I hang up once she’s texted me her contact information. A name and a P.O. box that could belong to anybody. Part of me doesn’t even want the phone back, like having it in my possession guarantees my dad isn’t going to reappear with an explanation for all of this.

“What is it?” Jasper asks when I hang up.

“Somebody found my dad’s phone in DC in some random market in the center of the city. Last time I talked to him, he was in the airport. He said he was going to turn around and be on the next flight home. Why is his phone not in the airport?”

“Okay.” Jasper is trying not to seem freaked out. It would be more convincing if I couldn’t read him so easily. “Maybe he got delayed and didn’t feel like waiting in the airport. Or somebody could have stolen his phone and brought it to that random place. Just because the phone is there doesn’t mean that he ever was.”

“Yeah,” I say, swallowing hard in a mostly useless attempt not to cry. I turn toward the window when my eyes start to burn. “What did Gideon say when you went to the house?”

Jasper closes his eyes. Again, I feel his dread rise. This is what he doesn’t want to talk about. The house.

“Gideon wasn’t there. No one was,” he says. Jasper looks down at his hands. “But the door to your house was kind of open a little. I could see that before I got out of the car. And so I went in. Your house is kind of messed up.”

“What does that mean?”

When Jasper turns to look at me, there’s no mistaking just how bad he feels for me. “Actually, your place was totally trashed, Wylie. Drawers pulled out, papers all over the place. A front window was smashed.”

“What?” Panic floods my stomach, making me nauseous. “Why?”

“From the mess, I’d say they were looking for something.”

I wrap my arms around my waist and squeeze, but I shudder hard anyway. “And there was no sign of Gideon at all?”

“For what it’s worth, there wasn’t any sign that anything bad had happened to Gideon either,” Jasper says, and this thought honestly reassures him. “I checked and there wasn’t like blood or a shoe left behind or anything.”

My eyes are wide. Jasper squeezes his eyes shut. He knows he has said the exact wrong thing.

“Oh, my God.” I dial Gideon’s number, pressing a hand to my mouth.

Gideon answers on the first ring. “Yep?”

“Gideon, it’s Wylie. Are you okay?”

“Um, yeah,” he says, all attitude. “Why wouldn’t I be?”

“Have you talked to Dad?”

“Shhh. Why are you screaming?” he shouts back. “Stop yelling or I am going to hang up on you.”