Page 33 of Forged in Secrets

“I guess that’s fair,” she said at last. “I still don’t think she’d let her dad worry like this. And I also don’t think she would have had much time to develop a reputation here, seeing as she didn’t even arrive until Sunday morning.”

“That’s a very good point,” Ben said, giving her an appreciative glance. “But it’s still possible. Going to spring break isn’t the wisest decision in the first place, and she came here with Jade. Like Dad would say, your heart is reflected in the company you keep, and frankly, I have little trouble believing what those guys said about Jade.”

Grace felt a pang of sadness in the pit of her stomach.

She usually tried to see the good in everyone, but so far, it was difficult to find many redeeming features about Jade. Still, if Katie was her best friend, she had to believe there was something about her that they just hadn’t had the chance to see.

“Still,” Ben continued. “No matter who they might have hooked up with, how they dressed, how much they drank, or anything else, that doesn’t mean they deserved to have something bad happen to–”

Suddenly, Ben stopped short and raised a hand to his brow to block the sun.

“What’s wrong?”

Ben didn’t need to answer.

As she followed his gaze, she realized at once what he was staring at.

Next to the shoreline, Jade rested on a lounge chair in a neon orange bikini, a bottle of beer in her hand.

CHAPTER

THIRTEEN

BEN

Ben strode across the beach toward Jade, nearly shoving the meandering college kids out of his way. He could hear Grace behind him, asking him to wait for her, and he slowed a little, glad for the excuse to take a few breaths and calm down.

“Where have you been?” he demanded as he reached Jade’s lounge chair, surprised by the anger in his own voice. Not that it wasn’t justified. The girl had made their job more difficult for no reason, all while they were searching for her alleged best friend.

Jade sat up halfway, nesting her damp beer bottle in a cup holder beside her. She pushed her sunglasses up onto her head and stretched her arms up slowly, basking in the sun in her skimpy bikini. Ben half expected her to pull out a coconut with a little umbrella straw.

“Can you tell him to, like, chill out?” she asked Grace.

He felt Grace stiffen beside him.

“Jade, we were worried about you. Why didn’t youshow up last night? Katie is still missing, and we never got to finish discussing the last couple of hours before she disappeared.”

Ben glanced over at Grace, hating the worry he saw on her pretty face.

As long as he’d known her, she’d always been so cheerful and carefree. Sure, he complained about it back at the office, especially when he himself was in a foul mood and she was trying to cheer him up. But seeing her so anxious about this case made him feel off kilter, as though the earth had tilted slightly on its axis.

“I had a few too many coolers,” Jade said, waving a hand at them as she laid back down on her chair and started scrolling through her Instagram feed. “I went to bed early and slept in. I feel a lot better now, thank you both sooo much for asking.”

Grace’s mouth fell open, and Ben had the sudden urge to pick up the phone and toss it into the Gulf of Mexico.

“Don’t you get what’s going on here?” he snapped, nearly tripping over her overstuffed beach bag as he took a step closer. “The girl you say is your best friend is missing. She might be hurt. She might be dead.”

He flinched as he said the words aloud, not wanting to so much as utter the possibility of Katie’s death in Grace’s presence. Not that she wouldn’t have already considered it.

Jade ignored him, pausing for several seconds on a looping video about something called the curly girl method.

Grace cleared her throat. When she spoke, her voice was much calmer than Ben’s own. “This isn’t a TikTok storytime video, Jade. This is real life. Katie needs you to remember everything you can about Monday night.”

“I already talked to the cops.”

“I know. But sometimes talking it through can jog a fresh memory.”

Jade set her phone against her lap, not bothering to exit the app she was on. “We spent the day at the beach. Went swimming, talked to people, laid out.

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