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“In what way?” she asked.

Tim leaned forward, elbows resting on the edge of the table. “He had the master keys, and we found out he’d been opening doors he had no business opening.”

She didn’t move. Didn’t so much as blink. “And?”

Varesh looked at Tim before answering. “We took the keys from him.”

“And trashed his apartment,” Tim added.

“That’s how his door ended up smashed?” Ava went to reach for her cup, then stopped. “Why?”

Tim appeared torn about how much to share. “He’d been watching people.”

The words hung between us, and a honking horn on the street intruded on the moment. Ava’s fingers interlocked, clenching together.

“How so?” I asked, an edge to my voice.

“We found cameras,” Varesh said. “And things he’d stolen.”

Ava’s expression didn’t change, but the tension coming off her was palpable. “Outside their apartments or inside?”

Varesh hesitated before he answered. “Both.”

Every muscle in my body tightened. I pushed back from the table and stood, needing to move. Ava had travelled all this way thinking Dustin was just an annoyance, but her sister had been in danger the entire time.

Her eyes darted to the smoke detector and the air-conditioning unit. She shivered. “So, he’s still here, just… lurking in his apartment?”

I approached the window and stared out across the rooftops, thinking about the tape on the door latch.

When I turned back around, Tim shrugged a shoulder. “As far as we know. We haven’t seen him in days, but we think he might be coming and going through his window.”

Ava clasped her hands on top of her head for a moment, drawing a deep breath. When she lowered them again, her features were taut. “So, what are we going to do about him?”

“Nothing,” Tim said. “Not unless he forces a confrontation. There’s no one else here. We were just waiting for you, and now we’re leaving in the morning.”

“But he’ll be a problem for others,” she said. “You think a man who gets his kicks out of watching people in their homes will magically stop crossing boundaries? What things did he steal?”

Varesh finished his coffee, taking his time answering. “Underwear. Women’s and girls’.”

Ava shifted in her seat. “Seriously? That’s a major red flag.”

“He called Sadie a whore, too,” Tim said, looking sheepish.

Energy charged through me, and I pushed off the window. “And everyone thought the best solution was to ground him like a misbehaving kid?”

“What would you have done?” Varesh turned in his seat to look at me properly, his tone more curious than irritated. “We didn’t have many options, and none of us were thrilled about the idea of murder.”

My frustration backed off before it even had the chance to build. Just yesterday, three of us had stood over Jeremy’s unconscious body, deciding how to handle him—and here I was expecting someone to do something I couldn’t. I leaned on the ledge again.

“Until you showed up,” Tim said to Ava, “there were no more women or girls for him to target.”

I didn’t like the idea of Ava being anywhere near him. Her lower lip disappeared between her teeth, and her eyes took on a distracted, faraway look.

A long moment passed where no one seemed to know what to say.

“You look like you’re thinking about taking him down,” I said, unsure if I was joking. Maybe I’d pay him a visit myself.

She turned her head toward me. “What?”