“What do you mean, clean up?” I asked, but then was distracted by an incoming text message on my phone.

813-555-0172 3:11 P.M.

Hey this is Ernesto from school. Call me back if you can.

My mind went blank for a second before I remembered: Yes, Ernesto. The kid who saved my life yesterday morning. “This is weird,” I muttered. “Some kid from Tampa I barely know just texted me. I don’t even know how he got my number.”

“What does he want?”

I was about to say that I didn’t know when my phone vibrated again with a second text.

813-555-0172 3:12 P.M.

My grandmother says she knows you

Without wasting a second on filling Henry in, I tapped my phone to call Ernesto. “Hey,” I said when he answered. “This is McKenna Brady. You texted?”

“Yeah. Cool, thanks. My grandmother lives in a assisted living facility called Oscawana Pavilion? She randomly called me today and asked if I know you,” Ernesto said. I could hear the television on in the background on his end of the call. “She says you work there?”

“Let me guess,” I said, wondering why tingles hadn’t broken out on my scalp yet—because this situation was a perfect example of when they usually would. My heart was ballooning with hope. “Mrs. Robinson is your grandmother?”

“Yeah. How weird is that, right? What a coincidence,” Ernesto said, sounding genuinely amused.

I had stopped believing in coincidences months earlier. “Are you there with her right now?”

“Yeah.”

I asked to speak with her, and Ernesto put me on speakerphone. Henry and I parked in front of the Richmonds’ house and sat there with the engine off while I explained to her what had happened at Violet’s house, and how I’d fallen out of touch with Jennie. “So, what do you think? Am I next in line to die?”

Mrs. Robinson replied, “Well, you shuffled the deck and set an intention. You opened yourself up to it, didn’t you?”

“Yes, but…” She was right. I had initiated this mess. “I thought my sister could trick them.”

Mrs. Robinson’s warm laugh trickled through the phone, angering me. This was serious—a timer had been set on my life—and she was laughing. “Haven’t you ever heard the expression fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me? They’re on to you, girl. They know exactly what you’re up to now. None of those tricks you used before will ever work again.”

I stole a glimpse at Henry and shook my head at his concerned expression to indicate that this conversation was not going as well as I’d hoped. Figuring Mrs. Robinson wouldn’t mind, I tapped my phone to put her on speaker on my end too.

“That’s why I had my daughter call Ernesto at school and tell him to get his butt over here on the bus. I had a dream about you last night, and I just knew you were getting yourself into trouble,” she said.