They didn’t respond to her. She thought she heard a whine from around the corner. Setting the bowls down, she worried that one of them had gotten hurt and that the other two were busy trying to help in their doggy way.

“Guys!” she called, and she walked toward the gate between the properties.

She saw the dogs; they were lying on the ground, all three whimpering.

“My guys, what happened?” she demanded.

Mitch was closest to her. She walked to him and knelt at his side. “Poor baby, I don’t know—”

The whack on her head was hard. For barely an instant, she felt searing pain.

Then she felt nothing at all.

“Katie?”

Dan had a pack of chicken breasts in his hand.

He dropped them and rushed to the door. She was just putting dog bowls out, for God’s sake. She should have been back by now.

He stepped out to the porch. The dog bowls were there, but there was no sign of Katie.

Or the dogs.

He thought he heard something. Drawing his weapon, he walked around the house, noting that he was stepping out of range of the cameras.

He wanted to kick himself or worse.

He should have never let her step out alone, even on her front porch, even with cameras, even with dogs...

The dogs! What the hell had happened to the dogs?

He moved toward the gate, thinking Katie might have gone that way to find them.

He saw one of the big animals on the ground. The dog saw Dan and tried to lift its head and wag its tail.

It was Mitch, he thought.

Mitch, who couldn’t quite move. But there wasn’t a mark on him, and there was only one answer that Dan could fathom.

The dogs had been poisoned.

There was something in the animal’s fur.

A dart! A damned dart. Dan quickly pulled it from Mitch, hoping that maybe the sedative hadn’t had time to work all the way.

He pulled his phone out quickly as he looked around, searching for any approaching danger, ready to call Axel. But as he held the phone in his hand, it began to vibrate.

It was Axel, calling him.

“Dan, get back here. Get Katie, and get back here.”

“Wait—”

“The lab identified the mystery hair from the crime scene. Get in here now!”

“Axel! I need backup here, now!” Dan said. As he spoke, he looked across the stables to the building that was Monty’s house.

The shadows were waving anxiously.

Mabel Greely stood with Gray Simmons, mere shadows in the dimming sunlight, and the dead were beckoning to him.

“Axel, he has her. I’ve got to get to her before... Come quietly. He may keep her alive to...to torture her. Axel, don’t be seen!”

“Dan, all right, Dan—”