Lauren leaned forward to get a better look at May’s laptop screen. May was hunched over her keyboard at the dining table on the deck, with Kelsey tucked in the chair beside her. On the other side of the table, Nate was conducting his own searches on his phone. The house’s wireless speaker was still streaming, and a Jimmy Cliff song about a wonderful world with beautiful people made a ridiculous juxtaposition with the tension that had settled over the four of them.
They had all been trying to dig up as much information as they could about David Smith—or “THAT David Smith,” as they now referred to him.
“I think I vaguely remember talking to him on Off-Campus Night,” May said. “I had been going out of my way to make peace with Marnie after you told me to stop feuding with her. And she told me about her boyfriend, and then he was there. It must have been him, but there’s no way I would have recognized him after all this time. I remember he let the name of his prep school drop, and I was jealous because I had been desperate to go there for high school but didn’t get a scholarship. It was Phillips Exeter!” She was already typing a new search into Google.
“Yep, here it is,” she announced. “He’s mentioned in an article in The Exeter Bulletin about his ten-year-reunion. Don’t all those prep-school kids kind of know each other?” May’s eyes searched Nate’s and Kelsey’s for answers. They had also attended private schools in the Northeast.
“Not a hundred percent,” Nate said, “but yeah, maybe. Like Boston kids from those circles will meet up at home during Christmas break. The New York kids do the same. That kind of thing.”
“Check and see if you have any mutual friends. Maybe we can find out more about David through them,” May suggested.
Nate was scrolling through his phone, but Kelsey reminded May that she didn’t have any social media accounts.
“Not even a private one with a fake name?” May asked.
“Nope,” Kelsey said. “I’m now a blissful Luddite. No social media means no trolls.”
May’s phone rang on the table beside her laptop. “I better get this.”
“Wait, is it the police?” Lauren asked. As much as she had been opposed to calling the police voluntarily, she still wasn’t prepared to lie to them. There had to be a way for them to thread the needle.
“No, it’s Josh. I’ll be right back.”
Lauren noticed Kelsey watching May as she walked away. As soon as May pulled the screen door closed behind her, Kelsey said in a lowered voice, “Should we really be cyberstalking this guy and his friends? I thought the whole reason she came back was to get our stories straight in case the police called, but now we’re all getting pulled into the Scooby gang.”
Nate snickered. “I can’t wait until David Smith reappears after trying to embezzle half a billion dollars to the Cayman Islands—And I would have gotten away with it if it weren’t for those meddling kids. May!” he called out, a theatrical singsong flair in his voice. “Can you come back here? We need to talk to you!”
Kelsey shushed her brother, gently swatting at his arm, as Lauren took May’s chair. One of the open tabs on her laptop was for David Smith’s Instagram account. He had 412 followers. She clicked on the list. “See if you guys recognize any of these people,” she said, turning the screen toward Kelsey as Nate stood to look over her shoulder.
Lauren thought May looked stressed when she returned, but before she could ask if everything was all right, May was asking if they had found any mutual contacts yet. Kelsey had spotted three familiar names.
“So let’s DM them,” May said. “Or I can, since you don’t have an account.”
“I’m sorry,” Kelsey said, “but why are we even doing this?”
“To find out who David was here with.”
“But why?” Kelsey pressed.
“She’ll either know what happened to him, or is with him, or killed him. Or he could have killed her and is on the run. But we need to know who she is.”
“No, we actually don’t,” Kelsey said. “We’re like one step away from those true crime fanatics who obsessed over every detail of my life after Luke died. Let the police find that woman. This is none of our business.”
Lauren could feel Kelsey’s skepticism stoking her own doubts. “It’s true, May. The police will find her on their own before we do. You already talked to one cop. I think we need to focus on what Kelsey and I should say if they contact us. We can just say we didn’t notice whatever couple you were talking about. Right? Keep it simple?”
Nate was nodding in agreement. “May, that sounds—”
“Speaking of none of your business.” May put her hands on her hips. Yep, Nate’s presence was definitely getting on her nerves.
The awkward silence was cut short by the sound of May’s phone ringing. Her expression morphed into confusion as she glanced at the screen, then held up a finger to silence them.
Lauren could tell it was a man’s voice on the other end of the line but couldn’t make out any of his words.
“I’m actually in East Hampton…Yeah, I did a boomerang to the city, but I’m back here again…Um, sure. I can meet you somewhere. Oh…Um, yeah, in fact, they’re both here with me.” Lauren shook her head so hard her earrings clinked, signaling her opposition to whatever May was about to agree to. “Yeah, that’s fine.”
May was reciting the address of the rental house.
“That was the detective looking for David Smith,” she said. As she set her phone down on the table, her hands were shaking. “He wants to speak to all three of us.”