Excerpt:

That night, Celeste couldn’t sleep. Alone in the house, it was just too quiet. She sat up and looked across the room to where she’d left her walkie-talkie. She was tempted to turn it on and see whether Brian was still up. She peeked out through the curtain of the big bay window facing his house but saw only darkness. She opened the window hoping that the cool night air would help her sleep.

Sitting back down on her bed she scolded herself, whispering, “Celeste, you are fine! You’re practically eighteen and you’ll be living on your own in New York City in a few months. Grow up and stop being so childish!”

She slipped down under the covers and felt Rocky’s cold, wet nose nudge her cheek. She closed her eyes determined to sleep but heard a rustling outside her window. Rocky whined. She sat up and swept the curtain aside. Outside, perched in the oak tree just a couple feet from her window, she could just make out the outline of a large black bird.

Celeste moved closer to the window to get a better look. The sizeable bird reminded her of pictures her grandfather had shown her after they’d watched the old Humphrey Bogart film The Maltese Falcon. She’d been curious as to what a falcon was and he had found pictures of the predatory creature and shown them to her. The peregrine falcon, he told her, was the fastest-moving creature on Earth. She stared at the bird in fascination.

Could it be a falcon?

She was about to lean further out the window to get a closer look when Rocky, catching sight of the strange visitor, let out a menacing bark. The bird immediately took flight and disappeared into the night.

“Well that was weird, huh?” she asked Rocky, whose hackles were still raised as he stared out the window. She patted him on the head calmly, and he finally settled down by her feet with a whine. She crawled back into bed and closed her eyes, willing herself not to think about the curious creature.