Check out this scene from Time Glitch!

Finley

There’s so much blood. It’s all I can see from Lucy’s front door, trailing through the hallway.

We crept silently through the house and found her body on the kitchen floor, face up, her shirt open and the word collaborator carved into her chest.

‘This isn’t the killer's MO,’ Dylan says. ‘Maybe it’s someone else?’

Mark gazes at the dead woman. ‘Either way, we need to get out of here unseen. Wipe down anything you might have touched.’

‘We haven’t touched anything,’ I say. We can move through a building without leaving a fingerprint. Shoe prints and possible fallen hairs are the only things we might accidentally leave behind.

‘Me neither,’ Mark says. ‘Ollie should be finished with Rian’s apartment and workplace by the time we get back. Let’s go see what he has.’

We leave the kitchen as quietly as we entered and nudge open the front door. There’s a small creak, and Dylan and I stop.

Mark turns around and his eyebrows are a question: why are we stalling?

I point upstairs, and Dylan and I move while Mark keeps watch at the door.

The sound is so tiny it could be dismissed as a typical household creak, but given the circumstances, we have to check it out.

The obvious places to hide are in the wardrobes and bedrooms. In the bathroom behind the shower curtain is a stupid place a lot of people think they can hide.

Dylan takes the first bedroom, while I check the bathroom next door. Both of us keep an eye on the doorways in case someone runs from the second bedroom, but with Mark downstairs we should have all bases covered.

I’m only two steps into the bathroom with my gun drawn, ready to yank the damn shower curtain back, when someone rushes me from the other side, using a sheet as cover and knocking into me before I have a chance to brace myself.

Dylan arrives and punches the man in the face. When he falls back, I see it’s good old Rian.

Dylan is about to knock him out when Rian catches Dylan’s fist, pushes his legs against the wall, and flips, pulling Dylan farther into the bathroom. Dylan stumbles into me, and we both quickly get off the floor, but it’s a second too late. Rian jumps over the banister and lands at Mark’s feet, kicking out before Mark can prepare.

One thing’s for sure. The gun sure as hell isn’t scaring him. He’s not going to surrender. He’s going to have to be shot.

Running down the stairs, with Dylan at my back, I can’t get a clean shot with Rian so close to Mark. Rian breaks Mark’s nose with whatever weapon he had in his hand.

Mark doesn’t falter and goes after him, but Rian must have stabbed Mark. Mark bends, protecting his stomach and covering the wounds pouring blood all over Lucy’s already blood-spattered hallway.

Rian’s out the door, pulling the front door closed behind him, and then it locks. Those precious seconds of turning the lock and yanking the door open is enough for Rian to vanish.

Neighbours are out in the street. They must have heard the commotion, and I don’t think I put my gun away before someone saw it.

Mark appears at the doorway, hand on his gut. ‘Let’s go.’ He takes the stairs two at a time and vaults into the car.

Dylan and I follow and drive out of the neighbourhood as quickly as we can, scanning the streets for Rian.

Mark calls home and speaks to Ollie, telling him to attempt to trace Rian before or after he made it to Lucy’s house. Ollie isn’t happy we went against his orders.

‘How many things do you think you touched now?’ Mark asks sarcastically.

My stomach churns. That entire house is full of evidence we were there.