“Is he,” Miller said, picking up the glass and tossing its contents down. “Won’t be interested in this, then, because it ain’t ‘folklore’ that’s in the house, that’s for damn sure.”

Sam leaned forward. “What is, then?”

“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.”

“I assure you I would,” Sam said, causing Alva to roll her eyes discreetly. Still, it was obvious Miller was spooked and wasn’t going back to work until whatever foolish idea he had in his head had been dislodged. She’d find out what had frightened him and deal with it.

Miller shook his head slowly, sighing. “Don’t rightfully know,” he said. “There were four of us there, and all four of us swearing we saw something different. If you ask me, there’s a nest of them holed up in that house.”

Alva opened her mouth to say something blighting, but a look from Sam stopped her. She settled for another eye roll.

“What did you see?” Sam’s voice was soft, convincing. I’ll believe you, it said. You’re not crazy, it said. For a man who barely seemed to function on an earthly plane, he could certainly be competent when he wanted to be.

“It was getting on lunch,” Miller said. “We’d been there since sunup, taking down some of those walls you wanted gone. Well, I say sunup, but it was one of those days where the light never properly comes, and there’d been some rain and snow off and on. It was dark enough inside we’d had to bring in some lanterns.” He paused and looked pointedly at the small glass. Alva sighed and picked it up, shoving her chair away from the table with a distinct lack of grace.

“Another of whatever was in it before,” she told the man behind the bar, who goggled at her for several seconds before pulling a dirty bottle out from under the bar and filling the glass. She carried it back and set it crisply on the table. “Go on,” she said. “I believe you were at ‘it was a dark and stormy night.’”

He glared at her but took the glass. “As I was saying, it was lunchtime. And we were sitting down to eat, and sort of talking and joking, like we do, when a great gust of wind comes shooting through the house, icy-like, and it blows out all the lanterns, so we’re just sitting in darkness.”

“And you all felt the wind?” Sam had taken his notebook out and was writing furiously. “Everybody agrees on this part?”