“Oh shit,” he said as I ran in and made it to the toilet just in time.

When I was done being sick, I turned around, and he was sitting in the bathroom doorway, watching me.

“You okay?” he asked softly.

I nodded, standing and walking shakily to the sink to wash my mouth out.

“You have had a rough night,” he said. “You need to lie back down.”

I teetered back into the bedroom. “What happened?” I asked. “When did he contact you?”

“I guess he sent it early this morning, but I just saw it now,” he said. “I can’t believe it. I haven’t felt this good since…I can’t tell you the last time.”

“How did he contact you?”

“Twitter,” he said.

I nodded, looking around the room for my phone. It wasn’t in the bedroom, and I walked past him again toward the living room. I saw my purse on the coffee table, and I picked it up, rifling inside for my phone.

“What are you doing?” Keith said, following me.

“Nothing. Just want to make sure I didn’t miss a call from Vanessa.”

“Yeah, she probably will want to know that you’re okay. You guys have been pulling some nights.”

I pulled my phone out of my pocket, and sure enough, there were several missed calls. I scrolled through them and felt my chest tighten when I saw the very last notification at the bottom of the screen.

Sent this morning, at 7:06 a.m.

From @RyanHooksOfficial on Twitter.

Truck stop. I-90. Today, 4:30 p.m.

Chapter 20

Claire

The day after

On Sunday, Claire woke up after only four hours of sleep and took a quick shower before heading out to Klein’s Boutique in Chicago’s Lincoln Park neighborhood. One of the store attendants went to get Joshua Burlap from the back of the store, and Claire watched as the neatly dressed man walked toward her with a frown on his face.

“What’s going on?” he asked.

Claire filled him in, and the man’s eyes widened.

“Beverly?” he asked. “But she was just… I don’t understand…”

“What time did you leave last night?” Claire asked.

“I was the first one to leave, I think,” he said. “Around midnight.” He shook his head. “I can’t believe it. I was really just doing Emma a favor. I didn’t even know the lawyer that well.”

Claire frowned. “That’s not what the other guests told me,” she said. “They mentioned that you may have exchanged a few words with Beverly last night?”

“A few words?” he asked. “I’m not sure who the ‘they’ is that you’re referring to, but I can assure you that my interactions with Bev and her husband are being taken grossly out of context. I’d met them a couple of times through Emma, but that’s the extent of it.”

“Did you see anything out of the ordinary last night?”