Seth was silent for a moment, looking like he was about to cry as well. Then, he murmured, “Come here.”

My feet moved of their own accord and I all but crashed into him, burying my face against his chest as he wrapped his arms around me. I could hear his shallow breaths as his fingers buried themselves in my coat, and I suddenly didn’t know who was clinging onto whom, who was holding whom up.

Seth had been my first and best friend at Seven Hills, probably the only real friend I had ever had before. To me, that day we had met on the train with our matching Agatha Christie copies had always seemed a little bit like fate; to see him go now felt like the earth spun the wrong direction all of a sudden, like the sky was falling, like something at the core of the universe was profoundly, terribly wrong.

He let go of me only when an angry pair of boots came our way, the thin layer of snow and gravel crunching beneath them.

Seth’s eyes lit up as he turned around, probably expecting Jasper, but I knew just from the sound of the footsteps that it was Noelle.

The irritated expression left her face when she came to a halt next to us and saw the tears on my cheeks and Seth’s pale face.

“Hey,” she said. “I tried to talk to him, but he’s being a stubborn dumbass.”

“It’s okay,” Seth said. “He has every right to feel this way.”

“This is just all so fucking stupid. It’s The Chitter Chatter we’re talking about here. This just gives The Watcher the satisfaction they wanted when they planned this.”

Seth stayed silent for a moment, looking up at the window once again before he said, “I have to go now. My train leaves in a few minutes.”

“Are you sure you don’t want us to walk you to the station?”

I asked.

“No, that’s all right.” He tried for a smile but failed miserably.

“You guys have classes soon. I’ll be fine.”

Digging into my bag, I procured four timeworn paperback books.

“Something to read for your journey,” I said. “Miss Pepperman wanted to get rid of a bunch of old library books. I saved every book with the word murder on the back cover for you. I was going to give them to you on Christmas, but . . .”

I hadn’t expected this to be the thing that would make him tear up. “Thanks, Eve,” he said, carefully storing them away in his bag before he rubbed his hand over his eyes.

“Promise to stay in touch, okay?” I whispered.

“Of course,” he earnestly said. Then he turned to Noelle, who, to both our surprise, met him in a hug.

“This sucks,” she said against his shoulder. “Are you sure you don’t want to stay? Who else is going to solve the case of The Chitter Chatter?”

Seth stilled. “I, uh . . . might have already done that.”