My bags were taken from the car and carried inside the house by a large man in a seamless red vest and black undershirt. He didn't speak, not a single word of hello or his name; just a grunt when he closed the trunk. 

Come to think of it, nobody had said a word to me since I stepped out of the car. They were all just watching Darian, as though they waited for an order before they could breathe.

I looked at every corner, windowsill, around the buildings that stood on the property ...