“And you’ve had it this whole time?” By now, the police would have triangulated the location information. The coverage in the Hamptons was notoriously spotty due to a scarcity of cell phone towers. She had to hope that it decreased the accuracy of the pings.

Hope nodded. “But I turned it off after I went through it in the car. Most of the emails were to Alex Lopez at ReelDeal.com. That’s the name of the guide shop we used for the boat trip. I know this is crazy, but I’m almost positive he was our fishing guide.”

“And you didn’t recognize him when he showed up at the house?” Lindsay realized how judgmental she sounded, but she needed to know if Hope would be able to answer these questions when the police inevitably asked them.

“No. I barely paid him any attention. It’s not like we were actually fishing—just enjoying the boat ride. And remember, he was wearing shades and that safari hat or whatever? You said something about how it wasn’t fair because we couldn’t tell if he was hot or not.”

Lindsay summoned a memory of a dark-haired, olive-skinned man in mirrored aviator sunglasses and a tan cotton hat with flaps that covered the ears and neck from sun. Practical gear for someone who spent most days on the water, but also a hindrance to forming a clear impression of his appearance. If she could find photographs of Lopez in his usual guide attire, it could back up Hope’s explanation.

Her mind skipped back to Lopez’s mirrored sunglasses. She closed her eyes, drilling down on a vague memory. A floppy-haired kid—the one who caught the big blackfish—showing the fishing guide how to turn off the screen lock on his iPhone after the guide complained that he was constantly pulling off his shades to get his device’s facial recognition to work. The kid offering to change the settings and then making fun of the guide for having such an obvious password. The guide joking that he was too boring for anyone to want to snoop through his cell.

“Did you learn anything else from his phone?” Lindsay asked. In a perfect world, she’d have an investigator conduct a full data analysis, but she knew that powering up the device was too risky.