Page 160 of Happily Never After

“What do you mean?”

“A couple weeks back, I mapped out where missing women over the last two years had been taken.” She scrolled through her phone and found the picture she had taken of the map. “See how the lines intersect over the Hills? And I was attacked at the ranch right within the same radius. I drove through a couple neighborhoods, but I didn’t really see anything suspicious.”

Jack wiped a hand over his face. “We can’t waste time on unfounded theories, Claire.” His voice cut like a knife. A pair of agents came in, and he stepped away.

Another hour passed. Claire paced the room, Manolos clacking across the hardwood floor. Tanya stared out at the barely visible stars and whispered tearfully to the crystal in her hand. Luke called everyone he knew who lived in Burbank and asked them if they’d seen an abandoned Subaru. A set of cold, untouched pizzas sat on a table in the corner.

Reports trickled in. Every ESA house they checked was abandoned, just like the West Haven chapter. It was a dead end.

The radio in Jack’s hand crackled.

“We found the car.”

Everybody stopped what they were doing.

“Where?” Jack barked into the radio.

“A Starbucks in Burbank.”

Jack swore. “That’s her pre-premiere ritual. She always gets an iced coffee. And that location’s close to two major highways. There’s no way of knowing where they took her. She could be anywhere.” He slammed a fist on the table.

Claire finally stopped pacing and sat next to her sister on the futon. It was surprisingly comfortable for something government issued.

Charlie opened a text. The tiny circular contact at the top of the screen showed a white man in his mid-forties dressed in a black suit with gold chains. A distinctive gold tooth flashed at the camera.

Claire gasped. A lightning bolt might as well have just crashed through the roof and impaled her. She had seen him before, she was sure of it. But where? A tabloid? A magazine? But no—this felt personal. Something tugged at her memory, but she couldn’t place it. She jumped up and began to pace. The vegan restaurant? No, that wasn’t it.

“Charlie,” Claire said slowly.

“Hmm?” Her sister was clearly only half paying attention.

“Who is that?” She gestured at the phone screen.

“This idiot? It’s just Big Z. He doesn’t even care about Bri, he just wants me to fix the roofie thing. Un-fucking-believable.” Charlie threw her phone at the futon. It bounced off and hit the floor.

Claire froze, then dove for her phone. Her hands shook as she scrawled through her camera roll. She shoved it in front of Charlie’s face.

“Is this him?”

The picture she had taken of the man in baggy jeans at the men’s rights conference stared back at them. With Luke almost dying immediately thereafter, she had completely forgotten about the other member of ESA in the audience.

“Yes,” Charlie said slowly. “I got him those diamond studs for Christmas. How did you?—”

“Where does he live?” Claire interrupted.

“Why?”

Jack turned away from the table.

“Because we need to go there right now. He has Bri.”

“What do you mean? How do you know?” Luke appeared at her shoulder.

Jack stared silently at her from across the room. The pencil he was clutching snapped in half. He calmly set the pieces down.

“At the men’s rights conference. Big Z was in my row. I hate his music, so I think that’s why I didn’t recognize him. But it was him, I’m sure of it. He and the professor nodded at each other.”

Jack picked up a walkie talkie and pressed the button to talk. “We’re going to need backup.”

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