At the top of the stairs I turn for my room, but he calls out sharply. “Uh-uh, Ailsa. Your room, I said.” I stand blinking for a minute, and then it dawns on me that he assumes I’ve been sleeping in the master bedroom. It would be a natural assumption. He didn’t see that in all his watching, I think, and it feels like a small victory. He hasn’t quite been the omniscient observer he thinks he is. I turn for Carrie’s room, and he says encouragingly, “In you go.” The tote bag over his shoulder isn’t quite empty, but it doesn’t seem to have much in it. The bones must already be in place.

How did he get in? Not that it matters now.

It’s already dark outside, and Carrie’s curtains aren’t drawn, but for once I fear what’s in the Manse far more than the blackness beating at the windows. I take a small step forward, then Jamie pushes me and I stumble forward two more. I don’t think I have the courage to look around the room, yet I know I have to. Jamie has switched on the small lamp on Carrie’s bedside table. “You’re a clarty besom, you ken,” he’s saying disapprovingly, but I have eyes only for the heap on the bed. My brain is slow to resolve the lights and shades into recognizable shapes, even though I know what I’m about to see. “I had to make the bed. You’ll have to be much tidier when we’re living together; I cannae abide a mess. Anyroad.” He flings out a theatrical hand. “Say hello to Daddy.”

It’s a skeleton, just as I knew it would be—or at least it’s most of one. The major bones have been laid out in a decent approximation. They’re very clean, but an off-white color. I wonder if there’s a color in the swatch downstairs that would match, and press a hand to my mouth to dam a hysterical sob. I’ve been avoiding looking toward the head of the bed, but as my eyes travel up past the pelvis, past the collarbones, I see that there’s a skull after all, turned sideways on the bed as if waiting for whoever might enter the room. “The skull . . .” I whisper. Now I can’t take my eyes off it. The weak lamplight is throwing cavernous shadows into the eye sockets and the disturbing nasal gash. There are some slightly crooked teeth still attached in the mouth.