The police had released the crime scene a few days before, but there was still yellow tape stuck to the door and around the trees where they’d found the body. Other than that, the place didn’t look like it had been disturbed much since Harper had seen it last, so she wondered how much digging around the police had even done.

If they did any fingerprinting, Daniel and Alex would have to make up a story. Gemma and Harper had plenty of reasons to have fingerprints there, since they’d both been out to Bernie’s many times.

But Harper wasn’t too worried about that. She, Alex, and Daniel had come up with an alibi for that night, which they’d already told the police: they were arguing with Gemma, and then she ran off with Penn, Lexi, and Thea.

Alex and Daniel could easily come up with logical reasons for being at Bernie’s place. Alex had visited with Gemma once, maybe. And Daniel delivered groceries to Bernie.

Both of those excuses would work, and the police would probably go back to pursuing the three unidentified sets of prints in the cabin. Harper seriously doubted the sirens had ever been fingerprinted.

“So are you moving out here, then?” Daniel asked, drawing Harper from her thoughts as she scrubbed milk off the kitchen tiles.

“What?” She glanced back to see him picking up all of Bernie’s books and putting them on the shelves.

“Now that you own the place, I was wondering if you’re going to move out here,” Daniel said. “Is that what we’re cleaning it up for?”

“No, I’m not moving out here.” She’d gotten the milk off the floor, so she stood up and wrung out her washcloth in the sink.

“Why not?” Daniel asked. “It’s a nice place.”

“No, I know. I just…” A strand of hair had come loose from her ponytail, and she tucked it behind her ear. “I’m leaving for college soon. And even if I wasn’t, there’s too many memories here.”

“Too many memories?” Daniel had finished putting all the books back on the shelf, and he moved on to uprighting the coffee table. “Aren’t they mostly good memories?”

“Well, yeah,” she said. “But that last night was…”

She grabbed a garbage bag so she wouldn’t have to talk about the last time she’d been here, when she’d seen Bernie’s dead body and the horrible monsters attacking her and her sister.

“So what are you going to do with this place?” Daniel asked.

“I don’t know,” Harper replied as she filled the bag with spoiled food and the garbage strewn about the floor. “Sell it, I guess.”

“Sell it?” Daniel scoffed. “Why would you do that? Why wouldn’t your dad just move out here?”