She’d been trying not to think about it that way. Because yes, that was exactly what she was trying to say; she was just afraid to admit it, and afraid to admit that she was afraid to admit it. “That this is a weird situation and we can’t control it. So I’m going to keep investigating, because otherwise …”

Following reluctantly behind, Hanna had just reached her wife on the stairs. “Otherwise what?”

Liza stared at the packet of antique flypaper in her hand. And what had seemed like a thrilling discovery a few minutes ago now just felt sordid and pointless and wrong. “I don’t know otherwise what.” She sat down heavily and hung her head. “Otherwise this is all really fucking scary.” Reaching out, she took Hanna’s hands. “Five people are dead. Somebody might well be coming to kill us, and there’s nothing you or I can do about it, and that’s—that’s fucked up, Han. That’s fucked up.”

She set the flypaper down, buried her face in Hanna’s shoulder, and started crying.

Gently, Hanna put her arms around her, although the angle on the steps was awkward. “It’s okay. We’re going to be okay.”

“And what if we’re not? What if this is it and we’re going to die here?”

“Hush.” Hanna stroked her hand across Liza’s hair. “We’ll be all right. The snow’s melting. It’ll all be over soon.”

“That’s what the colonel thought.”

Moving up a step, Hanna looked Liza in the eyes, told her once more it was going to be all right, and then kissed her.

“Is this your way of distracting me?”

“Is it working?”

Tears still drying on her cheeks, Liza gave a half-nod. “A bit?”

“Leave the flypaper. Come upstairs with me. We’ll lock the door and wait.”

She couldn’t. For the past few days, the mystery had been the only thing keeping Liza together. Without it, what was she? A woman barely into her thirties with a moderately successful podcast who might not live to see another morning. Pretending to be a spunky amateur detective had made things just about bearable, and if she let go of that, all she had left was the fear.

Hanna took her hand. “It’s okay. It’ll be okay. You’ve done really well, but this is getting … this is getting super real and super close to being over, and what I want, more than anything, is to know that we’re both safe.”