Beneath it was a caption: TONIGHT THE ROOM WILL BE EMPTY.

Mara called Holt. The officer instructed her to leave immediately. Mara grabbed her coat and keys. Before stepping outside, she checked the front camera. A white van was parked two houses down. Its driver sat behind the wheel, holding a phone, not looking toward her house.

She took a screenshot and went out through the front door into the view of an officer waiting nearby. The van pulled away before the officer could approach. Holt said they had enough to identify it through its registration if the footage was clear.

Mara was shaking when she reached Priya’s apartment. Priya placed a cup of water in her hand and waited while she told the story.

“They’re trying to make you part of the finale,” Priya said.

“Or scare me into not interfering.”

“Those are almost the same thing.”

Mara paced the room. “I don’t care about the game. I care about who thinks people can be moved around like props. Owen. Willa. Me. Everybody’s being told one lie and asked to perform one small action.”

Priya turned the invitation over. On the reverse was a sketch of a child standing in front of a door. The printed text described the attraction as a live experiment in trust. The final line promised that a guest would make a decision with consequences outside the game.

“They can’t actually make a person decide to do something,” Priya said.

“They already did,” Mara replied. “Willa threw a brick.”

The two women fell silent. Through the open window came the sounds of downtown: a bus sighing at the curb, somebody laughing outside the bakery, an ambulance passing in the distance. Mara had always thought dangerous situations announced themselves with a sudden change in the world. Instead the world continued precisely as before.

At six thirty Holt called with an unexpected proposal. Celia Morne had contacted police independently. She claimed Rusk was planning an unauthorized finale at Mara’s house and was willing to give a full account. But she was frightened of him and did not want to meet at the warehouse. She had asked whether Mara might come to a public place so she could apologize and explain what had been done.

“I told her that wasn’t her decision,” Holt said. “She can speak to us without involving you.”

“Did she tell you why he needed the brick?”

“She said it would keep you occupied with police and contractors while they prepared the other door. That’s the theory she gave.”

Mara looked at Priya. “And Willa thought she was warning me.”

“Several people were fed different explanations,” Holt said. “That is what concerns me.”

“What happens tonight?”