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“Hmm? Nothing. Vendor log.” She frowns at the slip of paper in her hand. “Meal deliveries were billed to the residential area. There’s a house number on here that isn’t assigned to anyone.”

“Babe, the kitchen’s been feeding overtime crews and Rue’s system is a shoebox and vibes.”

She smiles when I call her babe. I think I like it, and she didn’t shut me down.

“Yeah.” She taps the slip against her knee. But she doesn’t put it back in the stack; instead, she puts it in a separate file. “Probably just a logging error.”

“Probably,” I agree.

Cave comes in around dusk, and as he is covered in dirt, he is directed straight into the shower by Valli. Cipher and I drag the table outside under the string lights I set up. It’s a nice night, and the fire plus the lights make the area look beautiful.

Cave carries Valli out, already on her chair. We all sit around the table and tell stories about things we saw at the Harvest Moon. Well, mainly I talk and everyone else laughs. Halfway through dinner, Leni video calls, and the phone gets propped against the salt so she can review our kidnapping.

“Four stars,” she says. “I have to deduct a point because no one filmed it for me, and I have never seen my sister scared. I think she might be a robot.”

“That’s not fair,” Valli says. “I am only scared of losing you, so you will never see it.”

“Change of conversation. I have decided that I’m cooking for Christmas. I thought I should inform you so that you can plan accordingly.”

We all vote yes before Valli can shut it down. I know she is afraid that Leni coming back will not be a good thing. She wanted her sister far away from everything so she could start a new life, but Leni wants Valli in her life. I think they will both love Christmas on Fear Island. It’s a magical day. A lot of our families come to visit, and we shut down for a week. No work, no chasing—just friends and family coming together.

I never thought I would love anything again in this life, having been warned that I love way too hard. I spent so long being careful with my hands and only trusting myself with a shovel, not wanting to hold on too tight. But I love these three harder than I have ever loved anything before, and they’re not breaking. It turns out you can hold on with everything you’ve got, so long as what you’re holding wants to hold you too.

Valli falls asleep at the table, and none of us wake her. Cave simply stands and lifts her, and she stirs enough to grab his jacket. Cipher helps him while I put out the fire and bring in the plates.

This is my life now, and nobody is taking it away from me.

Chapter Twelve

Valli

My follow-up pile is finally at an end, with only one slip left. I hate loose ends, and I have figured out everything so far. Nixie has been the best boss I have ever worked for, and she pays me well. I don’t think I have ever seen my bank balance go up before.

The office is slow, and Nixie is on the mainland until tonight, as she had a meeting with the bank and some new suppliers. So I take the opportunity to spread the vendor logs across her desk—mine is too small—and do what she taught me. Cross-reference everything, follow the money, and ask myself one good question instead of multiple irrelevant ones.

The house number on the slip belongs to the vacant lot at the end of the residential area that is being renovated. It sits beside the Jester’s house. Yet the kitchen has been billing meals to it for weeks. Three meals a day. I find the start date and my stomach drops. The deliveries started the day Cipher was shot.

Like Noa said, there are a dozen possible explanations. It could be the overtime crew needing to bill it somewhere, and the kitchen assigned it to the empty lot. I call down to the kitchen and get one of Rue’s runners and ask about the orders.

“Oh, the funny one,” she says. “The clown picks them up himself, says it’s for his crew. It went down to two trays a day, so I guess someone on his crew left.”

I thank her and hang up. Who the hell is the clown? We have a few on the island, yet all of their meals are logged to their houses, though I double-check again to make sure.

Unless she means the Jester . . . he sort of looks like a clown.

I pull my phone out to text Noa, as he seems to know a lot about everything and everyone here on the island. My thumb is on his name when I stop. I need to figure this one out on my own—something in my gut isn’t sitting right about this case. Besides, I can’t have my men solve all my problems for me. While I don’t want to keep anything from them, I also want to show them I can do this job by myself.

The best explanation is that the Jester is up to something. It makes sense, as he lives next door, and he also borrowed Noa’s hearse two days ago.

A sick thought pops into my head. Nobody has told me where my brother is; he simply vanished. Cave confirmed he is alive, so I thought they let him go. But if they did, surely I would’ve heard from him by now. Rowan is the type of guy who doesn’t simply go away. He would have needed money, and even if they had given him any, he would have blown it by now. He is an addict and can’t be trusted. But there is no way they would have locked him away here on the island. That makes no sense, and now I’m being crazy.

I check the rotation board and see that the Jester is on maze duty until six. Then I sign out the maintenance keys for his house and write vendor audit in the reason column. Lying about my motives could get me fired, but this mystery is eating at me, and I can’t let it go.

I try not to draw attention to myself as I walk toward the residential area. No one seems to be down this way—almost everyone will be on shift, and anyone who isn’t must not be outside.

The Jester’s house sits at the end of the row, with its staked tomatoes and herb pots. I stand on his porch and knock twice. The house next door is mid-renovation, so there is no way the actual meals are going there.

When no one answers, I use the key to let myself inside. The house is clean, and not a “man who lives by himself” clean, I mean spotless. No dishes are in the sink, and everything has a place. I feel insane for the thoughts that were running through my brain when I walked in here.