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Chief stood near the doorway.

He hadn’t put on a shirt. I tried not to notice. My brain noticed anyway. Traitor.

Clayton sat beside me.

Chief’s jaw tightened.

Sunshine sat on the arm of the couch and smoothed my hair back from my face.

“What made you think there was someone in the room with you?” Chief asked quietly.

“I think I heard a noise.”

“What did it sound like?” Marion asked gently.

I hesitated. “Snapping.”

“Snapping what?”

“Fingers.”

No one reacted for a second. Then Chief did.

Very small. So small I might have imagined it.

His head lifted. His eyes sharpened.

I stared at him. “What?”

“Nothing.” The answer came too fast.

I frowned.

Chief looked away.

Before I could push him, Dad and Riot came back.

“All clear,” Dad said. Again.

That phrase was starting to lose its comforting qualities.

Riot paused beside the couch. “You double-check with our guy?” he asked Dad quietly.

Dad glanced at his phone. “Yeah. Just heard back. Everything is as it should be.”

Eventually the Bishops went home.

Not Chief. Not at first. He lingered in the hallway while Sunshine helped me plug the lamp and alarm clock back in.

Dad checked the bathroom one more time. Then the closet. Then under the bed, because apparently we had gone backward twenty years into monster inspection.

I didn’t make fun of him.

Sunshine kissed me. “I’m right down the hall.”

“I know.”

Dad pointed at my phone.