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“You were the one who wanted to tell them,” Jared said, voice low as the sound of autumn-red leaves rustling on the trees along the road, whispering hush, hush to the sky.
“My team needs all the information available to conduct their investigation,” said Kami. “And they’re my friends, so I wanted to tell them the truth.”
“Whatever you say,” Jared answered mildly, but Kami could feel his belief that they didn’t need anyone but each other.
She caught sight of Angela and Holly, standing still up ahead. They’d stopped walking and were staring across the fields at Monkshood Abbey.
Why aren’t they moving? Kami thought, panic spreading from her to Jared. She walked past him, and heard him follow her.
“What’s wrong?” Kami asked as she reached the other two. As soon as she drew level with them, she realized what was wrong.
Holly was the only plausible hiker of the bunch, in a padded coat with her sunny hair in pigtails. Angela in her fitted jacket and silk looked as if her sports car had broken down and she would never venture out into nature again. Both of them looked disgusted. Kami took another deep breath and wished she hadn’t.
The house stood at the top of a gravel driveway, with a green field sloping up toward it and the dip of a moat enclosing that field. On the green rise, the building squatted like a glowering gnome. Emanating from the direction of the house was a thick, terrible scent of rot.
“What is that smell?” Holly asked at last.
“Could be anything,” Kami said. “Might be something, you know, totally normal. The moat could be full of cat food tins.”
“Yes,” said Angela. “That would be extremely normal.”
Kami had a strong feeling that something was waiting for them there. She expected to see a dark figure walk out, or a car drive toward them from around the back.
Kami shook herself out of her reverie with a shiver. “I know it’s super creepy,” she said. “But I’m not even going to pretend I’m not going in there. You two can wait outside if you like.” She didn’t even think about it until she saw Angela’s sidelong look, then she realized that she’d said “you two.” She couldn’t think of a way to take it back. She could feel the same thrill coursing through both of them. She couldn’t pretend to be anything but sure that, no matter what, Jared was coming with her.
They all went up the driveway together, and then circled around to the back of the house. They went no farther.
“So they kind of lock up abandoned houses,” Kami said thoughtfully. “I did not know that. But it makes sense.”
Both the front and back doors were barred with planks nailed in place over the entrance. The nails were rusted and buried in the age- and water-darkened wood. All efforts to pry them off would obviously be useless, as would hopeful jiggling of the windows, which were warped shut, with thick green moss growing along every windowsill.
“Aren’t you supposed to be some sort of delinquent criminal?” Angela asked Jared.
“I do have aspirations that way,” Jared answered. “Yes.”
“Could you jimmy the lock or something?”
Jared looked at the back door, covered with its many planks.
“Or something,” said Angela, her voice sharp. “Get the glass out of its frame, or scale the gutters and break in through the attic.”
“Well,” said Jared, “I suppose I could do something.” He stepped up to the nearest window, eyes narrowing. He set his leather-clad elbow against the glass.
Kami said, “Jared, no!” She spoke an instant too late.
The glass broke with a crunch and a tinkling sound as the shards fell inward.
“Sorry if it wasn’t what you had in mind,” Jared told Angela. “I’m not that subtle.”
“Well, now we have to redeem this act of vandalism by using it as a terrible means to the excellent end of pursuing truth and justice,” Kami said. “Someone give me a boost through this broken window.” She already had the mossy sill in her grasp, and even though she said “someone,” she was braced for it to be Jared. She looked straight ahead into the darkness of that house as he grasped her waist, hands light but firm. Despite her attempt to help herself through by grabbing at the window frame, he just lifted her and put her through, so she was past the jagged points of glass and standing in the dust-gray gloom.
Holly and Angela followed her, Angela slapping Jared’s hands away when he tried to help her. Jared got in last. A shard of glass clinging to the top of the frame caught at his sleeve when he pulled himself through, and secondhand pain shot through Kami as they all looked at the bright blood beading on his wrist in the strange light.
“I’m fine,” said Jared, pulling down his sleeve.
They were standing in a very large room. The floorboards stretched in a pale expanse at their feet. There was so much dust on the floor that it had a pearly sheen.
“Even you could not nap on this floor,” Kami told Angela.
