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CHAPTER FIFTY-NINE

Keller’s mind is whirling, thoughts bouncing around in her skull. Natasha Belov’s phone was within the same radius as The Five’s phones when their devices were either shut off or destroyed. But this makes no sense: Natasha Belov’s lifeless body was found in a sea cave before The Five went missing.

So how did her phone end up forty miles away three nights later? And the more important question: Who had Natasha’s phone?

Keller recalls that Santa Cruz PD released it to Natasha’s family.

For some reason, her mind hurtles to Janet’s words from earlier that evening, and they hit Keller like a two-by-four:

“I don’t have kids, but if I did, I’d make anyone who hurt them pay. Make them suffer the same fate…”

Keller makes a quick search on her phone, then rushes to the living room. Bob and Janet look startled.

“The sea caves at Panther Beach. You know how to find them?” Keller asks her husband.

“Ah, yeah, we’d go there as kids. Everything okay?”

“I need you to take me there now.”

“Now? What’s—”

“I’ll explain on the way.”

Bob tilts his head to the side.

Concern spreads over Janet’s face. “Sarah, is everything all right, are you—”

“Can you watch the kids?” Keller interrupts. “I mean, be there in case they wake up or Pops needs something?”

“Of course. But—”

“We need to go now ,” Keller tells Bob.

“Whoa, slow down. What’s the urgency? Why can’t it wait until—”

“Because,” she says, breathless, “it will be high tide in less than an hour.”