I Start Counting — Audrey Erskine Lindop

The old mansion at No. 3 Collins Wood was Wynne Kinch's private refuge. Here she had grown up, here she had returned for safety.

But tonight, Wynne was not alone. Crouching in the dark, she listened to the heavy footsteps coming closer. Did they belong to the lover she idolized? Or to the savage strangler who wanted her life? Or were they the same man?

Wynne has never lost a childhood habit of counting out loud when she was frightened -- “four, five, six, seven…”