Page 84 of The Last Session

“I did too!” I broke in. “I even wrote to them. But they never wrote back.”

“Maybe he’s having second thoughts after talking to me.” Mikki rolled her eyes. “He was a little cryptic but said he wanted to help me. Apparently he was living here for a while, a few months. He didn’t know Moon was lying about her background, but he said he wasn’t surprised. He also told me that Moon and Sol use tactics to keep people in line. They have some kind of philosophy that he found disturbing, though he didn’t say what it was. But he did send some photos from his time here.”

“Can we see?” I asked. Maybe there would be some of Catherine. Jonah had already found proof on Facebook, but the more, the better.

“Yeah, I’d actually like to show you one in particular.” She tapped at her phone and held it out. It was one of the ubiquitous group shots—two rows of people, arms slung around one another, identical grins.

“There she is!” I pointed to the redhead in the back. Relief surged through my chest. I was finally seeing it with my own eyes: Catherine had been here.

“Yup.” Jonah zoomed in on her. Her smile was big but somehow fake-looking; it didn’t extend to her eyes. Her necklace sparkled, catching the sunlight. A gold chain with a diamond: the same exact necklace that Moon always wore.

“Go to Moon,” I directed. Jonah did and I pointed. “They’re both wearing the same necklace.”

Jonah zoomed out; no one else appeared to be wearing one.

“Oh my god.” I pointed to the man next to Catherine: shaved head, broad shoulders, with a deep cleft in his chin. “That’s him!”

“Who?” Jonah asked.

“The Australian guy who came to the hospital claiming he was Catherine’s therapist. Clint.”

“Yeah, Clint. He’s my source from Reddit.” Mikki glanced at me.

If he was spilling to journalists, clearly he wasn’t working on Moon and Sol’s behalf. So why had he shown up at the hospital? Had heknown people would drag Catherine back here? Had he been trying to warn her?

“Keep looking.” Mikki gestured at the screen. “There’s someone else you need to see.”

Moon and Sol were in the front and center, arms wrapped around each other. Steven stood next to Moon with his usual trademark scowl, even in this happy scene. Grace was also in the back row, though her hair was neon pink instead of orange. Another woman stood next to her, her face almost hidden underneath a baseball cap. Middle-aged? Slightly older? She was smiling, that much was clear.

“Her?” I zoomed in. The sun was bright and her face was in shadow, but the mole just below her mouth was unmistakable.

My breath locked in my throat. It couldn’t be.

But it was.

The woman in the back row was Karen.

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“Whoa,” Jonah murmured.

“Yup.” Mikki nodded, her expression stony. “I recognized her right away.”

“So she came for a retreat?” I studied Karen’s wide grin, feeling disturbed. “Or did—does—she live here full-time? Did Clint say?”

“I don’t know.” Mikki took back her phone. “I texted him, but he hasn’t responded yet. At least not before the Wi-Fi went out.”

“She made it sound like it was her first time here, right?” Jonah asked.

“Absolutely,” Mikki said. “From that first moment in the airport. Which—who knows. Maybe Grace just dropped her off. None of us actually saw Karen getting off a plane, right?”

“So she knows Grace.” The revelation chilled me. I could still picture it: Grace walking up to us with her cardboard sign. “She acted like she was just meeting her.”

“But why?” Jonah asked.

“Well, think about it.” Mikki counted off on her fingers. “Karen was fine with the shitty accommodations. She jumped her ass in that hot tub last night. And she volunteered to go first this morning. We’re so influenced by the people around us. If this nice older white lady is cool with everything, it feels like we should be too.”

Was that the reason? Or did it have something to do with Catherine? I’d considered the idea of a plant or plants, but Karen was the last person I would’ve suspected.

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