Peach felt her face flush, and she opened her mouth to complain, but Annalie interrupted her. ‘Listen to me, Peach. Please. You’re emotionally involved. You’re out of control. I don’t blame you, but that’s the way you make mistakes. Let me worry about Frank Macy. Let me find him. If you find anything that would help, you call me right away. Okay?’

Peach wanted to scream, but she knew Annalie was right. ‘Yeah, okay. Keep me posted. Don’t leave me in the dark.’

‘I won’t.’

Annalie got out of the car and ran to her Corolla. A few seconds later, she drove away, carving out waves of water as if she were parting the seas.

*

The more time Peach spent in the office, the more her frustration grew.

The foundation was closed for the holiday, but even if the office had been open, the storm would have kept everyone away. She worked in peace, listening to the walls rock. Her fingers flew on the keyboard, but she learned nothing. She went back through Justin’s e-mails but didn’t find anything that would explain what he had discovered. She knew Deacon’s password, and she studied his e-mails, too, but there was nothing other than his usual campaign research.

She checked her brother’s office voicemail. There was one new message from Caprice, which had come in the previous evening.

‘Deacon, it’s me. Tried your cell phone, but couldn’t reach you. Give me a call in the morning. I’m going over to Diane’s, and we’ll ride out the storm there. If you need me, I should be at the house by 10 a.m. or so.’

No one had been able to reach Deacon. No one knew where he was.

She didn’t know what to do next. She logged into Justin’s account again and opened up the edited photograph taken outside the Crab Shack. He’d used the picture to guide her to his hideaway, but there was nothing left inside the house except the article about Frank Macy poking out from under a file cabinet. Whatever he wanted her to find, someone else had already found it and stolen it.

Then she remembered the photograph in the broken frame on the floor of the bedroom. It was the same photograph of herself that was attached to the e-mail. When she’d found the article about Frank Macy, she’d forgotten all about the photograph on the floor. If Justin wanted a picture of her in his hideaway, he had plenty of others to choose, but he’d used that one. She didn’t think it was an accident.

He was trying to tell her something more.

She decided to go back to Justin’s safe house. It was empty. No one would be there. She couldn’t stay in the office any longer, doing nothing.