The sun has risen fully when my phone starts ringing on the coffee table, shocking the silence.

“Jon? Mate, you there?” Ben sounds slightly out of breath, like he’s rushing somewhere.

“I’m, I’m here,” I say, my own voice a surprise.

“Look, mate, sorry to wake you but I thought you’d want to know. I’m headed to the Point. Apparently the police search team found some clothes, a dress looks like, washed up on the rocks. Word is it matches what Grace was wearing the last time anyone saw her.”

The line starts to crackle, losing reception. Ben keeps talking, but then the line breaks. It doesn’t matter, though. I know everything I need to know. I grab my house keys, wallet, and the blue cap and, forgetting the time and the fact that I have neighbors, I let the front door slam loudly behind me.

9

Cara

I forgot to close my curtains before I went to sleep, so the sun wakes me. My eyes haven’t fully opened but I reach for my phone and open the forum. GoodSam still hasn’t replied to the message I sent as StillSearching last night on a whim: Hi GoodSam, I’m new to the forum. Your avatar is cool—sometimes I wish I could be a cartoon version of myself. Where did you find it?

I feel like a geeky adult trying to be a teenager, but I think the tone is about right. I know Jon said we should wait to see if GoodSam comes online, but he also didn’t say anything about sending him a message. I close my curtains before getting back into bed. I need to try to get more sleep, but just as I close my eyes the door creaks.

“Mum?” I call out to her, lifting my head from the pillow.

She opens the door slowly. She looks hollow, her face sharper without all her makeup.

“What’s happened, Mum? What is it?”

She sits gently on the edge of my bed, runs her bottom lip through her teeth, before she tells me that a navy dress has been found by the police, washed up on the rocks at the Point. I used to have a navy dress with little silver stars on it when I was a teenager. I hadn’t known Mum had kept it and given it to Grace until I saw her wearing it one day. It had become Grace’s favorite. Could she have been wearing it when she was taken?

Grace was terrified of the sea. Her whole body would shake if we got too close to the water. She didn’t need to say it, but I know she was terrified of the water closing in on her, filling her lungs with salt, terrified of what happened to Danny.

Mum’s too upset to drive, so she lets me take her car. She won’t go to the Point, says she couldn’t bear it. She’s going to the salon to be with Zara.

“Don’t go there, Car, why don’t you come with me instead?” she pleads. But I’m already out of bed, pulling on my clothes. She knows I won’t go with her, so she just goes back to running her lip through her teeth and she doesn’t say anything when I grab her car keys.