“Sí. He said a man, an American, showed up at the bar one night looking for a girl.”

“Evan Pine,” Keller said.

“Sí. I showed the bartender a photo, and he confirmed.”

Keller played this out in her mind. The man with the cleft lip scar hired a local party girl to pose in a video as Charlotte to make a deepfake and lure Evan Pine to Tulum, perhaps making it easy for Evan to trace her to the particular club. Then he paid the bartender there to call him when Evan arrived and started asking questions.

This had to be a professional.

“Thank you for all your hard work on this,” Keller said.

“My pleasure.” Then, in a matter-of-fact tone that sent a chill down Keller’s back, Escobar said, “I’ll contact you when we find the girl’s body.”

CHAPTER 52

MAGGIE PINE

BEFORE

Maggie and her father walked side by side along the dirt pathway at the Mayan ruins in Tulum, the afternoon sun beating down on them. Mom was chasing after Tommy, who’d run ahead. The ruins were somewhat disappointing, Maggie thought. Too many tourists. Not so many ruins. There was even a Starbucks, for goodness’ sake. It reminded Maggie of an ancient college campus made of crumbling stone. The centerpiece was a tall temple facing an open field, with smaller buildings at the perimeter. The area wasn’t in a jungle, like in the old Indiana Jones movies Matt used to watch over and over, but atop a cliff overlooking the ocean.

“Dad, you know this isn’t right. It’s all too perfect. The caller ID leads us right there. The bartender at Moloko just happens to know Charlotte out of all the customers they get every night? Wants you back there tonight at midnight—by yourself?”

Her dad put up his hands, as if to quiet her down. He looked out at Mom and Tommy again. “We’ll talk about this later.”

Maggie frowned. They hadn’t had a chance to talk since last night. And she didn’t like keeping this from Mom. She looked at her father and had the sinking feeling that nothing she could say would stop him. The never-ending loop of her life: Evan Pine fixating on a clue, running it into the ground, getting discouraged, swearing he was done with it all, then identifying a new clue and repeating the cycle. A drug addict in search of a fix. Now he was going to screw up this trip—put himself in danger!—walking into a trap. Was it a trap? Or a prank? Someone trying to shake him down? She didn’t know. But she did know something was off. And that they’d been lured to the Moloko Bar.

“It’s a scam,” Maggie said.

“I know.”

This surprised Maggie. Her father wasn’t one to give up so easily. But something was different today.

“So you’re not going back tonight?”