin's good luck charms as the hallway empties out. A sudden chill makes her shiver. She tries to take her math book out of her locker but it's stuck. She yanks on it with frozen fingers and it finally slips free.

Before she closes her locker, she catches sight of herself in the good luck mirror. Her reflection changes into a dripping image of a dead face, mouth open in a silent scream and blood pooling around the bottom.

It's always the mirrors.

She starts screaming and Jimmy rushes back out of homeroom to see what the hell is going on. Tyler also runs up to see if she's okay. He doesn't seem happy to see Jimmy with her. She looks around and sees that there are a lot of students standing around staring at her and whispering. Marlee tells them that someone was in her mirror. They look but see nothing. Tyler seems sympathetic but Jimmy is angry. He tells Marlee that they don't need another round of hysterics around town.

As they walk to homeroom, Tyler jokes with her about being looney. 

Marlee doesn't react well to his insinuation that she might be a few crayons short of a box and starts making quite a scene so Tyler drags her around the corner to an empty hall. She yells that she's not crazy and he yells back that he was no way of knowing that because he just fucking met her. She calms down. She tells him about seeing a dead girl in the mirror and he tries to comfort her.

We skip to lunchtime. Marlee leaves the school and walks to Dobkin's school. To her surprise he meets her halfway.

Who the hell is letting a kindergartener just leave the fucking school without an adult? I know it was the 90's but still. He has a bunch of information about Suellen that he got from the library while his class was there on a field trip. He's made photocopies and everything. He's super resourceful for a five-year-old. He told the librarian that his older sister was doing a report on unsolved mysteries in the area. Marlee looks at a picture and realizes it was Suellen that she saw in the mirror.

I mean......I think we all knew that.

Dobkin asks if Suellen was dead in the mirror and Marlee says she was. Dobkin says they need to find her body to give her and her family some closure. Marlee wants to just forget any of it is happening. As they're sitting there, they see Celia speed past on the way to the school. Clearly Dobkin's absence has been noted. Marlee is worried but Dobkin says he'll just tell everyone that he got lost looking for the bathroom. They both head back to school.

Instead of going inside, Marlee hangs around outside talking to Suellen in her head. She asks Suellen if she was killed or if she just had an accident. There is no answer. Noreen walks up and asks her if she's okay. Marlee asks if the entire school is talking about her and Noreen says 'no' but it's clear she's lying. Marlee asks if there's any lore surrounding her locker and Noreen admits that some kids think it's haunted and others think it's bad luck. No one wants to go anywhere near it.

Jimmy comes up behind them and suggests that psychometry might be at play here. Basically psychometry is the ability to learn things by touching objects. He suggests Marlee might have the gift and she's getting readings from the locker. Noreen dismisses it. Tyler comes up and asks what they're talking about and Jimmy explains his theory. Tyler and Noreen both start teasing Jimmy for being an idiot.

Because he can never quite be serious, Tyler starts swinging back and forth on a tree branch like it's a trapeze. Noreen tickles him until he falls and then she starts brushing off his butt. He gives her “a deliberately suggestive smile” so she stops.

Marlee denies having any kind of psychic gift but Jimmy doesn't believe her.

We skip to that evening. Celia goes to a movie leaving Marlee and Dobkin alone. They spread out the articles Dobkin copied and look them over. We learn nothing new. Suellen never came home from school and there was never any sign of her. Marlee tells Dobkin about Jimmy's psychometry theory and he's on board with it. He reminds her that she was touching their mom's picture when she got the bad feeling that something had happened to them. Then we get page after page of her denying any gifts and him insisting that she has some kind of ability. It's repetitive and doesn't move the story forward at all.

They talk about the three incidents – the smell in the locker, the bad feeling by the river and the face in the mirror. Marlee says she smelled mud by the river. I mean.....yeah. But Dobkin acts like this is a big clue. Then he sees someone standing outside the window. Marlee goes to look but there's no one there. Dobkin can't really describe what he saw other than a dark outline of a man walking away from the window.

Are we sure it was a man?

I'm still suspicious of Noreen.

Marlee wonders if it's Tyler since he lives next door.

Later she goes upstairs and stares over at his house. A light comes on in the window and she sees him walk in, taking off his black coat and his black hat. She finds this suspicious but it's what he always wears.

Marlee stands there like a creep and watches him in his room. He does riveting things like eat a donut and make a phone call. Then he takes off his shirt and she continues to watch him. She calls him beautiful and sleek. I call her a voyeur. He should call the police.

Marlee watches as Jimmy walks into the room behind Tyler, startling him. The two of them have an argument but she can't make out any of the words. Dobkin comes into her room and scares the fuck out of her. She deserves it. He tells her that he thinks she needs to find something that belonged to Suellen so she can hold it and try to get a reading off it. He says that Suellen wants Marlee to solve this so they need to go to her house.

We skip to the next day. Marlee has borrowed Celia's van and the plan is to pick Dobkin up after school and drive out to Suellen's house. She doesn't exactly remember where it is and she doesn't want anyone to know that she's intending to go there so she asks Tyler if she can go up to his family's cabin to do some thinking. Tyler seems happy that she wants to spend time up there and he gives her directions and tells her where the key is hidden. 

I wonder if his parents know he just tells everyone where the key is.

After school, she and Dobkin head out. When they get to the cabin it's full of mold and dead things and sewage. Marlee gets nothing from being in the house but then she thinks she hears something moving on the screened-in porch. She orders Dobkin to stay put and she goes to investigate. The porch is full of garbage. She looks around and suddenly encounters a snake. She yells for Dobkin to run but when she looks back, he's gone.

He's already at the van. I guess the little guy moves fast. They get in the van and start back home. The van dies about a mile later. Marlee panics because no one knows they're out there......

Wait.

Tyler knows you're out there. You asked him for directions, dumbass.

Sigh.

Anyway, about five minutes later, Jimmy comes by and stops to help. He looks at the van and says there's sugar in the gas tank. He offers them a ride back to town. When they get in the truck, Jimmy asks them why they were out there. Dobkin says they were going to Tyler's cabin. I guess Jimmy buys that. Along the way he asks Marlee if she's making up the locker stuff for attention. She goes ballistic and starts yelling at him. She decides to jump out of the moving truck.....which is incredibly stupid......but she has another vision or whatever when she touches the door handle. She says that Suellen was here (on the road, not in the truck) on the day she disappeared. She felt happy and like she was with someone she trusted but then they went somewhere else. Jimmy is startled and then they crash.

How the hell did Marlee get a reading from the road when she wasn't actually touching it?  Cusick is really playing fast and loose with this psychometry thing.

They end up hitting a tree but everyone is okay. Jimmy claims he saw Suellen standing in the road and he swerved to miss her and that's why they crashed. Marlee asks if he really saw her and he hesitates. He says he saw something and he thought it was Suellen but that might have been because Marlee was talking about her being in that place on the road. Then he says he's sensed Suellen too. Marlee doesn't believe him. I guess she's the only one allowed to be psychic around here.

Dobkin realizes Marlee is bleeding from a cut lip and he feels around the truck finding a bandanna or something she can use to clean herself up. Jimmy says he always feels Suellen on this road. He thought he was going crazy until Marlee sensed it too.

They get out to walk back to town. They reach a crossroads and Marlee turns one way but Jimmy says town is the other way. She ends up following him but she keeps feeling like they're going in the wrong direction. After awhile Dobkin is exhausted so Jimmy picks him up to carry him.

As they walk, Marlee and Jimmy discuss the feelings they've had about Suellen and how freaky it is. Jimmy is really upset, saying people in town don't like stuff like this. He asks her to promise not to say anything to anybody and she does. She admits to being in Suellen's house and he's not surprised. She asks who Suellen would have been with that she trusted. He tells her that she has to let it go. The people in town want to forget about it and won't like it if she goes stirring things up. There's nothing they can do for Suellen anymore so she should just let it go.

Tyler and Noreen drive up. Tyler's mom asked him to take some things to the cabin and for some reason Noreen rode with him. Marlee tells them that the van broke down on their way back and Jimmy picked them up. Jimmy tells them that a deer ran in front of his truck and caused the crash. Tyler and Noreen seem to accept both stories. Everyone piles into Tyler's car and he drives up to the cabin to drop the stuff off for his mom and then he takes Jimmy home.

As they drive home, Noreen mentions that Marlee is really quiet. Marlee says breaking down on a deserted road really freaked her out because something could have happened to them and no one would ever know. Noreen compares that to Suellen going missing which is weird. Tyler turns up the radio so he won't have to discuss it but Noreen prods him and asks if he ever thinks about Suellen. He just shrugs. She says she thinks about her a lot but Tyler interrupts and asks her to stop. Noreen doesn't stop. She says she wonders what Suellen's last moments were like and if she was afraid.

Marlee asks about Suellen's family and Noreen says she was an only child and her parents were devastated by her disappearance. They didn't want to leave Edison because they believed she'd come back someday but her dad eventually had to go where the work was. Noreen starts going on and on about how Suellen might have been thinking about her parents at the end and wishing she was safe at home and Tyler gets upset and slams on the brakes. He tells her to stop again and says that no one liked Suellen. They were all sorry something happened to her but no one liked her. Noreen is surprised. She clearly thought Tyler liked Suellen. He reminds her how quickly everyone went on with their lives after the disappearance and how no one really missed her so it's weird that Noreen is waxing all sentimental about her now. Noreen reluctantly admits that he's right. She says that she felt sorry for Suellen because she wasn't pretty but Tyler interrupts her and says that Suellen was definitely pretty. Noreen says Suellen was a showoff and a flirt but Tyler says she had virtually no personality at all. Noreen says Suellen was in love with Tyler but he says she wasn't. They have vastly different perceptions of this girl.

Tyler says he never encouraged Suellen......but he went on a date with her? I'm confused. Noreen says that Suellen frequently lied to manipulate people and to get attention. Then she goes off on a tangent about how people think Suellen is haunting the school and several people have claimed to see her ghost. Tyler groans and says she's being stupid and that Marlee shouldn't listen to her. Noreen says that Suellen probably wants Marlee to solve her murder. She asks Marlee what she's learned so far and I swear she's just trying to find out if Marlee is a threat.

But I'm probably wrong and it's Jimmy.

Marlee says something vague about not really being able to make sense of anything. Noreen presses. Marlee starts to answer her but Dobkin punches her in the stomach to shut her up. Tyler asks if Marlee knows where Suellen is and she says she doesn't. Noreen asks if she think she'll be able to figure it out. She asks if Marlee will be able to figure out how Suellen died. Marlee is rightfully afraid to answer. Tyler says he'd be scared if he was Marlee because Suellen might be trying to take her over or something. Noreen agrees and wonders if bad things will start happening to Marlee.

This is a very weird conversation.

Eventually Marlee and Dobkin get home and go to bed. Marlee has trouble falling asleep and then has a nightmare about Dobkin being kidnapped. She goes to his room to check on him and he's fine. As she's going back to her room, she hears sounds inside like someone is in there. She freezes but eventually pushes open the door. The room is empty.

Marlee goes back to bed and falls asleep. Some time later she's awakened. Her hand is dangling over the edge of the bed and it's icy cold. She tries to move it but can't. That's when she realizes that her hand is being held by another hand and someone is trying to drag her under the bed. She screams and runs out into the hall. Celia and Dobkin rush to her. Celia calls the police and two officers arrive. Marlee is hysterical and can barely tell them what happened. They search but find nothing and suggest she was just dreaming.

Dobkin goes back to bed and Celia goes to sit with Marlee. She tells Marlee that her mom also had a gift. Right before she died, she called Celia and asked her to take care of Marlee and Dobkin if something happened to her. She says that Marlee's mom tried to deny her gift too because it scared her but she was never able to ignore it completely because it was important.

We skip to the next day. Noreen tells Marlee that Tyler's having a party on Saturday at his cabin. She insists that Marlee has to come. Marlee reluctantly agrees. They decide to go up there on Friday to do some cleaning and prep work. Tyler mentions Jimmy will be there too. Marlee warns that she'll have to bring Dobkin because Celia is going somewhere to try to sell some of her sculptures. Everyone's okay with that.

Marlee realizes at lunch that she hasn't seen Jimmy all day. She asks Noreen who hasn't seen him either. Noreen suggests that Jimmy and Tyler might be eating lunch on the bleachers so they can watch the girls track team practice. During lunch. Which is a weird time for practice. Whatever. On their way to the bleachers, Noreen casually remarks that Tyler is into Marlee. Marlee deflects saying that she barely knows Tyler. Noreen says she loves Tyler but quickly adds “not romantically”. Marlee doesn't really believe her and neither do I. Noreen says Tyler will never see her as anything other than a buddy and she doesn't seem too happy about that. She says that Tyler is going to get a scholarship and he's going to get out of this town. She's oddly adamant about it. Marlee just nods. Noreen says she'll probably stay in Edison and open a beauty salon. Unless Jimmy asks her to marry him and then she'll live on his farm and give him lots of babies.

The boys are at the bleachers. Jimmy gets up when he sees them and heads back to the school. The rest of them follow him. Somehow, despite Jimmy being in the front, he ends up at the back with Marlee. He asks her if she took anything out of his truck the night before and she says she didn't.

She did though. The bandanna or whatever it was. She doesn't seem to remember having it.

Marlee gets through the rest of her day and then hides in the bathroom when the final bell rings because she doesn't want to talk to Noreen or anyone else for some reason. The halls are empty when she gets to her locker. She opens it and the walls are moving like it's breathing. Then it starts to melt and flake off on her. Suddenly she's in another place with bugs crawling all over her. The place is dark and small and not very far away.

We skip to that evening. Celia is worried about Marlee because she's acting weird and has a slight fever. Marlee says she's just tired. She goes to bed and sleeps for awhile. A little after midnight she wakes up, hearing something outside of her window. She goes over and opens it but sees nothing. She decides that she's going to ask Celia if they can move again because she can't take this anymore. Leaning out of the window, she sobs.

After awhile, she raises her head and realizes someone is in the tree right in front of her. It's Tyler. He says he saw her crying and came to check on her. He encourages her to come out the window and into the tree with him where he holds her close and comforts her. He asks why she was crying and she says she's just tired. She says that a lot. So do I. I often just say I'm tired when I'm in a lot of pain or my depression is kicking my ass. I don't know if people believe me but Tyler doesn't believe Marlee. She says she's scared and he asks if she's scared of him. She doesn't answer. He starts kissing her head, her ear, her face and then finally her lips. She likes it.

When they stop making out, Marlee tells him she's scared because she knows Suellen is dead. He seems upset about this. She says she thinks Suellen's body is hidden nearby and he asks if she's told the police...or anyone else. She says she hasn't. She describes how awful it feels to have her visions and then admits she's talked about it with Jimmy. Tyler goes rigid. He asks why she's talked to Jimmy about it and she tells him everything even though she promised Jimmy she wouldn't. Tyler asks if she think she'll be able to solve Suellen's murder and she says she doesn't know.

We skip to Friday afternoon. Dobkin isn't happy about having to go to the cabin to help with party setup. He tries to bribe Marlee into letting him stay home alone by saying he won't tell Celia that she was making out in the tree with the boy from next door. Marlee doesn't fall for it. She notices he's holding something and asks what it is. He says it's the bandanna he gave her for her bloody lip the other night. He was going to return it to Jimmy.

Noreen comes to pick them up. They discuss the menu for the party on their way to the cabin. Marlee tells Noreen that her car looks just like Tyler's. Noreen laughs and says Tyler has been driving her car because it's making a funny noise and he's trying to figure it out. She mentions that Tyler is a great mechanic and Marlee instantly wonders if Tyler could be the one who tampered with the van.

It doesn't take a great mechanic to put sugar in a gas tank.

Dumbass.

They have fun at the cabin. Jimmy takes Dobkin on an adventure walk and they come back with all kinds of treasures including a turtle which Dobkin wants to keep as a pet.

I remember what happened to the last turtle in one of these books. Don't make me trigger warning this, Cusick!

Dobkin says Jimmy offered to take him fishing at some secret place on the river which doesn't sound creepy at all.  Marlee seems to find it charming.

At the end of the night Tyler offers to take Marlee and Dobkin home. The others seem shocked by this but he lives right next door. It makes sense. Dobkin wants to ride home in the back of Jimmy's truck. Marlee isn't sure about this but Jimmy says he'll go slow on the country roads and then put Dobkin inside the truck when they get into town. They all leave and Marlee pretty quickly dozes off. She's awakened by what sounds like an explosion but is really just Tyler's tire blowing out. Marlee is freaked out because the others are ahead of them and won't know they're having trouble. Tyler reassures her that he knows how to change a tired and everything's okay.

They get out and she holds the flashlight for him. He looks at the tire and says that he thinks it was slashed. He asks her to get the lug wrench out of the trunk for him. She goes back there and is instantly hit with a vision of Suellen in the trunk. Tyler approaches and asks her what she saw. She screams that Suellen was in the trunk and he seems confused. He raises the tire iron in his hand and Marlee runs off.

A chase ensues. Marlee falls down a million times but manages to stay ahead of Tyler. She tumbles into a ravine and he catches up to her. She struggles as he tries to hold onto her. She keeps seeing Suellen in the trunk bloody and muddy. She yells that he killed her and he lets her go. She keeps screaming that Suellen was in the trunk and Tyler is stunned. He staggers away from her and sits down on the ground. He says he didn't have his car that day. He was out of town with his parents. He looks like he's trying not to cry. Marlee asks him who had his car but before he can answer, someone starts yelling their names and asking where they are.

Noreen and Jimmy appear. Marlee starts accusing Jimmy of killing Suellen and burying her. Noreen starts shrieking (because everyone in these books shriek) “Jimmy, you promised” over and over for some reason. Marlee tells Jimmy that he buried Suellen alive and the last thing she saw was his face. Jimmy says that he checked her pulse and she was definitely dead. Noreen is screaming at him that all this time Jimmy said she killed Suellen but she wasn't even dead when he buried her.

So apparently Noreen pushed Suellen. Suellen said she had proof that Jimmy was the one breaking into the cabins and Noreen begged her not to tell anyone but Suellen was determined. Noreen grabbed her and Suellen slipped and fell down the hill, hitting her head. She got caught on some tree roots and ended up face down in the water. Jimmy showed up and told Noreen he'd take care of everything and she never had to worry about it again. He swore Suellen was dead. He told Noreen to drive his truck home and he put Suellen in the trunk of Tyler's car which Noreen had borrowed. He wanted to implicate Tyler so he'd go to jail with the rest of them if they got caught.

Dobkin comes out of the trees and Jimmy grabs him, holding a gun to his head. Dobkin bites Jimmy. Jimmy hits him in the head with the gun and Dobkin goes limp. Noreen starts babbling about how Jimmy put bugs in Marlee's locker (did Cusick forget to put that in because I don't remember any bugs) and hid in her room to scare her. He pretended to be psychic too to find out how much she knew. Marlee begs Jimmy to let Dobkin go. She says they'll convince Celia to leave town in the morning and they'll never tell anyone what they know. Jimmy says Dobkin is going to have an accident in the river. Then he says Suellen is at the bottom of a well on his farm. I have no idea why he gave this information up but he did.

Noreen dives for Jimmy. There's a struggle. Tyler tries to help. Marlee grabs Dobkin and moves away from the fray. There's a scream and then Tyler staggers over to Marlee and Dobkin and shields them with his body. Noreen cradles Jimmy on the ground and there are pieces of his skull on her shirt. She killed him with the tire iron.

Time passes.  Days if not weeks.  Marlee and Dobkin are in her room doing homework and Dobkin tells her that “he” is back in the tree again. Marlee opens the window and orders Tyler inside because it's cold and raining. Tyler pulls her out instead. She kisses him.

We learn that Noreen has left town but she has a good lawyer who thinks he can get her a light sentence since she didn't really kill Suellen and she only killed Jimmy in self defense and in defense of Dobkin. They kiss some more and the book ends.

Well, hell.  I really thought Noreen killed Suellen because of Tyler.  Oh, well.  I can't win them all.