By the time he pulled onto the trail that led to the shack, Spud’s heart rate had settled back to normal. He parked carefully. He trusted that Pip would keep their secret and Reed would never know about their trip. And as Spud was starting to understand, the less Reed knew the better.

CHAPTER 20

Back at his cabin, Max had stayed up late, watching the surveillance footage over and over, hoping to catch something they’d missed. In the end, he went to bed with nothing more than what Niki had found earlier, that the seat of the Passport had been seemingly set too far back for a woman of Sandy’s size.

When he arrived at Lyle’s trailer in the morning, it was Meredith who answered the door. Her eyes were even more sunken, as if she hadn’t been sleeping well, and she looked at Max like she had never met him before. “Can I help you?” she asked.

“Meredith, it’s me… Max Rupert.”

She studied him for a moment, the clean face, the new haircut, before cracking an empty smile. “You’ve changed.” She stepped away from the door and let him in.

Lyle was in the dining room, sitting at the table. He didn’t get up.

“Holy crap! You look like a new man—or more accurately, you look like your old self again.”

Max almost winced at that, his exile feeling more and more like an afterthought.

“Any luck?” Lyle asked, his hope written on his face.

“There’s movement,” Max said. “Whether it helps us… I don’t know.”

Lyle looked past Max, to his wife. “Mere, could you make a run to the store? We’re running low on milk.”

Meredith shook her head. “I’m staying.” She sat down beside Lyle before he could object.

Max set his laptop on the table and leaned in between Lyle and Meredith, cueing up the surveillance footage. As soon as she saw the Passport, Meredith said, “That’s Sandy’s car!”

“Where’d you get this?” Lyle asked, visibly shaken.

“A camera near where her credit card was last used.”

Meredith said, “Is that her… in the car?”

“That’s the thing,” Max said. “Watch.” He advanced the footage frame by frame until the vehicle was out of sight; then he backed it up and played it again. “You never get a clear look at the driver, but…”

Meredith leaned toward the computer screen, and Max could only imagine how desperately she wanted to see her daughter in those shadows.

“A friend of mine noticed something. If a woman of Sandy’s height had been sitting in the driver’s seat… the seat would have been adjusted forward. You should have been able to see her.”

Meredith looked at Max, then at Lyle. “What does that mean?”

Lyle’s head sank. “It means that it’s not Sandy. Someone else is driving her car.”

“But… she could be in the back, right? She could be back there with Pip.” Meredith took over the computer, moving back through the frames. “I mean, that—right there…” Meredith pointed at the rear window. “That’s someone’s head, isn’t it?”