“Gemma’s pretty tied up today, but maybe tomorrow she’ll want to see Mom.” Harper glanced back over toward Alex’s house. “I don’t know. Or maybe she won’t. I’ll probably still go tomorrow, even if she doesn’t want to.”

“Okay.” Brian nodded. “Good. It’s good for you see your mother.”

“You know, it would probably be good for you to see her, too,” Harper said carefully, and he visibly stiffened at her suggestion.

The doorbell rang, saving them both from another awkward conversation about Nathalie. Neither of them really liked talking about her at all, least of all to each other, but once her name came up, they’d both feel compelled to get into a discussion about her.

“I’ll get it,” Harper said, even though she was still in her pajamas and Brian was dressed.

She thought it might be the police. They said they would stop by if they had more questions, but she and Alex hadn’t really been able to tell them much. They didn’t actually know anything, except where the bodies had been found.

Instead of the police she found Daniel standing on her doorstep. He smiled at her, and at first she did nothing but stand there with the door open, gaping at him in surprise.

“Sorry. Did I wake you?” Daniel asked. “If I’m bothering you, I can just go—”

“No, um, it’s fine.” Harper shook her head, but she suddenly became aware of the fact that she was wearing only a tank top and short girl boxers. She crossed her arms over her chest. “I was awake.”

“Good.” He scratched at his arm and stared at her. “Can I come in?”

“Oh, right, yeah. Yes. Of course.” She stepped back so he could get by, so now they could stare at each other awkwardly in the entryway instead of on the doorstep. Finally she just blurted out, “What are you doing here?”

“Oh, um, I heard about what happened to your friend.” Sympathy filled his hazel eyes. “The one that was missing, and I wanted to offer my condolences.”

“Oh. Thank you.” She smiled thinly at him.

“I stopped by the library to see if you were at work,” Daniel explained. “I wanted to check and make sure you were holding up okay, because you seemed pretty distressed when you found out he was missing.”

“I have Saturdays off,” Harper said, instead of addressing how she was holding up.

“That’s what the girl working there told me. It was a surly girl with straight bangs.” He held his hand up in front of his forehead to show where her bangs hit just above her eyebrows.

“That’s Marcy.”

“The coworker you can’t leave unattended?” Daniel asked.

“Yeah.” She laughed a little, surprised that Daniel had been paying attention and remembered that. “That’s her.”