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“Was that the front door?” I asked.
Daisy furrowed her brow. “I think so. No one’s ever used the knocker before, so I’ve never heard it.”
She trotted to the hall and peered out of the window.
Her gaze slid back to me. “No one’s there.”
“Any car?”
“No.”
“Could the breeze have done that?”
Her doubtful expression gave me the answer.
My heart rate picked up.
I checked my phone for a message from Jackson in case he’d returned early. There was nothing.
The same fear I’d had a dose of during the night returned.
Daisy jogged to another window and stared out into the bright afternoon. “I can’t see anyone, but that was definitely a knock.” She stepped back to me, her fingers twisting together. “You stay here. I’ll go downstairs and have a look around.”
“No, don’t do that,” I said fast.
Panic coiled in my belly.
I could picture it all in my head—Daisy leaving to check, her vanishing and not responding to my shouts, me following and scared out of my wits for her but also for myself. Picking people off one by one had to be a tactic, and we were not going to fall for it.
Daisy focused in on me then quick-stepped back and closed the door of the bedroom we were in, her movements jerky. “Shit. You’re right. We heard a knock, but no one’s there. In a horror movie, that’s a lure.”
“Isn’t it? We can’t separate. Don’t leave me.”
“Never. We’re smarter than that.”
Taking up my phone, I sent a quick message to Jackson.
Ariel: Can you come to Daisy’s? I think someone’s here.
Typing the words felt ridiculous, alarmist, but the choice was us investigating ourselves or getting him to come out and do it. I knew the decision he’d want me to make. My stance on being independent and not a pawn came with responsibility for my safety. I wasn’t taking any risks.
A thud sounded downstairs.
Daisy and I grasped each other in fright.
“Does this door lock?” I asked.
“No. Get in the closet,” she whispered.
At the back of the room was a wide built-in wardrobe with a heavy old door. We hadn’t gotten to painting in there yet, and we crept inside, closing the doors.
Daisy sent a message, too, the screen casting her face white.
Not all that long ago, we’d been worried about someone taking her. Now I was certain it had been because of me. My family, my fault.
She gripped my fingers.
We both held our breath and listened.
