‘Yes, sorry about that. She was a wreck. But I understand. When your pet has a seizure and there’s nothing you can do, you feel helpless. Find anything?’ Cris said as he walked into the room, peering around where I stood.

Trying to act casual, I shoved my hands in the pockets of my jacket to hide the trembling, my fingers bumping against the pepper spray in one pocket, the photo in the other.

‘No, not really. Just this old black and white photo from a fishing trip somewhere.’ I pulled the photo out and handed it to him, willing my hand not to shake. ‘Did you and your dad go fishing a lot?’

He took the photo and looked at it closely. ‘Oh no, not me. I wasn’t much into that sort of thing. That’s Frank there with Rodrigo. He used to take him on weekend trips, showed him how to fish and hunt. This must be from one of those times. My dad took me and Frank fishing once at a lake near our house that we could walk to when I was old enough. But it didn’t go so well. My dad got impatient with me when I kept asking questions. After a bit, I gave up and just sat there bored, watching them fish.’

‘You never went up to this cabin with them then?’ I asked, inching closer to the door now that he’d moved further into the room.

Cris looked again at the photo and narrowed his eyes. ‘I’m not too sure.’ Then looking back at me with a furrowed brow he said, ‘Why do you ask?’

I felt frozen with fear but tried not to let my face show it and shrugged my shoulders with a smile, ‘Just curious. Never mind,’ I replied, trying to figure out how to get out of here without raising any suspicion. It took all my strength to keep calm and act like everything was normal, but my heart raced along with my mind as I tried to think of an exit route.

‘Uh, I have some bad news,’ I said, taking my phone out of my purse and faking reading the blank screen. ‘Unfortunately, I have to head out. I got a text from my boss and she needs me to post an article about a book launch for a coworker who just called in sick, so I need to squeeze that in before making dinner. I’m going to be cutting it close if I don’t leave right now. I’m so sorry we didn’t have more time and I’ll miss Rosie.’ I slipped the phone back into my bag.

Cris scrunched up his nose, looking at me intently. ‘Oh, well that’s too bad. You came all the way out here for nothing.’ He took a step closer to me.