“SHIT,” SENECA WHISPERED, whacking the passenger seat with her fist. “Shit, shit, shit.”

Madison’s phone was connected to hers through a USB cable, and it ran an app that could find the cell phone towers near where a caller was calling from as long as the phone call lasted at least two minutes. Seneca had tried to draw out the length of the call with Brett, and slowly, the little status bar on the app had begun to fill.

Until Brett figured it out. Would they ever get one up on him? Was this just a losing battle?

Seneca started fiddling angrily with the metal tab on top of the soda can she’d gotten from the hot dog stand, twisting it back and forth, back and forth. So close…and yet so far. The last thing Brett said to her swirled in her mind. You know where I am. You’ve been here before.

“What does he mean about me knowing where Brett is?” she murmured, more to herself than the rest of the car. “Is he back in Avignon? Did he take Aerin back to Dexby?” But Brett had said You’ve been here before—it was something specific to her, not the others. Annapolis, maybe? That was where she lived, after all. The University of Maryland? She’d done a semester of college there until her obsession with Case Not Closed got in the way of attending classes.

“Maybe he just said it to make you crazy.” Madison popped a fresh piece of gum into her mouth. “Maybe it means nothing.”

“But what if it’s something? Should I go through every location I’ve ever been to in my entire life?”

“I agree with Madison,” Maddox said as he put on his turn signal. “This is his way of distracting you from the case. You can’t get obsessed with it.”

“Who says I’m obsessed?”

Seneca wrenched the tab of her soda so vehemently it snapped off in her fingers. The exposed metal sliced into her skin, and a bubble of blood bloomed. She brought her finger to her mouth and sucked. Her blood tasted like metal, off-putting and ­unsavory. More blood trickled down her wrist.

“Are you okay?” Maddox cried worriedly. He reached over and opened his glove box. “I think I have a Band-Aid….”

“I’m fine,” Seneca snapped, her harshness surprising both of them. Then she curled into herself and stared pointedly out the window. She knew she was acting rash and overwrought. But she couldn’t help it.

Maddox took the highway to New York City, then followed the bridges through the boroughs until they got to Staten Island. According to the website, the ferry for Tallyho Island departed from a port in the south. Once there, they found families sitting at picnic tables eating early dinners. A shredded flag bearing the crest of the state of New York whipped against a metal post. The ferry bobbed in the water, ready to go. Seneca kept sucking on her hurt finger, feeling unsettled.

Everyone climbed out of the car. Madison headed for the bathroom, and Maddox found a bench and sat down. He smiled at Seneca and patted the seat next to him. Reluctantly, she sat down and stared at the sparkles in the pavement. Why did it feel like she was about to be lectured?

“I’m sorry, okay?” she mumbled. “I’m sorry I’m acting so obsessive.”

“I didn’t say you were obsessive.”

She lay her hands in her lap. Her thumb was pinkish, but at least it had stopped bleeding. “I can’t stop thinking about him. It’s like, if I don’t get him, I’m going to lose my mind.”

Maddox sighed. Then he turned to Seneca. She turned to him. Tentatively, he reached for her, pulled her close, and kissed her temple. Seneca stiffened. She knew he meant it to be comforting, but instead she felt claustrophobic…and guilty.

She pulled away, ducking her head. “Maddox, I don’t think…”

Maddox twisted away. “I wasn’t trying to…” He let his hands fall to his lap.

Seneca hugged her arms to her chest, her cheeks burning. What was wrong with her? He was just trying to make her feel better. And she did like Maddox. But at the same time, she wasn’t sure she deserved the comfort or the pleasure of having a boyfriend. They needed to get Brett. They needed to save Aerin. She couldn’t think of anything else. And suddenly, that Maddox could think of something else made her feel uncharitable.

She looked up at him. “We need to be serious about this. We need to focus. Not…you know.”

Maddox blinked at her. “God, Seneca! Why do you keep saying I’m not focusing? Aerin’s my friend, too. But if I think about how awful it is every second of the day, I’m going to go apeshit.” He breathed out through his nose. “We just need to lighten up a little.”

“Lighten up.” Seneca felt a pinch of annoyance again. “Sorry if this is all too miserable for you to handle.”

“That’s not what I mean.” His shoulders went limp, and he pressed the heels of his hands to his eyes. “Look, I can’t turn off how I feel about you. I’ve wanted this for so long, and I know it’s crappy timing…but it’s still there, you know? It’s hard.” He glanced at Seneca, and though she wanted to respond, she just hunched her shoulders and stared at her lap. “I also want to be there for you. This is so stressful, and I can tell you’re really feeling it. I wanted to do something. I thought kissing you might help. But if it’s not, then maybe something else will distract you. How about you actually talk to me? Tell me what you’re feeling? I know this is hard for you. I just want to know how.”

There was a big cloud over her head in the shape of a chomping alligator. Seneca let her gaze rest on it. How to explain to Maddox that she didn’t want to feel better? That she wanted to sit with this pain, wallow in this anger, confront all the feelings, no matter how ugly, because that ugliness was going to push her forward and give her the courage to find what she needed to find?

She could feel a heat radiating from Maddox; his need for her felt palpable, like the leaves of a plant bending toward sunlight. But her sadness and anger and desperation tightened around her, forming a tourniquet, blocking all the blood to the emotional parts that needed human connection. She knew she was being brittle and unfair and, yeah, probably obsessive. But she couldn’t help it.

A sharp horn sounded from the water. A blue-and-white ferryboat had arrived at the dock, bobbing in the waves. Madison strolled from a ticket machine with round-trip passes for everyone. Seneca looked at Maddox. “We’ll talk about this later, okay?”

“Uh-huh,” he said, giving her an unsatisfied smile.

She stood and took her place in line, and Maddox and Madison followed. Travelers queued up behind them. As the ticket taker began to accept passes, Brett’s hint drifted into Seneca’s mind once more. You’ve been here before.

She squinted at the boat looming over them. He must not mean Tallyho Island, then. She’d never been there before.

“First time on the island?”

A man in the line smiled amicably. He wore a Martha’s Vineyard Black Dog T-shirt, had a pair of binoculars on a strap around his neck, and his nose was sunburned.

“Yep,” Madison piped up. “First time.”

“Hope you like it.” He pointed at the phone in Maddox’s hand. “But you know that’s not going to work when we pull in, right?” He pointed out to sea. “Wireless signals are banned there. It’s a quiet zone. Even if you did get service, which you probably won’t, no one can call in, and you can’t call out, unless it’s to 9-1-1.” His smile made his eyes crinkle. “Personally, I love it, but I could see how you young folks might get a little antsy without your Instagram and Snap-whatsit.”

Seneca exchanged a spooked but intrigued glance with Maddox and Madison. Maybe they would find something at Tallyho Island. No one can call in, and you can’t call out. The place sounded like a black hole, cut off from the world.

Seemed like the perfect locale to do very bad things.