Page 145 of The Five Year Lie

“Let me show you. It’s down here...” He has to scroll down pretty far to find it and enlarge it.

“That one?” She studies the vase he’s chosen. “It’s kind of a clunky shape. Not my most elegant design.”

“But see?” He zooms in on the photo. “You accidentally captured a reflection of your face in the glass. I look at it all the time.” With his finger, he points to the screen, where the perfect curve of her cheekbone is visible in the vase’s glossy surface.

“Oh.”Her brown eyes soften, and she presses her fingertips to her tear ducts. “That is... wow. Never thought to leave a comment, huh?” She takes the laptop back and scrolls to the top. “What kind of fan are you?”

“The silent kind,” he says softly. “Nice job on getting your work into that gallery on Exchange Street, by the way. That must be pretty cool.”

“It is. They take thirty percent, of course.” She squints at the screen. “At leastsomebodyis leaving me comments. Hmm.” When she clicks on her latest post, there are five comments. But they’re all from the same person, the last one from two days ago.

@LarriGlass: Where. Are. You.

@LarriGlass: Bitch please.

@LarriGlass: Lost your phone?

@LarriGlass: Not funny.

@LarriGlass: Scary lady / sister person looking for you and we are out of our minds but no big deal.

“Well, shit,” Ariel says.

“Bad word, Mama,” Buzz chimes in. “Can I have juice? Woody said there’s juice.”

Jay glances at the monitors, checking the cameras. There’s still nothing there, but he feels like a sitting duck. They need a plan to end this.

He gets up to pour his little boy some juice. “Guys, I was thinking we should take a trip to Target. You probably need some things for the trip I want to take. Extra clothes.”

“We need a car seat,” Ariel says.

“Can we look at the toys?” Buzz asks immediately.

“You bet,” Jay says before Ariel can weigh in. “I can’t wait to look at the toys.”

That’s how he finds himself enmeshed in a discussion with Buzz two hours later regarding the pros and cons of Hot Wheels versus Tonka trucks. “Trucks are good in the sandbox, but not inside. Hot Wheels get jammed if you play outside.” He adds a shrug of his narrow little shoulders.

Those are valid points, so Jay puts both the Tonka truck and the Hot Wheels collection in the cart. Ariel gives him a look he’s never seen before, but recognizes instinctively. It says she doesn’t approve, but she’s not going to argue in front of the child.

He can work with that.

Then, while Buzz is thoroughly distracted, he puts a lot of supplies in the cart. Canned food, so they won’t have to show their faces in stores near the cabin where they’re headed. Boxes of that milk that you don’t have to refrigerate. Cereal. Pasta.

“That’s a lot,” Ariel points out.

“Yup.” He wants to be able to disappear. “Can you find some clothes, and bathing suits for you and Buzz? There’s a lake.”

While she’s perusing the choices, he scans all the faces around him. There’s nobody threatening. Nobody who looks like Zarkey or Ray. Nobody even skulking around in a low baseball cap. But he won’t let his guard down. And he can’t wait to get out of here.

At the register, Ariel begins unloading the cart. She’s added some clothes, toiletries and a couple of picture books along with the car seat.

Ariel has changed. She was always fierce, and she still is. But her feisty personality has a new mama-bear quality. Buzz softens her a little. Makes her more accessible somehow.

Whenever her little boy raises his arms to be picked up by her, heaches.

“Your total is three forty-seven, seventy-eight,” the cashier says.

Ariel flinches, but he hands over the cash without a second thought. This is what money is for.