It’s a complicated process, and not just because of her shaky physical state. The trauma of her ordeal has affected her memory and her ability to focus. One moment might seem clear in the telling, while the next splinters apart. She repeats certain details, but changes others. Sometimes she can’t talk at all, only cry. Other times she seems almost emotionless, blinking in her hospital bed, as if we’re complete strangers. She never says his name. But every once in a while, I see something come through the grief and numbness. A fierceness, small but present. What can’t be broken.

—

The time line of the last few months is one of the trickiest things to cobble together, but little by little we begin to see, in small, sometimes-fractured pieces, how Caleb managed to reach Cameron in the first place. In early August, she’d seen his ad on the message board for an artist’s model. She was with Gray that day, just grabbing a snack at the café after some time at the beach, but when she tore off the number and slipped it in her pocket, she did it secretly. She phoned him in private, too, from her room one afternoon when her mom was out, setting up a first meeting at the Mendocino visitors’ center on Main Street.

“A public place,” I remark, listening to her. It was a key move on his part, meant to build trust. The location was a smart choice, too, filled with tourists, not locals. They most likely wouldn’t be spotted by anyone who knew them, and if so, they were only talking outside at one of the picnic tables in the shade, a nice day at the tail end of summer. “You felt safe to go alone.”

“Yeah.” She nods. “I guess that was stupid.”

“Not at all. He could have been completely legitimate.”

“But he wasn’t.”

“You didn’t know that.”

She looks up with eyes still deeply shadowed from her ordeal, her body painfully thin. “He looked normal.”

“What did you talk about that day?” Will asks. “Do you remember?”

“He wanted to see my modeling portfolio, but I didn’t have one. I was embarrassed I didn’t even think of it before.”

“Is that when you asked Gray to take those pictures in the grove, Cameron? You wanted to bring back something professional looking.”

She nods. “When we met again, I showed him the photos. He said they were nice but not quite right for him. He was going to be doing sketches and wanted someone who looked really natural. I guess I was wearing too much makeup or something.”

“Then what happened?” Will presses gently.