...loud and shrill as a police siren. The silhouette spun in the middle of her walk and Amanda saw the leaflets the figure had been carrying scatter.

“Jehovah’s Witness? Mormon?” she wondered.

She couldn’t see the person’s face, but could imagine a panicked look.

The person took a hesitant step towards her porch and froze.

“What will you do?” Amanda whispered. “Nobody came when you knocked, so you figured nobody was home. Then you heard a scream and wondered what to do. Investigate? Call the police? Leave?”

The figure took another step. Amanda could now see: a young, clean-shaven man in a white shirt and black tie. She put her hand on the large switch beside the door.

“Such a nice young man,” she whispered, “could be a hero.”

He slowly came back and climbed the steps to the porch. He tentatively reached for the knocker and abruptly vanished. Amanda threw the switch again, closing the trapdoor seamlessly over the victim’s head.

She said, “He should last through the winter if I put some in the freezer.”