Katie mulled this one over. “I think she decided to be a dog doctor.”

“Really?” said Trixie. “A dog doctor. You mean, she wanted to be a dog, who becomes a doctor, or she wanted to be someone who took care of sick dogs?”

“She wanted to be someone who wanted to take care of sick dogs.”

“That makes sense,” said Trixie. “I think that’s a good choice.”

“I like dogs,” said Katie. “But I don’t like dragons. If a dragon got sick, I wouldn’t try to make it better.”

“Dragons are scary,” Trixie agreed.

“I don’t want there to be any dragons,” Katie said.

“Neither do I,” Trixie said, and leaned over to give Katie a kiss goodnight.

I slipped away down the stairs.

“Zack.”

When I opened my eyes, it took me a couple of seconds to realize where I was. On the couch, in the living room of the Bennet house. Trixie, in a robe, the sash knotted in front of her, was kneeling over me in the darkness. I could smell her hair as it hung down her face toward me.

“Zack,” she said again, whispering.

“Yeah, Trixie, it’s the middle of the night.” Instantly, I wondered what her intentions were. Here we were, alone, Trixie in a robe, me mostly undressed, in a darkened room.

“Shhh,” she said.

“What is it?”

“I think there’s someone out there.”

I blinked hard, several times, getting the sleep out of my eyes and getting them adjusted to the dark. “Out where?”

“Outside. Around the house.”

“What? How, what, you probably just heard something. An animal or something.” I’d swung my legs out from under the covers and was in a sitting position, in socks, boxers, and a T-shirt.

“I came down to the kitchen,” Trixie whispered, “for a glass of water, and I thought—” She stopped abruptly, put her index finger to her lip. Neither of us breathed.

I thought I heard a board creak. On the porch, at the front of the house.

“Did you hear that?” she asked.

I nodded. Merker, I thought. Somehow, I’d fucked up, led him here. But how was that possible? How could Merker have followed me through the countryside without my noticing? Even an amateur detective like myself would have picked up a tail.

“Have you woken up the others?” I asked. Trixie shook her head. “Get them up, get Katie.”

Trixie didn’t have to be told twice. She disappeared, padding back up the stairs on bare feet. I stood and moved silently to the front door. The door window was curtained, but there was enough of a slit to peer outside. Out on County Road 9, a van with high beams on drove past. I couldn’t make out anything between the house and the road, no people, no unfamiliar vehicles, no—

Someone moved past the window, momentarily blocking my view.