Chapter 1: New In Westhampton

A New Home

Liz was particularly pleased with her new home. She still thought of herself as Liz rather than Elizabeth but maybe it was time to move on. Of course it had been a wrench moving away from the town where she and her husband had lived for so long out here to the 'burbs', but with Ben's new job they couldn't really have stayed where they were. And, of course, now that he was earning more they had been able to afford something bigger and in a nice part of town.

The welcome from the neighbors had been great. Liz had met half a dozen or so of them on the day she and Ben had moved in. She suspected that they had come around as much to see what sort of furniture she had as to welcome her to the estate, but Liz didn't mind. It was nice that they were being friendly.

She wasn't terribly good at names but she was trying to make the effort to remember them. There was Hannah Kleich next door; Julia Croft across the street whose husband worked for some computer company downtown; Laura Teal next door to her; Theresa - Terry - Parnes two doors down. And, who was the other one? Oh yes, Cassandra, Cassie, Cassie Block from the house at the end of the road. They had all seemed pleasant, friendly people; all good humored and unstuffy. "It's more Hysteria Drive than Wisteria Drive, here honey," Cassie had joked.

They were all about the same age as Ben and herself; all bright and all, obviously, pretty well set-up financially. After all the price of property around there meant they had to have a few bucks in the bank. Looking at the way the neighbors dressed, Liz felt conspicuously scruffy in her jeans and tee-shirt as she was unpacking boxes but, she reasoned to herself, you are allowed to look scruffy when you're moving.

All in all, though, she'd been pleased that every one of the women she'd met seemed happy to see her. It looked like Westhampton was going to turn out to be a good move for her and Ben.

A Worrying Sound

Elizabeth Henkle peered in through the kitchen window of Hannah's house, looking for her neighbor. Hannah had said for her to pop around at any time and it seemed to Liz that this was as good a time as any.

Hannah's cat was sitting on the decking staring disconsolately at the house as if everyone was out but Liz could see that the kitchen door was ajar so presumably Hannah was at home. She pushed the door open and went inside clutching the jar of cookies that she had brought along as a friendly gesture.

"Hannah," she called. "It's Liz. I wondered if you had time for a coffee." The warm smell of cinnamon doughnuts wafted across the kitchen but that was the only sign that anyone was around.

There wasn't a reply. She put the cookie jar down on the kitchen counter and was just about to leave when she heard a peculiar noise. It sounded like someone was coughing or grunting quietly. The cat seemed uninterested but Liz was worried in case Hannah had fallen or had some other accident. She went in search of the noise.

There wasn't any sign of Hannah downstairs but as Liz headed back towards the kitchen she heard the sound again coming from somewhere upstairs. More worried now, Liz headed up the stairs towards where the noise was coming from. The closer she got, the more it sounded like groaning.