Page 54 of Jack

“Shared ride?”

“Maybe. Small town, so could be. But why throw out the phone?”

“You heard it ring? Where?”

He pointed to the edges of the pine-tree-lined drive. “Could be anywhere.”

“Probably not in snow,” Stein said, also shining his flashlight onto the bank. “To hear it, it would have to be on?—”

“Pavement.” The road was clear, just ice, some salt, a dark path that ran out from the supper club to the road. But over the years, ruts and cracks had formed. He walked to the edge, shone his light along the cleared area. “Sometimes, when I don’t have a speaker, I stick my phone into a glass to amplify the sound. Hard surfaces can do that.”

He focused his light on the broken edges, where the pavement had cracked, some of the spaces wider than others.

The light glinted against something and he leaned down.

The phone, black, lay on its side, wedged into a crevice. “Got it.” He pulled it out with his gloved hand. “Screen’s cracked. But it still has juice.”

Steinbeck walked over, flashed his light on the webbed screen. “You need someone who can hack it internally.”

“Nat could do it, but she’d need the phone.”

“Our cousin Ranger. He works for that security outfit I mentioned. He has a connection with a white-hat hacker, a woman named Coco Marshall. She could take a run at it. I’ll reach out to him.” He turned off the light and pulled out his phone to text.

Jack looked at the damaged screen. The picture still bled through along with a text, almost unreadable. He shone his light on it.

Mom

Where are you? Because I’m done lying for you.

Aw. Sometimes he hated it when his gut was right.

* * *

The whole thing had started to irk her.

Harper turned to allow a fellow bridesmaid, a woman named London, to unzip her gown in the dressing room at Blossom Bridal Boutique.

Penelope’s dark-blue V-necked velvet gown hung on a hanger, and sure, she’d probably slide into a perfect fit, but the woman should have been here.

“Kudos to Boo for finding dresses we can wear again,” London said. She wore her blonde hair back in a messy bun and was another one who could slide into a sample dress without adjustments. But Harper liked her. No nonsense, the kind of person you could count on. Boo said that London worked as a pilot on their SAR team in Alaska, so clearly brave and smart too.

“Although, I’m not sure where I’m going to find a place to wear a tea-length long-sleeve velvet formal in the Keys.” This from Boo’s older sister, Austen, who’d looked stunning in her dress, her auburn hair down, her skin tan. She had already climbed out of her dress, and reappeared from the dressing room wearing jeans and a sweater.

Harper headed to a dressing room.

“What do you do again?” asked London, to Austen.

“I work for a dolphin and sea lion show. I’m a trainer.”

“And she hunts for sunken treasure,” Harper said, fixing the dress on its hanger. “Don’t let her fool you. She’s a master diver.” She pulled on her jeans, her black sweater, and wished she’d worn something nicer, because next stop was the dance lesson.

With Jack.

“Find anything cool?” London asked.

Another voice answered. “She found a couple gold coins from theAtocha.”

Harper emerged from the fitting room, where Boo had come in.