Eli glanced toward the front windows, like Daniel might still be out there.
“He leaves them,” he said quietly. “He always leaves them… and then something happens.”
“Them?”
His expression shifted—and that was worse than fear. It was memory.
“You’re the third one.”
My chest tightened. I thought of Daniel’s first wife, supposedly dead from a medication accident. I thought of his former fiancée, who he said had vanished without warning. I thought of the isolated house, the gated property, the security system only he controlled.
“Eli,” I said carefully, “tell me everything.”
He swallowed hard. “This morning, I heard him in the basement with Mr. Grady. They were talking about a leak. Mr. Grady said it would spread faster if the windows stayed shut. Dad said that was fine—because by dark, no one would be left.”
The blood drained from my face.
Then I heard it—a faint metallic click from somewhere below the floor.
Eli whispered, “He locked the gate… and turned off the phone booster.”
