Page 86 of That's Not My Name

It takes us a long time to answer everything, and we go through the timeline twice more to make sure he has everything written in the report, but he eventually looks down at thepagesof notes he’s taken and leans back in his chair, rubbing his face. “Holy shit. This is a lot.”

We nod. Furiously.

He drops his hands and then meets each of our stares. “I’m not going to pretend what you three did to get here is okay or condone how you gathered a single piece of this information. I’m positive there’ll be consequences for you back home, and I can’t do much about that, butI can seewhyyou did what you did. I need you to let us handle it from here though, okay? No more stealing or sleuthing or running away.”

Max grins from ear to ear and I know it’s because he called it sleuthing.

Autumn shrugs. “We’re only here because nobody else was doing anything. If you take over, we have no reason to keep going.”

I say nothing, because I won’t stop until Lola is home. Officer McCurry looks right at me, like he knows what I’m thinking, but before he can coax an agreement out of me, the doors to the precinct open again.

Another officer walks in, this one much younger than Redhead. In fact, he looks barely older than us. Maybe it’s his giant blue eyes.

His brown hair is a little ruffled, and so is his uniform. It looks like he slept in the office or something. “Hey, McCurry. I’m out of fliers. Do we have another stack ready?”

Officer McCurry jumps to his feet and ushers the other officer over with a wave of his hand. “Bowman, I need you for a second.”

The younger cop comes to stand beside the desk. “What’s up?”

“This is Drew, Autumn, and Max, and they’re looking for their missing friend. They have reason to believe she’s in Alton, so I’ve been taking their statement. It reminds me of your weird night shift. Didn’t you pick up a teenage girl a few days ago?”

Autumn looks at me with the biggest eyes I’ve ever seen, and I imagine mine look exactly the same. They picked up a teenage girl? Is she here? Do they already know where she is?

The young guy takes the photo of Lola and frowns. “Yeah, but she wasn’t a missing person. She was in a car accident. Her father came and took her home. I just got back from checking on them, actually.”

He tilts his head, still looking at the photo. “I can see the confusionthough. They’re the same age. Same jacket. But this is not the girl I picked up the other day.”

I can’t… I can’t process this.

Autumn’s lightning fast. “But if she had the same jacket,” she says, “it might have been her. It’s one of a kind. I made it.”

“Are you positive, Bowman?” Officer McCurry asks, handing him the diner photos and the rest of his notes too.

Bowman looks again. He flips through all the photos, squints extra hard at the flier, before he shakes his head. “Look, I’m sorry for what you kids have been through,” he says, like he’s not a minute older than us, “but I think you might have stumbled into a misidentification at the diner, and it led you here, unfortunately. I verified this girl’s identity myself, saw all her paperwork, and double-checked everything, down to her birth announcement in the McMinnville paper. I wish I had better news for you, but I’m sorry. It’s not her.”

A sound comes out of Autumn that’s part breath and part sob. Max lays a hand on her shoulder, and she doesn’t shrug him off.

But me? I’m losing it. “But… But you said they look the same. What are the chances that two girls who look exactly alike, with the same jacket, end up in this same town, but aren’t the same girl?”

I hear my voice jump to a panicked octave, but I can’t stop it.

Bowman sets down the papers, looking sad. “I said she looks abitlike her. We’re talking about two different people. I’m sorry. You have the wrong person.”

TWENTY-FIVE

MARY

DAY FIVE

I feel myself moving, but I blink and see nothing at all.

I blink again and see someone’s back and the ground beneath hefty work boots.

I blink a third time and go back to nothing.

I’m still moving, and I don’t understand.

What’s happening? Am I being carried?

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