Page 13 of Now You See Him
The body landed at the base of the stairs, and for the first time, she was able to see the man’s face.
Damien Sutter’s lifeless eyes stared back at her.
Derrick’s twin was murdered.
This time she was the one who screamed.
Chapter
Six
Tina needed answers, and the only person who could give them to her was Derrick. It was clear that the dream she’d experienced was some kind of memory or impression that was imprinted on the house…if she believed in those things.
Scratch that. She definitely believed in those things.
In her dream or her memory transfer…whatever the fuck it was, she saw a man who looked exactly like Derrick die. That face, frozen in terror, wasn’t something that was pulled from her imagination. It was too real, too specific, and it would stick with her forever. She’d woken up that night sweating, drenched, trembling, as Logan snored peacefully next to her.
In the morning, she thought about texting Derrick again, to ask him outright how his brother died and if he remembered anything about the basement scene, but those kinds of questions weren’t exactly conversation starters for the phone.
The problem was that she couldn’t go to him with Logan around. She didn’t want her fiancé to find out. Not until she knew whether or not what she’d experienced was real or a hallucination.
And for some reason, Logan was sticking to her like glue. Over the last week, he’d begun following her room to room. He sat in the oversize armchair she’d put in her office, claiming that he just wanted to spend time with her. He’d even developed shadows under his eyes as if he wasn’t sleeping well.
That morning, when Tina came downstairs after her shower, he was standing in the hallway, pale and shaken.
“Is everything okay?” she’d asked.
He’d jolted and then told her about his trip to New York. “I just, I’m exhausted working on this new account. I have to go to the city and get some time in the office for meetings. Are you okay if I leave today and come back on the weekend?”
It was Tuesday. He’d be gone for the whole week.
Normally, that would’ve annoyed her, but Tina felt relieved.
Then she felt guilty for being relieved at his absence so she could go talk to another man who fucked her brains out in some fugue state.
She took out her phone from her back pocket and pretended to scroll through her calendar, ignoring the fact that most of her nights and two of her days were free. “Yeah,” she said, motioning to the screen. “I have asuperbusy workweek. Tons of meetings, so a good time for you to go, too.”
Logan nodded, rubbed the back of his neck, then glanced up the stairs. They were different now from what she’d remembered in her dream.
“I really don’t like this house,” he muttered.
Her guilt morphed. Tina wanted to snap at him, to tell him to get over it already because his complaints were getting old, but that would only make things worse between them. They were engaged. They were supposed to bepartners.
And yet, she’d broken their trust by cheating. She’d been passive-aggressive and thinking about the end of theirrelationship when this was supposed to be an opportunity to revive what was once a good thing. A stable thing.
She tried to smile at him, acknowledge what he said, before she turned on her heels and headed towards the kitchen. “When are you leaving?”
“Ah, I was actually thinking I’d go pack now. Get out there so I can at least have my afternoon meeting in person.” He followed her, sticking so close that she felt like he was going to step on her heels. She rounded the counter and grabbed a mug from one of the upper cabinets before she stuck it under the spout of their grind-and-brew coffee machine. When she turned, Logan was standing on the other side of the island, looking at the basement door.
“What is it?” Tina asked.
He turned, shook his head. “What?”
“What’s wrong? You seem out of sorts. Not just today, but for the week.”
“Nothing, I—” The tension in his face was quickly hidden under his mask, the professional one he wore when he was trying not to show people he was annoyed. Then there was that practiced smile that she’d seen him use on other people at dinner parties or work events that he’d asked her to accompany him to. “Nothing,” he repeated.
She should tell him about the dreams, about what she was almost sure was a haunting presence in the house, but since she couldn’t verify any of it as reality at this point, she felt like it would only be another crack in their already-fractured relationship. So Tina smiled back, the same practiced one that she’d also perfected over the years. “I have a staff call now. It’s going to last about an hour. So I guess I’ll say goodbye now? Have a good trip.”
