Outside the building, I shivered in the rain, comforted by the fact that the police had gone in to investigate.

Should I warn Luke about what was going on? The last thing I wanted to do was speak to him—but if there was some kind of murderer in the building, he should probably know. I dialed his number.

“Dawn?” he said, his voice desperate.

“There’s an intruder in Holly’s apartment.”

“What?”

“I was supposed to be staying with Holly, but I went into her apartment and I didn’t see her. I found an intruder in there. Lock your doors, okay?”

A long pause greeted me on the other end. “Dawn. I have no idea who you’re talking about. Have you been taking your medication?”

His words hit me with the force of a freight train. My medication? “Holly,” I repeated, stunned. “Holly. Is missing.”

“I don’t know anyone with that name.”

Fury erupted in my mind. “We’ve known her since high school. She lives two doors down from you. My best friend.”

He sucked in a deep breath. “I don’t know anyone with that name. I really think you should check in with your psychiatrist.”

I didn’t have a psychiatrist. “What are you talking about? What psychiatrist? There is someone dangerous in there!”

He loosed a long sigh. “Look, things aren’t working out for you in Boston. You have too many stressors here. Your mom, losing your job… this is what I’ve been trying to tell you. You need some time off. Maybe it’s time to get out of town for a while. I can take you out west, look after you.”

I clenched the phone so tight I thought I might break it. “There is a dangerous predator in your apartment building.”

“Fine. Say that there is. There are dangerous predators all over this city at the moment. All the more reason for you to get out of Boston with me.” He let the command hang in the air before repeating more firmly, “let me take you out of this city. You need to get out of Boston. Now.”

Dazed, I hung up the call. Get out of Boston. Now. Was that some sort of warning? A threat?

My throat went dry. Hadn’t Luke said that Holly hated him, that he wanted me to stay away from her? Part of me wondered if Luke could be involved in her disappearance—except the man I had seen stood several inches taller than Luke, his eyes a different color. Could Luke have paid him, or was I becoming paranoid?

As thunder boomed overhead, I waited for the police to lead some kind of intruder outside, his hands cuffed behind his back. But when the two cops pushed through the door fifteen minutes later, they were alone. One of them, a man with a blond mustache, looked irritated. The other, a man with deep brown skin and kind eyes, had a sympathetic expression.

He took a deep breath. “We didn’t find anyone inside there, miss. It’s an empty apartment. The neighbors tell us it’s been empty for at least a month. Before that, a man named Gary lived there.”

A dark emptiness bloomed in my chest, and my mind whorled with confusion. I shook my head, the rain pouring down my skin. “No, that’s not right. There was no Gary. That’s Holly’s apartment. She’s lived there for years. We were neighbors. I’m sorry—who gave you this information? Was it Luke? Because he is a psycho, and he wanted me to stay away from her. He might be involved in all this.” I sounded agitated. I knew that.

Blondie shook his head. “We spoke to several neighbors, miss. Up and down the hallway. They all said this Gary guy moved out about a month ago. Landlord confirmed the same thing. The apartment is completely empty.”

Several neighbors. This wasn’t right. What the heck was going on? Was I losing my mind? “No. I saw him in there!” I yelled. “And the building has no other exit. He’s still in there.”

“We think you might have the wrong building, or you might otherwise be confused.”

“No. No, I don’t have the wrong building. Gary—what did they say his last name was?” I asked.

“Gary Shoe.”

I squeezed my eyes shut with frustration. “That’s obviously a made-up name. Like someone was looking at a shoe when they thought of it.”

Sympathetic Cop furrowed his brow. “No one in there has heard of anyone named Holly.”

“I’m not sure why they said that.” What in the blazes was this crap? “They’re all lying. Everyone in there is lying!” I could hear the hysteria rising in my voice. I knew how I sounded.

I threaded my fingers into my hair, practically pulling it out by the roots. This was how my mom sounded when she argued with the cops.

Keep it together, Dawn.

Sympathetic Cop cleared his throat. “We spoke to your ex-boyfriend. He says you have some… psychiatric issues.”

I want to kill him—does that count? I shook my head, tears burning my eyes. “What? No. No, that’s not me. That’s my mom.”

He nodded slowly, trying to choose his words carefully. “Is there someone you can call?”

No. Apart from Holly, there wasn’t a single person I could call.

The cop continued, “we can give you a ride to the hospital. They should be able to help you out. Get you some help.”

I rubbed my eyes, my mind screaming as I tried to remain calm. “No, thanks. I don’t need to go to the hospital.”

“Miss? We don’t recommend that you go back inside the building. I don’t want to have to come back here hearing that you’ve been harassing the residents, okay?”

“No.” I shook my head frantically. “I don’t do that. That’s not me.”

That’s my mom.

As they crossed back to the cruiser, I called after them, “there’s no one named Gary!”

I pulled my phone from my purse, dialing Holly again. By now, the battery was dying, and rainwater poured down the phone’s surface. This time, when I dialed her number, a robotic voice came on the line, telling me I couldn’t reach the number I was trying to call. I tried three more times. Each time I got the robot-lady, and my mind began screaming with panic.

I was starting to wonder if I was losing my mind. Let’s face it—I was homeless, unemployed, and according to the cops and multiple neighbors, I had an imaginary best friend. I had about seven dollars in my wallet. Things were not looking good in the life of Dawn Geddes right now.

Emptiness cut through my chest, so sharp it took my breath away, and I clutched my heart.

What were my options? Barging my way inside, railing at Luke that I wasn’t crazy? It was hard to convince people you were sane when you wanted to punch them in their stupid faces.

I didn’t even know how to explain this to myself. I thought I’d seen a demon—a man with icy eyes and shadows enveloping him. But I had no idea how the man had disappeared, or how the apartment had ended up empty.

My teeth chattered in the cold rain, and my gaze flicked to the mansion across the street, to the warm light glowing in the windows. What had he said to me when I’d run into him? First, “what is wrong with you?” Then he’d said, “what did you see?”

An odd question, wasn’t it? Not “what happened?”

I swiped the tear off my cheek. It wasn’t hopeless. I had a lead here. If I could just think everything through, calmly and rationally, I could figure this out like I always did. Dawn Geddes did not give up easily.

Maybe Luke was trying to make me feel insane, but I was in control here.

Talking to the Lord of Cambridge was my next step, and there was a good chance he’d seen something. After all, he’d been standing right outside the building.