Her lips twisted with a sly grin. “Maybe.”

  “Good for you, Mom. It’s about time you moved on.”

  “It’s not like this thing with him can go anywhere.” Her fingers fluttered down her neck as she recalled Ben’s fervent kisses and groping hands. Based on his urgent movements, she assumed he hadn’t been with anyone in a while either. “He’s an old friend turned FBI agent, only in the area to look into Nicole’s disappearance and the murder of that girl.”

  “Maybe he really came here because he wanted to see you.”

  Once Gavin left, she stared at the empty chair where he’d sat moments prior, feeling a simultaneous rush of warmth and sadness. Her kids were her world. She doubted that would ever change. Once they became adults and left home, where did that leave her?

  She had to be proactive in moving forward with her own life. Maybe she would start creating more art pieces, and venture out of the house more often.

  She headed out to the garage and climbed into her Acura, deciding the Camaro was too obvious for what she had planned.

  Once she pulled onto Keeley Island, she noted there was only one vehicle parked outside the Tribeau residence.

  A black SUV with Arizona plates.

  Ben had taken the bait.

  As the sun sank behind the lake in a colorful showcase of pink hues that reflected on the still water, Mia settled on her back porch with a canvas on her easel, painting supplies at hand. She started recreating Ben’s colorful tattoo from memory while polishing off a bottle of Prosecco. Billy Joel and his piano crooned from her outdoor speakers. It was a beautifully clear summer evening, perfect for a pair of jeans and a light-weight sweater. The stars were especially bright, and the advertisement calls of the male toads were the loudest they’d been since the first thaw of spring. Boaters of different economic backgrounds skimmed across the lake, some blaring music and others casually putting around in various sized pontoons. It was her favorite kind of night.

  Although she’d first resisted moving back to Shetek when her mom had passed, she could no longer imagine living in New York or any other part of the country. As much as she detested the brutality of the winters, the splendor of beauty that came with summertime on the lake made up for the misery.

  Her pleasant evening came to an abrupt halt when she detected movement in the corner of her eye. Considering her property was surrounded by thick woods, it was common to spot all kinds of wildlife prancing about—especially in the warmer months. Shortly after moving in, she’d watched a doe and two fawns skip through her yard and nibble at her bird feeder.

  But whatever was out there wasn’t an animal.

  She was being watched.

  Call Ben, Mia. He’ll assure you everything is okay.

  Billy Joel was trumped by the trill of her ringtone. The sudden sound scared her so badly that she dropped her brush, splattering her feet and the deck with blood red. She was unsettled enough that she didn’t think to check the caller ID and assumed it was Ben—mostly because she wanted it to be him. “I was just thinking about you, Special Agent,” she slurred.

  “Special Agent?” Matt repeated with a cruel snarl. “What the hell you talking about, Mia? Are you drunk? Where’s your daughter?”

  Prickly heat spread down her neck. “She left for her shift this morning.”

  “Try again. I haven’t seen her since Tuesday.”

  “Tuesday?” She bolted from her chair, stomach lurching painfully hard. “Are you sure?”

  “Don’t you have any handle on your daughter’s whereabouts? Christ, Mia! I’ve seen the texts you’ve been sending Gavin. His account is still linked through my computer. Maybe it’s time I let the judge know exactly what’s going on with you!”

  She bit down on her tongue until she tasted the copper tang of blood. It was the same old argument he’d start when they were married. Whenever something happened, they were her kids, and everything they did wrong was somehow her fault.

  For the most part, Gwen was responsible. She completed her homework on time, and almost always made curfew. She enjoyed a good party like every other kid her age, but as far as Mia knew, Gwen had still stuck to her commitments. Maybe she wasn’t dealing with the aftermath of the miscarriage as well as Mia had assumed.

  “Did you ever stop to think something could’ve happened to her?” Mia asked, attempting to keep her temper in check. “She could be hurt somewhere in a ditch, or someone could’ve taken her just like Bella or Nicole, or that poor young woman they found at your resort.” She dug her fingernails into the palms of her hands. “Did you know Ben is back in the area?”

  “Ben Pitt?”

  “Yeah, except he’s an FBI agent now. He stopped by here yesterday, asking if you were messing around with Nicole.”

  “Are you accusing me of something? You think I’d do something to her? You’re a piece of work, Mia. You know that? You’re starting to sound like you’ve completely lost—”

  With a stab of her fingertip, she ended the call. She’d suffered enough emotional abuse from the narcissistic prick for one lifetime.

  Fearing for Gwen’s safety, she tried calling her phone. After several rings, it went to her generic voicemail. What if she actually had been in an accident? Or what if whoever killed Alyssa Scriber was out on the prowl, searching for their next victim?

  Anxiety coiled through Mia as she called Heidi’s mom. She wasn’t friends with Molly by traditional standards, but they were friendly enough to communicate without any awkwardness. She answered after two rings. “Hey, Mia.” Like with everyone else, there was an edge of sympathy in her tone.

  “Molly, hi. Any chance Gwen is over at your place? She’s not answering her phone.”

  “Heidi hasn’t seen her since she was here last Friday. Hold on, I’ll ask if she knows where she might be.”

  The sparkling wine seared back up Mia’s throat. Friday? What about the night they found the woman’s body? She impatiently waited for Molly to say something, tapping her bare feet against the wooden slats on the porch floor.

  It seemed like Gwen had far more to hide than a pregnancy.

  Molly’s heavy breath fell from the phone’s earpiece. “I’m sorry, Mia, but Heidi hasn’t talked to her since last Friday either.”

  “What about Tuesday night? Gwen told me they’d gone to the pit after she got off work—with Landon and your dog too.”

  Molly laughed with a tight, nervous noise. “Both kids were with me at my nephew’s birthday party on Tuesday night. We stayed at my sister’s until one in the morning. Heidi had to drive because the rest of us had been drinking.” Molly’s voice lowered. “Considering what happened last Friday, I’m not exactly surprised she’s still lying to you. Maybe you should put a tracking app on her phone.”

  A rush of air expelled from Mia’s lungs. She ended the call and retrieved the number Ben had programmed into her phone. As it was nearly midnight by then, she wasn’t surprised when his voice sounded groggy with sleep. “Mia? Is everything okay?”

  “Gwen’s missing—she’s not at work like she’s supposed to be, and I’ve been drinking too much to drive,” she blurted in a rush. “Do you think maybe—”

  “I’ll be there in ten minutes.”

  From the driver’s seat, Ben squeezed Mia’s knee and threw her a reassuring look. “We’ll find her.”

  He’d been driving around town for an hour while she kept a look out for Gwen’s little red car. With a handful of hair fisted behind her head, she racked her brain for any other place Gwen may have gone. If she hadn’t been with Heidi the other night, had she found Alyssa Scriber’s body with someone else? On her own? Why would she lie?

  With a violent cramp of her stomach, she yelled at Ben to pull over. She made it to the side of the road before dry-heaving. Her stomach had nothing left to expel.

  Ben’s eyes narrowed as she climbed back into the passenger’s seat. “You don’t look so great,” he decided, handing her a napkin. “Maybe I should drop you back at your house while I keep looking.”

  “I’m fine.” Leaning her head against the window, cool from the air conditioning blasting from the vents, she dabbed the napkin against her lips. “I just need some water.”

  “You’re definitely not okay.” He reached out to touch her forehead with the back of his hand. “You’re clammy…and trembling.”

  “Please, Ben. I just need to find my daughter.”

  “Are you sure you can’t access her location through your phone?” he asked.

  “I told you, after the divorce, there were some issues with the kids’ passwords and our accounts not linking up.” She released the grip on her hair to smooth a finger over her forehead. “You said killers usually have a certain ‘type’. What if she—”

  “We’ll find her,” he repeated firmly. “Just because she’s unaccounted for doesn’t mean something bad has happened. You know better than I do just how unpredictable teenage girls can be. Can you think of any reason why she’d want to avoid going to work? You mentioned her relationship with Matt isn’t the best.” His sky-blue eyes darkened, akin to a cloud in a thunderstorm. “Has he ever been…abusive?”

  “Mentally? Absolutely,” she huffed. “Physically? Not to me anyway. And I don’t think he has it in him to raise a hand to either of the kids, although since the divorce I’ve discovered I don’t know him as well as I once thought. If I’d ever suspected he’d been hurting them, I would’ve left him on the spot.”

  “What about a boyfriend?” Ben asked, glancing between Mia and the beam of his headlights. “Is Gwen seeing anyone?”

  Wincing, she clamped her lips together. Gwen claimed she wasn’t “involved” with the father of her baby. Had that been another lie? It didn’t seem right sharing her daughter’s darkest secret with someone Gwen had never met, but Ben was trained to solve complex problems. He could be Mia’s only hope of finding Gwen if she was in some kind of trouble.

  “What is it?” Ben pressed. “Why are you making that face?”

  “What I’m about to tell you can’t be repeated to anyone. Matt doesn’t even know.”

  “I won’t share it with another soul,” he promised. “But if it can help us find her—”

  “She had a miscarriage last Friday. I didn’t know she’d been pregnant until after it happened. She won’t tell me the father’s name. She claims they don’t have a serious relationship, but I don’t know what to believe anymore. She also told me that she was on her way to work tonight. And I just learned she lied about where she’s been the past couple of nights.” She scrubbed both hands over her face. “This isn’t like her.”

  “You don’t have any idea who the father might be?”

  “Gwen doesn’t date. She’s never even shown interest in any boys.” In fact, a few weeks after their divorce was final, Matt had asked Gwen point-blank if she was a lesbian. He was lucky Mia hadn’t been there to witness his insensitivity.

  “How has she been acting since the miscarriage?”

  “She was distant at first. Then a few days passed, and she was back to her old self.”

  Ben drummed his thumbs against the steering wheel. “Has she met with a therapist since it happened?”

  “Not professionally, but she’s exceptionally close with Liz. I think they’ve talked a few times since.”

  “Maybe you should give Liz a call. She might know something you don’t, or have an idea of where Gwen could be that you haven’t thought of yet.”

  As Mia pulled up Liz’s number, Ben’s cell phone rang through the vehicle’s system. On the computerized dashboard, Sheriff Perkins appeared next to the symbol of a phone. Ben glanced in Mia’s direction. “Hold off a minute. I need to take this.” He tapped his fingertip against the screen. “It’s a bit late, Sheriff.”

  “Wouldn’t be callin’ ya if it weren’t important, Special Agent,” Sheriff Perkins drawled. “Another woman just washed up a quarter of a mile from where Alyssa Scriber’s body was found.”

  Bile violently seared Mia’s throat. She slapped both hands over her mouth to stifle a cry. It couldn’t be Gwen. Not her baby girl. She had survived more than she thought she could endure with the demise of her family and the accident, but she wasn’t strong enough to handle Gwen’s death.

  Ben jerked the SUV onto the shoulder, and threw it into park. He turned to Mia, slipping his hand beneath her hair to cradle the nape of her neck. His intense sky-blue eyes held hers with a reassuring look when he asked the sheriff, “What do we know about this woman so far?”

  “The M.E. believes she was strangled with a rope, just like that Scriber girl. But they burned this one, using some kind of accelerant.”

  The fight left Mia’s body. She started to collapse until Ben’s grip on her neck tightened. “Do we have a positive ID?”

  “I’m afraid we do.” The sheriff drew in a deep breath. “It’s Nicole Tribeau.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  For countless hours after Ben dropped Mia at her cottage, she waited on her front step with her cell phone in hand, telling herself she’d see Gwen’s headlights soon. Focusing all her mental energy to make it true was the only chance she had at holding on to the last thread of sanity.

  Nicole was dead.

  Ben made her swear she wouldn’t disclose the details of his tragic conversation with the sheriff to anyone. She used it as an excuse to avoid calling Liz, and let Matt’s calls go unanswered. Too often her feelings were as transparent as tissue paper—it only took the slightest tear for everything to unravel. She couldn’t risk ruining Ben’s career.

  The feeling of being watched by someone in the woods crept back in with every minute that passed. After a while, she was too terrified to move off the step, even if she had wanted to go inside. What if Tom was watching? What if he’d killed Nicole—Bella—and somehow knew Mia had planted the seed of suspicion with Ben? What if Tom had gone after Gwen only to punish Mia for what she’d done?

  The frightening glow of a new day eventually appeared beyond the oak trees. Mia was crippled by fear, certain her sweet daughter hadn’t returned because the unthinkable had happened. Then she saw the flash of a red fender breaking through the trees in the distance. Several minutes later, Gwen pulled into the driveway. Relief washed over Mia as she stood to greet her.

  “I’m sorry,” Gwen said the second she stepped out of the vehicle. Her voice was calm. Steady. “I would’ve called if it’d been an option.” She looked distraught, and the slight formation of bags shadowed beneath her eyes. It didn’t seem she’d slept at all either. Her brilliant green eyes narrowed. “Mom? Are you okay?”

  “Where were you?” Mia whispered, her voice hoarse.

  Gwen’s shoulders fell. “I don’t want to have to lie to you.” She shot Mia a dark, forbidding look. “Please don’t ask again.”

  Mia was unable to breathe. Until that moment, she’d never been afraid of her daughter. But something about Gwen’s cold, challenging stare sent goosebumps to shimmer across her skin.

  She’s an adult, Mia. Give her space.

  She wasn’t sure if the voice in her head was Liz’s, or her own.

  “I’m going to get some sleep. Maybe you should too.” Gwen threw Mia a sad, apologetic smile before slipping inside.

  While Gwen slept, Mia researched tracking apps that could be installed without the owner of the phone knowing. Gwen was up to something that Mia wouldn’t like. Maybe even something dangerous. And with two local women dead, it was Mia’s job to protect her daughter at all costs.

  Gwen had been a heavy sleeper since the day she was born. While most moms tiptoed around their newborns, Mia could’ve hired a symphony to perform in the next room and Gwen wouldn’t have batted an eye. Because of this, Mia was able to waltz right into her room and snag her cell phone from the nightstand. When she uttered Gwen’s name aloud, she didn’t stir. Holding Gwen’s phone up to her face, Mia heard the satisfying click of the screen unlocking.

  Her chest burned with adrenaline and a dash of guilt. In sixteen years, she’d never had a reason to snoop through her daughter’s belongings. Knowing all of Gwen’s secrets were in the palm of her hand felt like a tremendous responsibility as well as a betrayal. Chances were good that Gwen had interacted with the father of her child in the past week. Maybe Mia could finally learn his identity.

  Before doing any digging, Mia turned her back on her sleeping daughter and quickly installed the spyware app. Just because Gwen was a heavy sleeper didn’t mean she wouldn’t wake on her own at any moment.

  The app finished installing, then immediately disappeared from the home screen just as the step-by-step directions had promised. Mia opened the texting app, finding a string of recent messages from Matt typed in all caps. That in itself amped her irritation. Whatever Gwen had going on didn’t need to be heightened by an enraged parent.

  The next set of texts were from Heidi.

  * * *

  Your mom called mine freaking out. You might want to call her.

  * * *

  Mia will get over it, Gwen had responded around the same time she had returned home.

  * * *

  Was Mia that much of a pushover? Matt had fought endlessly with Gavin over broken curfews and suffering grades, and Gavin had disrespected his father any chance he was given. Mia never imagined Gwen would be the one to give them the biggest headaches. Had they simply been too lax in enforcing the rules they’d set with her?

  The next group of texts were exchanged with a contact Gwen had labeled as “XX.” It didn’t include an emoji or picture like the other contacts. The last message the person had sent, less than an hour prior, sent a dark shiver down to Mia’s core.

  * * *

  They finally found the bitch

  * * *

  Gwen had responded by “loving” the message. Mia stared at the little heart hovering over the words, disbelief solidifying in her gut like cement. While she didn’t expect Gwen to cry with the news of Nicole’s death, she certainly didn’t expect her to “love” it either. And how did that person know Nicole had been found? Why didn’t they specify that she’d been found dead?