“I don’t think he’s here, guys,” Amie called, her heart rate increasing as she read the message again. “He left a note.”
She handed the paper to David as he and Ziya hurried back over to her.
“This is getting dangerous,” David said grimly, passing the note to Ziya.
“I think it was already dangerous when a woman got murdered,” Amie said.
“I meant dangerous foryou.”
“I think we should confront the motherfucker,” Ziya said. Her eyes were bright with fury. “He wants to break into your home and threaten you? I can do that too. But I’ll threaten him to his face, fucking coward.”
“In fairness, I already broke into his home,” Amie pointed out, gently removing the paper from Ziya’s grip before she could tear it in half.
“Why are you so calm right now?” Ziya demanded.
Amie frowned. She didn’t feel calm. Her heart was still racing. The piece of paper in her hand could have been a bloody knife for how anxious it made Amie just from looking at it.
But if Benny was telling her to stop looking into Savannah’s death, that meant he was genuinely concerned that Amie wascapable of doing that. It was almost as if the note said, “Keep going, you’re on the right track.” And Amie loved being told that she was on the right track.
“There’s nothing we can do tonight,” she said. “He left a warning, which probably means he’s going to wait and see if I keep looking into Savannah’s murder. As long as I stay under the radar, everything will be fine.”
“You’re not seriously going to continue?” David looked appalled. “This has gone far enough. It’s gone farther than it ever should have gone. The police haven’t contacted me since Tuesday. We’ve seen no indication that they’re still considering me as a suspect. Kid, this needs to end.”
Amie was confused for a split second, having nearly forgotten that David still believed she was trying to clear his name. After her conversation with Winston at the grocery store, she’d been almost completely assured that David was no longer under serious investigation. No, now she was running solely on guilt. Guilt and pizza.
“I’ll sleep on it,” she said. “I’ll think it over. I promise.”
Shewouldthink it over. She just already knew the conclusion she would come to.
Ziya insisted on staying the night.
Despite Amie’s repeated assurances, neither Ziya nor David could be convinced that Benny wouldn’t return and make clear to Amie when “too late” would be. She finally agreed to let Ziya stay over, promising David they’d set up a makeshift alarm system using materials he brought over from his apartment.
“He really does have everything, doesn’t he?” Ziya commented. The wrist bells in her hand jingled cheerfully in response as she waited for Amie to lock and chain the door behind David.
“Yup. You can just hang those on the doorknob. I don’t think we need to set up the whole pulley system.”
Ziya ripped the Velcro of the wristband open, wrapping it around the doorknob and securing the ends back together.
“Voilà.” Ziya stepped back, examining her work. “Now we just need to heat up the doorknob and set up a paint can to swing down if it opens, and we can sleep safely tonight.”
Amie snorted. “I think the chain lock and bells will do, but thanks, Kevin McCallister.”
She suddenly felt shy as they walked into the living room. “Um, you can take the bed again, if you want.”
Ziya waved a hand. “No, no. I’m here to protect you; I’ll take the couch.”
Amie was quietly relieved. As difficult as falling asleep in her bed had been the night prior, the experience was much more comfortable than when she’d slept on the couch the night before that.
“Feel free to grab whatever you want to sleep in from my dresser,” she said, going into her bedroom to get sheets for the couch. “And I still have the toothbrush you used the other night.”
“Knew I’d be coming back, huh?”
Amie felt her face flush with embarrassment. She’d tried to throw the toothbrush away, but in the end she’d just left it in the cup by the sink. It wasn’t that she thought Ziya would be back. She just couldn’t stand to throw out another one of her toothbrushes, even one that had barely been used.
“I’m teasing,” Ziya called from the other room. “That was a joke.”
“Ha, yeah. I know.” Hoping her cheeks weren’t as pink as they felt, Amie returned to the living room to make up the couch.
