Page 45 of That's Not My Name

“And I’m stuck at home with no internet. I’mdying.”

I creep through the lobby as fast as I can. Thankfully the flat old carpet muffles my steps.

“I don’t have time for this,” Roane says. “I have a million things to do, and each one of them is more important than standing here, arguing with you about the internet.”

“So what I’m hearing is that work is more important than your daughter? Wow. It’s finally out in the open.”

“Good lord,” he mumbles.

Good lord indeed. I can’t tell if she’s making this up as she goes, or if this is genuine bottled-up angst she’s unleashing tonight for our benefit. But either way, it works, and I slip into Roane’s office.

This room is sixty percent stained red wood and forty percent black leather. Even the walls are paneled. He may be shooting forsophisticated and judicial, but it looks more likegrandpa’s living room. Also? It smells like old Chinese food in here.

I pass the black armchairs across from his opposing man-in-charge desk and push his office chair aside. Pictures of Autumn, her mom, and a long-dead family pet face the chair next to his nameplate, and athousand mismatched pens. I shake the mouse and the screen lights up, flashing the password box at me.

I pull out my phone and find Autumn’s text.

Evil Spawn: 11.28.1976.

Evil Spawn: No spaces. Only periods. Good luck!

I should probably change her name in my contacts.

I type in the password and the desktop appears. I fumble taking the USB out of my pocket. It slips between my fingers and clatters across the desk, hitting three pens and a big red file before I snatch it back up.

I freeze, and my already racing heart flies into my throat. I’m half expecting Roane or Savannah to come barreling in at the noise, handcuffs ready. But the front desk is still empty. Half a second later Autumn wails, “I’m on my fucking period, what do you want from me?” and bursts into tears.

I’m good for a few minutes.

Hell, she could keep him occupied until the end of his shift if she really wanted to. If fashion design doesn’t work out for her, she should take up acting. She’d conquer Hollywood, one dramedy at a time.

I find the Lola file in the middle of the desktop, right where Autumn said it would be, and click it open. The screen floods with information. Files with statements, pictures of where they found her phone, pictures of my Trooper. All the evidence they have from the second Lola was reported missing. Even the original report, filled out by her dad the morning after.

My eyes race to read everything, and I have to remind myself that this isn’t why I’m here. I scroll through it all, but there’re no recordings,and most of it is about me anyway. The big bad boyfriend. None of the information even ventures outside of Washington City.

I open his downloads next. About two hundred things have been downloaded in the last ten days, and I’m looking for five weeks of recordings. That could be upwards of a thousand downloads to sift through.

My blood pressure is going to pop a vein in my neck, I swear.

I hit the search and type “Lola,” but he hasn’t named the recordings that way. I try again with the name of her folder, and that doesn’t help either.

“New pot of coffee is on,” Savannah sings from the main room. “Do you want anything, Autumn?”

Fuck, I’m running out of time.

“Do you have any hot chocolate?” Autumn calls back.

I hear Savannah’s footsteps retreat.

Fucking saved again. If we get out of this, I need to buy that girl a car. Hell, she can have mine as soon as they give it back.

I refocus on the files downloaded in the past few days—if I find one, maybe I can search by that saved name. The mouse drifts over the results, and I look for anything that’s an MP4, or playable in any capacity. I don’t know what format I’m looking for.

Boom.

S.L.09.29E

Scott, Lola, and the date she went missing. I do a search for “S.L.” and find five total. S.L.09.29A, S.L.09.29B, S.L.09.29C, S.L.09.29D, and S.L.09.29E. Five files for five weeks. I drag and drop all of them into the icon on the desktop for the USB and wait with absolutely no patience for them to download.

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