As they return home, Jonathan discovers a "stiff," a non-Midnighter, outside Jessica's house and takes multiple exposures of her window across midnight.

They also find that the house belongs to Ernesto Grayfootm a cousin of Jessica's friend Constanza Grayfoot, who says that even though her grandfather used to live there, he left nearly fifty years ago, around the time the Midnighters seem to have disappeared from Bixby.

Madeline explains that fifty years ago, when the town's population boomed suddenly, someone let out the secret of the Midnighters to an outsider, Constanza's grandfather, who learned how to communicate with the darklings, and got rich doing their bidding.

She also explains that her house is in a contortion in the secret hour which hides her, and that Dess must keep the knowledge of it hidden from the others so that the darklings do not find it.

After ransacking Constanza's house, the Midnighters learn that the darklings are trying to prevent a new runway being built outside Bixby.

Jessica and Jonathan go ahead and find Anathea, freed from the darkling, who tells them that Rex is already a halfling.

His time as a halfling has left him with the darkling's ability to sense human thoughts and emotions and a desire to hunt.