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“Marvis?” I called again, walking over to close the back door.
A floorboard creaked behind me, and I spun, my heart slamming into my throat.
Harvey stood in the doorway to the hall, his hat clasped in his hands. His jaw clicked once as he just…stood there.
A chill slid down my spine.
“Harvey?” I breathed, taking an instinctive step back, my hip bumping the counter. “What are you doing here?”
He smiled. “Marvis invited me for dinner,” he said happily. “She stepped out to grab something from the barn. She’ll be right back. Told me to make myself at home.”
“Oh,” I said with a small frown. Weird that Marvis hadn’t mentioned he was coming. I peered out the kitchen window, trying to spot her walking around. She must have been inside the barn, though, because I couldn’t see her.
I forced a smile, rubbing my suddenly damp palms on my jeans. “We’re glad to have you. Dinner smells amazing.”
He nodded, still smiling, but didn’t move from the doorway.
His jaw clicked again.
The silence stretched, thick and awkward, as the sauce bubbled softly behind me.
I turned back to the cabinets, pulling out plates to set the table, anything to keep my hands busy and shake the prickles crawling up my spine. My pulse slowed a fraction as I stacked dishes, clinking them louder than necessary.
“Can I help?” Harvey asked, his voice closer now, still smooth and polite.
I glanced over my shoulder. He’d moved.
He was standing just a few feet away now with his hat still clutched in his hands, that smile fixed like it had been carved there.
My stomach dropped, that prickle only growing.
“Yeah,” I said, my voice pitching higher than I wanted as I edged farther away. “Sure. You can…grab the glasses.”
He didn’t move. He just kept watching me, his jaw clicking more often now…and that made me watch him, too.
Harvey was twitchy. His fingers drummed against the brim of his hat, his eyes were flicking around like he was listening for something I couldn’t hear. And it struck me then how strange his voice had been so far. Clear and focused. He hadn’t rambled once. I couldn’t remember ever hearing him sound like that.
The chills cascading down my spine turned glacial.
“The glasses are over there,” I murmured as I began walking toward the door, keeping one eye on him as I went. “I’m going to go check and see what’s taking Marvis so long. I’ll be right back.”
“Marvis is busy right now,” he said as his smile grew wider. Harvey cocked his head to the side like a curious dog.
I frowned, stopping mid-step. “Yes, I know. You said she was in the barn.”
His smile stretched even farther, his jaw clicking softly as his eyes gleamed with something dark and gleeful. He tilted his head the other way, nodding subtly behind him.
I followed the motion, looking past his shoulder to the hallway he’d been blocking.
Marvis lay crumpled on the floor, limp and unnaturally still, a dark pool spreading beneath her head.
The world tilted. That hadn’t been red sauce on the tile…it was blood.
My breath seized in my throat, a scream building, but it was trapped as horror flooded me.
No. No, no, no—
My mind lurched, grabbing for anything that made sense, and instead found him—the bar, the museum, the way he’d watched me with those glassy eyes, the strange things he’d said that I’d brushed off as harmless. It all twisted together, rearranging itself into something that felt sickeningly clear.
