Vanished Books Three & Four: Safe House; Sanctuary [Paperback]

Ever since Jessica Mastriani was struck by lightning, she's had the ability to find missing people. But her amazing new power came at a cost: national fame and a crushing responsibility that Jess never asked for. The only way she knows how to get back her old life is to lie and say she’s lost her gift.

But when Jess’s classmates start to disappear, she's accused of being involved. Jess’s only chance to clear her name is to use her powers. But this will only bring back all the old nightmares: the press, the FBI, everyone who seems to want a piece of her . . . including the guy she once gave her heart to. Time is running out, and it seems as if Jess is the only one who can save her friends. But even if she succeeds, will there be anyone to save her?CHAPTER 1

I didn’t know about the dead girl until the first day of school.

It wasn’t my fault. I swear it wasn’t. I mean, how was I supposed to have known? It wasn’t like I’d been home. If I’d been home, of course I would have seen it in the paper, or on the news, or whatever. I would have heard people talking about it.

But I hadn’t been home. I’d been stuck four hours north of home, at the Michigan dunes, in my best friend Ruth Abramowitz’s summer house. The Abramowitzes go to the dunes for the last two weeks of August every summer, and this year, they invited me to go along.

I wasn’t going to go at first. I mean, who’d want to spend two weeks trapped in a summer house with Ruth’s twin brother Skip? Um, not me. Skip still chews with his mouth open even though he is sixteen and should know better. Plus he is like Grand Dragon Master of our town’s Dungeons & Dragons population, in spite of the Trans Am he bought with his bar mitzvah money.

On top of which, Mr. Abramowitz has this thing about cable, and the only telephone he’ll allow in his vacation house is his celll3;