Page 30 of Tear Me Apart

She searches through the page a bit, doesn’t see him listed. Undeterred, she reads through the page, gets a sense for the language and approach people use when trying to hook up with their long-lost friends, then posts a status update.

JESSICA BAKER:Hey ’87! What’s up? I’m looking for Kyle Noonan. Anyone got the 411 on him?

She feels like an idiot, but it is her only shot.

She stretches again, refills her coffee mug, and sits back down only to see she’s already gotten an answer.

MO CABOT:Hey, weren’t you in Mr. Williamson’s science class? I totally remember you. Looking good!

Oh, no. Has she picked the name of someone already in the group? She does a quick Control-F and searches the name Jessica Baker, finds nothing. Eight Jessicas but no Baker. Two of the Jessicas can be mistaken for her, and since it’s so many years later...married name...

Before she can respond, a few more people pop onto the thread.

OSCAR FIELDING:Hey, Jess, welcome. Noonan, haven’t heard his name in a while. I thought he moved overseas or something. Haven’t seen him around here. What are you up to now?

WILL LINDSY:Hate to be the bearer of bad tidings, but I think Noonan is no longer with us. I remember hearing something about a diving accident years ago.

CAROL CHILDS:That wasn’t Noonan, that was Robert Sanford. Remember?

WILL LINDSY:No, you’re not remembering correctly. Sanford got caught in an avalanche somewhere in the Alps. Remember he was always talking about summiting K2? He died on a climb.

ELIZABETH FLYNN:Man, we’ve lost a lot of friends over the years.

OSCAR FIELDING:I just did a search of the archives we posted in the group section and found this from 2000.

Sad to report the news that Kyle Noonan, class of ’87, died in a scuba accident off the coast of Baja, Mexico. He will be remembered fondly by all who knew him.

Juliet is floored. Kyle, dead? Why hadn’t Lauren told her?

15

Juliet types in another question.

JESSICA BAKER:Who reported that? Do you know?

ELIZABETH FLYNN:I don’t remember you, Jessica. What class were you in again?

JESSICA BAKER:’87, but I moved right at the beginning of sophomore year. I was going through my yearbook and saw Kyle’s name. I hadn’t talked to him in a long time and wanted to say hi. I can’t believe he’s gone.

ELIZABETH FLYNN:Oh. Yes, it’s very sad.

OSCAR FIELDING:I can’t find who posted this, but I’m sure you’ll be able to Google his obit or something. So where’d you move when you left?

JESSICA BAKER:California. Very different from home. Gotta go, my lunch is over. Thanks for the info you guys. Go Huskies!

She closes the page and sighs. If it’s true, this is terrible news—she doesn’t feel so bad about the loss of Kyle, he was a boozy, arrogant jerk—but the chance to prove to Lauren once and for all Mindy was switched at birth is gone.

She needs confirmation, so moves on to the Mexican newspapers and does a character search for the names Kyle, Noonan, American, drowning, and scuba.

While she finds plenty of entries that match the American, drowning, and scuba entries, they all scratch out the name Kyle Noonan.

Okay, Juliet, think this through.

Kyle Noonan disappeared off the radar in 2000. A snippet on an alumni board claims he’s died. Maybe he’s changed his name. Which isn’t out of bounds, he was a jerk and hadn’t wanted Mindy anyway. A new identity would be a good ruse to avoid paying child support to Lauren.

“What a dick,” she says to herself.

Bai stops a foot from her desk. “I’ll just...go away then.”