The Midnight Feast

After leaving the beach where the body was found, Detectives Walker and Heyer drive toward The Manor. On the road, they see a girl with red hair in a torn silver dress walking barefoot away from the hotel—Delilah Rayne, Eddie’s ex-girlfriend. She says she didn’t see anything the night before, that she’d had a fight with her boyfriend, Nathan Tate, and that last night “‘wasn’t meant to be like that’” (168). Walker and Heyer continue down the road to The Manor past Seaview Farm. As they round the corner, they see Owen Dacre’s Aston Martin which has crashed on the side of the road. The car is empty, and there is blood on the steering wheel.

After leaving The Manor’s pool, Bella makes her way into the village of Tome. She sits on a bench under the town cross where she sees a stone carving of twelve hooded characters in a circle. A mysterious vicar appears and tells her the carving is of a 15th-century group committed to protecting the community. Bella asks the vicar if The Birds always act on the messages left in the trees. The vicar says it depends on whether the target shows remorse. Then, she disappears.