Page 52 of Trapper Road

I give him my own tight smile, saying “No, thank you,” before turning to leave. I pause at the door and glance back at him. “Oh, and when I track down Josiah’s current contact info, I’ll be sure to pass it along to you so that you can update your records.” I give him my sweetest smile, enjoying the twin spots of color that light up his cheeks before I continue my way outside.

14

GWEN

When I return to the motel to check on Connor and Vee, I find them both in my room. Vee’s on one bed flipping through TV channels while Connor’s on the other bed, hunched over his laptop. Neither of them looks up when I arrive or acknowledges my existence in any meaningful way.

I go to the TV and click it off.

Vee frowns. “Hey, I was watching that.”

I shoot her an expression letting her know how little I care. “Rule number one,” I say, “When you’re in the motel, that chain needs to be on the door.”

“It was,” Vee said.

“Then how was I able to get in here?”

She gives an exaggerated groan. “Calm your tits. I just went to get something from the vending machine like two minutes ago. We’re both fine, aren’t we?”

“You wouldn’t be if I were an ax murderer,” I point out.

She rolls her eyes. “Yeah, but you’re not.”

“Staying safe isn’t a joke, Vee,” I snap.

“Fine.” She pushes from the bed and stomps through the connecting door into her bedroom. I hear the TV click on louder than it needs to be to make her displeasure about being displaced known.

I turn to Connor. “And you should know better. You should have checked to make sure the chain was on the door when she came back.”

He doesn’t look up from his computer, still absorbed in whatever he’s reading. “Sorry, Mom,” he says. It’s a perfunctory apology at best.

I move to the bed and sit down next to him. “I know it gets old, honey, but you have to stay vigilant. One slip and—”

He looks over at me. “Mom,I know.”

And he’s right, he does know. He’s seen what can happen firsthand when you let your guard down, even for a second.

“I was just distracted,” he continues. “Next time I’ll double check. Promise.”

I nod. “Thank you.” Then I look down at his computer. “What are you working on?”

“I think I might have found something in Juliette’s case.” He turns the screen so that I can more easily see the webpage he has pulled up. “It’s a dating app, and this is clearly Juliette’s photo.”

He’s right, the photo of Juliette is one I’ve seen before on her other accounts. In it she’s on a beach, smiling widely while her hair blows around her head. I glance at the name of the app, but don’t recognize it. “I don’t remember this account being listed in her file.”

“It’s not,” he confirms.

I take the laptop and sit on the other bed, studying the profile. It’s got a fake name, fake hometown, and fake age. Nothing that would ever come up in a search for her. “How did you find this?”

His eyes light up and he scoots forward so that he’s sitting on the edge of the bed, facing me. “I was thinking about that guy whose car she got into. It seemed obvious she knew him, and I started to wonder how she might know someone Willa and Mandy didn’t.”

I’m impressed that his thoughts mirrored my own. “Smart.”

He seems pleased by the compliment. “So I wondered if maybe she had other social media accounts that no one knows about. You know, Finstas and whatnot. It’s a pretty common thing — having multiple accounts and hiding them.”

Something about the way he says it triggers an alarm in my head. I look at him sharply. “Do you have social media accounts I don’t know about?”

He rolls his eyes. “Seriously, Mom? You think I don’t know better?”