“Of course. You’re like my family now.” He gives me a sympathetic smile and we start downstairs. I get my phone from the kitchen to call David, hands still trembling. The call goes right to voicemail. Letting out a long exhale, I call Julia next. She answers on the third ring.
“Thank god,” I sigh, letting my eyes fall shut.
“What’s wrong?”
“Ethan was just arrested for Patrick’s murder.”
“Fuck,” Julia replies. “Are you guys at home?”
“Yeah. It was the Thorne Hill police and they had a warrant.”
“Fuck,” she repeats. “This just happened?”
“Yeah. Ethan said to call his dad, but he didn’t answer.”
“He’s on a hunt.”
I swallow the lump in my throat. “What do we do?”
“Where were you the day of the murder?” Julia asks, tone tense but overall calm.
“Um…we…we…” I close my eyes, thinking back. Sam came to the house to tell us in person that I was about to be accused myself. And she came because Ethan wasn’t answering his phone. “We were here dealing with an incubus.”
“Oh. Okay. I didn’t know that.”
I’m surprised Sam didn’t mention anything, but I’m not about to bring it up now. “We didn’t leave the house until, um, maybe that night? Or did we order food?”
“The night doesn’t matter. Patrick’s time of death was early that morning. You have cameras, right?”
“Yeah, we do,” I say, getting excited for a split second. “And the camera footage will show Ethan here, but also us killing the incubus. Did you know they, uh, explode babies?”
“Eww. I’d heard but I’ve never fought one myself before. What time did that start?”
I shake my head. “I don’t remember. I can check—the barn footage!” I pull the phone away from my ear, putting it on speaker. “Ethan fed the horses that morning. Hang on.” I madly scroll back through all the footage, heart racing faster and faster the farther I go back. I haven’t deleted anything, but I don’t know how long the video footage is stored before it’s automatically deleted. The barn camera is set up to record a minute when someone—or something—comes in or out of the main door. We set it up that way so we’d know if someone tried to steal one of my horses or donkeys, someone escaped from their stall, or if a demon broke in. Other than that, nothing is prerecorded and I can just check on everyone anytime I need reassurance.
If Ethan went in one of the side doors, he wouldn’t have triggered the motion sensor until he led the horses out. Swallowing hard, I continue swiping through the footage, heart hammering faster and faster.
“Found it,” I say, letting out a sigh of relief. “Thank god.”
“What time does he go into the barn?”
“A little after seven-fifteen.”
Julia lets out an audible sigh of relief. “Patrick’s T.O.D. was six-fifty-five AM. There’s no way Ethan could have killed him and driven back to Thorne Hill in that time. How clear is the footage?”
“It’s pretty good. You know I’m cheap about pretty much everything except my horses.”
“Can you send me the video? I’ll get it over to David and we’ll get this sorted out. Did they say if they were going to transfer him to the Chicago police or not?’
“No, they didn’t say.”
“Okay.” She inhales and I can see her face, tense with worry, in my head. “I’m going to guess he’ll be held in Thorne Hill for a while. It will be at least six hours before we can get there, assuming we can get on a flight right away.”
“Right. You’re in New York. What…what do I do?” I’m all jittery again.
“Hang tight, and I know that sucks. But we’ll get this sorted out. Ethan is innocent and we have proof of an alibi. Send me everything you have from that day that doesn’t show the incubus. And I need to hear that story another day.”
“Yeah. It was kinda crazy.”