Page 42 of Nobody's Fool

“Yes.”

“When?”

“Last night. She showed up to my class. But then she ran. I followed her, but…”

I shake my head. I can’t speak.

Molly puts her hand on my arm. “This Anna,” she says. “You think, what, that she might have been Victoria Belmond?”

When I finally manage to nod, Molly sits back, stunned. My nodturns into a headshake. Finally, I spout out, “Yes, no, maybe. I don’t know. I’m still trying to put this together. It’s a… it’s a mess.”

“It’s okay. Shh, don’t worry.”

I shake my head again.

“You were young,” Molly says. “Even if it was her, you’d have no way of knowing. How could you have possibly known?”

I don’t know what to say.

Molly tries again. “In Spain, did this girl—this Anna—did she try to give you a signal?”

That confuses me. “A signal?”

“That she was kidnapped. That something was wrong or that she was there under duress.”

I get it. Molly thinks I feel guilty because I hooked up with a kidnapped girl and didn’t realize that she was in danger. I hadn’t thought of that until right now, oddly enough, but maybe Molly has a point.

Was Anna in trouble that whole time? Did I miss the signs?

My phone buzzes. It’s a text from Pink Panther Polly.

Car just left estate. We think it’s her. Gary and I following.

My heart leaps and so do I. Molly watches me rise.

“Sami?”

“She’s on the move.”

“What? Who?” Then: “Victoria Belmond?”

I nod. “Or whoever she is.”

“How do you know?”

“My students.”

“What?”

I quickly explain that the Pink Panthers set up a schedule for my students to run surveillance near the estate in shifts. Ethically questionable, I guess, but certainly economical. I’m not a cop anymore, but we learn to make do.

“Can we finish this up later?” I ask. “In a few hours I may know if this is nothing but my imagination.”

“Go,” Molly says. “But one thing.”

I look back at her.

“It’s something I said before, Sami.”

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