1 A PHONE THAT RINGS JUST BEFORE DAWN NEVER BRINGS good news. That’s true even if you live where I do—Deadtown, Boston’s paranormal-only district. Deadtown wakes up when the sun goes down, and by five in the morning most of the zombies, vampires, and other paranormals who live here are home behind their blackout shades, pulling on their jammies and ready to turn in for the day. Not dialing up their friends just to say, “Boo.” I stared at the ringing phone like I was expecting the thing to morph into a tarantula if I reached for it. The caller ID read BLOCKED CALL. No help there. Maybe it was a potential client wanting me to exterminate a demon—I could use the work. But norms don’t make phone calls at this time of day. They wait until what they consider business hours. And by then I’m usually fast asleep. One more ring, and the call would go to voice mail. I let it. I was in the process of pulling on my own jammies, and I didn’t see any reason to let some ridiculously late (or early, if the caller was a norm) phone call rob me of my sleep. Of course, wondering who was calling and what they wanted would probably do that, anyway. I watched the phone to see if the message light would start flashing. It didn’t. Instead, the phone began ringing again.