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The alert should have been loud enough to wake the dead. It wasn’t anywhere inside.

Dad stopped in the kitchen.

The back door was directly in front of him.

I knew what he was thinking before he said it. “No,” I said.

Both of my parents looked at me.

“I didn’t go outside.”

Dad’s face stayed neutral.

“You don’t know that.”

“I would know.”

“Not if you were asleep.”

I hated that. Mostly because it was true.

Dad unlocked the back door.

The security system chirped when he disarmed it.

That little sound made my skin crawl.

If I had sleepwalked outside, the alarm should have gone off.

I stared at the keypad.

“Dad.”

He stopped.

“You set this before bed.”

His eyes met mine. “Yes.”

“Then how could I have gone outside?”

He didn’t answer.

That scared me more than an answer would have.

He glanced at the security panel. “Stay here.” He opened the back door.

The instant he did, I heard my phone.

Faint. Electronic. Insistent. Somewhere beyond the pool.

All three of us froze. Dad turned toward the sound.

I stepped onto the porch before either of my parents could stop me.

The backyard was black beyond the pool lights.

Water reflected pale blue across the concrete.