Chapter 4

"His phone is working, and his social media accounts are active," Detective Reed continued. "He even posted an update yesterday, didn't he?"

I nodded.

"Then we don't have grounds to open a missing-person investigation."

"But that man isn't my husband!" I blurted out. "He's pretending to be Nathan!"

Reed gave me a look normally reserved for people who'd lost their grip on reality.

"Ms. Lawson, you say he isn't your husband, but his identification checks out. So do his friends, family, and online accounts.

"Do you have any proof he's an impostor?"

I opened my mouth.

Nothing came out.

All I had was my gut feeling, and one secret only Nathan and I shared.

Neither counted as proof.

Reed stood. "Ms. Lawson, if you keep disrupting the station, I'll have to ask you to leave."

I was escorted out.

Outside, the sunlight was so harsh it stung my eyes.

Nathan's parents had divorced when he was little. His mother had raised him on her own. Now I was the person closest to him.

If he was alive, he had to be somewhere, waiting for me to find him.

And if he'd been... killed, then I at least had to find him and bring him home.

My phone buzzed.

A message from "Nathan" appeared, with a photo of lunch.

"The food here is terrible today!"

Exactly the sort of thing he always sent.

I stared at the words, suddenly chilled.

Someone had taken Nathan's phone.

If he wanted to contact me, or leave me some kind of warning...

An idea struck.

I rushed home.

I still had an old phone from college, one I'd stopped using years ago. On it was a shared notes app Nathan used to leave me little love messages when we were dating.

After we upgraded our phones, we'd more or less forgotten about it.

I dug the phone out, plugged it in with trembling hands, and waited for it to start.

Then I opened our old note.

There was a new entry.

Timestamp: fourteen days ago, 6:15 a.m.

Just two words.

"Moonbend Lake."

My pulse raced.

Fourteen days ago. 6:15 in the morning.

The morning Nathan had left for his trip.

He'd wheeled his suitcase to the door, turned around, and kissed me.

"Two weeks. Wait for me, okay?"

That note was his last message to me.

After sending it, he'd vanished.

Moonbend Lake.

The place where we'd had our first date.

Near our college, there was a little park with a lake shaped like a crescent moon. Everyone called it Moonbend.

On our first date, Nathan had given me a ride on the handlebars of his bike. We stopped by the shore, and he pointed at the moon reflected on the water.

"Look," he'd said. "The moon fell into the lake."

I'd laughed and called him cheesy.

"Hey, the moon fell in there first. Don't blame me."

That was the night we'd become a couple.

Whenever we fought afterward, Nathan went to Moonbend to sit by himself. Whenever we made up, it happened there, too.

No one else knew what that place meant to us.

Moonbend Lake.

Nathan had left me a clue.

I didn't hesitate. I grabbed my keys and drove straight there.