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No broken branches that meant anything.
No trail from the tree line back to the house.
They were out there long enough that everyone else stopped talking.
When they finally came back, Dad looked more unsettled than he had before they started.
“What?” I asked.
He rubbed one hand over his jaw.
“As far as I can tell, you didn’t go out there.”
I stared at him.
“Could someone else have?”
Dad looked at Riot.
Riot answered this time. “Not by any route we can find.”
Something cold moved through me.
“So nobody came in.”
Neither of them answered.
“Nobody went out.”
Still nothing.
I looked down at the phone in my hand.
“But this did.”
Dad’s mouth tightened.
“Yeah.”
Sunshine folded her arms tightly across herself.
Dad noticed. His expression softened.
“We’re not deciding anything at four in the morning.”
“That’s your big detective conclusion?” I asked.
His eyes moved to me. “My detective conclusion is that I don’t have enough evidence to conclude shit.”
Fair.
He crossed to me and took my face gently between his hands.
“You did the right thing screaming.”
I swallowed. “Okay.”
“You hear something again, you scream. You feel something again, you scream. You think you see something, I don’t care if it turns out to be your own shadow, you wake the entire county. You don’t hesitate.”
