The atmosphere at Celia’s house was far more somber this time. Krissy asked James the minute he got there if they’d have to leave again. His first instinct had been to lie to her, to say absolutely not. And he’d probably be correct, since he’d cleansed the house and there was no reason to think anything else was going to happen. But he’d worked enough cases and been in the field long enough to know that saying that was an invitation for weird shit to happen. So instead he tried to distract her, telling her to pick out a movie to watch tonight.

Penny was a lot harder to convince. Unlike last time, she wasn’t her usual chatty, cheerful self. Instead, she was quiet, sitting on the couch and not really talking to either her mom or James when he got there.

“She’s had a rough start at school,” Celia said as she packed her work bag. “Same deal, kids ganging up on her with that Ava girl as the ringleader. I wish I had her mom’s number, but all I can do is just go to school with it. Her telling them to stop hasn’t had any impact, and I told her to tell the teacher. But she’s eleven, so I’m sure she didn’t.”

James glanced back at Penny. “Well, I got the sigil out of the house, so hopefully the kid will start leaving her alone soon too.”

“I can’t believe an adult would do that,” Celia said, jamming a banana into her lunchbox with almost enough force to crush it. “I just wish I had fucking proof of it.”

Celia left for work a little while later, making James promise to call her if anything else happened tonight and that she would find a way to get off of work and get back as soon as possible. James assured her he was fine, but promised all the same.

Tonight should be normal. Tonight had to be normal, he was too tired to deal with any new weirdness.

And it started out that way. Krissy put on some kid movie James didn’t recognize while James tried to coax Penny into talking to him. Eventually, the two of them were sitting at the kitchen table as he fed Jenny. Penny had a mug of herbal tea and Jenny’s eyes were on it, even as she expertly dodged the tiny spoonfuls of oatmeal James was giving her. 

“Did you talk to the teachers?” he asked.

“There’s no point,” Penny said. “My teacher hates me because I didn’t hand in the homework.”

Unless school had changed even more than James thought it had, that couldn’t be true. “I’m sure she doesn’t hate you,” James said.

Penny scoffed. “She does.”

“Did she do something?”

“No. But she got mad at me when I said I didn’t do the homework last week.”

“Kids miss homework all the time, I’m sure she doesn’t hate you. I always forgot my homework in school. I still forget things, but now I just get Bradley yelling at me, so whatever.”

Penny shrugged, playing with her mug. James picked Jenny up to burp her, gently thumping her back as he talked to Penny. “Have any of those kids been over here?”

“No way,” Penny said. 

Good. James had checked that the sigil was still gone the minute he’d arrived, but the confirmation helped. “They’re being ridiculous,” James said. “But if they’re not listening to you, you need to go to the teacher.”

“She won’t listen.”

If this was what Celia had been working with all week, then no wonder she was planning to just go talk to the teacher herself. James would have cringed at the thought as a kid, but as an adult, he wasn’t sure that it wasn’t a bad idea.

Jenny went to bed shortly after, and once Krissy’s movie was over, it was time for her to get ready for bed too. But as she was getting herself out of the bathtub and wrapped in a towel, she turned to James, who was still in the kitchen. “Can I sleep with Penny?”

He glanced at Penny, who was getting a snack that might or might not have actually been allowed. Penny shrugged. “Sure,” she said.

“You’re still going to bed now though,” James told Krissy.

He expected Penny to say something to Krissy about not going through her things, but if anything, Penny actually looked kind of relieved that her sister was going to be with her. 

James tucked Krissy in a few minutes later, flipped on the sparkling galaxy light in Penny’s room, and told her he’d be right downstairs if she needed him. He was relieved to see she didn’t look anywhere near Penny’s closet as he was walking out.

The phone rang about ten minutes later as James was washing the supper dishes. He picked it up. “Hello?”

Celia was the only person he knew except her own mother at Gran’s house who had a landline still. And Headquarters, he supposed. There was silence on the other end. “Hello?” Someone giggled, a high, creepy sound that went up his spine. Maybe just because he hadn’t expected it, though deep down, James had to admit that he’d been braced for it all night. He hung up the phone. Probably one of those asshole kids that had been messing with Penny. 

“Was that my mom?” Penny asked from the living room as he went back to the dishes.

“No, it was nothing,” James said. 

“Uncle James?” 

Krissy didn’t seem like she’d been asleep yet as she called down the stairs. “What’s up, honey?” James asked.

“I can’t sleep!”

He was about to send her back to bed, but stopped. “Come on down,” he said instead.

There was a small den off of the kitchen, near the back of the house, where he currently had Jenny sleeping in her pack and play. He brought Krissy back there and tucked her in again on the couch. Then, forty minutes later, when it was Penny’s turn to go to bed, he gave her the option to stay down here with the other kids or go up to her room. She hesitated for a moment, then said, “I’ll stay down here.”

He didn’t blame her. She went to bed, and he headed toward the living room, keeping an ear out for any sound from the den. His cell phone buzzed as he walked.

GABRIELLA

Got the final LeRoux papers, almost back to Leominster. I’ll drop them off at headquarters.

He answered quickly, hoping she’d pulled over to send that message. With a glance back at the darkened den, he started toward his laptop, which was sitting at the end of the sofa. He was almost there when the landline rang again.

It was almost ten o’clock. If these asshole kids were trying to prank Penny again, he was going to snap. And sure enough, there was silence for a second as he picked up the phone. Then the giggling began again. James waited silently, unwilling to give them the satisfaction of a reaction. It kept going, getting louder and louder, other voices joining in until it was an eerie choir of laughter. He hung up without a word and sat down on the couch. 

He was texting with Graham about the slightly eventful night shift that was happening at work right now when the phone rang again. He wanted to ignore it but if it was Celia, he couldn’t. So he picked up.

“Hello?” Again, a beat of silence. Then heavy breathing. “It’s a nice house,” a whispered voice said.

“What?”

“The house… you have a nice house.”

“Look, you need to fuck off,” James snapped, not caring if this was a twelve-year-old anymore.  

“Pretty little sister too…”

James’s blood went cold. “Who is this?” 

The voice was male and sounded like an adult, so if this was a group of sixth-grade girls, someone seriously fucked up was helping them. “Stay away from this house,” he said, getting out his phone to text Graham again. “Knock it the fuck off or I’m going to call the police. Talking about five-year-olds like that, you sick fucking perv.”

The man laughed and hung up. James set the phone down with shaking hands, eyeing the locked front door. His knife was in the car. Leaving it there had felt safer than bringing it into the house with the kids. But it didn’t matter. They needed to get out again. 

James was on his way into the back den to get the girls when the phone rang again. He grabbed it, eyes not leaving the room where he could see all three girls were sleeping. No, he realized, of course Penny wasn’t asleep yet. She was sitting up, watching him silently. He motioned for her to stay where she was as he picked up the phone.

“What?”

“This is the police, returning your call,” a new male voice said at the end of the line. “You need to get out, the calls are coming from inside the house.”

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CONTINUE TO CHAPTER 21