Prologue

I watched in disbelief as four burly officers from the Carroll County sheriff's department took their seats behind the small, white casket covered with flowers, a toy rabbit perched on top. It was the Saturday before Easter, 1992. The open casket showed a pretty little girl wearing her pink Easter dress. Even with the heavy makeup that hid the autopsy sutures, you could see Amber had been a beautiful child.

The Almon Funeral Home chapel was filled to overflowing, but there was no sign of the child's mother. I assumed she was sitting in the private, screened section reserved for family members. Charged with Amber's murder, her mother, Tina Resch, now using her married name of Christina Boyer, had sat in jail for the past three days while the media vilified her. Almost without exception, it seemed the entire town of Carrollton, Georgia, had banded against her, the Northern outsider; a woman so out of control she could kill her three-year-old daughter. In a show of solidarity, the outraged community had taken Amber as one of their own; Almon donated the casket; local florists sent sprays of flowers; police officers provided the burial plot. The only thing from Tina was the pink Easter dress.

My mind was a blur of shock and distress. All I could think was, How? How had this happened? It was impossible. I had known Tina since she was fourteen years old. In an ironic twist, she had been the center of a media blitz then, too; the wild child who could move objects with the power of her mind. The reports hadn't been off base. Much of my research and writing of the previous eight years had focused on Tina's impressive abilities, one of the most convincing cases of poltergeist activity I had ever witnessed. Now